Rastafari

There is so little known about the Rastafari religion in the western world, and therefore not much said about it. I want to start a small but informational series on the Religion of Jamaica. Most people have heard the name King Haile Selassie, and even More know the Name Robert Nesta Marley aka Bob Marley. But did you know that to many Rasta's Marley is revered as a Prophet. His Music carried messages of freedom and liberation thus it was called Rebel Music.

But today I do not want to focus on either of those men or the countless others who have shaped the beliefs and ideals of the Rasta.  Instead I want to focus on someone many of you may have never heard of Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards VII. The leader of the Rastafari movement order Bobo Shanti. Prince Emmanuel established the Bobo Shanti order, the Order of Moses, based on ancient Ethiopian tradition. Here is an excerpt from One World Magazine about Prince Emmanuel.

Prince Emmanuel emerged as a Rastafari leader during the 1950s by spearheading an island wide convention of the brethren at Ackee Walk where his camp was first set up. At the end of the weeklong meeting, the participants marched on Victoria Park and there planted the red, gold, and green flag in a symbolic capture of the ciao The convention was to deal with the question of repatriation, and when this had been announced, many of those people who came in from the country had allegedly done so expecting to depart for Africa. Following the convention, Prince's followers became more sectarian. They began to attribute divinity to him and separated themselves from other Rastafarian's by wearing the turbans and the robes. The Bobo remained at Ackee Walk until 1968 when they were finally bulldozed. They then settled at Harris Street in Rose Town, were again forced out to Eighth Street in Trench Town, then to Ninth Street, and finally, to Bull Bay where they have remained ever since on the rocky government lands overlooking the town.

Because they regarded Prince Emmanuel as God, they believed each of their stopping places to have been recorded in the Bible. Ackee Walk was Nazareth, where Jesus came from; Harris Street was Galilee, where Jesus went after leaving his native home; Eighth Street, Capernaum; and Ninth Street, Bethlehem, for it was there that Jesus, Queen Rachel's son, was born. The settlement in Bull Bay they named Mount Temon, where God is supposed to have come from, according to a passage from Genesis.

Charles Edwards is said to have been born without Mother or Father and was thought to be the reincarnate of Christ, Fulfilling Revelation 5, as the Lion of Judah. Emmanuel lived like the Christ, showing love, teaching the word of his father, teaching wisdom. He was born in 1915 in saint Elizabeth and transcended in 1994 in Kingston Egypt/Jamaica.



This is just a brief introduction of Prince Emmanuel, there is much more to be learned about the Man who touched so many. There are several sights which contain information on the man. Also there are several good sights on the Bobo Shanti order.



"Jamaica is an islan', but it is not I lan'" -- Joe Ruglass