The first Rasta : Leonard Howell and the rise of Rastafarianism / by H el ene Lee ; translated by Lily Davis ; edited and with an introduction by Stephen Davis.

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes bibliographic references.

The footsteps of a spirit -- The bird hunter -- En route to New York -- Harlem -- Athlyi Rogers, forerunner of the Rasta movement -- Early companions -- The Ethiopianists -- First sermons in St. Thomas -- Jail house -- The Nya-Binghis -- The Hindu legacy -- From one prison to another -- Bloody '38 -- Pinnacle -- Life in the hills -- The first raid -- Howell and the women -- Ganja plantation -- Like children of God in paradise (interview with Blade Howell) -- A stroll in paradise -- Howell and Bustamante -- The 1954 raid -- The ghettos -- Pinnacle's last days -- God or the devil? -- The new culture -- Rasta music, kumina or burru? -- Count Ossie -- The 1960s -- Reggae stars -- Twelve tribes.

"Going far beyond the standard imagery of Rasta--ganja, reggae, and dreadlocks--this cultural history offers an uncensored vision of a movement with complex roots and the exceptional journey of a man who taught an enslaved people how to be proud and impose their culture on the world. In the 1920s Leonard Percival Howell and the First Rastas had a revelation concerning the divinity of Haile Selassie, king of Ethiopia, that established the vision for the most popular mystical movement of the 20th century, Rastafarianism. Although jailed, ridiculed, and treated as insane, Howell, also known as the Gong, established a Rasta community of 4,500 members, the first agro-industrial enterprise devoted to producing marijuana. In the late 1950s the community was dispersed, disseminating Rasta teachings throughout the ghettos of the island. A young singer named Bob Marley adopted Howell's message, and through Marley's visions, reggae made its explosion in the music world." --pUBLISHER DESCRIPTION.

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