#SPIKE MEANING IN RASTA SERIES#

In May 1954, police arrested more than 100 residents and destroyed some 3 tons of marijuana, effectively wiping out the commune.

#SPIKE MEANING IN RASTA SERIES#

However, its reliance on the illegal crop also provided an excuse for authorities to crack down on the community, and Pinnacle’s residents endured a series of raids. Set in the mountains of Saint Catherine, Pinnacle became an autonomous community for thousands that cultivated marijuana for its spiritual sessions and economic sustainment. Nevertheless, he founded the Ethiopian Salvation Society (ESS) in 1939, and the following year he created a Rasta commune known as Pinnacle. A former member of Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, Howell attracted a large following after returning from extensive travels to Jamaica in 1932, and outlined the nascent movement’s principles with the publication of “The Promise Key” circa 1935.Ĭonsidered a dangerous, subversive figure by the Jamaican government, Howell was arrested several times and his followers subjected to persecution.

Preachers such as Robert Hinds, Joseph Hibbert and Archibald Dunkley achieved prominence in the decade, but to many scholars the most important figure in early Rastafarianism was Leonard Howell. Their movement reflected a range of influences, including Old Testament instructions on avoiding certain foods and a local belief in the spiritual powers of marijuana. Although no formalized central church materialized, the budding factions of Rastafarianism found common ground through their belief in a lineage that dated to the ancient Israelites, black superiority and the repatriation of the diaspora from the oppressive land of “Babylon” to Africa. Jamaican preachers began promoting the ruling authority of Selassie over King George V (Jamaica was then a colony of England) and by the mid-1930s the Ethiopian emperor was regarded by followers as the living embodiment of God. Believed to be a descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Selassie assumed the titles of King of Kings, Lord of Lords and the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, to some fulfilling the Biblical prophecy of a black king that had been emphasized by Garvey. On November 2, 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. The ethos was strengthened through the late 19th century rise of the modern Pan-African movement and particularly the teachings of Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey, who reportedly told his followers to “Look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be the Redeemer.” Additionally, the 1920s brought such influential proto-Rastafarian texts as “The Holy Piby” and “The Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy to Jamaica.” Haile Selassie and the Rise of Rastafarianism For those who had been converted to Christianity, the Bible offered hope through such passages as Psalm 68:31, foretelling of how “Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” The roots of Rastafarianism can be traced to the 18th century, when Ethiopianism and other movements that emphasized an idealized Africa began to take hold among black slaves in the Americas. Although the deaths of Selassie in 1975 and Marley in 1981 took away its most influential figures, Rastafarianism endures through followings in the United States, England, Africa and the Caribbean. Additional branches surfaced by the 1950s, and within two decades the movement had earned global attention thanks to the music of devoted Rastafarian Bob Marley. A spiritual movement based on the belief in Selassie’s divinity, its followers congregated around preachers like Leonard Howell, who founded the first prominent Rastafarian community in 1940. Rising from the proliferation of Ethiopianism and Pan-Africanism, Rastafarianism took root in Jamaica following the coronation of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1930.

Spike meaning in rasta