Rasta Gone Clear in Jamaica

[Hortical]

80 years after its founding in Jamaica, Rastafarianism gaining adherents as disdain weakens

ULL BAY, Jamaica - The robed Rastafarian priest looked out over the turquoise sea off Jamaica's southeast coast and fervently described his belief that deliverance is at hand.
Around him at the sprawling Bobo Ashanti commune on an isolated hilltop, a few women and about 200 dreadlocked men with flowing robes and tightly wrapped turbans prayed, fasted, and fashioned handmade brooms — smoking marijuana only as a ceremonial ritual.
"Rasta church is rising," declared Priest Morant, who wore a vestment stitched with the words "The Black Christ." ''There's nothing that can turn it back."

The Rastafarian faith is indeed rising in Jamaica, where new census figures show a roughly 20 per cent increase in the number of adherents over a decade, to more than 29,000. While still a tiny sliver of the mostly Christian country's 2.7 million people, Jalani Niaah, an expert in the Rastafari movement, says the number is more like 8 to 10 per cent of the population, since many Rastas disdain nearly all government initiatives and not all would have spoken to census takers.
"Its contemporary appeal is particularly fascinating to young men, especially in the absence of alternative sources for their development," said Niaah, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies.


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[Historian]

Nothing Has Changed in a Century

"Its contemporary appeal is particularly fascinating to young men, especially in the absence of alternative sources for their development," said Niaah, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Isn’t the above reason given by Niaah a primary factor that contributed to the success of Leonard Howell’s efforts when he started the movement back in the 1930s?

Today, almost a century later, the same primary factor is contributing to an apparent renaissance of the Rastafarian movement.

But like I said, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

[Gamma]

and then there is the bible ... how long now has the catholic church been around?

by their very nature religions are conservative if they are to have any longevity. take for example the part of scriture which says basically there will be wars and rumours of wars .... that is applicable from the days of the crusades come right down ..... point, it is ALWAYS relevant.