Chanting Down Babylon

This anthology explores Rastafari religion, culture and politics in Jamaica and other parts of the African diaspora. An Afro-Caribbean religious and cultural movement in the 1930s, today Rastafari has close to one million adherents. The basic message of Rastafari - the dismantling of all oppressive institutions and the liberation of humankind - strongly appeals even to non-believers who are capivated by reggae music, the lyrics and the immortal spirit of its practitioner, Bob Marley.

Part I. Ideology and the Cultural Context 1. Dread "I" In a Babylon: Ideological Resistance and Cultural Revitalization - Ennis B. Edmonds 2. Rastafari: A Psychology of Blackness and Somebodiness - Clinton Hutton and Nathaniel Samuel Murrell 3. Rastafari and the Exorcism of the Ideology of Racism and Classism in Jamaica - Barry Chevannes 4. Gender and Family Relations in Rastafari: A Personal Perspective - Maureen Rowe 5. Rasta Woman as Rebel - Imani M. Tafari-Ama 6. The Epistemological Significance of "I-an-I" as a Response to Quashie and Anancyism in Jamaican Culture - Adrian Anthony McFarlane Part II. Roots and Historical Impact 1. African Dimensions of the Jamaican Rastafarian Movement - Neil J. Savishinsky 2. Marcus Garvey and the Early Rastafarians: Continuity and Discontinuity - Rupert Lewis 3. Who Is Haile Selassie? His Imperial Majesty in Rasta Voices - Sister Eleanor Wint and members of the Nyabingi Order 4. The Rasta-Selassie-Ethiopian Connections - Clinton Chisholm 5. Chanting Down Babylon Outernational: The Rise of Rastafari in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific - Frank van Dijk 6. Chanting Down Babylon in the Belly of the Beast: The Rastafari Movement in Metropolitan USA - Randal L. Hepner 7. A Personal Reflection of Rastafari in West Kingston in the 1950s - George Eaton Simpson Part III. Back-O-Wall to Hollywood, The Rasta Revolution Through the Arts 1. From Burru Drums to Reggae Ridims: The Evolution of Rasta Music - Verena Reckord 2. Bob Marley: Rasta Warrior - Roger Steffens 3. Chanting Change Around the World Through Rasta Ridim and Art - William David Spencer 4. Towering Babble and Glimpses of Zion: Some Recent Depictions of Rastafari in Cinema - Kevin Aylmer Part IV. Religion: Livity, Hermeneutics, and Theology 1. Discourse on Rastafarian Reality - Hon. Rex Nettleford 2. The Black Biblical Hermeneutics of Rastafari - Nathaniel Samuel Murrell and Lewin Williams 3. The Structure and Ethos of Rastafari - Ennis B. Edmonds 4. The First Chant: Leonard Howell's "The Promised Key" - commentary by William David Spencer 5. Rastafari's Messianic Ideology and Caribbean Theology of Liberation - Nathaniel Samuel Murrell and Burchell K. Taylor Appendices: A. Emissaries of Rastafari: An Interview with Professor Leonard Barrett, Indego Bethea, Michael Bruny, and Adrian McFarlane B. Who Is Who in the Rasta Academy: For Starters, A Lit Review in Honor of Leonard Barrett