RELIGION AS PROTEST

1
RELIGION AS PROTEST

• 1. Establishing the Caribbean Socio-Historical
  Context
• 2. Rastafari as Black Self-Definition
• 3. Nation of Islam and the African
• American Experience

2
JAMAICAN RELIGIOUS CONTINUUM

• Myalism Revivalism Rasta
• Baptist Pentecostalism
• Ethiopianism

3
RASTAFARI

• Acceptance of Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) as
  living God and black Messiah
• Commitment to African cultures and traditions
• Commitment to liberation of blacks globally
• Socio-economic and political response to
  oppressionrejection of Babylon
• Belief in the empowerment of black family and
  community through black men.

4
NATION OF ISLAM

• Founded in 1930s by Farad Muhammad
• God is a black man, not an invisible spirit
• African Americans are original men
• Challenges racism in the United States whites
  are bereft of divinity/inherently evil
• Powerful, organized economic force
• Wide American appealglobal movement
• Counter-narrative to discourse of slavery
• Male-centered religious tradition.

5
NOIs Ten Point Program

• Full and complete freedom
• Equal justice under the law
• Equality of opportunity
• Separate state for descendants of slaves
• Release of all NOI believers in prison and all
  blacks under death sentence
• End of police brutality
• Equal employment opportunities
• Exemption from taxation
• Equal but separate education and
• Prevention of intermarriage or race mixing.