“Politics Without a Party”: Interrogating RastafarI Ethics of Political (Dis)engagement (in the 21st Century)

Abstract

This discussion explores the (dis)engagement of Jamaican RastafarI from the party political process, using RastafarI elder Mortimo Planno’s notion of “politics without a party” as a strand shaping and tying together the multiple threads of the exploration. The discussion examines how RastafarI has engaged with partisan politics/political parties from Independence (1962) until today. It highlights the differing ways of approaching politics among Rastas, including the minority, who have entered representative politics in a bid to [as yet unsuccessfully] change the tribal and compromised state of Jamaican politics. The decentralized nature of the RastafarI movement allows for diverse expressions of RastafarI political thought and action, but can present challenges for unified political mobilization on a large scale. Nonetheless, with or without direct partisan involvement, RastafarI has adapted and re-presented itself in response to changes in the local and global context, thus becoming a potent political force. So, despite this general lack of engagement with “statical” matters, RastafarI is and continues to be a significant political movement on several fronts, through movements, music, and symbols rather than traditional electoral routes.

1. Introduction

The politics they are talking about is corruption; that is not politics.

—Bob Marley

“Politics is not the black man’s lot, but the white man’s plot”

—Rasta

Saying “RastafarI” immediately conjures up images in the listener’s mind of dreadlocks, Bob Marley, Reggae music, and Jamaica (and perhaps ganja smoking). As with any phenomenon, there is more to RastafarI than these superficial associations. RastafarI is today’s best-known and perhaps fastest-growing emergent religion (Waters 2012; Johnson-Hill 1995). This New World socio-religious movement has spread globally beyond its obscure beginnings in 1930s colonial Jamaica among oppressed and denigrated Afro-Jamaican men and women, to middle- and upper-class Jamaicans in urban centres, to members of the Caribbean middle class, to Blacks in Britain and the United States (Murrell 1998). It has also taken root in the lives of people as diverse as islanders in the South Pacific, Scandinavians, South Africans, and citizens of New Zealand (Douglas and Boxill 2008). “Rastafari is continuously being appropriated and reinterpreted by different people in different ways, which has resulted in the ongoing emergence of new localized expressions of the movement” (Hansing 2018, p. 166). Yet, in the last national Census,1 in 2010, only 29,026 Jamaicans affiliated themselves with the movement (1.08 per cent; a 21% increase); this is a figure which many would find surprising given the identification made by many foreigners between RastafarI and Jamaica. At the same time, the number of RastafarI adherents globally is difficult to count, even as the numbers are growing (Waters 2012). Edmonds estimates it to be between 700,000 and 1,000,000 (Murrell 1998).2 Nonetheless, the significance and achievement of RastafarI cannot be measured by the number of committed followers. The impact of RastafarI locally and globally goes beyond what the numbers suggest.

Pioneer RastafarI researcher, American anthropologist George E. Simpson highlighted in his 1955 study of the movement that the various Mansions3 or groups disagreed whether it is worthwhile to attempt to make any change to Jamaica by acting politically (Simpson 1955). RastafarI generally has denounced the religio-political state and the political realm for its deceptiveness, corruption, and continued oppression of Jah people, which also affects the flourishing of the natural world (Powell 2021). Different Mansions, e.g., Twelve Tribes, Bobo Ashanti or Nyabinghi, hold varying interpretations of doctrine and adopt diverse approaches to political engagement, reflecting the inherent diversity within the movement. For instance, the Nyahbinghi order is historically known for its strong advocacy for repatriation, which often led to direct engagement with the authorities. Bobo Ashanti are more reclusive and are uncompromising in their orthodox perspectives (Gansinger 2019). At the same time, a few RastafarI in Jamaica formed their own political parties and ran for elected office, albeit with little success. However, there has been little scholarly engagement with Rasta and party politics. This has led South African social ethicist Jack Johnson-Hill to point out a particular lacuna in RastafarI scholarship reflected in “an inability to explain why the movement has not aligned itself with a political party” (Johnson-Hill 1995, p. 4) or why so many continue to eschew Jamaican politics. Maxine Stowe, political scientist and Rastafarian sistren, in an online panel discussion on Waterhouse Vibes YouTube channel, described the lack of engagement in party politics as “a quandary” given Rasta’s roots in Garveyism, which had a distinct form of political engagement, including Garvey’s starting of his political party (Stowe 2024). Garvey’s influence can be seen in the thinking and actions of Sam Brown and other Rastas like Prince Edward Emmanuel (founder of Ethiopia Africa International Congress, True Church of Divine Salvation—later the Bobo Ashanti). Ras Sam worked to transform the movement into a politically empowered and motivated pressure group, “with an understanding of politics and the importance of being political (Bailey n.d.).

Among the few researchers who have tackled the issue of (dis)engagement is American sociologist/anthropologist Anita M. Waters; she has explored the co-option of RastafarI in electoral politics (Waters [1985] 2017) as well as their “reluctant” participation in partisan politics in Jamaica, unlike the examples of more ready participation abroad. Semaj (2013) maintains that RastafarI has not accessed state power because the intelligentsia has not materialised as expected. Loadenthal (2004) maintains that, while RastafarI avoidance of participation in electoral politics is often noted, “their multiple expressions of political action are not acknowledged, and their motivations are simplified to distrust and disinterest” (pp. 7–8). In fact, “[a]gainst the discrimination, miseducation, and the deracination visited on the Black population, the movement in effect, undertook political action to reeducate Black people as to their rightful history, origins and value” (Price 2018, p. 283). This led to a shift in political allegiance from colonial Jamaica and Great Britain to the Emperor and Ethiopia—a significant political engagement that led to early RastafarI being viewed as treasonous (Holland et al. 2018).

This discussion explores the (dis)engagement of Jamaican RastafarI from the party political process, using RastafarI elder Mortimo “Kumi” Planno’s (1929–2006) notion of “politics without a party”4 as a strand shaping and tying together the multiple threads of the exploration. The discussion examines how RastafarI has engaged with partisan politics/political parties from independence until today. It highlights the differing ways of approaching politics among Rastas, including the minority, who have entered representative politics in a bid to [as yet unsuccessfully] change the tribal and compromised state of Jamaican politics. The decentralized nature of the RastafarI movement allows for diverse expressions of RastafarI political thought and action but can present challenges for unified political mobilization on a large scale. Nonetheless, with or without direct partisan involvement, RastafarI has adapted and re-presented itself in response to changes in the local and global context, thus becoming a potent political force. So, despite this general lack of engagement with “statical” matters, RastafarI is and continues to be a significant political movement on several fronts. RastafarI political engagement happens more through movements, music, and symbols than traditional electoral routes.

2. Planno and the Political

Rastafari Elder and statesman, the late Mortimo Togo Desta Planno, was one of the foremost leaders of the movement in West Kingston in the 1950s and 60s (Niaah 2014; Price 2009). Planno is famous for facilitating a study of the movement by academics at The University5 of the West Indies, as well as participating in the 1961 fact-finding Mission to Africa sponsored by the Jamaican Government. He is hailed for restoring order over the overly enthusiastic crowd amassed on the tarmac in 1966, which prevented Emperor Haile Selassie I from disembarking. And, he was Bob Marley’s spiritual guide on his journey of sighting up RastafarI (Chevannes 2006). Marley recorded several of Planno’s songs, including the 1968 “Selassie is the Chapel” (Davison 2006).

A renowned poet, drummer, and artist, Planno used the medium of art to give a hearing to the many issues facing Africans in diaspora in their liberation struggle (Chevannes 1994). For many of these issues, words are not sufficient. “[Indeed], many of Planno’s most poignant political messages are thus communicated in painting and demonstrate why he perceived himself as a ‘thoughtist’6 rather than an artist” (Niaah 2014, p. 20). Planno, of course, described himself as non-political, reflecting in his painting a Jamaican society degenerating, as it is confused by politics (Niaah 2014). He described his RastafarI art as “politics without a [political] party”. According to Niaah (2011), this was perhaps Planno’s way of saying that the issues around which Rasta mobilised required more than party politics to resolve them. Even as he rejected partisan politics, Planno directly engaged with the state in multiple ways, especially in his direct representation of the needs of RastafarI for repatriation and respect.

In his handwritten biography, The Earth’s Most Strangest Man: the Rastafarian (Mortimo Planno [1970] 2006) (transcribed in 2006 by Lambros Comitas),7 Planno inveighed against party politics, especially the attempts at winning RastafarI support:

The Movement do not have any political sympathy for any political party. The economical pressures of a Government may cause the Movement to take Side with any Party that acted in a sympathic Manner toward the Movements. This is another of the Political mistake of the P.N.P. in thinking that they could win the Back to Africa Movement Support, by sending a Mission to Africa.

(p. 36, as in the original text)

Planno is perhaps referring to claims that Premier Norman Manley made commitments to Reverend Cladius Henry in exchange for his political support. This was one of the factors at play in Manley’s support for the Mission to Africa, despite opposition from members of the elite (Price 2009). RastafarI certainly have been the target of political machinations and manipulations, but also “churchical” targeting. As Planno states:

The Politician try to get the Movement interested in Politic only a small faction of the movement even listen to political meetings. None of the two major Party could interest I an I, Neither a third party Couldn’t introduce itself in the like manner. So Here we are a target to the Politician. A Target to the police, A target, to the parson + Priest.

(p. 72, as in the original text)

So, it is unsurprising in the Jamaican context, in particular, that RastafarI has denounced the religio-political state and the political realm for its deceptiveness, corruption, and continued oppression of Black people. Rastafarians have, like Planno, generally shunned participation in the Babylonian electoral political process. To this end, in true RastafarI chanting down and word play, politics is “outed” as “politricks”—deeply deceptive by nature—and polytricks—composed of many tricks/wholesale trickery (Ehrengardt 2013); politicians are disdained as con-men and “crazy baldheads”8 in much the same way as the leaders and teachings of the established churches are “bunned/burned”,9 that is, rejected and cursed with destruction. This approach is a form of resistance to the corruption of party politics.

Many Rastas, therefore, withdraw from the Babylon10 System and wait patiently in meditation and reasoning (the Rasta form of ritual discussion) for what is to come (Witvliet 1985); many expect that Jah will be the one to change things. Their way of life, especially their language, functions as a barrier and a protection against the Babylon System. A key example of this is, in keeping with their attention to the power of words and the importance of symbolic actions, the refusal of some Rastas to vote because they see the marking of an X (which Jamaicans call a “wrong bang”) as literally negative, indicating that something is wrong with the very political process itself (Waters 2012).11

3. Rastafarians and Politics—1930s–1960s

Rastas were not all and always averse to supporting local political movements seeking mass support in Jamaica’s political process. Before Independence in 1962, although Rastas decried the existing colonial government in Jamaica, Robert Hinds, one of the early leaders of the movement, was a strong supporter of Alexander Bustamante, a campaigner for internal self-government and workers’ rights. Bustamante also founded the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, which pursued those goals. In the first Jamaican election held under Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944, Hinds encouraged his followers to vote for the JLP. Leonard P. Howell, the first preacher of RastafarI, was an admirer of Norman Manley, founder of the rival People’s National Party (PNP). Howell voted for the PNP and encouraged others to do the same. Early signs of the disillusionment with local politics, Chevannes (2012) maintains lay in the experience of the Rastas after 1938 (massive riots for workers’ rights) and the 1944 movement for adult suffrage. They were disillusioned by the political leaders, who did not keep their promises (Chevannes 2012). Their experiences led them to condemn the Jamaican political movement “as an impostor unable to lead the Jamaican out of the political enslavement of Babylon” (Hickling 2014, p. 51). Of course, in those early decades also, the state and its agents, as well as media and Jamaicans generally, were extremely hostile to the burgeoning anti-establishment movement.

The 1940s and 1950s saw the rise of a more militant group of Rastas, the Dreadlocks, who were the ones who initially branded politics as “polytricks” (Chevannes 2006; Price 2009). Their adoption of uncombed locks as well as the sacralization of ganja as a further means to distance themselves from the wider society resulted “in a period of intense repression” (Chevannes 2006, p. 199). Such activities were of great political consequence (Price 2018). The Claudius Henry affair12 in 1960 as well as the “state initiated pogrom” (Price 2018, p. 249) resulting from the Coral Gardens incident13 in 1963 solidified RastafarI’s “marginal status as having hostile intent towards the society, and so set the stage for the police to target them, with our without the pretext of prosecuting ganja” (Chevannes 2006, p. 200).14 Despite the strides made from the publication of the University Report, the infamous Coral Gardens Black Friday incident may well have further alienated RastafarI from the Jamaican state and the people. In the aftermath, the prime minister’s call to “bring in all Rastas dead or alive” caused Rastas to be framed as dangerous to the Jamaican state and could be stoned, cursed, imprisoned, beaten, and shorn of their locks with impunity (Perkins 2023; Perkins 2022a). Planno, then a young RastafarI leader, wrote to the Public Opinion newspaper about the unjust treatment of Rastas as a result of the Coral Gardens incident. He noted: “The Rastafarians have recognized themselves as a society and often show their approval and disapproval of public affairs. One Rasta [Ras Sam Brown] even contested the independence elections…Someone is violating the International Laws, not the Rastas, not Ethiopia” (“Rastafari”, cited in Paton and Smith 2021, p. 306). The violence and vilification of RastafarI had the paradoxical effect of increasing their numbers and promoting pro-Black ideologies (Price 2018).

4. Rasta’s First Foray into Partisan Politics—Ras Sam Brown

Nonetheless, there have been a few overtly political Rasta organisations. One such group, the Rastafarian Movement Association (RMA), in 1961, supported the candidacy of Ras Sam Brown (December 1925–August 1998), who campaigned on an inclusive platform as a member of the Black Man’s Party, the “non-governmental politically based force to work for the Rastafarian Movement” (Bailey n.d.). Ras Sam Brown of the Divine Order of the House of Nyabinghi was known as “the Rasta NW Manley” (Bailey n.d.). A close friend of Mortimo Planno, they later fell out (Mortimo Planno [1970] 2006). Planno denounced Sam Brown:

Men are changable but one could not expect Such change as I experience of Sam Brown.—He was my best friend walking togather for a period To me Sam was a genius. He used to Manipulate unto the unintelligible. Sometime he sound so much leftist I also calcualte him as a Marxist, but to the end of my walking with him career I found him to be an egotist of the meanest order. I would have killed him for trying to Sabotage the delegation from carryring the Back to Africa Movement to Africa, He was hurt and being hurt we decide to split. for the one who labour for peace and Love, now see war.

(pp. 77–78, as in the original text)15

“This was the first real foray by a practicing Rasta into the fast paced, all-important social realm of the political, and finally, after nearly thirty years of being, the Rastafarians had a politically minded spokesman who unfortunately only one (sic) about a hundred votes in that election” (Bailey n.d.). Bailey (n.d.) argues that Ras Samuel’s foray brought RastafarI to the attention of the Government and forced it to appreciate Rasta as a real part of the Jamaican population, albeit a minority. He further argued that the Twenty-One Points Platform on which Ras Samuel campaigned “became the very bedrock of the political aspect of the Rastafarian movement throughout the 1960s, a period marked by transition of Jamaica from status as a Crown Colony of the United Kingdom to an independent nation” (Bailey n.d.). Among Ras Samuel’s Twenty-One Points were:

Members of the Rastafarian Movement are an inseparable part of the Black people of Jamaica.

The Rastafarian Movement consists of the most advanced, determined and uncompromising fighters against discrimination, ostracism, and oppression of Black people in Jamaica.

The Rastafarian Movement stands for freedom in the fullest sense and for the recovery of the dignity, self-respect of the Sovereignty of the Black people of Jamaica.

Time has removed some of the grosser aspects of white and brown man supremacy; but discrimination, disrespect and abuse of the Black person are still here in many forms.

The Rastafarian Movement, for the furtherance of these ends, must have the backing of its support to, or lead, a political movement of its own.

The Rastafarian Movement therefore has decided to actively join the political struggle and create a political movement with the aim of taking power and implement measures for the uplift of the poor and oppressed.

Suffering Black people of Jamaica, let us unite and set up and (sic) righteous Government, under the slogan of Repatriation and Power.

(Barrett n.d., pp. 148–50; cited in Bailey n.d.)

Clearly, Ras Sam understood that without political power, the various aims of the Rastafarian movement—repatriation, black empowerment, etc.—could not be met. While Ras Sam was an important spokesman on behalf of the reparations movement, meeting often with PM Norman Manley, his camp was repeatedly raided and destroyed by the Jamaican police. Ras Sam Brown, who continued his work as a Rasta spokesman into the late 1990s, said of his political foray in 1961:

The brethren was not wise in those days, and still many of them not wise right now towards politics. You see, them [Rastafari] claim them wasn’t supporting politics because politics is graft and those sort of things. We know that. We know a lot of graft in politics, but at the same time, we know say that…[it] is the only way you can express yourself if you have people in a desperate situation.

(Price 2009, pp. 84–85)

This may well have been the case. Sam Brown’s participation in the 1961 elections, though unsuccessful, provided a platform to raise awareness about RastafarI principles and their political significance.16 Price (2009) opines, however, that Brown tried to set an example for Black people not to shun politics, while not supporting the two main political parties. In his view, Brown received little support not because of a lack of interest in his political platform, but because of his “cantankerous temperament…and a lack of political organizing machine” (Price 2009, p. 85). Ras Sam’s platform caused him to be branded as communist and a threat to the status quo.

The status of the RastafarI shifted somewhat in 1966 with the visit of Emperor Haile Selassie I. His Imperial Majesty (HIM) requested a meeting with RastafarI leadership at Kings House, the official residence of the Governor General, the representative of the British Monarch. He ate with them, thanked them, and gave them gifts of gold medals. His authority and presence as a monarch and world diplomat empowered them (Price 2009).

[T]he Emperor acted in a Christ-like fashion. He sat and broke bread with pariahs. He did it openly, in the view of the world, at the risk of inflaming the “Romans”. The Emperor’s actions, if construed through the biblical lens that Jamaicans drew upon, confirmed a divine, or at least special, status toward the Rastafari”.

(Price 2009, p. 91)

“The Rastafari God had called on his sheep. All Jamaicans took notice” (Price 2018, p. 249). The hope that many elites had that Selassie would tell the Rastas that he was not divine, proving them to be the fools they thought them to be, did not materialise. Rastas moved from pariahs to exemplars of Black culture and identity (Price 2018).

5. Coopting Rasta—1970s

Starting in the 1970s, Rasta music, symbolism, and imagery were appropriated by Jamaican politicians, oftentimes with much success (Waters 2012, [1985] 2017; Oumano 1997). Reggae, the music of RastafarI “is rooted in the political; with cries for freedom, demands of reform, and the call to action” (Bailey n.d.). Michael Manley, the son of former premier Norman Manley, drew upon the language and symbolism of Rasta to appeal to the ordinary Black Jamaicans, who were interpreting themselves through the message of RastafarI. He gained massive support from this underclass, riding the wave to a enormous electoral victory.

The Rasta challenge and the JLP’s repression of it created an atmosphere to the PNP’s advantage in 1972, and that party used it to the fullest. It appropriated particularly those aspects of the challenge that were linked with the Rastafarian moral authority. “Joshua’s”17 promise was one of social justice, an end to oppression, punishment for the corrupt, and a “spiritual and moral rebirth.” The PNP, as the opposition political party, could pose as a critic of the “system” while gaining power within it.

(Waters 1999, p. 306)

A full out commitment to Rasta livity,18 however, was not the desired intent of Jamaican politicians, who deployed Rasta for their legitimacy, as they knew that deeper association with Rasta would not have led to widespread support given that they were in many ways, and still are, a stigmatised group in Jamaica and across the Caribbean. Nonetheless, in the process of co-opting RastafarI symbolism and moral authority, the PNP was changed (Waters [1985] 2017). The Party recruited into its ranks persons who not only utilised these symbols but were deeply committed to the ideas represented by the symbols. Rastas were attracted by many of the promises of Manley’s Democratic Socialist platform, and he was also successful in the 1976 elections. Manley was not able to deliver on the promises of “better must come,” leading many Rastas to become cynical again about the broken promises of polytricks. Sadly, the Green Bay Massacre,19 along with ineffective policies shaped by the International Monetary Fund, turned many Rastas against the PNP. As one Rasta interviewed for Street Life noted: “I won’t be involved in politics until I can see what politicians are doing for my people and the bettament of my country” (Jamaica Life 2017).

Simultaneously, as the phenomenon of political ‘tribalism’ became a feature of Jamaican politics in the 1960s, this confirmed the Rastafarian belief that politicians are deceptive and demonstrated that their methods are divisive. As Bob Marley expressed it:

Politics divide the rule. Politics don’t show people God. Politics tell yu dat somebody can do something fi yu. Yu know. But yu know is God a do everything so the best man fi deal wid is God. When you deal with God you don’t deal wid politics becaw politics divide an rule.

(Sandramundy 2025, as in the original)

The trademark of political tribalism is the provision of guns and patronage to young men in inner city communities in return for intimidating community members to vote for their patrons. As the two main parties (JLP and PNP) armed different communities, conflicts or ‘tribal wars’ became endemic among Kingston’s inner-city communities. Polytricks is deeply divisive, creating a situation where “the dominated lack the unity to undertake any collective action to change their situation and to challenge Babylon’s power structure” (Edmonds 2012). Bob Marley captured this aspect of polytricks in his 1979 hit song “Ambush in the Night”, the story of the attempt to assassinate him by gang members suspected of being associated with the Opposition Party days before he performed at the Government-sponsored Smile Jamaica Concert in 1976. He described how those fighting for power use guns and money to bribe young people and to divide them into competing camps that fight and kill one another for meagre handouts. Like his mentor Planno, Marley:

[E]mphasized ethics over political ideology and so eschewed conventional politics and the factional debates that divided the contemporaneous left. This attracted admirers disillusioned by mainstream politics.

(Presholdt 2019, p. 176)

Nonetheless, Marley believed in the power of his music to bring about change. Among his renowned attempts is the One Love Peace (1978) Concert, where he attempted a rapprochement between the leaders of the rival political parties and the dons leading the respective gangs supporting them. Marley’s 1980 Uprising album was adorned with the rising sun and clenched fists, political symbols of the PNP. Despite the deployment of numerous Rasta symbols and phrases, the JLP won a landslide victory after a bloody election. It was around this time that the RastafarI minority lobbied hard for non-discriminatory education, fighting against the denial of public school education to children wearing dreadlocks.

6. Rasta in Parliament—The Contemporary Moment

Jamaica’s first RastafarI legislator Barbara Blake Hannah was not elected but rather appointed an Independent Opposition Senator to the Senate from 1984 to 1987. Her appointment came as a result of the PNP not contesting the General Election (Semaj 2013). Her son was appointed as a government advisor to the then Minister of Commerce and Technology in 1998 at the tender age of thirteen. She was active in the call for reparations, establishing the Jamaica Reparations Movement in 2001. Concerted efforts were made in the 1990s to field several Rasta candidates during General Elections, beginning with lobbying for constitutional change and the launching of a political party. It was not until 2011 that Jamaicans elected their first dreadlocked parliamentarian, Damian Crawford, who ran as a candidate for the People’s National Party (PNP). Crawford is an avowed Christian and does not profess adherence to the livity. Crawford’s locks can be seen to be part of the routinization of Rasta, which has led to many of their symbols and elements of their livity becoming normalised within the population. It is for this reason that Chevannes opines that it is not likely that a Rastafarian member of parliament would arise any time soon, even as the process of routinization progresses.

The revival of the Marcus Garvey People’s Political Party20 (PPP, 2001–2011) by Ras Michael Lorne, attempts at fielding various Rasta candidates, garnered little success among Rastas and the wider population, however (Semaj 2013). In 2000, Bunny Wailer announced the formation of a new political party, the United Progressive People Party, through which he would be offering himself as a candidate for the 2002 General Elections. He never did. Walters (2007) listed ten Rastafarians, who were seeking political office in 2007. Nine of those were candidates of the Imperial Ethiopian World Federation (IEWF), symbolised by the Lion of Judah. The IEWF had participated unsuccessfully in three previous elections—1997 and 2002 general elections and the 2003 local government elections. With each election, they increased the number of candidates and constituencies contested, which for them represented a mark of success. According to assistant secretary of the IEWF Raoul Alder, then candidate for St Andrew North East, “The difference with the IEWF representative is that all candidates are running on the platform of modern Ethiopianism. That is the ideology of Emperor Haile Selassie I. And a part of this ideology is that all candidates must live in their constituency, and have a vested interest in their community” (Walters 2007).

The tenth was the well-known political actor Ras Astor Black representing the Jamaica Alliance Movement, symbolised by the Star of David. He has consistently run for political office—local government, general, and by-elections—since returning to Jamaica in 2001. He has been unsuccessful every time. Ras Astor notes:

My whole thrust in getting involved in politics is for promoting Rastafari, which has made Jamaica the seventh most popular place on earth. Yet still we have not been given the credit we truly deserve for making Jamaica so popular. And that my whole thrust for being involved in politics, is to push for the rights of Rastafari.

(Walters 2007)

In 2016, he ran as a candidate for Jamaica’s minority third party, the National Democratic Movement (NDM). He again lost and resigned shortly after. Semaj (2013) describes his persistent presence as comic relief at election time. He did not contest the 2024 Local Government Elections, choosing to stand aside for a friend, who eventually chose not to run (Frater 2024). Ras Astor is expected to run in the General Elections due by December 2025. Throughout, of course, he faced opposition from within the Rasta community as well as the population at large, even as he has been described as having a friendly demeanor with a non-confrontational approach to politicking (Frater 2024). Nonetheless, Rastas in Jamaica have continued to be vocal agitators for various legal reforms. Perhaps their most successful campaign has been for the decriminalisation of marijuana, which is their religious sacrament. Their political non-partisan impact has been significant, for they have been the most consistent challenge to the colonial, post-colonial and neo-colonial Jamaican state (Waters 2012).

7. Conclusions

Political mobilization within the RastafarI community faces certain challenges, including the general distrust of mainstream politics among some adherents. This skepticism, rooted in historical experiences of oppression and marginalization at the hands of political authorities, has led many Rastafarians to prioritize spiritual and cultural practices over direct engagement in formal political processes. However, despite the absence of a centralized organizational structure, RastafarI’s political influence is often exerted through grassroots activism, cultural expression—particularly through the pervasive influence of Reggae music—and the dissemination of their ideology through informal networks. This highlights the capacity of cultural and social movements to shape political discourse and public opinion even without traditional organizational hierarchies—“politics without a party”.

Generally, Rasta espouses an ethic of political disengagement, for they do not wish to play any part in shoring up deceptive and manipulative Babylon politics. At the same time, theirs is the desire to take part in the development of a just and true politics to benefit the people of the Caribbean, Africans, and the world (Callahan 2008). This is expressed in their decidedly militant, this-worldly commitment to life on earth, whether in Jamaica or in Ethiopia/Africa. Their withdrawal from and disdaining of party politics has become an increasing feature of contemporary politics, with concomitant effects on voter behavior. There has been a shift away from participating in election campaigning to other forms of political involvement and action. Elections, which were once the focal point of political activity, have been displaced globally and locally by unconventional forms of participation such as petitions, protests, and demonstrations. Many of these activities are now taking place online, and Rastas are very much a part of that process. This more general and increasing dealignment from corrupt and less-than-competent party politics may force changes within the party system itself. What this means is that those Rastafarians and others who choose to enter the political arena need to be themselves better organised to take advantage of the current climate. Unfortunately, even among more militant or politically active Rastas, there is often no clearly defined political strategy and they approach the process as isolated individuals. Part of the issue among RastafarI and their contribution to activist politics is the inherent divisiveness that exists among the different mansions, which often inveigh against each other, thus fragmenting their power. Indeed, the various RastafarI mansions have a “tendency to fissiparity”, according to Edmonds (1998), and this must be addressed for more effective political action.

Waters (2012) argues that the isolationist stance towards politics needs to be re-examined for a few reasons, especially the fact that the movement’s place in Jamaican society has changed over the last several decades. As Chevannes (2012) and Edmonds (2003) maintain, the movement has become “routinised” with its imagery and symbolism being appropriated by mainstream national and global society. Rasta imagery, symbolism, lifestyle choices, etc., have become commodities for sale on the global capitalist market, and this is amply demonstrated in Rasta being a unique brand for Jamaica (Waters 2012). Of course, the wearing of dreadlocks as a fashion statement and the numerous cosmetic and artisan industries spawned around this are also well-known (Perkins 2023).

Formulations that had initially appeared definitive, even sacrosanct, have been giving way to newer formulations. Perhaps the best-known of these is the call for repatriation to Africa. This call has become less central to Rasta beliefs, and the Jamaican homeland has taken on more significance for many contemporary Rastas. At the same time, Rasta no longer retreats from mainstream culture (except a few minor groups) but rather embraces aspects of modern technology and consumer culture, including the use of the internet to promote ideas and raise funds. Indeed, Jamaican youth of all walks of life have successfully blended aspects of RastafarI culture, especially as mediated through Reggae and Dancehall music, with individualist and consumerist notions of citizenship.

Despite its decentralized organizational structure and a degree of skepticism towards mainstream politics, RastafarI exerts considerable influence through grassroots activism, cultural expression, and its enduring global presence. In the 21st century, RastafarI political engagement has undergone significant evolution—from oppositional non-participation to varied forms of strategic and political involvement. While historically skeptical of formal politics (“politricks”), RastafarI communities today engage with political institutions, influence policy on reparations, environmental justice, and religious freedom, and participate in global activist networks. The continued resonance of its core messages, particularly among marginalized communities worldwide, suggests that RastafarI will remain a relevant and influential voice in the political landscape of the 21st century.