Smoking `ganja’ and growing dreads is our religious right, argue Rastafarians. Tell that to the constitutional court, say the prison authorities. Eddie Koch reports
DO dreadlocks have rights? “Yo mon,” says Jupiter Jons of the Rastafari Unity Movement Alliance (Ruma). And two of the country’s leading experts on the new Bill of Rights agree.
Jons’ constitutional claims stem from a campaign his movement is conducting to free all Rastafarians convicted of smoking ganja. “Under our amnesty the man who shoots up people at the taxi rank walks free while the brodders and sisters sit in cells for smoking the herb.”
Ruma is an umbrella group for reggae musicians and Rastafarian groups in Southern Africa. As its president, Jons has petitioned the government to set all dagga smokers free so that his organisation’s “prisoners of conscience” can take part in the drafting of new laws to govern the country’s cannabis industry.
“We are not saying that ganja must be legalised,” says Jons. “This is a sensitive issue. As a first step, we want all smokers released from jail. Then we want to have negotiations with the government about the best way to manage the ganja trade.”
Ruma is consulting lawyers to determine whether the imprisonment of Rastas who smoke ganja “to obey the laws of God (Jah Rastafari)” breaches religious freedom clauses in the new constitution — and a vital aspect of this campaign is to protect the dreadlocks of their members from being severed while they are in the cells.
“Dreadlocks are a sacred thing for us. They can take four years to grow and a policeman cuts them off in two minutes when they go to jail. Many of our members see themselves as militants of Jah. They are prepared to sit in jail as a sacrifice but there is nothing that traumatises them more than cutting off their hair.”
Professor Dennis Davis, head of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits University, says dreadlocks do, indeed, have rights under the new constitution. Clause 14 guarantees freedom for a wide range of beliefs and matters of conscience. It says: “Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.”
Rastas say they grow dreadlocks as a sign of adherence to Jah and take their instruction to do so from the vow of the Nazirites as described in Chapter Six of Numbers. “Our brodders believe their spiritual strength comes from the locks. When you cut them, they feel as Samson did.”
The relevant section of the Bible says, basically, that members from the sect should abstain from all forms of alcohol and “fermented” drink. “During the entire period of his vow no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the Lord is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long.”
Lieutenant Rudi Potgieter, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services, said it was, unfortunately, departmental policy to keep the hair of all convicted prisoners short in order to maintain health standards in prisons.
“Normally unsentenced prisoners’ hair is not cut as long as it is clean and tidy, except when ordered by the district surgeon on medical and hygienic grounds.”
Another constitutional expert says, however, that Ruma would be able to mount a strong challenge against the practice by appealing to the courts on grounds that it contravenes the new constitution.
“The religious freedom sections have limitations clauses which allow for basic rights to be restricted but this has to be done in a democratic and fair way. A policeman or warder would have to show there are reasonable and necessary grounds for limiting the rights of Rastas,” says Professor Etienne Mureinik, an expert in constitutional law at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Police and prison authorities would probably be able to use the limitations clauses to defend the imprisonment of people arrested for smoking dagga but would find it more difficult to demonstrate that the cutting of dreadlocks is a legitimate restriction of basic human rights, he added.
In a statement headed “Indemnity for Ganja Prisoners: Battering Down Sentence”, Ruma says it is alarmed that people guilty of serious offences and “some with blood on their hands” are allowed free under the government of national unity’s amnesty.
“We confirm our cultural, natural and religious commitment to unconditionally set the ganja prisoners free and totally decriminalise the herb so that we must be free to obey the laws of God (Jah Rastafari).”
Jons says his organisation is not, however, in favour of legalising cannabis sales. One reason is that thousands of rural families around the country are dependent for their subsistence on growing and selling the Rastas’ herb.
A group of economists have estimated that the illegal cannabis trade generates more revenue than the country’s sugar industry — and these returns depend on street prices determined by the illegal nature of the product.
If the law was changed to make cannabis sales legal, prices would plummet along with the livelihoods of the rural poor.
“There are important economic and market forces to consider,” says Jons. “We also don’t want to offend other cultures and beliefs. That is why we are saying there must be wide consultations and negotiations about the future of our herb. For that to happen, the first step must be the release of all ganja prisoners.”
Potgieter noted Ruma had never approached the Department of Correctional Services to discuss the religious beliefs of their members in prison.