Abstract

"Rastafari practitioners have continually resisted social sciences definition of what outsiders called a millenarian movement. They maintained against these efforts of categorization that Rastafari as a lived and living philosophy combines ancient roots with ever emerging routes. These historical, dynamic and creative dimensions challenge any homogenizing attempts to freeze the 'movement' in time and space. African origins are as important as Diasporean experiences for Rastafari in the manifold struggles to downstroy slavery and oppression. But the strong universal appeal towards the realization of equal rights and justice implodes analytical and practical limitations of a Black Atlantic culture. This volume brings together contributions from well-known Rastafari practitioners and social scientists as a counter to the unilateral politics of outside definition, identification, and misrepresentation. They discuss Rastafari as an experimental philosophy; its historical and contemporary global culture dimensions and its contribution to issues such as decolonization, reparation and repatriation. "