Last weekend was a special one for Ras Uria, a Unisa law student and member of the Twelve Tribes (of Israel). It was the anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey, the African-American who advocated the return of the descendants of African slaves to Africa.
Garvey’s birthday was last Saturday — the Sabbath — and as providence would have it, the moon was full as the celebrations began at a house in Dobsonville, Soweto.
This all mattered to Uria, who is part of a growing number of young blacks wearing dreadlocks as more than just a hairstyle. The faith plugs a spirituality gap in a more secular world and is increasingly providing an answer to what being black means in a multicultural country.
The faithful at the gathering, numbering about 200, represented a cross-section of Rastafarians and the various houses or denominations of Rastafari. There were artists, students, factory workers and self-employed. One of the elders, Papa Afrika, owns a plot in the Vaal Triangle and lives off the bounty of his fields. Some come from the turban-wearing Bobo Ashante and the Melshedezek houses. They have come together to celebrate what Uria calls “the hidden glory of Africa”.
Youth, mostly young men, took off their shoes for morning prayers, then danced barefoot to reggae music until dawn.
Ras Benjamin (who gets his name from the fact that he was born during March, the second month the Rastafarian calendar and the month in which the biblical Benjamin was born) says the movement is growing. There are many reasons.
“For me, I converted because I was tired of the way I had lived my life. There were many things that I had done that I was not proud of. I started asking questions. Others started asking themselves why Jesus was always shown as a white person. I am sure others were attracted by the music, dreadlocks or because they liked smoking ganja.
“As Rastarians we believe that the Bible was written by black people. We believe that King David and King Solomon were black,” says Benjamin.
Rastafari is also a moral and spiritual code for its adherents.
“Modern life lacks spirituality. It is too materialistic and does not emphasise spirituality enough,” says Uria.”The Rastafari way of life emphasises the African way of doing things.”
Benjamin says Rastafari is about love of their communities. “We believe in clothing the naked, feeding the sick and healing the poor; the things preached about in the Bible.
Uria says: “Rastafarianism is a difficult thing. You have to discover it yourself.”
The growing attraction to Rastafarianism is because it represents a new form of black consciousness; the antithesis of the kwaito culture, which is more individualistic and pivots on cults of celebrity. With its sense of community, it is probably closer to Steve Biko’s brand of black consciousness than kwaito culture is.
At sunset, the congregants gathered in a little tent behind the house, which serves as a temple. Twelve sticks, representing the 12 tribes, were placed around the tent and another in the middle served as the altar. It was surrounded by offerings — fresh fruit and vegetables as well as open Bibles and ganja pipes, which symbolise the sacrifice to Jah (God).
Uria hails from Soshanguve, Pretoria, but like many other “brethren and sistren” travelled to Dobsonville to celebrate the trinity of events held dear in Rastafari dogma.
The Twelve Tribes drew South Africa’s earliest converts to Rastafarianism and its best-known member was probably the late Jamaican musician Bob Marley.
For Uria, Rastafarianism is about much more than smoking ganja and not combing his hair.
The basic tenets of the faith are justified by biblical verse. These include the belief that the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie is the messiah reincarnate, why it is forbidden for “Nazarenes” (the faithful) to cut their hair and the use of ganja is a holy rite.
The Bible is the religious book of the Rastafari and its interpretation is attractive in South Africa today where a new appreciation of African identity has taken firm root.
Uria describes the faith as “the gospel according to African understanding”.
“Do you know about the Battle of Adoa?” he says, spelling out the letters. “That was where the Ethiopians humiliated Italy. In our schools we are taught European history, but nothing about Ethiopian ruler Menelik II, who expanded the empire almost to its present borders and repelled an Italian invasion at Adoa in 1896. They want to hide the fact that Africans were a powerful people,” he concludes.