Whites made Rasta more beautiful than its original manifestation.

[Tuff Gong]

The Following is to prove that the use and smoking of Marijuana in Africa was going on long before the Advent Indians coming to Jamaica.
Most East Indians came to Jamaica in the mid 1800's to early 1900's.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Co...y/Spicer-e.htm

No it does not.
All it proves is, Africans as well as many ancient folks, may have used weed and cultivated the plant.

There is no evidence of Cultural Retention of a Weed-Culture among African Slaves in Jamaica.
The Laws in Jamaica banning the use of weed were introduced to prevent Indentured Servants (East Indians) from using weed weed during working hours.

Leonard P Howell (the First Rasta) who codified Rastafarianism also introduced weed as a sacrament to the religion. Ras Howell was of East Indian descent and lived in the areas mainly populated by Jamaican East Indians. It is from that cultural that use of weed was appropriated.

[franksterr]

Rasta in Jamaica IS a religion...n there r NOT many houses of Rasta...u ha ONE.....is the said way peeps come wid denomination so mash up church ting.....Jah is ONE n Ras is One.....no acting, pseudo, wanna bee, mek di calling....btw aint no 'does that make these countries a religion'...dat is so disingenuous on ur part n a bit disappointing.....weak....Ras is a religion n like all don't need to be explained...just followed by their adherents...change u life , heart n soul

The following is loosely based on the bible but not written exactly in the bible in all cases.
Religion is isms and schism
In My father house is many mansion
Everyone sitteth under his own vine and fig tree
Each according to His faith - Faith is private.

Yet still it is True that in Jamaica some Rasta is considered Religious.......But Rasta is not a Religion.

The One Rasta Movement

Religious Houses (Camps) of Rasta
Twelve Tribe
Bobo Shanti
Nyabhingi
Orthodox
Coptic*




Political Houses of Rasta
Youth Black Faith
Peoples Sufferah Party
Youthman Promotion
Rastafari Millennium Council
Ethiopian World Federation*

Rasta Without Houses.
Black Heart Man
Bush Man
Dread
Man who sey Rasta


Rasta is One Movement of Jah people
Rasta is about Loving your Black soul, in other words loving your African self and Africa, in that is African Unity Development and Being Free realize.......SELAH
All else added to that is isms and schism

[franksterr]

No it does not.
All it proves is, Africans as well as many ancient folks, may have used weed and cultivated the plant.

Exactly......
So Slaves carried it to Brazil but not Jamaica.

3. South America – Brazil
In 1549, the French and the British imported Angolan slaves from the southwest coast of Africa to work as labourers on the sugar plantations of northeastern Brazil. “The slaves carried the seeds in cloth dolls tied to their ragtag clothing. The planters permitted slaves to grow their maconhabetween the rows of cane, and to smoke and dream during the periods of inactivity between harvests. But the planters stuck to their perfumed cigars.”([70]) Many planters felt that allowing their slaves to smoke marijuana, encouraged them to work hard.([71])
Cannabis came to be regarded in Brazil as the opium of the poor, used for cordage and clothing, comestible and spice, energizer and invigorant, as well as medicine and euphoriant.([72]) This pattern of cannabis use replicated a pattern that Vera Rubin calls the “ganja complex.” “Except for ritual purposes involving members of the priestly class, regular multipurpose use in the folk stream has been generally confined to the lower social classes: peasants, fishermen, rural and urban artisans and manual labourers.”([73]
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Co...y/Spicer-e.htm

There is no evidence of Cultural Retention of a Weed-Culture among African Slaves in Jamaica.

Is this a Joke......everywhere in Jamaica weed is being smoked by African descendants of slaves -that's retention
If the Slaves could carry Yams, Black eye peas, Okra and Rice to the West then Yes they could also carried Ganja to Jamaica.

The Laws in Jamaica banning the use of weed were introduced to prevent Indentured Servants (East Indians) from using weed weed during working hours.

As an Aside...the way I learn it they made Ganja illegal because the wanted to encourage the sale of alcohol among East Indians. Iley Made African slaves work harder but also had the effect of making then rebellious. Those points I will not argue as that is elder to son teachings.

Here is My point...
As I stated earlier that Many of the Early Rasta was of East Indian Descent so it was there culture to smoke herb and wear locks which you readily accept as true.

I have also establish that Africans also used herb and wear locks before the advent of enslavement in the West so it was also their culture.

If so how then can they Culturally Appropriate something that is already their's Culturally?
I say again it was Syncretism not Cultural Appropriation.

Leonard P Howell (the First Rasta) who codified Rastafarianism also introduced weed as a sacrament to the religion. Ras Howell was of East Indian descent and lived in the areas mainly populated by Jamaican East Indians. It is from that cultural that use of weed was appropriated.

I do not know Howell Ancestry but it does not matter to I for historians of old refer to there being two Ethiopia's. I Know Howell is a Black Man


The Indians being black and relatively poor provided a commonality with Africans who were also black and actually poor.
Rasta is a New Name, precious name of an Old African Spiritual Urge(movement) way of life.....
How or in what way did Howell codify Rasta?

Howell had a camp (House) and there were many such camps based on the old Revival (Zionism/Nyabinghi*) system of charismatic leaders/elders all over the Island all the way back to the time of Sam Sharpe(Myalism).

The East Indians Had Ashrams (camps) based on the Holy man (sadhu) system.
Some might say the two Ethiopias were re-united in Jamaica
Again it is Syncretism not Cultural Appropriation

[franksterr]

Recording studio version

[blugiant]

[jah_yout]

not sure who the guy is that wrote the piece or if he was just some guy posting on the internet;
everyone has an opinion- no matter how misguided;
not sure why his opinion carries any more weight than anyone else's