How To Say Babylon: A Jamaican memoir

by Safiya Sinclair

When Howell’s commune was burned to the ground, the vision of a unified Rastafari movement was demolished, and Rastas, who continued shepherding peace and love, became public targets for unprovoked civilian and police beatings, and widespread discrimination. They were often arrested for walking along the beachside areas being developed for tourists, because their appearance was viewed as an eyesore, and the government, while courting foreign investors, tried to ban Rastas from using Montego Bay’s coastal roads. Their families turned them away, just as my grandmother had done to my father that rainy afternoon, and most Rastafari became nomadic and reclusive, choosing to live peacefully among themselves in small encampments scattered all over the island.