History & overview · every faith gets one
Jah lives — and Africa is the promised land.
Born in 1930s Jamaica when Haile Selassie I was crowned in Ethiopia and Marcus Garvey's prophecy seemed answered: God (Jah) is present in each person, Selassie is divinity crowned, Babylon's systems are to be resisted, and livity — natural, righteous living — is the practice. Reggae carried it to the world.
Why it is filed this way
Rastafari has no central body, no membership roll and several houses that do not recognise each other, which is why it is often filed as a movement. It is carried here as a tradition because it has its own scripture reading, its own dietary law, its own rites and three generations of adherents born into it.
The founding
A king was crowned in Ethiopia — Ras Tafari, taking the name Haile Selassie — and in Kingston, readers of scripture and of Garvey recognized the sign: the King of Kings, root of David, come out of Africa.
No single founder — Rastafari accreted rather than began.
What it holds
The divine. Jah — God indwelling; Haile Selassie I as divinity crowned (readings differ).
Death and after. Life everlasting — death is not dwelt upon; Babylon's funerals refused.