RasTafari grounation and nyabinghi ceremonies.
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Ras Tafari Ceremonies
There are two main ones, grounation and nyabinghi.

Nyabinghi is music played in rastas meetings, which include the sound of at least three percussion instruments, singing, dancing, spiritual use of ganja and praise to Jah Rastafari. Percussion instruments have a symbolic value for dreadlocks. They symbolize the origins, and in a certain way, Africa itself (next, an elder plays his percussion instrument). Many consider drums to be Jah’s voice.

For a long time, the dreadlocks danced nyabinghi against specific enemies in order to evoke Jah’s strength to destroy them. The dance is now used to celebrate special dates such as the coronation of His Imperial Majesty (November 2), Selassie’s birthday (July 23), the end of slavery (August 1), and the birthday of Marcus Garvey (August 17).

Every year in August, the dreadlocks commemorate the visit of Haile Selassie I to Jamaica, held on April 25, 1966. The celebrations begin around the 21st, and are called the Grounation Day.

Grounation means “the affirmation of life on earth”. For several days, the dreadlocks gather in camps, where they meditate, use the herb, perform nyabinghi songs and praise Jah. In these meetings, children are left free to go wherever they want. If they need anything, the nearest rasta will serve them and help them with the same love with which they would be treated by their natural parents.
Ganja for the Rastas.

Ganja, marijuana, cannabis is an ancient medicinal herb used by the Rastas, not for fun or pleasure, but for cleansing and purification in controlled rituals. Some Rastas choose not to use it. Many hold their use through Genesis 1:29: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth: and every tree in which there is fruit yielding it shall be to you for food. ”

The “Flaming Goblet” is also a symbol of “Unitarian Universalism.”
They see Canabis as having the ability to allow the user to penetrate into the real truth of how things are with absolute clarity. For this reason is that Rastafari met to smoke Cannabis and discuss the truth with each other, rationalizing everything in us details that last for many sections.

In this way Rastafari believes that Canabis brings its user close to Jah.
The use of Canabis and particularly in large pipes called “Chalices” is an integral part of the cult that the Rastafari calls “Section of Arrangement”.

Rastafari guarantees that Canabis is the “Tree of Life” mentioned in the Bible.

It is not known since when Rastafari first used Canabis as a religious sacrament, but of course since the early forties the Rastafari was known as a cult of the Canabis use of the Leonard Howell Pinacle Community.

RAS TAFARI and ETHIOPIAN PROPHECY
Ras Tafari is a pan-African movement with presentations and messianic, which originated in the awakening of a prophetic revelation made by Marcus Garvey in Jamaica. Since its inception in the 1930s, the movement has grown from a small town in West Kingston to an international black repatriation movement.

Throughout the first three decades of its development, the movement was banished from Jamaican society. Periodic confrontations with British colonial authorities marked the Rastas in their revolutionary intentions, both culturally and spiritually. The mid-1960s brought a period of transition in social understanding in relation to Rasta and its way of living.

After the publication in 1960 of the “Report on the Ras Tafari I Movement in Kingston (capital of Jamaica)” conveyed by the local university, subsequent events and a climate of positivism became publicly notorious. This shift in public perception served to legitimize the broad vision of the meaning of Life that the Rastas so much proposed as a cultural responsibility to the legacy of slavery and colonialism in Jamaica.
During this transition period in the 1960s, a large number of discontented and middle-class youths joined the miserable ones who lived in the favelas, and from there formed the mainstay of the Ras Tafari I movement.

This accelerated growth was accompanied by the popularization of Rasta doctrine through mass communication and also artistically. the rhythms of Ska, rocksteady and reggae music disseminated in the 1960s and 1970s the values ​​and feelings of the Dreadlocks (one of the terms used to identify a Rastas) as an alternative appeal after the epoch of post-colonialism.

THE ISRAELITES
As a culture / philosophy, Ras Tafari I is a form of Black Zionism that follows the Bible reading (in the Ethiopian version Kebra Negasta – “Glory of the Kings”, different from the European King James version) as the millennial creed of African redemption. Identify themselves as the Old Testament Israelites, Providing a sequence of mythical-poetic interpretations of the History of the Black Diaspora. Captured and sold into slavery by Europeans, the Rastas see Africans and their descendants in the West as living in modern Babylon, the white, oppressive society that has meant more than 400 years of persecution and colonialism.

The unofficial emancipation for slavery in the sugar plantations in Jamaica came in 1834, but Jamaican Jamaican political independence from Britain was secured only in 1962, after 97 years as a colony. About 95% of Jamaica’s population is of African descent, which has led to a consciousness within the Ras Tafari I movement to consider themselves “strangers in a strange land”, referring to Jamaica itself.

THE PROMISED LAND
In the Rasta language of redemption, the only salvation for the black of the West is to repatriate to their ancestral home: Ethiopia – Africa. While opinions within the movement differ as precisely repatriation will occur and its nature, spiritual or physical, Ras Tafari I recognizes that this will be imminent and will signal the complete reversal of the power structure in force in the world.

Unlike other Pan-African cultural formations ; for example, Santeira in Cuba, Vudu in Haiti, Candomblé in Brazil and Xangô in Trinidad, Ras Tafari I is a phenomenon of the 20th century without a cultural background in the West or an inheritance of Central African culture.
Rasta rituals maintain a continuity in African identity and associated traditions such as example of dance rituals and drums, healing practices and belief in the magical power of words – word, sound & power.

Images of Ethiopian royalty, events and characters from the Old Testament, a ritualistic way of speaking and the use of long hair, called Dread Locks, have been adopted and transformed into Rasta symbols and traditions. In the context of Diaspora, this tradition is best understood as a response to the ideology of the dominant race.

This ethnicity refers to the self – awareness of culture in order to disseminate a new message, along with its symbology and religiosity. Ethiopianism heralded a new phase in Jamaican rituals, where the Rastas identified themselves as “children,” both in the spiritual and genealogical sense, and in keeping with the kinship of the ancient Israelites who followed Moses across the Red Sea centuries ago.
The Biblical chronicles of “Exile” and “Return to the Promised Land” served as a mythical document for the arrest of slaves in the New World, and their longing to bring redemption out of slavery. The use of old materials for the creation of a new prophetic structure caused the image of Ethiopia-Israel to appear as a black nation. It is part of the Rasta tradition, to set an example, to sing and to thank “Holy Mount Zion” which is recognized by faith as the home of Jah Ras Tafari I. This process served to crystallize African sovereignty and legitimacy in a unique religious-political appearance.

“OLHEM PRA AFRICA”
Through Bible references to Ethiopia, for example in Psalm 68:31, “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out His hands unto God,” and in Acts 8:27, “people of African descent learn to recognize their lost country and the inheritance in the land Ethiopia and Ethiopians. ” Thus the Rastas began to treat all the Ethiopian references in the bible with affection, for there was the liberating promise, which, when contrasted with the indignity of slavery in the plantations, showed the Negro in a human and dignified light.

It is at the base of classical Ethiopianism that the Association of Black Universal Progress and the “Back-to-Africa” ​​movement led by Marcus Garvey is well known. The philosophy of racial nationalism, proposed by Garvey, was an ethnic concept, marrying Ethiopia and racial consciousness derived from Pan-African nationalism. “Through racial consciousness, members of a race are present and aspiring for the future.”

A racially conscious group is more than a mere aggregation of distinctly zoologically distinct individuals from other ethnic groups. It is a social struggle united with the direction of personal and group fulfillment in order to achieve a quality of life of its own. Therefore, it is a conflicting group and racial consciousness is itself a result of the conflict. “The race of a group though not intrinsically significant, becomes a symbol of identity that serves to intensify the sense of solidarity.”

For Garvey to be black meant to be African, “at home or abroad,” and racial identity stipulated national rights. Under the title “Africa for Africans,” Garvey re-launched the Ethiopian tradition into a political program for the liberation of blacks. Garvey’s view of ‘African redemption’ was and remains radical in the sense that, for the first time in history, black people were universally recognized as Africans in the context of a mass movement with international popularity.

What is unique to the Rastas of Jamaica in the African emancipatory tradition is its direct identification with the Theocratic State of Ethiopia under the “eternal” rule of Emperor Haile Selassie I, entitled Jah Ras Tafari I. Modeling as the reincarnation of the ancients Israelites, the Rastas use the biblical past of Jewish theocracy to form their ethnicity as a family, a nation.

The most remarkable prophetic phrase attributed to Marcus Massiah Garvey states, “Look at Africa! When a King is crowned, the day of redemption will be in the hands. ” The coronation on 2 November 1930 of the Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, formally entitled Ras Tafari I was interpreted as the confirmation of the prophecy.

Ras means “head, prince” in Aramaic and Tafari, “Fearless.”
It was also translated by the pioneers of the Rasta movement to mean “Creator.” Haile Selassie I, the descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, received the sacred titles written in the bible that were reserved for the advent of the Second Coming: King of kings, Lord of lords and Lion conqueror of the Tribe of Judah.

THE POWER OF TRINITY

In the faith of the Rastas, Haile Selassie is revered as Jah Ras Tafari I, the Messiah, the Black Christ who ascended to the Throne of King David in Adis Ababa, officiating the promise of a new spiritual order. As a defender of the Throne against Mussolini’s fascist attack in 1935 as one of the chief architects of Pan-African nationalism through the founding of the OAU in Addis Ababa in 1963 and later as monarch – ambassador to the oldest independent state in Africa, Ethiopia, Emperor Selassie achieved respect for countless blacks and was recognized as the defender of African union and freedom.
Haile Selassie is a sacred name, which translated means “Power of the Trinity”. In all ancient religions lies the same analogy to God’s First Law, action-reaction-balance. In Christianity this same formula is recognized in the Father – Son – Holy Spirit; in Hinduism, vishnu- krishna-brahma. However, what authenticated the true strength of Ras Tafari was the personification of the First Law in one person, Haile Selassie I.

THE BEGINNING IN KINGSTON

Even before the outbreak of the Italo-Ethiopian war in 1935, a photograph of Haile Selassie I in a warrior vest in Amhara circled the favelas of Kingston along with an article in the Times newspaper on December 7. According to the report, originally attributed to an Italian fascist propaganda agent, Emperor Selassie was the mentor of the Nyahbinghi Order. This order was internationally recognized as a secret African society dedicated to overthrowing white and colonial domination. The name Nyahbinghi meant “death to Europeans”.

In Jamaica, the first adherents of the Ras Tafari I faith made this article almost like a call and sought to align spiritually with the Emperor Selassie, effectively participating in the Nyahbinghi Order. The word Nyahbinghi was quickly adapted to the Rasta vocabulary as a racial protest, and came to mean ‘death to the black and white oppressors’.

Many Rasta communities began to identify as Nyahs, and in the sleaze of West Kingston, a militancy of the new movement began to develop. In 1960, the University of West Indies sponsored a report on the Ras Tafari I movement and its relationship with Jamaican society in general. This report was the result of a request from part of the Rasta community that complained of police persecution and public misinformation. Until then Jamaica, contrary to what many people think, the majority was (and still is) Christian, whereas the Rastas were seen without any social status, because most of them lived in poor conditions.

THE NYAHBINGHI CULTURE
In the report, Nyahbinghi was associated with violent values ​​and with revolutionary elements. The Nyah were publicly identified by their long hair, the Dreadlocks, and by the sacred, but challenging and antisocial use of marijuana (ganja). The Nyahbinghis within the current Ras Tafari I movement is a long term which in addition to its original meaning also covers other important aspects of cultural life including:
The Nyahbinghi Order, a section within the Ras Tafari I movement in general, also recognizes the Theocratic Government of Haile Selassie I. The members of the first generation Nyah are part of the formation of the Rasta movement .
Rituals of worship and worship are sponsored by members of the community. Nyahbinghis ceremonies are regularly celebrated on various dates throughout the island of Jamaica. Annual celebrations include the anniversary of Emperor Haile Selassie I (July 23), the date of the Emperor’s coronation (November 2) and the Emperor’s visit to Jamaica in 1966 (April 21). The Nyahbinghis also hold Assemblies or “Congregations” which are considered as “divine services”

The music with the drums, the dance and the words are part of the celebration and the cult and also are denominated of Nyahbinghi. As part of the resurrection given African beat, the Nyahbinghi or Heart Beat music is linked to the harps of King David, used to compose the actual psalms of the Old Testament.

Nyahbinghi congregations usually last from three to seven days, time for the community to gather and revitalize the Ras Tafari faith through activities such as playing drums, singing prayers, reading Bible passages, smoking marijuana, and dancing. At the center of the Nyahbinghi celebration is the Tabernacle where the ritual takes place. With the colors of the Ethiopian flag (gold and red green), the Nyahs call Israel their providential destiny – “Africa, yes! Jamaica, no! “” Jah calls the singers and instrument players, “” Repatriation now! “.

The Nyahbinghi Tabernacle is the circular room of the rainbow throne (represented by the colors of the Ethiopian flag), the sacred power of the ground from which emanates the earthquake, light, thunder, fire and sulfur of Armageddon. The “chalice” (chalice, Rasta pipe) Passes from hand to hand around the altar, ritualistically activating the symbols of heat, air and water, the primary forces of creation. Through the Word, Sound and Power (Word, Sound & Iwah) faith is united with the Creative Head (Ras Tafari) in a kind of mystical telepathy, which has the intention of singing the fall of Babylon, to rid the Earth of perversity and restore the natural order of Creation and its original state of perfection. Outside the Tabernacle stands a large fire where a man of fire remains awake to keep the flames of justice and judgment burning until the time of repatriation arrives.

“THE MUSIC OF THE HEART”
According to a common account of an observer of the movement in 1953 there was a marked lack in the beat of the barrels in the first Rastas street encounters. In these encounters, revival hymns of Afro-Christian cults known as pocomania and Sion were adapted for the development of the Jesus Christ liturgy in all song texts. Hymns Garveyists and even the Ethiopian National Anthem Nyahbinghi were sung. At that time the antagonism between the Rasta groups and the Revivalists grew, buru was at that time the Rastafari music, inspiring their drums. Buru was at that time the most popular song derived from the African secularity in Kingston. Despite the clear derivation of the Nyahbinghi beat, base, background and marker of the three Burus drums, the two traditions have distinct basal rhythms. However, both styles have a direct historical background in the musical tradition of western and central Africa. Both have a rhythmic arrangement based on the interleaving of beats played on multiple drums.

Nyahbinghi music is a companion taken from the African past, but the distance is musically evident even by the improvised touches of the leader and marker. The hit Nyahbinghi, with messages from Black Redemption, have been incorporated into reggae. These popular liberation connotations are heard today from the street sound systems of Kingston to the Shebeen of Soweto in South Africa.

I & I – I MIGHTY
The “Rasta talk” the ritual form of speaking, practiced to varying degrees in the movement, is especially prominent among adherents of the Nyahbinghi Order. Considering the messianic and also millennial movement Ras Tafari I fit in the discrimination “anti society”, “a society established within another society” as a conscious alternative. It is a mode of resistance to the market still “slave” of the modern Babylon. Ras Tafari’s speech as an “anti-language is not only parallel to society, it is actually generated by it.” The anti-language grows when the alternative reality is a contradicted reality, established in opposition to subjective reality, not merely expressing it, more actively creating and maintaining this other form of expression, which is nothing more than a collective action.

“I and I” is used wherever a pronoun appears in the speech; replaces ‘you and me’. The oblique use of the pronoun expresses the presumed equality among the Rastas. “I and I” means the common identity of the speakers as children of Haile Selassie I. The names given by the Rastas exemplify the association of man and God. The enunciation of “I” when pronounced “Jah Ras Tafari I” or “Haile I Selassie” connects personal intention with the divine vibration.

“Who are you ? there is no you. There is only I, I and I. I am you, I am God, God is I. God is you but there is no you, because you are I, then I and I are God. We are all each and one with God because it is the same energy of Life that flows in all of us. ”

In addition, the language (I – ance, parlance) Ras Tafari I involves the remodeling and hiding of lexical items to find their need. A common technique is to connote a symbol, to increase the meaning of the word; for example, by transforming “oppressors” into “depressors” (opressers = downpressers), “politicians” into “politicians”, “understanding” into “understand = overstand.”

The use of a few words by the Rastas who lived in the hills of Jamaica gave meaning to their view of the urban; for example “city” = “shity” (shit) or also to designate the social model – “system” = “shitstem”, “situation” = “shituation” shit situation). When the lack of culture, education – “education” = “head-decay-shun” (head-decay-away) and especially the valorization of historical European characters linked to the Catholic Church and making black slave trade – “Christopher Columbus” – “Christ-Come-To-Rob-Us” (Christ came to rob us) made thousands of words would emerge in the vocabulary called Patois.

This vast vocabulary is intended to define the world in which Rasta lives, both the economic, religious and political system as well as the spiritual aspiration. All words that have the pronoun “I” refer exclusively to the values ​​or rituals that the Rastas gave importance to; for example, “I-shence” = “icense (incense),
(marijuana) “I-ses” = “praises” (prayers), “Iration” = “Creation”, “Ithiopia” = “Ethiopia” (Ethiopia). “I-wah” = “power” (power) “I-tes” = “thoughts” (thoughts).

The understanding of African redemption is similarly connoted by the concept of “I”. “For I” or “Far Eye” used in Rastafari I are terms for naming the mystical vision. The visionary experience is internal, part by the process of conversation, and lately by the visionary notion that rendering is equal to repatriation; the vision of Africa agrees with the expectation of salvation.

GAMES AND DREADS

Ideological justifications for the ganja consumption ritual (marijuana) are common among the Rastas. The religious use of the herb is made by the process of planting, harvesting and consumption. The Rastas believe in the power of marijuana, through the opening of a telepathic channel that increases the perception of reality. They also say in the right to smoke because the Bible brings passages indicating the consume of the herb to put some of the prophets in the Old Testament. “Traces of marijuana were found in the tomb of King Solomon, and of a species far more powerful than that found today.”
Jamaica is one of the largest producers of ganja in the world and also the cheapest. It is still illegal to consume the herb; For this reason, many Rastas were killed and persecuted for the whole island. The highest quality plants found in Jamaica are Lambsbread and Sinsemila.
The Dreadlock, distinctly disheveled and with beard and long hair is another presentation of the Rastas’ cultural identity. Many Jamaicans inclusive often consider the sloppy appearance of the Dreads as an indication of lack of cleanliness standards. They incorrectly say that Rastas never wash their hair.

Those with dreadlocks are stigmatized as crazy by Jamaican society in general. Rastas are also known as “Knotty Dread” (Bearded Dread) or in the language they often use- “Natty Dread”. They are rejected to jobs basically put their appearances. In colonial and post – colonial Jamaican society, the police on many occasions cut the hair of the dreadlocks as an act of public rejection and social control over the movement.

The Rastas believe in the mystical power of the Dreadlocks are understood according to the biblical interpretation as the “vow of the Nazarenes,” and also as proof that they are the “chosen” during this time of judgment. Finally, they ground the growth of the dreads as a natural, man-made state sanctioned by God. “The gleam of dreads is the gleam of black light, an act done to call forth the forces of Judgment to make the perverse heart fall out of Creation, to destroy and paralyze all depressors.” Among other arguments presented by the Rastas in relation to dreadlock, the best known is that the beard and long hair represent the lion’s mane, symbol of the Rasta philosophy.

THE BOOK OF LIFE
Among the Rastas is very common the interpretation of the biblical passages. The biblical version of King James of England is regarded as containing only half of the “Book of Life.” Rastas themselves often remember that “the other half was never told”. The Rastas use the Maccabean version of Ethiopian origin, considered the integral book of Revelation. Among revelations lies the secret and meaning of the Seven Seals of King Solomon.
“And I cried so much that no man was worthy to open the book or to loose the Seven Seals. And one of the elders said, “Do not weep, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah. ​​The root of David was able to open the Book and release the Seven Seals, and I beheld, and in the midst of the throne, among the elders, a lamb was slain put seven horns, seven eyes, and seven spirits of eternal Jehovah, sent forth to put all the earth, and He came and took the book in the right hand of His Majesty Jah Ras Tafari I who is seated on the Throne. And the seventh seal was released. The Seventh Seal is known as Haile Selassie I, the First of Ethiopia. ”

HIS
The meaning of Haile Selassie I in relation to the Seven Seals was revealed to a leader of a Rasta community in a Vision. In making his vision public, he proclaimed himself in a position of prophetic leadership to put his ability to interpret the meaning of the revealed sign.

THE “ELDERS” ANCIENTS
Unlike the Ethiopian Orthodox Church of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the Community of Prince Emmanuel (all of these Rastas congregations), the Nyahbinghi Order has not a single permanent and central place for its celebrations, and does not even take care of the figure of a single leader. In fact, the Nyahbinghi themselves claim that each individual is a temple in itself, and thus disdain those who emphasize the use of constructions as essential for communal celebrations.

The Nyahbinghi Order does not have a formal organizational corporation with appointed or elected members, where decisions are made by its associates. Emperor Haile SelassieI is recognized as the “head” of the Nyahbinghi Order. His undisputed spiritual authority serves as an effective barrier to the formation of an elitist regulatory council. The elders, the elders, are part of the operational leadership of the Nyahbinghi, based largely on charisma. The recognition of social and spiritual abilities along with the time of commitment to movement determines a Rasta to be an “elder”. Those who are competent in conducting a celebration and have the knowledge of the Rastafari tradition emerges as a leader within their congregation.

REGGAE
By the end of the 1960s, many Rastas had become, in conditions of extreme poverty, economically banished from the capitalist system. For the most part, the Rastas seek to maintain themselves financially through art, especially handicrafts. The Rastas’ ability to carve pieces of African motif is well recognized; such as masks, statues and biblical symbols.

But where the Rasta culture best spread was in music, with Reggae. The origin of Reggae is Ska, an accelerated rhythm with metal instruments from the American black music of the 50s and 60s. From the mid to late 1960s Ska slowed down, giving rise to Rocksteady. The metals ceased to be the instruments that marked the music, and in their places was inserted the African percussion with the beat of the guitar in a Rock style. This rhythm from the beginning of the 70’s started to be slower still and with another name, now Reggae. Most famous singers and bands in Jamaica went through these three styles of rhythm, including the Wailers, a group formed in its early days by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer (considered musical prophets by Rastas).

The Jamaican phonographic industry made an incredible breakthrough in the 1960s and 1970s, just because several bands and singers, all Rastas, appeared on the music scene. Reggae is considered by Rasta itself to be the music of Jah (God), first by having the same heartbeat and then by messages, with mainly religious lyrics and racial and political protest.

“Rivers of babylon”
The Melodians
Adapted from Psalm 137: 1
By the rivers of Babylon,
Where we sat down,
And there we wept
When we remembered Zion
Through the rivers of Babylon,
Where we sit,
And there we cry
When we remember Zion
Oh, the wicked
Carried us away in captivity,
Required from us to song,
How can we sing
King Alpha’s song
Inna strange land?
O the mighty
It took us prisoners,
He demanded a song from us.
How can we sing
The King Alfa song
In a strange land?
So, let the words
Of our mouth and the meditation
Of our heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight
So let the words
From our mouth
And meditation
From our heart
Be acceptable in Your vision
Oh, Fari I!

My God!