The First Rasta

Going far beyond the standard imagery of Rastaganja reggae and dreadlocksthis cultural history offers an uncensored vision of a movement with complex roots and the exceptional journey of a man who taught an enslaved people how to be proud and impose their culture on the world In the 1920s Leonard Percival Howell and the First Rastas had a revelation concerning the divinity of Haile Selassie king of Ethiopia that established the vision for the most popular mystical movement of the 20th century Rastafarianism Although jailed ridiculed and treated as insane Howell also known as the Gong established a Rasta community of 4500 members the first agroindustrial enterprise devoted to producing marijuana In the late 1950s the community was dispersed disseminating Rasta teachings throughout the ghettos of the island A young singer named Bob Marley adopted Howells message and through Marleys visions reggae made its explosion in the music world