Rastafari & Liberation Theology

Rastafari are practitioners of Rastafarianism, a religious-cultural movement that began during the 1930s. The messiah or Jah (God) of this religion and cultural movement is Haile Selassie I, the late emperor of Ethiopia. While there is very much a hermeneutic of suspicion within the Rastafari worldview, it is also a liberation theology which calls for the spiritual, political and economic development and release from oppression of Africans and their descendants. The Rastafari have three main principles: redemption, repatriation and liberation. They desire to restore Blacks to their birthright as kings and queens and to regain Africa for all of its descendants.

Before comparing elements of Rastafarianism to a hermeneutics of suspicion and liberation theology, we must first understand liberation theology. In his book, Liberation Theology, author M. D. Litonjua (38) argues that a theology that liberates works from the bottom up, in other words the theology is liberating for the marginalized and oppressed, not the status quo or dominant ideology in control of society "In the hands of Jesus and the prophets, theology was not only a religious instrument, but also a social and political instrument which disturbed the sociopolitical establishment as they announced the Good News of salvation to the disenfranchised and the outcast."

We can see that the Rastafarian theology is definitely one that disturbs the sociopolitical establishment

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es the socio-political processes in which one lives and through which liberation is achieved." A liberation theology analyzes the socio-political situation which keeps its people oppressed, studies the task and the goal of liberation, commits itself to participate in, suffer from, and exert the effort and struggle necessary to liberate. Selassie was viewed as a God by Rastas in part because of his resistance to imperialist forces. Marcus Garvey's ideas would come to be accepted by the Rastas in part because it was a liberating ideology for Blacks. Through their own theological viewpoint, the Rastas try to achieve redemption, repatriation, and liberation through the very steps Litonjua (34) says are necessary to achieve the goal of liberation "There is a need for careful analysis of the basic sources of injustice. There is the need to avoid collusion with the force responsible for the injustice. There is the need for carefully planned and concerted action to challenge the injustice. There is the need to design realistic alternatives to the unjust structures." The Rasta use these steps or measures to achieve liberation through a spiritual resistance to dominant cultures, governments, theologies, and ideologies. Unity among

Category: Philosophy - R