Jamaica was originally populated by
tribal native peoples who looked like
native South Americans. In the late
1700's and through out the 1800's the
slave trade thrived, and people were
bought and sold all over the world.
In those days, sugar was a highly-
held luxury item reserved for the most
privileged. Enterprising spice trading
companies found it profitable to endure
political unrest, and piracy to establish
sugar cane plantations on Jamaica.
The laborers, would be of course,
bought humans. In those days the slave
trade was not exclusive to Africans, it was
exclusive to the poor. Slaves were also
purchased in China, During the Potato
famine, Irish people were bought and sold.
People from India were purchased for
the sugar cane plantations as well.
In India, a person's status depended
on the social caste system. The lowest
in the caste system were, "the untouchables"
They were the poor, the ill, the thieves.
So happens that the patron God of the lowest
of the low is Siva, the dreadlocked, naked
wandering God. Siva gave the world cannabis
to aid in meditation. The river ganges flows
from his hair.
Sure enough, sadhus were sold, and shipped
off to the cane plantations without much more
than their chillums, a little weed, and some
seeds. That's how Ganja (named for it's
original home, the head waters of the river
Ganges at the base of Mount Kailish,
Siva's abode.) made it to Jamaica.
Slaves who didn't care to work the cane,
could try their luck in the mountains.
Most weren't up for the challenge, but this
was like home for the sadhus.
At the end of the 1800's slavery was out
of vogue in much of the "civilized" world,
including Jamaica. By this time, their was
an established tradition of mountain-dwelling
sadhus in Jamaica. The general population
of the island was a mish-mash of the unwanted
from around the world, and alot of black
former slaves. People knew that if they wanted
the weed, they'd have to go to the mountains
and deal with the holy men, the sadhus.
The sadhus informed the people that the herb
came from God to aid in meditation. In Jamaica
weed is still called, "Kali"(Siva's wife). They were
taught the benefits of a vegetarian diet.
In 1887 Marcus Garvey was born.
At age 14, he moved to the city. Kingston.
He got a job in a printshop, and quickly became
disgusted by the way the poor were living.
By 1907, he was deeply involved in social reform.
He formed a newspaper called,"The Watchman"
that chronicled human rights abuses. He traveled
all over Central America, and found blacks were
being treated poorly all over. When he returned To
Jamaica, He tried to get the Gov't to help out the
poor in Central America. They didn't want to help.
He then formed,"The Universal Negro Improvement
Association", to which he would devote his life.
In 1912, he went to England to seek financial
backing. There he met a Sudanese-Egyptian
journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali, and began to
study the history of abuses of The African
peoples at the hands of colonial powers. He also
read Booker T. Washington's book about black
empowerment, "Up from Slavery".
By 1920, Garvey's U.N.I.A. had grown quite
strong. They held their first convention in New
York city. It started with a parade down Harlem-
Lenox Avenue, and attracted a crowd of 25,000.
At the convention, Garvey out-lined his plan
to unify all the splintered pockets of poor blacks
everywhere, into one African nation-state.
At that convention, he gained much popular
support. Thousands enrolled in the UNIA.
He began publishing a newspaper called,
"The Negro World", and toured the U.S.
calling for black nationalism, and was well
recieved. Soon the UNIA had 1,100 branches
in 40 countries. The poor and oppressed back
home in Jamaica were elated that one of their
own might unite all black people.
In 1911, in Ethiopia, 19 year old Tafari
Makonnen Married Wayzaro Menen
daughter of Emporer Menilek II, and
became Prince(Ras) Tafari, and named regent
heir to the throne. He would have to wait until his
father-in-law's death to become king.
Between 1917 and 1928 he traveled to
such destinations as London, Paris, and Rome.
He returned to Ethiopia with ideas of modernizing
his nation.
In 1930 his father-in-law died, and he was crowned
the 111th Emporer in succession of King Solomon,
of Old Testiment fame. Upon this occasion, Tafari
took on the name, "Haile Selassie" which means,
"Strength of the trinity".
Marcus Garvey in a speech given at Madison
Square Garden, was heard to speak of,"
Ethiopia, land of our fathers", and proclaimed
that,"negroes believed in the God of Ethiopia,
the everlasting God. He was credited with
being the first to announce, "Look to Africa
for the crowning of a new king; He shall be
the Redeemer."
This statement transformed
Garveyites in Jamaica into Ras Tafarians.
There was some debate whether or not
these were truly Garvey's own words. Garvey
had a close colleage, The Reverend James
Morris Webb who authored a book called,
"A Black Man Will Be The Coming Universal King."
He was heard to make a very similar
speech in 1924.
In Jamaica people were very excited about
discovering that they were the lost tribe of
Isreal of Old Testiment Prophecy,
direct descendants of King Solomon,
and Queen Sheba. Ras Tafarians began adopting
Old Testiment laws and sensibilities with
fervor. It was obvious that Haile Selassie
was the promised new messiah of the Old
Testiment. In spite of all this, There was no way
the newly formed Ras Tafarian's were going
to give up their vegetarian lifestyle, or finding
inner spiritually through meditation with Kali.
Selassie went on to institute many of the
reforms for his country that was somewhat
fragmented from years of occupation by
various colonial entities. During world war II
it was briefly re-occupied by Italy, and Selassie
was exiled. When Selassie was restored to
power he tried to continue establishing his
political reforms, but the people were not always
fully behind him. He made some unpopular
choices. There was an attempted coup d'etat
in 1960. In the years that followed, in Ethiopia
there was rising inflation, corruption, and famine.
In 1974, Selassie was accused of covering up
the famine of the early 1970's, in which hundreds
of thousands of Ethiopians died. He was deposed
and placed under house arrest. He died while
under house arrest under questionable
circumstances and was secretly buried.
Marcus Garvey went on to start several ambitious
business ventures such as, Blackstar transport
lines. He began to have financial difficulties, and
was betrayed by some trusted aides. He ended
up being charged with using the U.S. Mail to defraud