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**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 08:22 AM

Rasta Fighting To Preserve Pinnacle's Heritage
Published: Sunday | February 2, 2014 0 Comments
Michael Matthews has been associated with The Pinnacle since he was a child. Last Friday, he was cooking 'sip' for the gathering at The Pinnacle, where the Rastafari community is maintaining a presence to protect Rastafari heritage, and Leonard P. Howell's legacy.
Michael Matthews has been associated with The Pinnacle since he was a child. Last Friday, he was cooking 'sip' for the gathering at The Pinnacle, where the Rastafari community is maintaining a presence to protect Rastafari heritage, and Leonard P. Howell's legacy.
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Paul H. Williams, Sunday Gleaner Writer

After years of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica lobbying with the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) for national monument status for The Pinnacle, located at Sligoville, St Catherine, only one lot was declared in September last year after the close of legal arguments in the St Catherine Resident Magistrate's Court.

Pinnacle is the first Rastafarian village in Jamaica and was set up by Leonard P. Howell in 1940. The declaration of only Lot 199 for national monument protection, however, is a drop in the bucket for the Rastafarian community as they want ownership and protection of six lots, the entire property, preferably.

On November 13, 2013, Resident Magistrate Vashti Chatoor ruled that Lot 199 at Pinnacle legally belongs to St Jago Hills Development Company Limited. It consists of the ruins of the cut-stone great house where Leonard Howell lived and the ruins of a water tank which was part of Howell's community at Pinnacle. It does not include the Nyahbinghi Tabernacle at Pinnacle.

Private properties may be declared national monuments.

ONLY ONE LOT PROTECTED

Prior to the JNHT's declaration, the Rastafarian community said six lots, including the bakery, grave sites, and other sites of historical value at Pinnacle, were identified as suitable for national monument protection. The JNHT, the Rastafari community claimed, agreed to declare those six lots as national monuments. However, after the 2012 change of government, the JNHT board also changed, and the JNHT declared only one lot for national monument protection.

The JNHT falls under the culture portfolio.

The JNHT's declaration of Lot 199 as a national monument does not change the ownership of the land at Pinnacle or the rights of St Jago Hills Development Company over Pinnacle. It, however, prevents St Jago Hills Development Company from disturbing or destroying the protected national monuments.

"We, therefore, need to have those additional lots urgently declared by JNHT as national monuments to prevent the St Jago Hills Development Company from further construction and destruction of Rastafari heritage," a legal spokesman for the Rastafari community told The Sunday Gleaner.

A housing development has already been built up by the paper title owners at Pinnacle. The ongoing construction, the Rastafarians said, threatens the graves of many Howellites, including the wife of Leonard Howell, as well as the homes of many surviving Howellite families and ultimately original ancestral home of the Rastafari community.

MONUMENTS IN DANGER

A Rastafari tabernacle built many years ago at Pinnacle, the venue for annual celebrations in honour of Leonard P. Howell, is also in jeopardy of being lost forever. The Rastafari community is, therefore, seeking ownership and control over the undeveloped lands of Pinnacle, while reserving the right to pursue reclamation of the entire property through litigation if necessary.

The Rastafari community said in the 1990s, it had approached then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson with hopes of a government acquisition of the lands at Pinnacle for and on behalf of the Rastafari community. Yet, despite several discussions over several years with several successive governments, they are saying no land at Pinnacle has been acquired for and on behalf of the Rastafari community. Despite the JNHT's declaration, they say, the Government has not made any move to acquire the lands.

About a month ago, the community met with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and, last Tuesday, there was a march to the Office of the Prime Minister to deliver letters outlining the issues to the prime minister and other members of parliament. The community met with a committee set up by the prime minister.

After that meeting, Dahlia Harris, principal director of culture in the Ministry of Youth and Culture, said dialogue would continue "in an atmosphere of mutual respect for the rights, interests, and concerns of all the stakeholders".

Said Harris in a statement: "The dialogue on the issues related to Pinnacle is being coordinated by the committee established by the prime minister, which includes Ambassador Burchell Whiteman, Professor Rupert Lewis, and Judith Wedderburn."

She added: "The Ministry of Youth and Culture, which has portfolio responsibility for all cultural issues, as well as the agencies of the ministry, will continue to carry out the roles of facilitator of, and participants in, the discussions."

Harris said the developers were sensitive to the cultural issues related to the significance of Pinnacle to the Rastafari faith and were open to negotiations regarding further development/construction, and that there would be no construction on the five lots adjoining the great house.

"Further inclusive dialogue is to take place regarding the use of the site of the great house at Pinnacle, which has been designated by the JNHT as a national heritage site (and) further research, in consultation with the Millennium Council of Rastafari, the Leonard P. Howell Foundation and the Rastafari Youth Initiative will be undertaken to determine the existence of other sacred sites with a view to preventing any possible desecration," she said.

Harris added: "Further meetings are to be scheduled to continue the discussions with a view to arriving at the amicable resolution of the issues."

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 08:24 AM

BLACK HISTORY: Leonard P. Howell The First Rasta

Published: Sunday | February 2, 20140 Comments

An artist's (B. Howell's) impression of Leonard P. Howell, widely regarded as The First Rasta and the settler of the first Rastafarian village in Jamaica, located at The Pinnacle in St Catherine.

Paul H. Williams, Sunday Gleaner Writer
Sligoville, St Catherine:On November 2, 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia in Africa. His supporters believe that he was the earthly manifestation of God or Jah. His birth, it is said, was foretold in the Bible and his lineage goes back several centuries before the birth of Christ. Selassie was born in 1892.
Six years later, in 1898, Leonard P. Howell was born in the parish of Clarendon, on June 16. At an early age, he migrated to the United States, where he joined Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
Soon, Howell became one of Garvey's top-brass members, but Garvey and the UNIA were constantly under the radar of US authorities, which eventually arrested and charged Garvey for various crimes. Garvey was deported in 1928, and Howell was to follow him in 1932.
But Howell's activism switched from Garveyism to one that focused on the importance of Selassie I. He saw Selassie as the great Black Messiah, and he established the King of Kings Mission out of respect for Selassie, and appointed himself Selassie's representative in Jamaica. He also wrote the first book about Rastafarianism, The Promised Key.
In 1933, soon after his return to Jamaica, Howell stepped up his preaching on Selassie, which, in addition to his faith healing practices, earned him a huge following. In his book, Overstanding Rastafari - Jamaica's Gift to the World, Yasus Afari says, at the beginning of the 1930s, "the streets of Jamaica (Kingston and St Catherine in particular) were energised by the inspired preaching and teachings of the Honourable Leonard Howell, one of the earliest Rastafarian pioneers".
Howell was preaching 'doctrines' that were considered by the authorities as anti-Church and anti-government.
He was charged and sent to prison for sedition. But imprisonment did not shake the foundation of Howell's beliefs. Upon his release from prison in 1940, he set up the first Rastafarian village in Jamaica on 400 acres at Sligoville, St Catherine.
CAMPS TARGETED
The settlement was called The Pinnacle because of its high hilltop elevation, and the residents became self-sufficient farmers. Howell's influence spread outside of The Pinnacle, and Rastafarian communities were set up across the country. The original Rasta camps were also regularly raided and dislocated by the police "as the governing class and conservative sectors of the Jamaican society became alarmed by the grossly misunderstood Rastafarians".
In 1941, government forces swooped down on Pinnacle and arrested many of Howell's followers. Howell fled, but he was eventually arrested, and on August 20, he was tried again for sedition and sentenced to two years in prison. When he was released in 1943, he returned to Pinnacle.
For almost a decade after his return, Pinnacle flourished as the residents were left alone to carry on their lives.
Trading and farming were their major sources of income, of which they earned a lot. The population also boomed as people saw Pinnacle as a place where they could go to prosper on their own. But the good life was not to last forever.
DESTROYED
In 1954, government militia invaded Pinnacle and completely destroyed the village. The residents fled, but they were to subsequently return. Yet, Pinnacle never really got back to its heyday. However, the movement continued to proliferate in Jamaica and many parts of the world, but the persecution itself wasn't waning.
In Jamaica, the animosity involving the wider society and the Rastafarians culminated in bloodshed in 1963, in Coral Gardens, St James, when some Rastafarians and other civilians were involved in disturbances. The Jamaica Defence Force was called in and, "consequently, many Rastafarians were killed, beaten, intimidated brutally, trimmed, ridiculed, harassed and arrested", Afari says. "This unfortunate and brutal episode represented the most horrific experience of the Rastafarians in Jamaica."
As horrific as it may have been, the tragedy did not kill the resolve of the community which continued to expand in many ways. Howell died in 1981 at age 82, leaving a legacy of a movement that transcends races and classes, which has electrifying tentacles all over the world, and which is the subject of many studies, research, and college and university papers. Howell perhaps had no idea that the movement which he started on the streets of Kingston and St Catherine, and for which he was incarcerated, would have become one of the most influential movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, but, it is indeed.
- P.H.W.

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 08:25 AM

Appeal Against Pinnacle Eviction Filed
Published: Sunday | February 2, 2014 0 Comments
Paul H. Williams, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Attorney-at-Law Ras Miguel Lorne, as lead counsel, has filed an appeal on behalf of the Howell family and the Rastafari community against a St Catherine Resident Magistrate's Court ruling that the land on which the first Rastafari village in Jamaica was built be turned over to its titled owner, St Jago Hills Development Company Limited.

Ras Miguel Lorne is receiving assistance with legal research and the drafting of legal arguments from the Haile Selassie I Foundation for Law and Society (HSFFLS), a team of international Ras Tafari attorneys. The HSFFLS is also contemplating taking the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where Rastafari indigenous rights can be fully represented and argued.

SEVERAL GROUNDS OF APPEAL

The Rastafari community is appealing on many grounds.

"First, we will argue that the resident magistrate did not have jurisdiction to try a case of this magnitude involving a dispute over the land title and involving the fundamental human rights of the Rastafari community," a spokesman from the community, who asked that his name not be used, told The Sunday Gleaner.

"Related to this point is the fact that the resident magistrate erred when she refused to admit the evidence of a land valuator as to the value of the land, which would have clearly taken the case outside of her jurisdiction."

Additionally, the community is contending that the resident magistrate erred in proceeding to try the case under Section 89 of the Judicature (Resident Magistrate's) Act as the appropriate section should have been Section 96, based on the longstanding occupation and use of the land by the Howell family and the Rastafari community.

The community is also saying that the resident magistrate erred in deciding to proceed to try the case knowing that there was already a case filed in the Supreme Court which was dealing with the same legal and factual issues.

"The resident magistrate, therefore," the spokesman said, "ought to have stayed the trial in the resident magistrate's court pending the outcome of the trial in the Supreme Court, which is the higher court."

The final ground of appeal is that the resident magistrate failed to properly consider Rastafari human rights, cultural rights and indigenous rights in relation to Rastafari traditional lands at Pinnacle which the Rastafari community has occupied for several decades. The Pinnacle settlement at Sligoville, St Catherine was started by Rastafari pioneer Leonard P. Howell in 1940.

The community is also pursuing a political, diplomatic solution to the current 'disenfranchisement' at Pinnacle and has invited the Office of the Prime Minister to meetings on Pinnacle, in the context of reparations for "the targeted attacks, victimisation and intended destruction of the Rastafari community at Pinnacle between the 1930s and 1950s".

The Court of Appeal of Jamaica has set the date to hear the appeal for February 3.

- P.H.W.

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 08:26 AM

Rastas must speak with one voice over Pinnacle — Lorne

BY KARYL WALKER Editor - Crime/Court Desk walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, February 02, 2014

Head of St Jago Hills Development Ltd, Richard Lake, (right) reasons with a Rastafarian at Pinnacle last week. (PHOTO: MICHAEL GORDON)

ATTORNEY-at-law Miguel Lorne is sounding a clarion call for Rastafarians to speak with one voice on the troubling issue surrounding a national monument at Pinnacle in the St Jago Hills of St Catherine.
Lorne, who is representing the Rastafari Nation Pinnacle Foundation, the Leonard Howell Foundation, and Ras Howie and Catherine Howell in a case which will be called up in the Court of Appeal tomorrow, told the Jamaica Observer that in order to bolster the cause of preserving the birthplace of the Rastafari faith, rastas must avoid sending mixed signals.
The site was occupied by Leonard Howell, who is the founder of the faith. Howell went against the grain of the colonial order in the 1930s after he began calling for black Jamaicans to stop paying taxes to the colonial government and desist from worshipping a white God in favour of the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, whom he said was the Black Messiah.
He was sent to prison for two years, after being found guilty of sedition for his views, in the Morant Bay Resident Magistrate's Court.
Howell was also committed to the asylum for his stance.
"We must now come together and unite around a single cause and not send mixed signals about our goal. There is a time to burn a lion fire and a time to burn an intellectual and diplomatic fire. Now is the time for us to be intellectual and unite behind Monty Howell, who is the head of the Leonard Howell Foundation," Lorne said.
His call came hours after a visit to the site last Friday by St Jago Hills Development Limited, the St Jago Hills Citizens' Association, a committee established by the Office of the Prime Minister to discuss issues of concern to Rastafari, and the Ministry of Youth & Culture and its agency, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT).
Ownership of the land has been a bone of contention between the St Jago Hills Development Limited and the descendants of Leonard Howell.
Howell's descendants, through the Leonard Howell Foundation, lost a court case in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate's Court after the developers brought a claim for recovery of possession of the property from them.
The court ruled that the defendants have not established that they are the fee simple owners of the property, either by way of prescriptive right or adverse possession.
The foundation was not able to produce any proof of ownership of the land during the first trial, but the Sunday Observer contacted Monty Howell, who said he had found a colonial report and a solicitor general's report that stated that the land was owned by Leonard Howell, who purchased from one Albert Chang, who is now deceased.
"Pinnacle belongs to, or is leased by Howell or his organisation. The Government can take no steps to break up the settlement of his followers upon that property, even though their habits and customs do not conform to those usually adhered to in civilised communties," the document states.
It is expected that the documents will be produced by Lorne when the court hears the appeal from the defendants tomorrow.
The JNHT in September last year declared a quarter acre plot a national monument and there are plans to halt development on another five lots.
Rastafarians have been agitating in recent times for the site to be occupied by them and declared a no-build zone. They have also complained that the burial site of Howell's wife, Teneth Howell and other sacred sites, were being desecrated by developers.
On Wednesday, the Rastafari Millennium Council, the Leonard Howell Foundation and the Rastafari Youth Initiative attended a meeting at the Ministry of Youth and Culture to air their grouses.
The agitators claimed that they had knowledge of the location of the burial site and a visit to Pinnacle was arranged to locate the burial site of the wife of Leonard Howell, and take immediate steps to protect the location and begin the archaeological process to identify the remains.
However, when the other stakeholders visited the site, the Rastafarians did not show.
A news release from the ministry on Friday bemoaned the absence of the Rastafarians.
"Unfortunately, the site visit was not attended by members of the Rastafari community who informed the meeting on 28 January, 2014 that they had knowledge of the location of the burial site, raised concerns that the final resting place of Mrs Howell and other members of Rastafari was being disturbed, and requested the site visit," the release stated.
Present at the site on Friday was Richard Lake, head of St Jago Hills Development Ltd. According to Lake, his company acquired the contentious property in 1989.
He produced a document which suggested that the property was owned by various persons since 1932.
The document stated that Chang had bought the property in 1939 and sold it to Reginald Fletcher, Edward Hanna and Henry Douglas in 1947.
According to Howell's son, his father moved to Pinnacle in 1940 and was the legitimate owner of the property.
He said that the documents to prove ownership of the land were either destroyed or taken by the police when they raided the site, which was a frequent occurrence during the days of colonialism.
"There was systematic destruction of literature since 1933. Basically, every time there is a raid they would destroy his papers because they thought it was seditious. Up to the 1940s when he moved to Pinnacle, he told us that he bought the land from Albert Chang, who was the previous owner," Howell said.
During the colonial era, black Jamaicans were at the bottom of the economic and social ladder, and it was uncommon for a black man to own land.
Howell claims that his father was targeted by the authorities who thought it presumptuous for Howell to own such a large expanse which he said stretched from Sligoville Road to the Rio Cobre near Tredegar Park.
"No black person in Jamaica owned property, nothing compared to Pinnacle. They tried everything to chase my father off that land. I remember my father complaining about personal papers that they took with other papers they thought were seditious, " he said.
See related story: Leonard Howell and the struggles that he fought

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 10:29 AM

Dehumanise the individual by criminalizing his sacrement and you take away his human rights land income and of course sanity.The end result garrisonisation and police brutality.

**Bricktop** · February 2, 2014, 10:51 AM

you know who Richard Lake is right?

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 10:59 AM

No can you share?

**Muadib** · February 2, 2014, 11:03 AM

Ask Lisa Hannah..

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 11:04 AM

Babylon a sleep wid babylon nothing new in the Rasses eyes a suh it set.

**Bricktop** · February 2, 2014, 11:12 AM

Rasta betta guh look anedda ancestoral homeland

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 11:17 AM

Xpected from you.

**Bricktop** · February 2, 2014, 11:19 AM

Why? am I the Minister of Youth & CULTURE...like you don't even site the rake...farrin soften yuh up...mek yuh naive

**Muadib** · February 2, 2014, 11:20 AM

Pity Faddah Eddie not running tings...

**Sir X** · February 2, 2014, 11:22 AM

Lets see if human rights prevail.

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Reoccupation Of The Pinnacle Begins Published: Sunday | Febr

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