Rastafari in the New Millennium Quotes

“Africans in the Diaspora are parodying Western notions of gender relations that are based on the racist and sexist myth of man as the breadwinner (a central tenet of capitalism) and, by extension, head of the household. When this presumption fails to materialize, the authority that that positionality should have provided the man is contrived by assuming psychological and emotional control, which may result
in abuse and its discontents.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Rastafari teachings vigorously advocated self-sufficiency through self-awareness and provided an alternative source of meaning and identity to lives that were frequently mired in hopelessness, alienation, and despair.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“constantly loving the Black woman, always defending the ghetto youths, and giving Rastafari praise.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“The culturally normalized so-called beauty practices of hair straightening and skin bleaching are indicators of this intergenerational syndrome of identity trauma”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Rastafarl should not deal with sex merely for pleasure but should incorporate it into their divine communication and cause a union which should produce children.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“reeducating and "re-righting" history”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“spiritual and mental decolonization.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“neocolonization.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“repatriation should "start in the minds and hearts of our people; in our words, actions and deeds we must go back to Africa. We may never set foot on the continent in our time, but we can live and represent our heritage each day we live in the world”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“by insisting on repatriation, the Rastafarian is liable to jump from the frying pan into the fire.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“honorific pronoun.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Must someone be in some sense a member of a human community, trained in its practices and beholden to its norms, in order to have a "self"? Responses to this issue have divided scholars into the individualist school and the collectivist school.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Belief in the Divinity of Haile Selassie
Chevannes (1998a) observed that the most important belief of the Rastafari is that Haile Selassie, the late Emperor of Ethiopia, is God, thus leading to the Rastafari claim that God is Black. In the same vein, Henry observed that the foundation of Rastafari theology is the mystical knowledge of the divinity of Haile Selassie (1997, 160). However, there appears to be divergent views among Rastafari regarding the divinity of Haile Selassie. Thus, Barnett (2005) claims that the original Twelve Tribes of Israel teachings hold that Jesus Christ was manifested in his second coming in the person of Haile Selassie; the Bobo Shanti hold that Haile Selassie is the father of Jesus Christ (who is Prince Emmanuel, the founder of the house, so far as the Bobo Shanti are concerned); and the Nyahbinghi Order holds that Haile Selaisse is the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (a mansion that occupies a marginal status in the movement) does not accept the divinity of Haile Selassie I, although they still believe that he is of the Solomonic dynasty, thereby linking him with King David and therefore to Christ (Barnett 2005).”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“The investigator is an interpreter (second order) of the interpretations people have already given to their lives (first order).”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Philosophy ... is something intermediate between theology and science. Like theology, it consists of speculations on matters as to which definite knowledge has, so far, been unascertainable; but like science, it appeals to human reason rather than to authority, whether that of tradition or that of revelation. All definite knowledge-so I should contend-belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attack from both sides; this No Man's Land is philosophy.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit....”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“money brings confusion.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“I'm a living fire, a living stone foundation, a tool to annihilate the system of lies. I want freedom, fraternity, sharing.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“the way to fight Babylon was through music.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Let's start this feeling, this mental posture, fraternity, to see in each human being a brother.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“When we ascend we have to give
people what they deserve: dignity. What I understand by dignity is that man is an instrument for love,”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Capitalism was taken away from my life. To maintain this hair, I cannot invest in the system. Not a cent. I live from the powers, like Daniel, like Joshua. I live like Jesus Christ. I live spirit, because I am spirit. If I live in spirit, I have to walk in spirit.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Rastafari is the spirit of light; that I'm in the light of God.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“transformed through Jah and the Holy Ghost the segments of Babylon that were inside of me.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“born Rastafari," but had "assumed the posture" in the late seventies or early eighties after being exposed to reggae music.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Rastafari is the King with the Holy Spirit. I am a King with the Holy Spirit.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Haile Selassie I." One said that when he used the term, he literally meant "the power of the holy trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“he was/is God in the same way that they themselves were God, with the difference between themselves and the emperor lying in the degree of inspiration by, or in the dwelling of, the Holy Spirit.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“Because Afro-Bahians have refused to give up their heritage, cultural and religious pluralism has managed to prevail over acculturation to European norms.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

“the Rastafari of Pelourinho already live spiritually in the midst of Africa and Jamaica. Thus, their goal is not to abandon where they live but to transform its Babylonian elements.”
― Michael Barnett, Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader