Rastafari and psychology

I got the idea for the above theme because of a chapter – or rather: article – I read in a collective volume of scholarly articles about Jamaica’s Rastafari movement. The collective volume is titled ‘Chanting down Babylon; the Rastafari reader’, published in 1998, and consists of 22 separate articles by various scholars, examining different aspects of the Rastafari movement, originating in Jamaica in the 1930s. Its history and (international) development. See also here (google books).

Or better said: I reread some articles, because I have that academic collection of articles for many years now, have read it already, and also used articles for some of these blog posts.

Yet, only some of the articles, I noticed upon rereading the volume recently. A part of them I quoted directly for essays for this/my blog (when relevant for my theme), or elsewhere, but all of the 22 articles/essays in it I have read, and became somehow part of my own personal knowledge base, to then connect it to more knowledge. “A So It Go”.. (That’s how it goes), to say it in a Jamaican way.

HUTTON AND MURRELL

The article titled: “Rastas’ Psychology of Blackness, Resistance, and Somebodiness”, by Clinton Hutton and Nataniel Samuel Murrell, I don’t recall quoting or citing – maybe as side path, one -, yet now intrigues me more, because of the psychology aspect.

I have and had some interest in psychology and psychoanalysts like Freud, Jung, Fromm, and differences between them. This might relate to the Eurocentric cultural context – living and schooled in the Netherlands – I grew up under, being thus part of “Western ideas” of psychology. Especially when I got higher education, this specific knowledge increased.

The article in the volume does not really draw connections to such “Western” academic Freudian or Jungian views or traditions, but takes on psychology of inner processes and liberation from exactly that Western, colonial mindset. Mostly British shaped, in Jamaica’s case.

Black people in the Diaspora – or Diaspora Africans, in the Americas – went historically through slavery, as well as attempts at dehumanization and deculturalization, all resulting in traumatization. The article uses the word “depersonalization” instead of “dehumanization”, but pointing at the same.

Besides real economic poverty and equally real social and material discrimination, there is thus also a lot of psychological healing needed. According to said article by Hutton and Murrell, the Rastafari movement provided Jamaicans and other Black people with the possibility of that mental healing, through “resistance and liberation psychology”. They write in the article, also:
“Rastafarian psychology involves expressions of self-confidence, affirmation of one’s Blackness and personhood, a rejection of Eurocentric understandings of black people and their cultures, and a longing for liberation and ultimate redemption of the black peoples of the world (especially the oppressed).”

GARVEY

Marcus Garvey – one of Rastafari’s inspirators – tended to pay relatively much attention to processes that can be deemed inner and psychological. In fact, he went deeper with that than other Black leaders before and of the time, limiting themselves more to practicalities and the status quo, though also commenting on mental needs, such as Booker T. Washington.

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery”, is a well-known motto by Marcus Garvey, immortalized in Bob Marley’s song Redemption Song. Even on his own accord – by the way – Bredda Bob (Marley) gave some interesting “psychological” perspectives in several of his lyrics, even if not citing Garvey.

As other articles in the ‘Chanting Down Babylon’ reader indicate, the Garvey movement was still somehow connected with Western thought, Marcus Garvey himself, often taking on a global approach, or comparing between the West and other areas, while aimed at Africa. The Rastafari movement, by contrast, was also focused on Africa, but wished to detach itself from the Western (neocolonial) oppressive system, calling it “Babylon”. It represents a cultural revival through a focus on Africa, with indeed psychological aspects, as addressed – generally – in Hutton’s and Murrell’s article.

FREUD, JUNG, FROMM, ADLER, & LACAN

Western academic thought on psychology and psychoanalysis (by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and so on) seems therefore irrelevant, and too Eurocentric for this, one might conclude. Black people need their own psychology and mental healing, after all.

Still – while maybe not in all senses required - I think that in this regard is interesting to call on – or study – Western psychoanalytical thinkers, I to differing degrees studied once. They are part of the Western canon, that is hard to escape. Well known scholars and psychoanalysts like Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, but also others, such as Erich Fromm, I personally “liked” a bit more than Freud or Jung. Freud and Jung, however, I found also to say some sensible things. Other well-known psychology theorists include Alfred Adler, and – outside of the German-speaking world, the Frenchman Jacques Lacan.

DRIVING FORCE

Even before the Internet made comparisons between these psychology theorists easier, I earlier in my life compared through old-time paper books already a bit between them, noticing soon that Freud saw human behaviour as “instincts-driven” (sexual and aggressive) –with libido as sexual energy, saw the “unconscious” as crucial, and was quite deterministic, whereas other , later theorists – even some studying periods with Freud – departed from this “instincts” focus, or partly. Jung differed from Freud in that he considered not instincts (just) as humans’ main driving forces, but more spirituality and self-integration, beyond just biology. The life-long process of “individuation”.

Likewise “my main man” (this means I agree often with him) Erich Fromm, in turn argues that instead of instinctual drives, human behaviours are more connected to society and history, and the existential search for meaning by the free will. Creativity and overcoming “alienation” (as mere producers/consumers) through love and meaning, were according to Fromm main human motivators, rather than instincts and sex. Many of Fromm’s notions - as similar ones of the Frankfurter Schule, such as author Herbert Marcuse - fitted well with anti-capitalist critique arising in the Flower Power era, among disgruntled, rebellious youth in the West (the “hippies”), but in my analysis, Fromm had good, own arguments, and not just fashionably followed the hippies.

Alfred Adler, also emphasized the “social” over the “biological”, but more specifically saw the drive for “superiority” as crucial among humans, also in overcoming feelings of inferiority (the inferiority complex). The now well-known term “inferiority complex” – also in anti-colonial writings, and even heard in popular culture – was in fact coined by Adler, seeming relevant in this context.

Another well-known theorist in the Western world, about psychology, is Jacques Lacan, who somewhat reworked Freud’s “biological urges” obsessions to explain human behaviour and of “the subconscious”, yet stemming from social and cultural factors (calling it “the symbolic order”) , and as part of this – typical for Lacan – “language”. Man’s main desire is, according to Lacan, “lack”, - not “pleasure-seeking” as Freud thought - and making human’s main drive therefore to seek “recognition” from the Other (the symbolic order/social/cultural), to compensate this lack.

Lacan stayed – compared to the others mentioned - closer to Freud, overall, but still worked things out differently. Interestingly, Lacan worked out the “phallic symbol” idea (of Freud) in relation to power in society, also popularized, more or less. The “penis”-shaped size of many bombs and weapons - or rockets -, made by white men, seem a case in point. Phallic symbolism of power.

RELEVANCE?

Focussing on their distinct views ”human driving forces” for now – though there are more differences, of course, between these known psychologists -, I find these differences in themselves interesting, but also certainly in their relation to the theme I want to address: the psychology of Black liberation through the Rastafari movement, as addressed in Hutton and Murrell’s academic article.

What “drove” the Rastafari movement psychologically? Can these Western psychologists and their different theories offer some sensible insights about this? Freud’s narrow interpretation of “libido” as sex drive does not seem to do it, Jung’s broadened meaning of “the “libido” energy as “life force”, seems to fit the movement better, but also Fromm’s attention to the existential and meaning, as human needs, seems relevant. Fromm was relatively more open to non-Western philosophies, like in the Far East (Buddhism), making him perhaps more relevant.

Adler’s emphasis on “overcoming an inferiority complex” is definitely relevant in the (post)colonial context, as is Lacan’s “recognition seeking”’, The article about Rastafari’s psychology of Blackness by Hutton and Murrell, after all speak of the “search for somebodiness” and “personhood”, supposedly driving Rastafari.

These psychologists also had different views on both religion and spirituality. Most Rastas consider their movement more “spiritual” than “religious”.

Freud was quite sceptical about both religion and spirituality, while understanding the psychological needs, rooted in – according to Freud – repression and traumas, and early childhood dependence on parents. Freud thus pathologized religious and spiritual feelings.

Jung, Adler, and Fromm, though, were all in their way more positive about spiritual needs, deeming them even crucial for human and psychological development. Fromm distinguishes however between “authoritarian” religions oppressing and stifling individuals, and the “humanistic” religions, read “spirituality”’. The latter he appreciates as aiding people to search for needed existential truths, transcending the self/ego toward meaningful connection and self-actualizing identity. Fromm also saw “love” as spiritual.

Fromm’s views on spirituality have much similarities to what many Rasta’s say regarding the matter, only earlier: Fromm wrote about it since around the 1950s, and after, while the Rastafari movement arose in Jamaica in the 1930s.

Carl Jung in turn likewise considered spirituality as crucial for the human psyche toward self-actualization and wholeness, individuation, or “balance”. Alfred Adler saw spirituality as seeking significance culturally, and thus was also more positive than e.g. Freud and also Lacan, viewing religion, but also spirituality as – in essence – pathological and illusory. So quite different views on it.

These are all Western scholarly psychoanalysts, made globally known, and in other cultures in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, - or even in common folk culture everywhere - surely own, just as plausible ideas on “mental health” can be found. I am aware of that.

Erich Fromm deplored the notion that “psychoanalysis”, psychology, and psychiatry, in the West all were aimed at conformity, to serve - eventually - the productive economy. It is not unthinkable that such conformity in certain other cultures is also demanded, especially the more hierarchical and unequal ones, misusing thus also the “sanity” concept for power goals, as Fromm sees in the West. Or different “symbolic orders” as Lacan would call them.

BLACK PSYCHOLOGY

In the article by Hutton and Murrell about Rastafari “liberation psychology” is further written:

“Without being aware of the existence of black psychology as a field of study – it emerged in the 1920s when African-American (US) researchers began to address some of the biased notions promoted by white researchers about African-American people.- Rastafari brought to light the practical characteristics of this discipline, whose major characteristics are defined by leading African American psychologists as

“a de-emphasis on deficiency based hypotheses about black behaviour... a concurrent emphasis upon the positive aspects of black behaviour which have permitted survival.. in a racist society.. a rejection of white normative standards when understanding and assessing black behaviour.. A quest for explanation of black behaviour rooted not only in psychological phenomena but also in social and economic factors as well which serves to maintain the system which subjugates blacks”.,

Notwithstanding this dismissal of “white” perspectives, and the wider Rastafari’s rejection of the West and “Babylon”, a comparative reflection with the said known Western psychologists is still interesting.

Again, some similarities with Erich Fromm, who connected psychology also with social and economic conditions, as did Alfred Adler. Jung’s focus on identity development is partly relevant, although Jung believed identities are individual and “fluid”, and changing throughout one’s life, and less connected to social reality. About “collective identities” the said psychologists have a bit less to say, as their theories tend to be individualistically oriented, albeit with (certainly after Freud) social and cultural connections.

Indeed, the Freudian psychology, but to degrees also of the others (who were also active in “psychotherapy” after all), emphasizes already “deficiency”. This becomes worse and corrupted, when weaponized for racist or economic reasons, as in Western science: to enforce conformity to society and its “powers that be”.

Fromm especially saw positive, emancipating functions of psychology and mental healing, beyond achieving conformity. There is thus a parallel with that US positive “black psychology” as field of study appearing in the 1920s, and the “black psychology” put in practice by the Rastafari movement.

Important in Rastafari psychology is what Hutton and Murrell call “Ethiopianism” and also African consciousness, in which Garvey’s Pan-African movement of the 1920s was crucial in spreading. Africa became a cornerstone for self-love and personhood.

As said, Marcus Garvey gave quite some attention to the psychology of Black people, and of other races too. In the article, they indicate: “For Garvey the greatest and most enduring impact of slavery and colonialism is psychological. It destroys one’s sense of personhood and self-worth and limits the vision and potential of black people”.

The mental slavery, “slave mentality”, or self-hatred, Garvey regularly referred to in his speeches and writings. Racial and African pride seemed the antidote against this servility to European supposed superiority and Eurocentric dominance, as taught in colonial systems.

It is somewhat in line with the “self-actualization”, the mentioned Western psychologists strived for, albeit individualized, although some like Fromm and Adler, draw social connections, and Jung and Lacan with culture and regional/specific cultures, making it – so to speak – more collectively shared among a people or nation.

Born in a British, Protestant colony like Jamaica, both Garvey and Rastafari have been influenced by a “Christian mind-set”, with a Biblical, and – in a deeper sense – “written text/word” focus. This follows in fact the “recognition” goal, humans seek according to Alfred Adler and Jacques Lacan, rather than starting from scratch, or a total cultural departure, such as to African traditional religions involving spirits and dance.

In fact, many Rastafari disparage those traditional African faiths as Vodou, Obeah, and such as evilous and disruptive to their moral goals, preferring “Biblical”, “one god” solutions. Through a back door, Alfred Adler’s inferiority complex thus still slips in, through a focus on the after all colonially taught (Protestant/King James) Bible.

Though not my favourite psychologist, I agreed with Jacques Lacan in that he saw the limits of language to express truth, pointing at the role of the “mystical”, true yet resisting language or symbolization.

In some way, this “mystical” – beyond language - still found a way in Rastafari, such as in its Nyabinghi and musical gatherings, meditation, but always in connection with nature.. The Natural Mystic, as Bob Marley sang.

That balance with the natural environment – as well as the small-scale communitarian living - most Rastas favoured and many still do, seemed also a response to what Fromm termed “alienation”, in the modern (capitalist) economic productive system, “robotizing” complex humans for economic gain of some.

With references to Mama Africa, the motherland, and such, maybe some Freudian aspects also became part of this psychology, yet all part of a sought “healing process” within the African Diaspora. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I is referred to as Jah (God), but also as “my father” by some Rastafari-adherents, confirming Freud’s theory of faith as meant to seek “parents”, in response to some unresolved neurosis. I think the latter is too negative, simplified, and also incorrect. Attention to one's mother and "roots" are in my opinion healthy and naturally human. The other psychologists I mentioned would also allow a more positive interpretation of Rastafari, which, as Mutabaruka called it, began as a “Black Power movement, with a spiritual focus”.

GENDER RELATIONS

While Rastafari is not particularly “macho”, there have also been comments (also in other articles in the said collective volume “Chanting down Babylon”) about male dominance in the movement, and a recurring tendency to view women in it as mere, serving “supporters” of their male kings or “king man”. This male dominance should not be exaggerated, in my opinion, and female individuality seems more respected in Rastafari than in say, parts of the Islamic or Hindu (or even strict Christian) world, harkening back to relatively independent women in African traditions, at the time of colonization.

Women in sub-Saharan Africa (and even women among some pre-Islamic Berbers in North Africa) were relatively independent from men, even when compared to Europe of the time, with Spain and Portugal having historical Moorish/Islamic and Catholic “male-led” household legacies, and England and the Netherlands similarly “male-led” households – the male breadwinner idea - , but in their case Protestant/Christian motivated. Around, say 1500 and 1600, or even 1700, women were de facto more “second-class citizens” in Europe, than in much of sub-Saharan Africa, where they had some more social freedoms. A relatively unknown fact, I found, as many still live under the patronizing illusion that “Europe liberated African women”. Feminist and women’s emancipation movements arose only after the 1950s in Europe.

This male need for dominance among some Rastas regardless, has in this sense both Freudian aspects of male insecurity and domination “instincts”, but also of an “inferiority complex”, wanting “recognition”, just like the white men/family heads, and other male leaders in Western society, in line with Alfred Adler’s ideas of “compensation”. That whole idea (also popularized) of “overcompensation” stems from Adler, showing how psychoanalytical ideas spread among (quasi-) intellectuals in the Western world.

LIVITY

The already mentioned Rastafari thinker, radio host, and artist/poet from Jamaica, Mutabaruka, emphasized the role of (practical) Livity: daily life in balance with nature (e.g., agriculture) in achieving wisdom about life and the world, including what can be called psychology or philosophy. “Livity” instead of the Bible or other “books” or texts. Other Rastas are more Biblical and “text” focussed than Mutabaruka, though.

The Western academic/scholarly system is part of its value system, shaped by historically vested interests, power inequality, and political/economic elites, arising or strengthened with European colonialism and imperialism. Simply said, industrialization which began in England in the Late 18th c, was financed by British colonial and slavery gains, financing this modernization, eventually spreading production-based industrialization through much of the Western world, modernizing society and academia, etcetera, while increasing global inequalities.

The desire to take distance from scholars within/from such a Western system, and come with own (“African”) views of human healing, psychology, and values, is from the Rastafari perspective more than understandable. Yet, the other extreme, discarding any Western scholar or insight, - even to just compare, not “favour” or “adhere to” - reeks too much of lazy anti-intellectualism, in my view, and not wanting to learn about the world, remaining isolated in mind-easing simplified fiction, and dumbing oneself down.

It also has an element of hypocrisy, as the Western (King James) Bible – once misused to legitimize slavery and racism – remains nonetheless for many Rastas the norm, and less the not so “weaponized” Ethiopian Orthodox, older version of the Bible.

Such comparative knowledge (with the West, but also e.g. Asia, or elsewhere) can even result in a bigger appreciation of one’s own African culture, I imagine; in Africa, cultural/human wisdom and mental healing are certainly equally present, only often more ritualized, and less in those Western technical, separate “categories” as psychotherapy, psychiatry, philosophy, or biology, and other academic disciplines. Besides, African wisdom also has unique aspects that can enlighten even non-Africans, especially in relation to rhythm, dance, natural balance, and spirits.

This Western thinking came to separate all too neatly the mind and the body, which is strictly speaking absurd, if normalized. Perhaps these are also power goals stemming from inequality, as true individual freedom as human being can only be fully achieved when both body and mind are free. The more hierarchical societies get,- i.e. away from communal living – the distinction between mind and body increases, enabling misuse through slavery, serfdom, or other exploitation.

On different continents this occurred (Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, more feudal development among Yoruba, the Aztecs in Central America, etcetera). Yet, the West – or Babylon – maximized this (mind-body separation) to the utter, cynical conclusion, during colonialism and slavery. This involved after all a de-humanization, and attempts of de-culturalization of enslaved Africans in the West.

Also the role of the “written word” gained supremacy in European thinking, especially since the rise of Protestantism in parts of Europe. This denies the all too natural given that not everything in this world can be expressed in texts/books or even language. Also a Western (French) psychologist like Jacques Lacan, and others, more or less recognized this. Predictably, the “written text” became misused to oppress other people.

There is – also in this light - indeed something to say for, instead of this, a more “holistic” and “daily life/practical” view of the world and humans, a bit of what Mutabaruka and other Rastas find in Livity (natural lifestyle), more communal and self-sufficient, but based at the same time on a wider African pride/connection, and self-realization, to heal from historical traumas and go with a needed sense of self-worth through life, to not be downtrodden again, and maintain your own agency.

The “I and I” notion within Rastafari – the view that the divine is within each person, not in the sky - ensures such agency and self-love, but is curiously not mentioned in Hutton and Murrell’s article (it is in other articles). Curiously, because it is in my opinion psychologically interesting and relevant: the Rastafari idea of “divinity/god” within each human..

On the other hand, “categorizing” themes can be practical and effective to deeply analyse phenomena, as in Western academia, but historically also in early universities in Africa e.g. Egypt, before “universities” as such even arose in Europe.

The risk of “misuse” and weaponizing this thus acquired knowledge in more modern - and unequal - societies, to maintain or gain more power over others, is unfortunately also proven historically, but even a free-thinking Western psychologist like Erich Fromm – and some others – came to this conclusion, showing how all humans on this earth can learn from all other humans, irrespective of race and culture, and even come to the same conclusion. Just by thinking free and open as human beings.

CONCLUSION

No, Rastafari does/did not really “require” the psychological works or insights of these Western psychologists as such. The parallels are nonetheless interesting to study. The way these different psychologists differ are perhaps more interesting than the views of each psychologist.

That is after all healthy scientific – “democratic” - debate: thinking free and open on some theories you and others had, reflecting upon them, broadening or revising them based on later insights, correcting, reapplying, so you can come with other interpretations than other scholars, no one being by definition more right than others. A really open, democratic debate is good and fruitful.

“Black psychology” and Afrocentric, anticolonial Rastafari psychology was needed in this debate too, I opine, following the principle of “who feels it, knows it”, rather than armchair theories in privileged circles.

It turned out to be a useful and uplifting psychology, the Rastafari one, being centered around “collective identities” , with all its “conformity” pitfalls, but with enough room for African views on individualism, or individual agency. It spread more globally with Bob Marley’s fame and Reggae, attracting even non-Black adherents, yet Africa remained the cornerstone.

With that inflated collective (national) pride and sense of superiority the British, and other Europeans, of course colonized and dominated the world, making others dependent on them. This was however aided by a strong individual senses of superiority, supported by (individualistically oriented) Protestantism and to a lesser degree Catholicism. English culture was superior to those of others, but also each individual Englishman to others, so to speak, limiting inhibitions, while legitimizing submission.

Also someone from a Catholic country (they say from Genua, now Italy) like Christopher Columbus, was not shy and shameful to do what he pleased, for his own power position, connecting it strategically with Spain, then jealous of Portugal’s earlier colonial exploits, and wanting riches and to become a colonial power. The Spanish conquistadores conquering Amerindian areas, following Columbus’ “discovery”, where likewise self-assured in their superiority, so it was not just the British or Protestant colonizers.

These (Hawkins, Columbus, Pizarro, etc.) are “criminal” personality types, one can say, but individuality can however also be worked out more positively, when considering nature, harmony, and equality, and balance within oneself’s psychology. Beyond Freud’s “instinctual” selfishness - which also exists as part of human nature (many white colonizers and enslavers embodied this) - the other psychologists, like Fromm, at least pointed at “positive” possibilities of individual psychological development, beyond self-interest and oppressing others, or mere conformity to society’s standards by resolving pathology. Rastafari as rebellious movement in Jamaica came to the same conclusion through the “Livity” idea, and Afrocentric ideas, like in some social movements like of Marcus Garvey.

Luckily – in my opinion - no “rigid authority” came to dominate Rastafari, allowing thus own ways of individual redemption or “self-actualization”. I am also glad no unintelligent, “high school bully-like” collectivistic/group identity tends to be espoused by most Rastafari adherents I know, giving the feeling you talk with other human beings who think for themselves, not just soulless “representatives” in some vague combat mode. Especially in more “established religions” such “representative” group thinking is more the norm.

Rastafari thus mostly developed in a positive and open-minded, humanistic way. Okay, some Rastas believe more in rigid rules than others, but some basic, “liberation” ideas – partly psychological – are shared throughout the movement – at least among its sincere adherents -, and its roots in the African Diaspora remains essential, as its response to social and racial inequality.

("Chanting down Babylon : the Rastafari reader (Temple University Press, 1998) / edited by Nathaniel Samuel Murrell, William David Spencer, and Adrian Anthony McFarlane.)

Obeah

The term “Obeah” can be heard regularly in (older and new) Jamaican Reggae lyrics, often in combination with “man” (“obeah man”), and mostly with a negative connotation. It refers to a kind of magic or sorcery, involving casting spells (“working Obeah”).

This post essentially is about why that is: both the mentioning and the negativity of that mentioning.

ORIGINS

Historical sources on the origin of Obeah (also spelled: Obia(h)) within Jamaica are overall not entirely consistent or uniform, probably due to partly lacking reliable sources. Quite much is known, however. Against all odds, one can say, because in Jamaica’s colonial past, there is an evident bias from the White British ruling class perspective, and from the slave masters. The separate world of enslaved Africans of course preferred an own discourse, but was still influenced and framed by the oppressive colonial context, related to degrees of also mental slavery.

The origins are already controversial in the academic field. An Akan origin (from present-day Ghana, in West Africa) seems most probable, also related to the fact that a large percentage of enslaved Africans in Jamaica were brought from that region (estimated at a bit over 50%). Others, though, found sources – including linguistic ones - suggesting rather a Igbo origin (now SE Nigeria) of Obeah, as Igbo were also among the enslaved in Jamaica (a bit more concentrated in the West of the island), or a Calabar region (Efik) origin, from what is now the coastal border area between Nigeria and Cameroon.

IMAGE

Whatever its precise African origins, it developed in Jamaica in a direction that one can term negatively as a “caricature” or more neutrally (if cynically) as a “survival mechanism”. Most sources seem to confirm that Obeah actually before used to have a cosmology with deities, ancestors, and spirits that could be invoked according to certain norms and rules, part of a certain world view. This got reduced, one can say, to a more practical “spirit invocation” or “casting spells” to protect oneself, or poison or harm enemies. This vindictive, selfish image of Obeah, it more or less maintained among the Jamaican populace, up to today.

This image of Obeah was, by the way, not only maintained by self-interested White planters, fearing overt but also sneaky rebellion by their slaves, associating this subtle rebellion (including e.g. poisoning, or “bad spells”) also with particularly women. The famous female Maroon leader fighting British colonial rulers and masters, Queen Nanny, was also labeled a Obeah practitioner, using it in this case against colonial oppressors.

Not just Whites, but also other Afro-Caribbean faiths and spiritual systems/religion that developed, however, condemned the “trickery” and “withchcraft” of Obeah as “evil” or “devilish” , such as Myal adherents.

MYAL AND NATIVE BAPTISTS

Myal, also of African origin (assumed of Congo origin, with Akan elements), developed among Africans in Jamaica, and maintained clear African spiritual retentions (possession, “spirit” invoking), but made a connection to European Christianity, getting mixed with it, especially with nondominant Protestant churches that became popular in Jamaica, notably in what became known as Native Baptists. This Africanizing through Myal (including in interpretations of the holy ghost/spirit and water baptism as “rebirth” in the African tradition ) was frowned upon by White Baptist missionaries, but could not be stopped, giving rise to Native Baptists as Protestant variant among Afro-Jamaicans..

Yet, within this Afro-Christian Native Baptism (also known as Myalism), there grew also a distancing from other African practices, deemed backward or vile, notably Obeah, from which Myal/Native Baptist adherents distanced themselves, confirming thus its image of an evilous, selfish withchcraft.

Obeah was not presented as edifying or uplifting, only as doing harm within the community, though it was also known to have “healing” and “medicine” purpose that could be beneficial.

It seems that this negative characterization of Obeah among Jamaican Native Baptists (and similar Afro-Protestant beliefs), continued in the later Rastafari movement, indeed also Christian influenced, even if Afrocentric. In fact, some scholars point at influences from Native Baptism on aspects of the Rastafari movement, that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, but of course not in a vacuum. Some early converts to Rastafari came from families where Spiritual Baptism was practiced.

WIDER CARIBBEAN

The same term Obeah with the same meaning (magic/sorcery/spells for personal, selfish goals) is also known elsewhere in what is known as the British Caribbean, such as in Trinidad, to which certain Calypso songs and lyrics attest, such as by Mighty Sparrow, Chalkdust, and Terri Lyons.

There are – taken broader – also interesting parallels elsewhere in the African Diaspora, such as on the neighbouring islands of Cuba and Haiti.

Santería is well-known as the Cuban variant of Vodou (very simply put), in this case mostly based on Yoruba (SW Nigeria, Benin) beliefs and spiritual ideas, translated in a Spanish colonial (Catholic) context. Like Vodou in Haiti, Santería is not just a “withchcraft” or magic practice, but includes a complex and ordered, spiritual cosmology with specific deities, spirits, world views, and rituals, involving rules and conditions. This sets it apart from how Obeah is now known: a magic practice or “withchcraft”.

Another, more Congo/Bantu-influenced Afro-Cuban faith in Cuba is known as Palo Mayombe (with variants in the Dominican Republic), which is known for spells (a bit like Obeah is known), but both positive and negative, and also praised for folk medicine and natural healing. Image-wise Palo Mayombe is thus somewhere between developed, sophisticated Santería and selfish practical magic as Obeah is known elsewhere in the Caribbean.

In Haiti, Vodou is likewise a complex, ordered world view and cosmology, with elaborate rituals, thus in contrast to its stereotypical, simplified “Hollywood” image of “casting spells” on enemies, through e.g. pins in dolls/puppets. This superficial, withchcraft image in fact resembles how Obeah is known in Jamaica.

There are differences between Afro-Haitian Vodou and Afro-Cuban Santería, of course, at first in relation to origins in Africa: Vodou has a strong Benin (Fon-Ewe) imprint, whereas Santería a strong Yoruba (SW Nigeria) one (geographically East of Fon-Ewe people).

Other differences relate to the colonial and political context. State communism in Cuba since the early 1960s was officially atheist, but also actively discouraged “religion” in public life, albeit not successfully. Privately it went on, and only later the State became more lenient openly, especially when Cuba needed tourism since the 1990s crisis period.

In Haiti, some dictatorships had semi-totalitarian traits too (under Duvalier for instance), but Vodou remained the main popular religion, partly mixed with popular Catholicism.

PROTESTANTISM OR RASTAFARI?

Jamaica, rather, kept up a Protestant Christian image, to which later half-heartedly - and after repression periods - Rastafari was added. Remnants of traditional African religions (Kumina, Burru, Myal, Obeah) were marginalized, and partly vilified. Kumina, however, maintained a more extensive cosmology (like Santería), only with more Congo roots.

Even among Afrocentric Jamaicans, such as those in the Rastafari movement, some expressions as Obeah were criticized, while Kumina was more or less respected as interesting connection to the African roots.

While some spiritual and musical aspects from Kumina even influenced Rastafari – “heart beat” drum rhythms, for instance - , on the other hand the “spirit possession”, “ancestor worship” or “trance” aspects from its rituals were eschewed for being “backwardish” or even “devilish”, and at most “translated “ to metaphors.

One explanation for this, besides a Biblical/Christian influence, is the focus on “naturality” and “reality” in the Rastafari worldview. Also, the emphasis on life, and eschewing everything “dead” (including dead bodies or spirits), which in turn can be a Biblical (Levitical/Nazarite) influence.

This type of (social) consciousness and natural livity does not seem to combine well with the “supernatural” or “magic” one can perceive in some traditional African faiths: such as when spirits (e.g. ancestral ones) take possession of a body when someone is in trance. It also seems at odds with the “sorcery” or “witchcraft” of casting spells for which Obeah and Obeah men are known.

What remains a bit unclear, however, is whether this negative image of Obeah is fully an independent, “own” Afrocentric, Rastafari conclusion, or in fact an indirect result of Western Christian colonialism. White Protestantism fought against such African “magic” ideas from the beginning, and likewise Catholicism (although “looser” Catholics tended to use it to their advance, at times too). In other words: it might be a Biblical and Protestant influence in which Rastafari was by necessity based, as Rastafari poet/thinker Mutabaruka pointed out: Rastafari arose in that (post)colonial Biblical/Protestant context: whether it wanted or not.

In Africa itself, “witchcraft” or “bad”, vindictive magic or spells are sometimes lambasted too, but there the same question applies as in Jamaica: really indigenous or due to Western Christian (colonial) influences?

In the article ‘The first chant: Leonard Howell’s ’The promised key’, with commentary by William David Spencer’, in the volume ‘Chanting Down Babylon: the Rastafari reader (1998, edited by: Nathaniel Samuel Murrell, William David Spencer, and Adrian Anthony McFarlan), this view on Obeah within Rastafari is discussed.

The article is also about early (some say the first) Rasta, Leonard Howell. Howell considered some aspects from African traditional religions useful, also for “healing” purposes, such as from Myal, but was more critical about Obeah sorcery, for having wrong intentions and negative (divisive) effects, even if more or less recognized among Rastas as also part of the African heritage, albeit a troubled (and probably corrupted) part of it.

Later Rastas still associate Obeah with wicked intentions and iniquity, and therefore lambast it. Similar – indeed – to how criminals and conmen are criticized, for dividing and disturbing the community.

This view of Obeah can be seen as a Christian influence, but not entirely. In light of the whole Rastafari worldview and values of positive living, Black/African pride, equality, and naturality – and its community sense – magic spells with bad intentions disturb this community and go against such values, causing divisions and conflicts within the community.

In the article about Leonard Howell mentioned – with quotes by reggae artists like Ziggy Marley or Black Uhuru -, but also in many Reggae lyrics, this is indeed the image of Obeah, even beyond Biblical influences: iniquity, wicked intentions.

CONCLUSION

The negative image of Obeah in Jamaica, including among Rastafari, cannot be so easily explained, and has in fact multiple dimensions and origins. An external Protestant/Western influence is there, but relegating it to this is too simplistic.

The latter becomes especially evident, when one realizes that the Rastafari movement was meant to restore African pride and to build community, i.e. unity. Obeah sorcery, magic, or other “trickery” (such as represented by the trickster spider Anansy sories from the Akan heritage) are too “sneaky” and therefore too dependent on the “powers that be”. For the same reason, Rastas prefer the “lion” as proud symbol, rather than the “trickster” spider symbol, even if from the African heritage. A better, more solid sense of purpose, one might say.

The trickster spider Anancy (from Akan culture) outsmarted on occasion powerful authorities in the stories (associated later with White masters), and likewise Obeah spells were used against White colonial authorities/masters too during slave rebellions. Not consequently though, and just as often the trickery or spells were used against one’s own people, fellow-slaves, fellow-sufferers, etcetera, only out of competition and for personal gain.

It is this divisive inconsistence and competition within the community that Rastafari, after all, also sought to overcome.

Traditional African religions of course have their own cultural complexity and beauty - and social/community functions! - too, as their relative intact remnants in the West also show (Santería, Vodou, Kumina, Candomblé, a.o.), including rich musical and percussive legacies, and keeping alive African, ancestral legacies. They, however, became corrupted too, in a cynical (slavery/colonial/exploitative) context of survival. Rastafari, rather, sought a more positive, assertive and unifying answer to this cynical colonial past, building on, yet going beyond - one might say: "repairing" - these African legacies.

Kwanzaa

I know about Kwanzaa for some time now already, associating it with African Americans in the US, as a way to reconnect with the African roots. The festivities following “Western” Christmas, starts at the 26th of December, and lasts a week. Each day has a theme, and it involves presents and other rituals.

The festivities – “invented” in 1966 - are based on African traditions, and indeed the very name (from Swahili for “first fruits”) refers to historical African “harvest” celebrations, common throughout Africa, but of course also common in rural areas elsewhere. The themes of the days further seek to revive African communitarian principles, so lost among people of African descent in the Western world.

SIMILARITIES

In this, what they call, neo-African conception, it shares similarities with Rastafari as a movement, but also differences. The similarities are in the reconnecting with the African roots of Black people in the Americas. The differences are in the sense that Kwanzaa does not strive to be religious or even spiritual in the strict sense, while Rastafari is a spiritual movement, partly based on “rereading” the Bible from an African perspective.

Other similarities with Kwanzaa as festival, I find from what I know of “neo-African”, or “danced religions”, as some scholars call them: Haitan Vodou, Cuban Santería, Palo Mayombe, Surinamese Winti, and so on.. Again, Kwanzaa does neither have that spiritual component – let alone of “spirit possession” as in these traditions - , but does share the “community” and “structured festivity” aspect with these traditions.

“Community building” seems to be the main goal, all these African-centered movements among Afro-Americans have. The methods differ somewhat.

RASTAFARI

I find it philosophically interesting, that both Rastafari (originating in the 1930s in Jamaica), and Kwanzaa (designed by a Black Power activist and scholar, Maulana Karenga, in 1966), share that connection with the Black Power movement. In the case of Rastafari more through Marcus Garvey and his teachings, in the case of Kwanzaa, and its creator Maulana Karenga, more with (next generation Black Power activists) Malcolm X, Black Panthers, civil rights movement, etcetera.

Since Rastafari is older, Kwanzaa was probably influenced by it, in its conceptions, for instance, besides direct African models. Indeed, its creator Karenga said that one of his influences was Marcus Garvey, so there is a link.

I am more a Rastafari adherent, but still appreciate Kwanzaa’s theme-centered – and positive – focus on community building and self-determination. “Self-determination” is in fact one of those “day themes” in Kwanzaa (the 27th of December): defining oneself.

That’s why I started to celebrate it a bit.

It is, by the way, today mainly celebrated by African Americans, and elsewhere in the African diaspora, but there are today also White and other people celebrating it.

I don’t know much about the inventor of Kwanzaa, Maulana Karenga, but read more and more about him.. He had a turbulent life, but also some interesting and inspirational ideas. His later distancing of Kwanzaa from any specific religion can be deemed tactful, so as not to alienate African Americans considering themselves Christian or Muslim. Even some Rastafari adherents celebrate it, also here in the Netherlands.

Perhaps, the Rastafari movement is too loosely organized for such “structured” festivities, and some miss that (although Haile Selassie’s coronation and birth dates are regularly celebrated among Rastafari, world wide).

Since Rastafari is older and international, and I personally got into it way before in Kwanzaa, I find it interesting to compare the two, specifically hoping to deduce what Kwanzaa has to offer what was not there before, especially to repair the cultural identity within the African diaspora.

RELIGION

Christianity is – or rather: became – a mainly European religion, “Europeanized” over time. Islam started mainly as an “Arab” religion, and – while spread among various peoples – it still is largely “Arab” in its orientation. So African Americans belonging to some Protestant churches, or to the Nation Of Islam, kind of “compensate” through a focus on African cultural principles, guiding Kwanzaa days. A difference, as said, with Rastafari, being more a faith in itself.

Interestingly, there is a similarity with e.g . Vodou or Santería, in that a European Catholic Church-focus is responded to with African retentions, also spiritually. Likewise in Africa itself, European Christianity or Arab Islam, is often mixed or alternated with indigenous spirit faiths.

Neither Kwanzaa nor Rastafari seem to promote so much the “spirit possession” aspect of the African heritage. Their progressive aims seemingly left little room for such “backward”-seeming magic, although Euro-Christian propaganda (calling it ”devilish”) also created a distancing. There is after all a strong Protestant Christian influence in both Jamaica and the US.

BLACK POWER

The primary focus on the own Black community, of the Kwanzaa days, shows a Black Power influence, in which Jamaican Marcus Garvey played a pioneering role.

This “reconstructing” of a damaged identity because of slavery and deracination, certainly is a key element in Kwanzaa.

Yet, I argue, its principles and concepts are quite universal. The concept of “harvest festivals”, “eating together”, and passing-down values, are found historically in all cultures, in different ways.

The seven “theme days” of Kwanzaa, might betray its creator (Karenga)’s academic and scholarly past. It has theoretical, verbal “themes”, meant to structure intellectually a reality, that normally is just “lived” as part of community life. Universal, but with an African dimension.

Still, being a bit “academic” myself, I can see the value of that categorizing intellectually: it sharpens thinking and the focus on, importantly, positive notions. Notions that are, in turn, much more broadly human, than what can what can be categorized or even put in words. Thinking without overthinking.

INVENTED TRADITION

Some speak in such cases as Kwanzaa of “invented tradition”. I heard it in sociology classes I followed, but never cared much for the term. I find it subtly demeaning and negative. Partly it seems neutral, but it ridicules unjustly, I think. Even if originating or “invented” later, a tradition/custom can still be based on real, cultural traits living – if dormant – among specific populations. The cultural loss due to Trans-Atlantic slavery was destructive, yet not fully. African culture was maintained, and partly reworked, still with the underlying African cultural values.

Kwanzaa is an interesting example of that.

COMMUNITY

Additionally, I argue that the “community values” expressed within Kwanzaa, are not only relevant to the African Diaspora worldwide, but also to the whole of humanity, certainly also in this “corona crisis” time. In it, governments feel entitled to interfere with people’s social life and contacts, even more than decades before, with as excuse an infectious flu virus. Plandemic, New World Order, some think. Others think it is actually about health, ignoring the trampling of rights and freedoms we were used to. In psychology that is called “cognitive dissonance”.

I myself begun to think it is indeed a plandemic, because they did not involve the people they claimed to protect, and because of the world’s rich elite behind it (now united under the World Economic Forum - the WEF -, in part inheritors of the Bilderberg group), with accumulated wealth going back even to colonial times. Of course, my mistrust was awakened when these peoples started to tell us how we should live our lives..

I can study actual scientific sources (even did that professionally, once), and unfortunately my suspicion was confirmed after studying the actual (relatively limited) danger of that virus, and the actual (non-health) interests behind them. Therefore I added the L to pandemic (pLandemic) too.

From a bird’s view – or in modern terms: zooming out – it involves mass dehumanization, as well as “infantilization”, as we are commanded like we are children, and our natural, human urges are being criminalized. The history of specific Black/African Americans shows much more extreme and prolonged experiences of dehumanization, starting with trans-Atlantic slavery, or even earlier with the Arab slave trade in Africans. This was followed by centuries of exclusion, poverty, and discrimination.

LESSONS

As the most experienced usually teaches the novice, the new learner, in this case the accumulated wisdom from suffering from the Black Power movement since Marcus Garvey, and the civil rights movement in the US, more or less are summarized in the themes of Kwanzaa. The wisdom of community life, precisely that being under attack with this plandemic (probably for “divide and conquer” purposes). This experience can offer useful lessons for people now confronted with sudden dehumanization and restrictions.. “Sudden” when compared to the relatively freer democratic periods in Europe after WW II, Fascism, and Communism..

The state and political class now turned again dictatorial, bad-intentioned and only self-interested, and is – like in Mussolini’s Fascism – aligned with Big Business (which includes Big Tech and Big Pharma), and these rich elites behave as adversaries of the common people. Therefore: strengthening community life – the actual people – is the only answer toward and solution for a free life. Community is the basis of Kwanzaa.

I know, it was intended for Black redemption specifically within the African Diaspora, and for an oppressed racial minority in the US context, but universally Kwanzaa can, I argue, still offer good building stones for an alternative for the New World Order (NWO), the rich elite in this world wants (for which Covid policies prepare the ground).

This alternative for the New World Order/New Normal by necessity has to be at the benefit of the people, not a small elite thinking themselves to be superior because of their accumulated wealth. The open global plans for Agenda 2030, the Great Reset of the WEF, and a 4th Industrial Revolution.. that is what this elite wants..

Does this combine with the world Kwanzaa (or its followers) want? Of course not..

PRINCIPLES

More specifically, the seven African principles of Kwanzaa (called Nguzo Saba), or “theme days”, of Kwanzaa can demonstrate that (full description of these you can for instance find on the Wikipedia page on Kwanzaa):

UNITY

This first day of Kwanzaa (orig. for Black Unity) - the 26th of December - calls for communication, and free gathering. Well, this has been discouraged since March 2020, with all these draconian covid-related policies.

SELF-DETERMINATION

Independent thinking has also been discouraged during this totalitarian approach. It specifically “narrowed our frame” toward a hyped-up flu virus, disregarding our true interests, and the actual wider world. Censorship is also part of the current totalitarian approach.

COLLECTIVE WORK /SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

The key word is equality. The shared responsibility comes from within and is therefore proven true, not forced from above. False senses of solidarity can after all be easily manipulated by powers that be, as dictatorships and variants of Fascism earlier in history showed. This is what happens now, as the “fear” for a relatively mild virus is being misused.

COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS (OWN BUSINESSES)

For some reason, the corona policies, this plandemic, attacks small to medium businesses, while enriching and empowering bigger businesses, meant to replace them.

Thinking about it, this means that independently starting your own business for a specific community will be made difficult. They want more control by the Big State-Big Business over them.. Therefore more money and power to the richest elites, but also limiting freedoms of possibly rebellious, independent-thinking communities.

PURPOSE (COMMUNITY BUILDING GOALS)

With repressive governments/regimes, being open about your ambitions can be dangerous. The corona policies were even at times “opportunistic”, restricting what they saw people do (the terrible sin of “groups having fun” somewhere).

Marcus Garvey said that Black people’s plans “is their own business”, and need not be disclosed for “approval” by the White man.

Doing instead of talking, is therefore important here, and letting natural human characteristics flow, among people.

“Let respect just groove around”, as Curtis Mayfield sang.

CREATIVITY

This plandemic is a war against culture, and against joy, as a forebode to the joyless/modern slavery-like New World Order. It is also an attack on freedom. This is because freedom and joy/cultural expression inherently go together, and can never be separated for long.

FAITH

Whatever spirituality one adheres to, the very spirituality goes against the “material”, numbers/figures focus of this plandemic. The obsession with (manipulated, false) numbers (contagion/infection) is psychopathic. Cold, lifeless numbers to keep the masses scared.

As a Dutch comedian (Theo Maassen) once joked: “some things are too terrible for words, but never for numbers”... Spirituality = humanity = life.

I therefore recommend a Kwanzaa World Order instead of a New World Order, to abandon this dystopian “corona plandemic” way and route.

It is possible, even if it seems – as people with wicked and evil plans always present it – inevitable, or unescapable. We should and can go another way.

CONCLUSION

My “research question” or “thesis” – to put it academically – in this post was broadly: what is the added value of Kwanzaa?

For the Black struggle in the US and internationally, it seems to thrive, though up to now never eclipsing the best-known festivity known as Christmas, in its characteristics (Santa Claus, trees, reindeers, etc.) of German/Anglo-Saxon origin, besides the Christian/Jesus reference. Only later Christmas went also to the “Latin” world: South Europe and Latin America, and in fact global.

Kwanzaa is more African-based in its characteristics, and has a cultural and social focus. It achieved some popularity among African Americans, and Black people elsewhere, often combined with other celebrations. It affirmed and strengthened their sense of identity and cultural pride: these are important.

I see the global corona policies as – among other things – a “war against culture”, as I sing in one of my songs. I came to conclude this definitely, after studies showed the draconian measures “limiting contacts”, “lockdowns”, and “curfews”, had NO effect on virus spread. Governments just want more “control” over the people: attacking/limiting/changing their culture is a way to do that.

Kwanzaa is about reviving a repressed culture, promoting positive, constructive values. Exactly those values that are now under attack with the plandemic that prepares the way for a New World Order of technocracy, control, and stakeholder capitalism.

Kwanzaa values are on the other hand based on community life, and from the bottom-up: sharing, cooperation, but also own choices and identity. Compared to the NWO/WEF/New Normal values they are much more African, and also much less materialistic. Kwanzaa expresses mainly cultural and immaterial goals. These are more important, even if money addiction is widespread among all races. Numbers are lifeless and never end, so cannot give inspiration and joy by themselves. In essence it is not just a battle between freedom or slavery, but in a deeper sense also – philosophically – between “life” and “death”, between “good” and “evil”.

It is therefore much bigger than “race” as such. In certain epochs a focus on “race” was necessary in the Americas. Marcus Garvey did good works regarding this. The Mighty Diamonds sang, Garvey “gave the black man self-respect”, and many other Reggae artists (e.g. Burning Spear) praised him for this too. This self-respect is aimed at humanity, and is needed now among all groups affected by the plandemic .

Those content or agreeing with even the strictest of corona policies – let’s say: non-socializing, fearful types -, or still believing the covid/”killer virus” narrative, are difficult to save right now. For the others, more skeptical and critical, Kwanzaa’s community/culture values seem now more required than ever. Even urgent.

In addition, when all this nonsense is over – or in parts of the world with much less strict corona policies/influence - Kwanzaa values would be good values, I opine, because of their immaterial, sharing “community” and more “human” and “popular” base. It is a good antidote to the cold "power" governments seek, and “money” capitalists seek. As Marcus Garvey – one of the several inspirers of Kwanzaa – wrote already in 1927, in his long poem ‘The tragedy of white injustice’: “Cold capitalists and money sharks, make life unsafe, like ocean barks”.

Now with this plandemic (as during Mussolini’s Fascism) with politics and big business (and press, judiciary etc.), combined power/control and money into one big totalitarian whole, toward a New World Order/New Normal. Beneficial to a small elite, restrictive and repressive to the dependent rest.

Instead of this New World Order, I therefore propose a Kwanzaa World Order..

That is what my celebrating Kwanzaa at the end of 2021 – more structured and focused than before – taught me: its “community life” values are needed in this world.

Detachment

I guess “detachment” is a welcome concept at the time of writing, amid a “corona crisis”, that many see as an elite’s pLandemic.

These corona policies resulted in gradually normalized, yet still “surreal”, measures like global lockdowns and curfews, trampling of people’s rights and liberties, increasing inequality, divide and conquer, segregation, and recently even discrimination and “medical apartheid”. Something like “covid passports” in several countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and recently also the Netherlands, where I live, is now required for simple entry into free public life (bars, restaurants), and hacks at the roots of liberal democracy as we know it.

A sad and disturbing period, also because the “infection risk of a severe and deadly virus” narrative of the international governments, seems to be believed widely, or at least upheld as accepted fiction.

Many say these governments are elite-driven, negative forces “against the people”. They assume mass control goals by a wealthy elite, with a hyped-up virus/pandemic as excuse, or pretext.

Others (at least in their public statements) believe such strict, undemocratic measures might be unprecedented in liberal democracies since Fascism and Communism, but are necessary to deal with a pandemic and the dangerous Covid 19 virus. Simply said: some think it is about power and/or money, some think it actually is about health.

I am not going to walk that well-trodden path of these hopelessly opposed stances – even if involving reality or true facts (with few “true” facts on the side of those who think it is about health, and more plausible, yet difficult to prove, facts on those who think it is about power).

In reality, if it is just a control plan based on lies, it can be considered “too much honour” to dignify it by having it become the main subject of conversation: “cold” and tense themes like disease effects, virus infection, infectiousness, IC capacity, and so on.

More important I consider now the attack on and limiting of democratic values through corona policies in once liberal democracies like the Netherlands or France. These were built after all successfully, though with imperfections, since WWII, and these changes in them touch us individually, our way of life, how we move in our societies. It changes our lives, whether we want to or not.

The gradual nature of all these policies are suspect, but also obscure that by now we must conclude: since March 2020 we have lost control over our lives vis-à-vis the state and politicians, due to this corona crisis. This cannot be denied. Most harshly and humiliating for those not submissive enough to take the experimental "vaccine", but requiring "a pass" to go to e.g. a bar, restaurant, or museum, should be questioned also by the now newly privileged vaccinated, even if their ego is caressed.

Gathering freely as humans, travelling freely, even going out to a restaurant or bar (requiring covid passes/codes in some countries).. all has been made problematic, through some kind of “commandment politics” by “tough” politicians, giving their statements suddenly - in tone and content - as “closed” and “final say”, as in Fascist or other dictatorships.

GLOBAL POLICY MONSTER

In a sense, it made us as individual humans feel more powerless, especially as this Fascist “final say” and "definite" tone political leaders use nowadays in once democratic countries – from Macron in France, to Rutte in the Netherlands, Merkel in Germany, Trudeau in Canada, and Biden in the US -, seems part of a big “global policy monster” which for individual citizens seems impossible to fight. Or even leave out of one’s life.

Yet.. I argue it only seems impossible. I return therefore to the first sentence of this post and the word “detachment” for a philosophical concept. There must be a spiritual way to detach oneself from this – in essence – psychological war - , and I think this detachment is necessary.

The totalitarian nature of the policies, show especially in the “behavior” ordinances for citizens that oddly became commonly accepted: when to gather, how many people in your house, where to work, how to go out. Using “fear from infection” worked apparently wonders, even in “free” societies.

The gradual nature of this corona hype, hid from plain sight that the focus is always negative: both tone and content. Commandment/ordinnances rather that consolation, threats rather than advise, division rather than unity.

Against this seemingly unbeatable foe of negative energy, I think a spiritual approach, or rather spiritual “detachment” or disconnection can help us humans maintain balance and positive purpose. Especially because of much of it is “fear-based”, thus irrational.

First of all: how can detachment be defined?

DETACHMENT

In its philosophical sense, the Wikipedia article on Detachment, contains some interesting things , but is too limited in scope. It restricts philosophical “detachment” to Eastern religions in Asia, notably India, China, and Persia (Buddism, Hinduism, Bahai, a.o.), and Christianity, but excludes e.g. Africa, and the Americas.

Detachment might be best known in its Zen Buddhist meaning: being detached (unstained) by one’s thoughts: not to be harmed mentally and emotionally by them.

Also interesting is Detachment in Hindu thinking as “living in the moment” (focusing on the task at hand). Both in parts of Buddhism and Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Detachment is connected to being “free from lust or passions”, being available solely to God, related to the lambasting of “temptation” in the Bible and Quran.

These are mentioned in that Wikipedia article, but ignore therewith many other equally interesting faiths and spiritual beliefs in this world, such as in Africa, among Amerindians, or African American ones, like Rastafari, or Vodou.

AFRICA

Focussing on belief systems in some African cultures one can find Detachment in this philosophical sense in some way, but indirectly through “spirits”.

The Igbo in Nigeria know the concept of “Chi”, a spirit/godliness belonging to an individual. While connected to a higher encompassing spirit or deity, “almighty creator”, the “Chi” itself is individual, and therefore represents one’s own godly, spiritual essence and destiny. It is an initiating and animating force. The detachment lies in its independence from all else: the material world, and societal demands, while indirectly connected to higher deities, or ancestral spirits.

Similar personalized spirits among other (higher) spirits can be found in other African peoples as well, such as the Akan in Ghana, the Yoruba, and the Bantu. All have this implied “agency” for each individual human, which also can be understood as “rising above”, disconnection form worldly affairs, as well as an “inner strength” or “fire”. Or indeed Detachment.

Even the concept of “cool” in the African aesthetic – to which I devoted an earlier blog post – is related to this detachment.

RASTAFARI

This African type of “detachment” found its way into the African Jamaican spiritual movement Rastafari, originating in the 1930s, now well known through Reggae music.

The “Livity” spiritual concept – of which there is also a Wikipedia article – is certainly relevant here.

Livity is according to that Wikipedia article:

“Its essence is the realization that an energy or life-force, conferred by Almighty Jah (God), exists within, and flows through, all people and all living things. This is seen as the presence of Jah living within humans, and is often expressed in Rastafari vocabulary as "I and I", where the first "I" refers to the Almighty, the second "I" for oneself.”

Later on:

“In Rastafari philosophy, Livity can be enhanced by intense prayer and meditation (often enhanced by sacramental cannabis use), adherence to an Ital diet, and perhaps most importantly, loving behavior toward others.”

The remarkable similarities with the mentioned Igbo concept of “Chi” (and similar notions among the Akan and Bantu people) shows that this must be an African retention, mixed with Christian/Biblical influences.

It also shows an idea of “detachment”.

Spirit possession cults and beliefs in Africa and the African Diaspora, such as those in Vodou, Santería, Kumina, or Winti, are ways to connect with ancestors for sure, but their very “possession-like” or “trance-like” character – often through rhythm and drums - forms an escape or detachment by itself.

RECONNECTION

It is, then, a reconnection with one’s spirits within – or ancestral ones -, but when “reconnecting” one apparently felt disconnected before. Too attached to the worldly and material. To "the system".

Since the drastic and ineffective “lockdown policies” were stubbornly chosen internationally since 2020, this also meant a limitation of culture and the hospitality sector, and an increased focus on home life, avoiding people, especially by those very afraid.

This increased loneliness and mental problems among many groups, largely due to the lack of “outlet” or stress relief, or even the togetherness and consolation of other people with similar lots.

In this confrontation with oneself, in such a tense time, I think a positive and spiritual detachment is crucial.

Power politics and fear are negative, yet strong, invasive and polluting forces that can take over minds, limiting a clear view on things.

The detachment in all senses seems necessary, whether from Zen Buddhism, the idea of “living in the moment”, to African, and other ones, simply to escape monotonous, tense themes like viruses, infections, and such – “hyped up” –, and related politics and power games.

Then to look within oneself: at first detached from passions and worries (as in Buddhist and Christian interpretations), then finding what really makes you tick, what are your unique needs and qualities (as in African interpretations).

Here, the “African” concept of an individual “inner spirit” or “inner divinity” – yet connected with ancestors – really can be helpful in maintaining own pride and agency. Detachment with a purpose.

Labi Siffre sang about it in the fine song “Something Inside So Strong”, while African American author James Baldwin in an interview interestingly said that however oppressed and limited – and damaged - by historical White power structures: these will “never have ME”..

The world needs this individual pride and agency. This also in light of cultural differences. Chinese culture developed through time as collectivistic, rather than individualistic, making a “social credit” system, probably not loved, but accepted there more easily.

CONDITIONS

The corona policies, especially the digital “covid passports” made many fear similar plans in Western democracies, as it introduced external conditional aspects to one’s behavior. Conditions by other forces, beyond our control.

In my opinion, history can largely be seen as wealthy elites, fearing - and therefore controlling and restricting - the poorer majority, and their possible rise or rebellion. A "control state" seems only a more totalitarian "solution" to this long-held "fear of the masses".

This very idea of another party being able to place “conditions” on your behavior as free individual, would seem absurd and morally unacceptable – as it should be considered – when you know that inner, “divine” strength, your right to agency. Living and not being lived. Ruling your own destiny. To say it with a cliché: “believing in yourself”.

The long-upheld Christian and Islamic idea of a “God in the sky”, apart from humans, limits human agency, also toward such unprecedented political “control” goals, and therefore seems less helpful in maintaining one’s own strength. The same applies to a quite naïve "blind" trust in authorities, that is still common, though not universal.

We need to “detach” from that entire system through our own energy and agency, I think, before the “control state” and patronizing, demeaning “social credits” systems goes any further than it already has, and then “roll it back”, toward true humanity.

This is best done by having faith in one’s own spirit of capacity, of self-study, intelligent thought, despite outside pressure, “shaming”, or “fear-mongering”. Independent self-confidence. True independence requires courage.

In short: this type of detachment helps in my opinion in “opening one’s third eye”, realizing the self-ridiculing absurdity of the undemocratic, rights-trampling policies, and also in presenting an alternative.

This alternative is an individuality detached from - in the "Zen" sense - materialism, including all man-made oppressive/freedom-taking structures, but also aligned to all living beings and nature (and natural immunity!), and the ancestors, - as in the African and Rastafari senses, or in the Bantu concept of Ubuntu: human through other humans.

A good way to deal with trauma, and revive culture, togetherness, and social living, as a way out of this dystopia..

Babylon

"Babylon" is a term in the vocabulary of Rastafari adherents. It has spread a bit outside of it, though not that much. Not in the sense that Rastafari people use it, anyway.

Of course, the term Babylon refers to the history of Babylon/the Babylonian kingdom, a powerful kingdom mentioned in the Bible, enslaving Israelites, after capturing them. Historians found that the ancient "Babylon" was historically located in what is now Iraq - around the river Eufrate, about 80 km from Bagdad. It has become a source of nationalistic, historical pride in greatness among Iraqi people, including as part of the rhetorics of politicians (like Sadam Hussein), similar to how historical Rome is still viewed in Italy.

The history of Rastafari, and of Afro-Jamaican people, already explains the use of the term, relating to the obvious parallels: Africans were likewise enslaved, after being captured, and brought to another powerful kingdom to work as slaves, like the Israelites in the Bible. These Africans were brought to the "Babylon" of European colonies, and their oppressive systems, since the 16th c.

That same Bible also mentioned other kingdoms and powers, such as Egypt, of course also enslaving Israelites. Maybe it was seen early on by the early Rastas that using the term "Egypt" would be problematic for being an African country, or more abstract: to literally a place on the map, elsewhere than present-day Babylon (Europe/the West and its American colonies) the term normally refers too.

The long history of Babylon - which can be found elsewhere on the Internet - is in itself insightful. It represents - in a sense - also the history of big cities, urbanness. In certain epochs - at the peak of its power, such as between 1770 and 1670 BC - Babylon was the biggest city of the whole world, and according to some historians possibly the very first city in history with more than 200.000 inhabitants.

BIBLE

Its figuring in the Bible is also interesting, even confirming Babylon's metaphorical use in the Bible. Babylon was an enslaving power of Israelites, but also the counter-kingdom against God and godliness: immoral, corrupt, and evil. Due to these Biblical referrences, including about the Babylonian captivity, - relatively many in the Book of Daniel, by the way - also in the Jewish tradition, Babylon represents for present-day Jews still oppressors and hostile nonbelievers, while in the Christian world it came to symbolize vane worldiness (i.e. greed, vanity, lust) and evil.

By comparison, Babylon is as such referred to much less in the Quran and Islam, and mostly related to stories about Abraham and thus older Judaic stories. This referrence is partly neutral (geographical), and partly condemning (like in the Bible), contrasting the "magic" Babylon was known for, as well as te worldly power of king Nimrod, to the true Abrahamic God, in the same vein as the Bible.

RASTAFARI

So, one might argue, the symbolic use of "Babylon" in these major religions (notably Judaism and Christianity) is comparable to its use in Rastafari terminology. In that sense it follows on the Biblical influence on Rastafari, since the movement arose in Jamaica in the 1930s. This includes, though, a "reinterpretation" of the Bible from an African perspective. Terminology like "Babylon" and "Zion" (Sodom and Gomorrah, walls of Jericho, and more) are part of that, as well as many general referrences to Bible texts, stories, and psalms. As said, reinterpreted by Africans in a (former) colonial and downtrodden situation.

This reinterpretation is quite interesting, I find. The Rastafari, I contend, "amplified" the term Babylon both culturally and philosophically. It "updated" it also for the present time. More on this later.

The meaning of "abstract evil", as Babylon has in Christianity, or "enemy oppressors" in Judaism, both fed into the Rastafari definition of the term "Babylon". In fact, it is an excellent example of the Hegelian "thesis-antithese- then synthesis" principle. The Rastafari use of the term "Babylon" therefore can be seen as a "synthesis" of earlier Biblical refrences, shaped by the history of the African diaspora, including slavery, oppression, and poverty in the present.

Some say, Rastas mean with Babylon really only "the West", i.e. Europe and North America: the modern, wealthy, economic powers in this world, whereas some associate the term, specifically with "capitalism", and capitalist exploitation, world wide, but dominated by the West.

The truth is, that there is no "one authorative" definition among the Rastafari of "Babylon" as term, mainly because Rastafari is not a strict, rigidly organized or centralized religion, and many not even call it a "religion", but rather a "(spiritual) movement", loosely connected.

Many Reggae lyrics, especially since the 1970s, express Rastafari ideas, and therefore the term "Babylon" recurs a lot in Reggae lyrics. In many, many lyrics, too much to count. It spread that Rastafari term internationally, especially since Bob Marley's rise to fame in the course of the 1970s.

A common term among Rastafari adherents, and in (Roots) Reggae lyrics, its use is not only broad, but also "wider" and more varied than one might think.

I find intriguing, and almost beautiful, didactically, how "expressive" and communicative" the term Babylon is within the Rastafari movement and ideas. It brings the message across, including nuances, in a single term that seems "vague", but in reality captures all dimensions. This adds to its deep, philosophical meaning. It relates to the relatively free and "loose" and not-so-rigid structure of the Rastafari movement, when compared to "mainstream", over-organized (a personal opinion) religions, connected with dominant power structures (Christianity, Islam etc.).

Its figuring in a variety of Reggae lyrics include "Babylon" referring to "oppressive authorities", sometimes quite specific state forces or police officers, sometimes a level above that (political structure, economics). In other lyrics even levels above that are referred to as "Babylon": evil systems keeping poor people down, and fighting against the Rasta people, not just locally in Jamaica, but worldwide. It then represents a "system", without an explicit geographical reference.

GEOGRAPHY

I contend, however, that the interesting about the Rastafari use of "Babylon" is that, even as literally referring to a "system", of e.g. capitalist exploitation, it suggests geography indirectly. Being an Afrocentric movement, the Rastafari see "Babylon" as the enemy of African people, as Rastafari seeks the upliftment of and for many repatriation to Africa, in the line of Marcus Garvey's teachings.. Babylon thus implicity also represents "the West", with its developed and invading (mostly capitalist) economic dominance, going against Africa-focussed Rastafari values in Jamaica itself, as well as increasingly intruding and invading the African continent itself, with corrupting effects on original cultures.

This is the unique, amplified meaning of "Babylon" in the Rastafari definition. Its utility lies precisely in its "vagueness" or, otherwise said, multi-interpretability: from a "place" that you can leave, to a state of mind, an (oppressive) system, authorities, confusion, and corruption in a more abstract sense. It is also associated with "captivity", and therefore contrasted with freedom.

COPING WITH BABYLON

The breadth and depth of this definition of Babylon also is discussed in the 2007 documentary Coping With Babylon, including the different (often personal) interpretations and definitions by Rastafari adherents (including artists), either specific or general. Some in the documentary perhaps simplify its meaning, as relating it to one world power, the US, or New York, at the time of the documentary involved in a controversial invasion of Iraq. Broader - deeper - definitions also got a place in the documentary, though.

Similarly, in Reggae lyrics - of which I heard a lot throughout my life - Babylon is used clear, but also wide: Babylon the state/authorities in Jamaica, Babylon system, policemen, a place keeping you captive and limited (trampling rights), as well as an international phenomenon. Recurring is "Babylon" standing for the modern "Western world", including capitalist exploitation and modern technology.

The Biblical allusions to the ancient Babylon, refer to greed and lust. Especially regarding the latter, in most Reggae lyrics and Rastafari utterances, another Biblical loanword "Sodom and Gomorrah" tends to be used more often. The connection with "confusion" of Babylon kingdom (the story of the tower and the many languages) in the Bible, is however still maintained among many Rastafari. Also in the documentary Coping With Babylon some associate Babylon with "confusion": confusing righteous people.

ETYMOLOGICALLY

While linguists are not sure about "Babylon's" etymological origins, a connection with the Semitic term for "gate" (Bab) seems confirmed. In present-day standard Arabic, the word for "gate" is pronounced as Bawwaba.

Some historians point out, though, that this was a later term/meaning added to an older, perhaps even nonsemitic place name. The added "El" refers in the Semitic tradition to "God", as known of course in many Biblical names (Daniel, Gabriel, Michael, Elijah, Ezequiel, Israel, etcetera), though it might have been meant plural in the case of Babel/Babylon ("gate of the gods").

The informal term "babbelen" in Dutch (for: chatting) seems to derive from this Biblical story, and there are similar examples in other European languages. The term "Bable" for a dialect in NW Spain (Asturias , northern León) might be one, but that might be coincidence (formal "Castilian" Spanish would after all be "habla" - speech - with the first H unpronounced).

DEFINITIONS

In this by the way recommendable documentary Coping With Babylon, a Jamaican scholar on Rastafari (Barry Chevannes) at the University of the West Indies, justly pointed at the wide, varied meaning with which Babylon is used among the Rastafari: a wider powerful, economic system, exploiting poor people, African people, and all its collaborators. A lot of "wrongs" in this world fit in this in general, yet - at the same time - its meaningful and specific enough.

In the song Who Art Babylon, Reggae singer Ricky Grant specifically addresses how to "define" the term Babylon, rather than using it in his lyrics in some ways (as many Reggae artists do). Grant sings that Babylon consists of: "not only oppressors", but also "the clothes you wear etc.": i.e. the wider economic system we are all made to depend on, and "all things of vanity"..

Burning Spear in Mek We Yadd (and some other songs as well, like This Man) sings as lyrics: "in a time like now, any man could be Babylon..", pointing thus at the psychological "collaborators" (to use a war-time term) with an oppressive system, even if not directly recognizable as such. Indirectly referring to the "confusion" associated with Babylon.

When I was in Jamaica (in 2006 and 2008), I heard differing definitions among Rasta-adherents and -sympathizers. A Jamaican said to me: "Jamaica is nice. Not much Babylon here.. there is still some here and there, though".. Away from the geographical - Jamaica being a former slave plantation island where Africans were forcibly brought to - it has here come to mean something like an ideology, evil influence, or universal "economic corruptive force" that is everywhere, but can and should be avoided, wherever you are.

Others, like many Reggae singers, use it as such too (corrupting system), but also often as "place", "location": "down here in Babylon", "leave Babylon" (and go to Zion/Africa).

The common recurrence of the expression "Babylon must fall (or Go Down)" in many Reggae lyrics, combines several meanings: that of a wicked place, as well as of a wicked system, "falling" both physically and, more, metaphorically, i.e. its power stopped and broken.

BOB MARLEY

All these varied meanings are also heard throughout the lyrics of the internationally best-known Reggae artist: Bob Marley.

Some, like myself, have pointed at some commercializing aspects of Marley's music, led by Island boss and producer Chris Blackwell, aimed at catering to White tastes (openly stated as goal by Chris Blackwell, himself a White Jamaican).

This was noticeable in the aspects Blackwell had most influence on (production, "sound" etc., instrument choice), yet, overall, Bob Marley kept his authenticity. Muiscally in part, but even more so lyrically. Admirably, Bob did not compromise his message, and continued with his rebellious message against oppression of African and poor people, standing up for rights, Black and African pride. Criticizing and fighting of "Babylon" was certainly part of this.

Maybe not all people who got to know Bob's songs worldwide knew immediately what Rasta people mean with "Babylon". It does not seem to be a "racial" reference, maybe helping the spread of the music among easily scared White people. If Bob used "white racists" instead of Babylon in some of his lyrics, some would stay away of Bob's music. Yet, these are the fans one should not want to have, I argue.

However, this was neither a "mincing" of words or a deliberate cowardice eschewing "code word" Bob used, to not offend his potential public (or to use an uglier word "market"), or to not thwart producer Blackwell's commercial goals. No, Bob Marley with the common use of "Babylon" just followed the common Rastafari terminology, as it got known before him, and simply followed that spiritual/rebellious tradition.

Like other Rastafari adherents, he also found that Babylon wickedness goes beyond mere racial features, but is a mentality and system, albeit racially unequal. The fact that Bob was half-white (he had a White father) also relates to this, but also full-black Jamaican Reggae artists, of course use Babylon beyond mere race.

CURRENT TIMES

Scholar Berry Chevannes in the documentary Coping With Babylon says something interesting about the use of Babylon, as I mentioned before, pointing out that Rastafari adherents do not just live in the past, but go with their times, and refer to current, contemporary times and events too, thus in a sense re-applying and updating the term "Babylon" to present-day circumstances and situations.

Here it becomes even more intellectually challenging, I think.

Some questions I would like to ask, in relation to this, questions I tried to answer for myself.

2020

The fact that I write this in January 2021, short after a disrupted, odd "coronavirus"/pandemic-dominated year in the whole world, is certainly relevant in this regard. The official story of a bat virus spreading to humans causing a later international pandemic, mankind needeed to confront jointly, was naively believed quite internationally.

Over time, this was questioned more and more by critical thinkers. First these (like David Icke) were considered as fanatical "conspiracy thinkers" who tend to mistrust everything politicians say (justly or not). Yet over time, many reasonable, nuanced - and even medically and scientifically knowledgeable people - came to the conclusion that "things do not add up".

From the natural origins among bats (if so, why does the Chinese state obstruct research into how the virus came about, and the relation to a lab in Wuhan?), to the use of a "pandemic" for economic, elitist goals, with an undemocratic, unexplainable role of a nonelected, nonmedical entrepreneur as Bill Gates as in time main funder of the World Health Organization. This raised in my opinion just suspicion.

Later figures about the actually more limited mortality of this Covid-19 virus, as it got known, than first stated, especially as the virus matured after April 2020. In fact, regarding mortality, it got to similar levels as a medium- to severe flu virus in previous years.

The draconian "lockdown" policies international governments chose supposedly to halt the pandemic throughout the year, - with devastating effects - seemed absurdly dictatorial and disproportionate, in light of these objective facts. The damage to economy, and culture!, and the increase of poverty it caused were even criminal, with the "remedy" proving to be much worse than the cure.

2020 was the first year in modern history that "healthy" people were massively confined/locked in at home for health reasons, with the excuse of a new infectious virus. This was - to make matters worse - presented often in a patronizing manner, as if citizens were all children. The fact that in some countries, like Spain, people could not leave their own house for periods (not even across the street) under threat of stationed police officers, night curfews, the closing down of all clubs, restaurants, theatres (from one day to the other) in many countries, banning of free social gatherings, all led to an absurd dystopia in many countries across the world (to differing degrees), only supported by a stimulated, media-wide irrational fear (for a relatively mild virus!).

Moreover, the fact that in many poor countries, the "stay home" orders also disregarded (or ignored) that many people have to leave their house, simply to eat, to survive.

More people died because of all these policies, than ever would have of Covid-19, is the sad conclusion, I am afraid we must come to after 2020.

This is gettng discussed now openly, also because of increased open objections of (imparcial, uncorrupted) doctors and scientists. Despite increased dictatorial tendencies in many countries calling themselves "democratic" (even here in the Netherlands, where I write this from), there is still a free press and internet, even if now more harassed and bothered by (even paid) proponents of these corona policies.

Let's say it is a "plandemic", as some say. Evidence seems to suggest this, but let's keep the question a bit open. If it is indeed a "plandemic", would the Rastafari people call it (part of) "Babylon" too?

The ones benefitting seem to confirm that it is indeed a "Babylon plan" as Rastafari would define it. A rich economic elite, rich White people in Western countries, controlling most wealth in this world, are connected to the World Health Organization (WHO), and these policies. Bill Gates, but also Rockefeller (starting the WHO once), and others, sometimes are even mentioned condemningly in Reggae lyrics. Sizzla spoke of "Rockefeller handcuffing the world" in his song Babylon Judgement from 2016, a bit - even very much! - predicting the current situation.

In fact, many Reggae lyrics seems to have predicted this odd 2020 "pLandemic" (as it can be seen), referring to wealthy elites, o/downpression, curtailing popular movement, trampling rights, limiting freedoms, of poor Jamacans, Africans, but in fact all poor people. In fact, already since the 1970s.

This is all defined more or less os "Babylon" or "Babylonians", in Reggae lyrics, referring to systems, politicians, elites, inequality, injustice, a.o..

ISMS

Critics of the corona policies - seeming to have the facts more and more on their side - compare them sometimes with Fascism, others with (Chinese-style) Communism, both totalitarian systems, disregarding individual rights. The lab in Wuhan, and the annoying secrecy of the corrupt Chinese state - and their links with Bill Gates and the WHO - seem to support this, while many aspects and policies once in place in Fascist states (under dictators like Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco) have remarkable - and frighteningly - many similarities with present "corona" policies and restrictions, trampling of human rights etcetera. So in my opinion, such comparisons are not totally out of order, nor nonsensical. A good reminder of history.

CUBA

I asked these questions myself years before this "corona crisis". I went several times to Communist-ruled Cuba, between 2001 and 2006. As a Spanish-speaker, I got to know and talk with many Cubans, and made some close friends. I more or less "integrated" in Cuban society, you might say.

Cuba was known as dictatorship, and indeed, there were no "open" elections, and Fidel Castro's rule as president unquestioned and (presented as) unchangeable, when I went there in 2001-2006. In line with this, there were certainly totalitarian aspects in Cuban society, including censorship, "state snitches" (informers) on the neighbourhood level, "informing" the government (unless paid, so corruption too) of unwanted behaviour (including allowing foreign influences), that all Cubans knew to be careful with, especially when having (intimate) relationships with foreigners.

On the other hand, there were during periods of Socialist rule in Cuba after 1959 some positive changes, that seemed to make society more equal, especially for poorer people, including Afro-Cubans.

This came with a price, though: the limited freedom of speech and of choice, had more to do with Fascism than with claimed "Socialism". As Bob Marley sang: "Never make a politician grant you a favour.. they will only want to control you forever.." (song Revolution).

Also, the beneficial role Castro's communist rule had for Afro-Cubans must be put in perspective, as Cuban authors like Carlos Moore (whom I discussed on this blog, in 2016) - once translator for Castro, later critical of him and exiled - , and Castro's, for Castro's "implicit Eurocentrism and racism".

Indeed, despite some equalizing policies in the early stages, white or Euro-Cubans maintained their favourable position. Also the so "equal" Communist leaders and party members were and still are disproportionately, dominantly white/of European of descent or near-white, in a country with a population of over 70% partly or mainly of African descent. A discrepancy Malcolm X also noted, when he visited Cuba, among other things to meet Fidel Castro.

I noticed all this. Added to this were my experiences of the many controlling police officers on the streets (and the said informers and snitches), and stories told by Cubans, of sudden, random arrests on racial grounds, often with the excuse of crushing prostitution. An Afro-Cuban woman with an obviously non-Cuban White, male foreigner/tourist got in the danger zone, though haphazardly, as the police at times turned a blind eye to the obvious - if you want to call it that - prostitution (some call it: "sex tourism"), perhaps because of the needed tourism income for the Cuban economy. Fidel Castro even referred to this sex tourism frivolously: "because of our good health system, our prostitutes are healthy and clean", while the official communist party line in theory opposed it, as all "private businesses" (in whatever form) ..

Having noted all this repression and hypocricy - and the poverty and limited freedom of many Cubans - I had to conclude, being already a Reggae fan then: "this is also Babylon.. just another ISM than Capitalism or Fascism", but similarly repressing humanity and freedom, as so many Reggae lyrics lament.

So, "Babylon" includes alls "ISMS" - as also referred to in Reggae lyrics (often as "isms and schisms"), with "ism" being in reality a linguistic translation of "system": capital is money, capitalism a system, "commune" is a community, communism a system, etcetera.

BACK TO 2020

So is this Covidism or Coronaism/Coronism of 2020 more like Communism (with an influence of a corrupt Chinese state), Capitalism (obvious vaccine company/pharmaceutical interests, Bill gates as entrepreneur), or like Fascism (totalitarian, limiting rights and freedoms, cultural destruction, with "lockdowns" possibly having been "wet dreams" once of dictators like Hitler and Mussolini)? In fact: these dictators have enacted during their reign policies in that "lockdown" direction, e.g. Mussolini once suddenly (by command) forbade "nightlife and clubs" in Italy - they say due to a Vatican influence -, effective immediately, like those lockdowns today..

All these historical comparisons with earlier political "isms" make sense to differing degrees, but they all can be placed more beauitifully and sensibly under the umbrella of "Babylon", as the Rastafari use this term. This shows clearly the strength and utility of the term "Babylon", also for present times, as scholar Barry Chevannes hinted at: the "same old Babylon", as it is referred to in some Reggae lyrics.. Nothing new under the sun.

CORONISM

This "coronism" is quite new and fresh, and the debate surrounding it quite polarized and confused. As a friend of mine said it: "if it is a wicked "plan" (instead of an actual pandemic), it is a very smart one, also psychologically". "Smart" in the wrong sense of the word: trampling physical integrity rights, but at the same time calling for 6 feet/1,5 m distance. Isolating old people in hospitals, yet claiming we do it for them, referring to the love for our old ones ("think of your old mother or grandmother") seems a cheap trick, but is remarkably effective, especially since many citizens feared the new virus.

An infectious diseases has for "Babylon downpressors" furthermore the advantage that it gives an excuse or pretext to outlaw "social gatherings" and thus unwelcome protests, joined protests, popular uprisings, etcetera.. A smart, crafty plan, indeed.

That is probably also the reason why it is not recognized as such unanimously. Even if it is "typically" oppressive Babylon and a PLANdemic (not a real one anymore) as (like me) some argue, the "health policy" focus is effective in scaring people, or convincing of "keeping healthy", and therefore of good intentions of governments. This is evident internationally, in many countries (oddly even securing support in some countries with very repressive lockdown policies, such as Spain), but also in Jamaica itself.

JAMAICAN ARTISTS

Buju Banton's recent outburst against "masks" against corona, and his calling for "freeing his/the people" seemed sincere to me, but was criticized even by some other Rastafari adherents, not just paid or corrupted government officials and politicians. Even Buju's own daughters were used against him (one of them a JLP politician), calling his remark against forced masks "unwise" and irresponsible.. The facts: there is no scientific proof that those proscribed nonmedical masks actually protect against virusses.. Facts do not seem to matter anymore, apparently, in this polarized debate.. Fear does..

Another Rastafari-adhering reggae artist was from the start critical of "coronism/covidism".. Already around March and April - when much of the world was still trying to figure out what went on -, that one being Chronixx..

A relatively young, talented, and by 2020 quite popular Reggae artists, Chronixx had several big hits in Jamaica and in the international Reggae scene. His nice Skanking Sweet became almost a club or summer anthem in 2019. In relation to a "charity event" in 2020 for then spreading Corona/Covid-19 pandemic problems, he called it a (media) "hype" in which he not wished to participate, preferring to release his music on his own terms.

Especially remarkable is Chronixx pioneering "(media) hype" conclusion: it took many, even university-edcated intellectuals in the West, several months before they drew (in other terms) the same conclusion about corona-related policies.. Wisdom of the Rastaman? Knowing what "Babylon" is all about and being prepared? Who knows?

Also other artists, like Sizzla, Lutan Fyah, or Tanya Stephens began to critique harsh corona-related policies or the "hype" , especially as " lockdowns" also meant no or limited "live music", and thus affecting their life choice, livelihood, and sense of purpose directly.

Some of these expressed this directly or indirectly in some songs, of course in the Rastafari tradition of social comment, including references to, yes, "Babylon", such as in the song Nuh Trust Babylon by Lutan Fyah..

All good and well, but overall there seems to be quite some popular support for the corona policies in Jamaica as well. That someone like me, or other critics, do not understand this, does nog negate this support. Protecting one's health and avoiding deadly diseases seem a good idea - also to me - , so maybe for that reason one is less psychologically inclined to question the logic or efficacy of governments, even if negatively affecting one's life and goals. "This is what needs to be done now.. later when it is "fixed" (vaccination?), we'll party again", is a common opinion I heard expressed in many countries, also here in the Netherlands. Mostly by people not exactly experts in "virusses", I must say, but governments are advised by virologists, claiming to be trustworthy and knowledgeable.

There are for these reasons some, but not very much critical lyrics in Reggae, yet, about the coronacrisis specifically, or the ill-informed (and also not proeven to work against virusses) "lockdown" policies so many governments choose to put in place, even if they remind of "captivity" and colonialism for many Caribbean people.

2021

Unfortunately, these corona policies have been taken to the year 2021, so maybe more lyrics in Reggae will be released, criticizing them.

In the Netherlands (and several other countries) the year 2021 started with a continued "lockdown", keeping all bars and clubs closed, restaurants only for "take-away", museums and theatres closed, and with the city of Amsterdam at a Saturday night almost a ghost town, safe small groups of walking friends passing by closed, now unlit bars and clubs, and a few cars of which many were police cars.. This felt to me like a police state, a dictatorship, but also like a ghost town. The latter was not the case in an actual "police state" I have been to, namely Cuba. Always liveliness, music, joy, people, and, okay, also many men in police costumes between all this.

Amsterdam is colder, especially now in winter time, playing a role, but the nightlife always went on. Now its dead. This for a virus now hardly more deadly than a common flu in previous years (Infection Fatality Rate of Covid-19 now around 0,23%, science says, flu just a few years ago around 0,21%), and with hospitals in the Netherlands seeming now capable of dealing with extra patients (according to hospital workers themselves).

"That was a very aggressive vaccine marketing campaign", I recently joked to someone about the last year 2020.

A serious joke, because it is also a guess of mine of why these repressive and draconian policies are still in place, and so much of the civil rights and freedoms limited in the process, often even ressembling Fascist dictatorships, or what I heard my Spanish mother tell me of her growing up in the Franco-ruled Spain that she left around 1966. Ressembling a dictatorship, or "going towards it", which is equally bad and worrisome.

THE BEST WORD

For the sake of argument (others may differ in opinion), I will state now boldly that what was a mild pandemic up to April, became an abused PLANdemic, with other reasons and goals than health.

Capitalist-Communism China-style? Old US/Western merciless exploitative capitalism (Big Pharma, etcetera)? A return to Fascism?.. New World Order? Great Reset (even a public goal)? Elements of all these, combined?

Difficult to tell or define as yet, although the expression "Isms and Schisms", by Rastas, captures its essence well.

What's more, "Babylon" in my opinion adequately and fully describes what is wrong with these (Babylonian) international corona policies.

It is in this case not - as the saying goes - "for lack of a better word"..; rather, in my opinion, the Rastafari term "Babylon" is the best word to describe the entire complexity of this current situation and corona-related crisis, including its historical context, spiritual meanings, and the other connotations the term "Babylon" has, and which I have discussed in this essay..