Rastafari in the Promised Land: The Spread of a Jamaican Socioreligious Movement Among the Youth of West Africa
Author(s)
Savishinsky, Neil J.
Abstract
The primary aim of this paper is to examine the spread of the Jamaican Rastafarian movement and its attendant forms of cultural expression to West Africa, and in so doing to pinpoint the various mechanisms and processes that have over the course of the past two decades contributed to its diffusion among urban-based West African youth. The spread and popularity of Rastafarian religion and culture in West Africa can, it appears, be linked to the following set of interrelated agencies or factors: 1) the widespread appeal and penetration of reggae music and the religious and sociopolitical messages embodied therein, 2) the ritual/secular use of cannabis and its associated trade, 3) the appropriation of Rasta-inspired fashions and 4) the missionary work carried out by Jamaican and Anglo-Jamaican Rastas. The paper examines each of the components separately in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the contributions they have made and continue to make in spreading the religion and culture of Jamaican Rastafarianism in West Africa.
