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uring the 1920’s, Jamaica knew two prophets.  One of them, a man called Bedward, attempted to fly to heaven, was tried and placed in the mental hospital as a lunatic, dying there.  Bedward left behind him a settlement at August Town near the University College.  The other, and by far the more important prophet, was Marcus Garvey, who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in the United States, proclaimed black nationalism, and preached ‘Africa for the Africans - at home and abroad”:  “One God, one aim, one destiny.”  Garvey sought to found a black state in Africa to which Negroes from the Western world would be transported, and this was one of the objects of the Black Star Line.  This Line was a failure, but Garvey’s message was a success, and will continue to attract the support of black peoples for generations to come.  Only recently, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah placed Garvey’s symbol of the Black Star Line in the center of the Ghana flag.  The Garvey message gave American Negroes a racial pride and strength they sorely needed.  Garvey’ tradition continues among the Negroes of Chicago, New York and similar Northern cities.

In 1927 Marcus Garvey was deported from the United States and returned to his homeland, Jamaica.  Preaching his doctrine of black racial pride and return to Africa.  It seemed that he was a prophet without honor in his own country.  The whites and browns disliked the doctrine.  The blacks found it rather onerous for Garvey emphasized the virtues of thrift, hard work, perseverance and foresight, and relied on his followers to pay their way to Africa by their own efforts.  Although he kept his headquarters in Jamaica until 1935, he made little headway here.  In 1929 he was imprisoned briefly for contempt of court.  He was elected to the K.S.A.C. in February 1930, but failed to win a seat in the Legislative Council.  In 1935 he left Jamaica for England where he died in 1940.

The Jamaica to which Garvey returned must have seemed to him not way different in its racial organization from the American areas with which he was familiar.  Garvey is said to have told his people to “Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is near.”  He is also to have prophesied that his people would be redeemed and returned to Africa in the 1960’s and according to some people, in 1960.

Truth has two levels in social affairs. There are actual events, and there are statements about actual events.  Statements believed to be true are often sociologically more important than those, which are true.  What people  believe or assert emphatically, represents a social force, which cannot be disposed of merely by denial.  For the Ras Tafari brethren today, Garvey is a major prophet, but his relationship with the founders of the Ras Tafari movement between 1930 - 1935 remains obscure.

In November 1930, Ras Tafari was crowned as the Emperor Haile Selassie I.   King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  The Daily Gleaner featured this coronation on the front page of its issue of November 11^th 1930. Some Jamaicans of a Garveyite persuasion say that they then began to consult their Bibles.  Could this be he of whom Garvey spoke?  A number of texts showed that it was. Revelation 5: 2, 5 - “And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the Book, and to loose the seals thereof?  And one of the elders saith unto me, ‘Weep not behold the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the Book and to loose the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”  Later, when the Italians invaded Ethiopia, Revelation 19: 19 was fulfilled - “And I saw the Beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, against his army.”  In 1941, with the Emperor’s return to Ethiopia, the succeeding verse was fulfilled – “And the Beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had the mark of the Beast, and them that worshipped his image.  These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”

The doctrine that Ras Tafari, known to the world as the Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, is the Living God, was developed by several persons independently.  Of these Mr. Leonard P. Howell is genuinely regarded as being the first to preach the divinity of Ras Tafari in Kingston.  Howell is said to have fought 
against King Prempeh of Ashanti (1896), and claimed to speak an African language.  “The Promised Key’, a basic Ras Tafari text, published in Accra, Ghana around 1930, shows clear evidence of Jamaican authorship. (Jamaica Times, 28^th May 1938).  Howell also spent several years in the north-eastern U.S., where he came into contact with black and white racism.

Another early preacher was Mr. Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert.  Mr. Hibbert was born in Jamaica in 1894, but went with his adopted father to Costa Rica in 1911, returning to Jamaica in 1931.  In Costa Rica Mr. Hibbert had leased 28 acres, which he put in bananas.  In 1924 he had joined the Ancient Mystic Order of Ethiopia, a Masonic society the constitution of which was revised in 1888, and which became incorporated in 1928 in Panama.  Mr. Hibbert became a Master Mason of this Order, and, returning to Jamaica, began to preach Haile Sellassie I as the King of Kings, the returned Messiah and the Redeemer of Israel.  This was at Benoah District, St. Andrew, from whence he moved to Kingston to find Howell already preaching Ras Tafari as God at the Redemption Market.

  Mr. H. Archibald Dunkley is another man who may claim to have brought the doctrine to Jamaica.  Mr. Dunkley was a Jamaican seaman on the Atlantic Fruit Company’s boats, and finally quit the sea on the 8^th December 1930, when he landed at Port Antonio off the s.s. ‘St. Mary’.  Coming to Kingston, Dunkley studied the Bible for two-and-a-half years on his own, to determine whether Haile Selassie I was the Messiah whom Garvey had prophesied.  Ezekiel 30, I Timothy 6, Revelation 17 and 19 and Isaiah 43 finally convinced him.  In 1933 Dunkley opened his Mission, preaching Ras Tafari as the King of Kings, the Root of David, the Son of the Living God, but not the Father Himself.  Other early preachers include Robert Hinds, who joined Howell, and Altamont Read who turned his following over to one Mr. Johnson when he became Mr. N. W. Manley’s bodyguard about 1940.

Another somewhat more secular stream was meanwhile developing on the Kingston Dungle.  There, Messrs. Paul Erlington, Vernal Davis, Ferdinand Ricketts and others had been in the habit of discussing Garvey’s doctrines and the social conditions in Jamaica, which justified them.  The emphasis of this group was on social reform in Jamaica as well as migration to Africa.  Remembering Garvey’s words - that when a King is crowned in Africa the time is near - they lent a willing ear to the doctrines preached by Howell, Hibbert and Dunkley independently, and some time in 1934, under the influence of Robert Hinds, this group recognized Haile Sellassie I as the Living God.

 The early Ras Tafari Missions originated and developed independently.  Dunkley’s effort was the King of Kings Missionary Movement; this had no headquarters, officers, or constitution.  Dunkley confined his preaching to Kingston.  In 1932 Hibbert, on hearing Howell preach at a street meeting in Kingston, asked for a brief spell on the platform, after which Howell asked him to help him in Kingston as he, Howell, was going to preach at Port Morant.  Like Dunkley, Howell at that time had no formal constitution, rules or account of his mission.  While Howell was in St. Thomas’ Parish, Hibbert formed the body of Howell’s followers into a group called the Ethiopian Coptic Faith, with a definite organization, procedure, and rules.  On returning from St. Thomas, Howell rejected this order, removing its banner and membership with him and leaving Hibbert to carry on alone.  Hibbert continued preaching, and on one or two occasions Dunkley, whose ideas had much in common with his, spoke on Hibbert’s platform.  With his mystical orientation and Masonic discipline, Hibbert proceeded to develop the Ethiopian Coptic Church on orderly lines, and for this purpose had certain extracts from the Ethiopic Bible of St. Sosimas, including the Ethiopia Dascalia (Apostolic Constitution), printed at his own expenses by the Star Printery, Kingston, for the instruction of his followers.  Dunkley, who lacked this background, continued to base his teaching on the King James version of the Bible.

The most successful early preacher was undoubtedly L. P. Howell, who moved between Kingston and Port Morant until 1940, with Robert Hinds as his deputy in Kingston.  He had the largest following and was the most effective propagandist.  On December 16^th, 1933, the Daily Gleaner reported that Howell was selling photographs of the Emperor in St. Thomas for one shilling each.  (Daily Gleaner, 16/12/33, p.1.)  Informants say that about 5,000 postcard-size photographs were distributed in this way, the purchasers being informed that this was their passport to Ethiopia.  On January 5^th, 1934 the Daily Gleaner reported Howell’s arrest at Port Morant.  His trial was well publicized in the Daily Gleaner of 15^th March, 1934 (p.20) and 17^th March, 1934 (p.6).  Howell was sent to gaol for two years for sedition.

On December 7^th, 1935 the Jamaican Times published an account of the so-called Niyabingi Order in Ethiopia and the Congo (see Appendix).  This was just a few months after Italy had invaded Ethiopia.  Both Ethiopia and Haile Selassie I were in the news.  According to the account in the Times, the Ethiopian Emperor was head of the Niyabingi Order, the purpose of which was the overthrow of white domination by racial war.  This violent note had already been struck by Howell, and Niyabingi was defined in Jamaica as “Death to black and white oppressors”.  Some of those people who worshipped the Emperor and were locally known as “Ras Tafaris” or “Rastamen” came to describe themselves as “Niyamen” – that is, members of Niyabingi.  The Niyabingi commitment to racial violence generalized the violence already preached by Howell.

The police were not slow to act.  Besides arresting Howell, they charged Dunkley with disorderly conduct while holding a meeting at Bond Street and Spanish Town Road, Kingston, on September 11^th, 1934.  Shortly after this, Dunkley was sent to gaol for 30 days on a similar charge at Morant Bay.  On the 20^th, February 1935, he was placed in the Half-Way-Tree lock-up and there removed to the Asylum, where he remained for five months and twenty one days.  J. N. Hibbert was also arrested on three occasions in 1935; once in
Port Morant, where he had gone to correct Howell’s doctrinal errors, and twice in Kingston, being fined 30/- (shillings) for disorderly conduct after apprehension on a charge of lunacy.

“In May 1940 he purchased Pinnacle on behalf of the Society in America for the branch in Jamaica.  Apart from himself, over five hundred members of the Society resided at Pinnacle.  The members did not pay any rent for living there.  They burnt coal and lime, and cultivated portions of the property, which was a large one.  The proceeds of this, after the Manager had taken out a portion for food allowance and clothing, went to the funds of the Society.”  (Daily Gleaner, 25^th August 1941, p.16).

Pinnacle, which is near Sligoville, was an abandoned estate when Howell acquired it.  Informants relate that he moved there with about 1,600 followers from Kingston and Port Morant.  By the middle of 1941 the police were taking action against the Pinnacle community.  The Daily Gleaner of July 15^th (p.1), 16^th (p.16), 17^th (p.1), 18^th (p.1), 23^rd (p.9), 26^th (p.1), 29^th (p.14), 31^st (p.16), August 19^th (p.6) and August 25^th (p.15) gave full reports of this action and its results.  70 Ras Tafari followers of Howell from more than 600 who lived at the Pinnacle camp were arrested, mainly on charges of growing ganja and violence.  28 of these were sent to prison.  Howell evaded the police for several days, but was found on July 25^th, 1941 and brought before the court on 18^th August that year, being convicted and sent to Spanish Town Prison for two years.  Howell was convicted on four charges of assaulting people, not for growing ganja.  Peasants settled on the environs of Pinnacle complained that they were often assaulted when seeking to claim their own property.  One deposition cited Howell as saying, “I will give you ninety-six lashes, I will beat you and let you know to pay no taxes.  I am Haile Selassie, neither you nor the Government have any lands here.”  (Daily Gleaner, 31:7:41, p.16).

The account of life at Pinnacle, which is presented by these newspaper reports corresponds closely with that given to us by Ras Tafari brethren.  Some brethren say that at Pinnacle, Howell represented himself as God and took the title of Gangungu Maraj or more familiarly, Gong.  He is said to have lived in a large house with thirteen wives or concubines.  His followers worked the estate under his direction: yam was the main subsistence crop, and ganja (also known as marihuana, hashish, Indian hemp, or simply ‘the herb’) was the main cash crop.  The trade in ganja is said to have been controlled.   Howell is said to have acquired property at Rollington Town, Kingston and in the parish of Portland.

In 1943 Howell returned to Pinnacle after being released from prison.  His second administration seems to have been fairly similar to the first.  His guardsmen grew their locks and were referred to as ‘Ethiopian warriors’.  Savage dogs assisted the guards.   Strangers entering the estate gate were announced by beating on gongs.  Howell paid the taxes on Pinnacle himself, redistributing the plots among his followers as he thought fit.   By all accounts, Pinnacle seems to have been rather more like an old Maroon settlement than part of Jamaica.  Its internal administration was Howell’s business, not Government’s.  It is therefore understandable that the unit could have persisted as a state within a state for 
several years without the people or Government of Jamaica being aware of it.  Howell’ men continued to raid their neighbours around Pinnacle, but lacking protection, these people kept silent.  From 1933 Howell had been preaching violence, and apparently at Pinnacle this doctrine and body of attitudes took definite form.  In 1954 the police finally broke up the settlement, after accumulating evidence that ganja was being grown there on a large scale.  163 persons were said to have been arrested, including Howell; but the latter was acquitted with three lieutenants on appeal.  Thereafter he remained in Kingston, discredited among the brethren because he had made claims to divinity, and early this year he was confined to the Mental Hospital.

 From the earliest days, many Ras Tafari brethren had worn beards and let their hair grow, because of Ezekiel 5 and other Scriptures.  Up at Pinnacle a further development occurred, probably after photographs of Somali, Masai, Galla and other tribes in or near the Ethiopian border had become current.  This was the plaiting of long hair by men known as “the men of dreadlocks” or simply ‘locksmen’.  These men of dreadlocks were the Ethiopian Warriors and the self-declared Niyamen.  Numbers 6:I,ii, v provides the Biblical basis for this practice.  And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying:   ‘Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow the vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord…all the days if the vow of the separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days he fulfilled in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.”  According to informants, the men of Dreadlocks first began to appear in Kingston round about 1947.

 Meanwhile other developments had taken place.  In 1937 the Emperor Haile Selassie I empowered Dr. Malaku E. Bayen, who later edited The March of Black Men: Ethiopia Leads (Voice of Ethiopia Press, New York, U.S.A., 1939) to  establish the Ethiopian World Federation Inc.  This organization came into being on August 25^th, 1937 in New York City, with the purpose set out in the following preamble:  “We, the Black Peoples of the World, in order to effect Unity, Solidarity, Liberty, Freedom and self-determination, to secure Justice and maintain the Integrity of Ethiopia, which is our divine heritage, do hereby establish and ordain this constitution for the Ethiopian World Federation Inc.’  (The Constitution and By-Laws of the Ethiopian World Federation is, 1937, p.4).  This Constitution and By-Laws is, as one would expect, a very careful and businesslike document, having articles which deal with aims and objects, membership, international officers and their duties, conventions, elections, meetings, local branches, their establishment and organization, committees, impeachments of officers, units, benefits, amendments, order of business, etc.  The document runs to 30 pages.  The first Local was established in New York by Dr. Bayen in 1937.  The first Local to be established in Jamaica was Local 17, which Paul Erlington set up in August 1938 with one Mr. Mantle as its first president, and Erlington as Vice-President.  Hibbert, Dunkley and those adherents of the Ras Tafari doctrine other than Howell’s supporters were foundation members of this Local, which quickly became dormant.  The third President, Mr. C. P. Jackson, was dismissed for contempt of the members.  Miss Green, his successor, whose appointment was a compromise between rivals soon removed herself together with the Charter of the Local. 

Local 17 having died, Local 31 was then established with Mr. William Powell as it first President.  This was in 1942.  Disputes about leadership and operations continued until Mr. Cecil Gordon assumed the Presidency, which he then held for a number of years.  Paul Erlington had gone to America during this period, and his early colleagues, Vernal Davis and Ricketts, who joined Local 31, soon got into difficulties with its leaders.

Meanwhile the doctrine was spreading and a number of less formal groups emerged, some of which were the Ethiopian Coptic Church, the United Ethiopian Body, under Brothers Claudius Stewart and Joseph Myers, the United Afro-West Indian Brotherhood under Mr. Rafael Downer, the Ethiopian Youth Cosmic Faith under Brother Edie, who has since gone to England, the African Cultural League, and the Brotherhood Solidarity of United Ethiopians (B.S.U.E.), linked to the local Ethiopian World Federation movement loosely, if at all.  J.N. Hibbert had established in 1941a local branch of the Ethiopian Mystic Masons, which was closely connected with his Ethiopian Coptic Church.  By 1944 this branch had become dormant, due to the emigration of its members to Panama.  Many other small groups, which had sprung up in the movement in this period suffered a similar fate.  In 1953 Simpson estimated that there were twelve groups of Ras Tafari brethren in Kingston, having memberships ranging between 20 and 150.  He noted that at that time the public seemed to have little interest in or overt resentment of the brethren, who were none the less regarded with contempt and disgust, especially the locksmen.  Police interference was negligible, except for periodic ganja raids.