Hail up Ras Iration, Tenayistilin (May Igziabeher grant thee health
for me) and the Movement of Rastafari)
I always read your releases with great
interest and analysis and I must admit I do hardly disagree with
you. However this response main purpose is to engender some frank
and candid discussions of our political, economic and organisational
readiness.
Before I get into a discussion on your
present release, I will peddle back a little to the 10th Regional
Gathering held in Guyana couple years ago.
I vividly remember asking you a
question base on Rastafari in Jamaica and what I considered as
missed political opportunities. Your response to that question was
understandably apologetic. You then went on to make an uncalled for
comparison of two great Rastafarians, with two dissimilar methods of
organisation, Leonard Percival Howell and Ras Sam Brown, seeing
Leonard Percival Howell as the epitome of the Rastafari livity.
While I'll always be adamant that their is no better role model for
Rastafarians that Haile Selassie I (YIMASGAN), Ras Sam Brown will
always be, in my estimation, an ideal representation of the
Rastafari political thought. And I am ready to debate this with
anyone. It is so sad that Rastafarians in Jamaica has done such a
great disservice to both his life and memory.
Part of your response to my question
was that Rastafarians in that time 1961 weren't prepared for the
kind of political engagement Ras Sam Brown was proposing. It is now
46 years later, nearly one generation later, are we ready now?
I could also remember you announcing
the Fact that the Nyahbinghi Order of Jamaica has seen it necessary
to establish its own political machinery. Could you inform me on the
status of this process, if it has been initiated already?
While I urge Rastafarians to become
more politically conscious and educated and even involved, for
Rastafari as a movement to enter into mainstream politics there are
certain things that must be clearly outlined. For example, the
Rastafari policy on Economics, society, Culture, Race, Armament and
the myriads of other issues that confronts a modern society. Are we
going into politics advocating democracy, republicanism or the
reinstitution of monarchic rule as the TTOI is professing ? Are
going to subscribe to capitalism as our main economic policy (as I
see many wealthy Rastafarians are doing) or are we going to opt for
socialism or the reinstitution of a natural economy professed by our
early Rastafari Patriarchs?
These are question that need answers.
Back now to the crux of your article.
The freudian implications in your article are obvious. On one hand
you are protesting the lack of substantial collective
accomplishments by second generation Rastafarians and on the other
hand you are making yourself prey to the same mentality and thinking
that militates against collective accomplishments. This is evident
by your remark that you still think the Nyahbinghi is the vehicle
for the trod. I don't know if it came out as a lapsus calami,
but by that statement you have already ostracised those that are
outside the Order of the Nyahbinghi but are also seeking the same
collective development you advocate. I have lived as and within the
Nyahbinghi Order for years, long enough to know that this sectarian,
parochial, provincial and destructive thinking is entrenched in the
teachings of the Nyahbinghi Order to the extent that there is a
false sense of superiority and Phariseeism present among those that
subscribe to the Order of Nyahbinghi.
If we must make any meaningful
contributions to the overall development of Rastafari, we must step
out of our little enclaves and pool our resources, personnel,
finance, intellect, etc. Please don't interpret this to mean that a
person is not free to choose which group he or she align his or
herself to, he certainly is. But when we allow ourselves to become
prey to chauvinistic slurs and behaviour then we are doing more
damage to good to our quest for unity and collective
accomplishments.
behaimanot wendimih neny!
Ras Ashkar
