INTERVIEW : BORIS LUTANIE
Interview by : Sébastien Jobart
Pictures by : DR
on Thursday, March 07th 2013 - 14 468 views
A specialist in Rasta in France, Boris Lutanie has written numerous articles on the subject in several magazines: Watch Dis, Radikal, Ragga and Reggae Vibes Magazine. Co-written with the anthropologist Jakes Homiak, his latest book, "Rastafari, de la révélation à la révolution", brings together articles published in Reggae Vibes between 2010 and 2012.
The Holy Piby, the "Black Man's Bible", Leonard Howell, Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert and Pa Ashanti, Selassie's visit in 1966, the role of Bob Marley… We immerse ourselves in the movement's rich history. Interview.
Reggaefrance / Is Rasta first and foremost a black vision of religion?
Boris Lutanie / At the beginning of the twentieth century, the idea of a black Christ, or a black divinity, in any case a black vision of spirituality, took shape in what is broadly referred to as "Ethiopianism". For a few individuals it would take on the dimension of a true revelation at the coronation of Haile Selassie on 2 November 1930. A number of figures would link this event to biblical passages, to prophecies attributed to Marcus Garvey, and, as we discuss in the first chapter, to a figure called Robert Athlyi Rogers, who in 1924 published a small black bible, "The Holy Piby". It is called the "Ethiopian Bible", or the "African Bible", because a number of people would see in it the prophecy, or the prophecies, that announced the coming of Haile Selassie a few years later.
In fact, the Rasta movement is completely decentralised and made up of a multitude of small chapels.
Exactly, and that was so even before the Rasta movement was born. Some are more or less at odds with more official religious movements. In the USA, a number of black political-religious movements appeared in the 1920s, associated closely or loosely with Garveyism. There are, for example, the Black Jews in Harlem, or the NOI and many other congregations that are a little dissident with respect to Protestantism and the other recognised denominations. This African-American protest through the religious medium is also present in the Caribbean, of course, and in Africa in the so-called Zionist and Ethiopian churches… A number of biblical passages are reinterpreted in this context of challenging the dominant order, colonialism. They would catalyse the anticolonial discontent perceptible in those years. There is indeed a religious breath, which is diffuse, with a messianic expectation, the expectation of a redeemer who would come to free the black people in Africa and in the New World. Ethiopia, in those years, is the only African country that had not been colonised. When the country was attacked in 1935 by Fascist Italy, a pro-Ethiopian solidarity showed itself very strongly in the Caribbean and in America. In 1932, the Negus is crowned "King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah" and his titles appear several times in the Bible: individuals such as Leonard Percival Howell, Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert, Henry Archibald Dunkley or Robert Hinds see in this the fulfilment of the Holy Scriptures, of the prophecies uttered by Marcus Garvey, James Morris Webb or Robert Athlyi Rogers, who was also a member of the UNIA.
 Priest Dermot Fagan, leader of the community "Emperor Haile Selassie I School of Vision, Bible Study, Prophecies, and Sabbath Worship", Blue Mountains (February 2012 / © Boris Lutanie)
Besides Robert Athlyi Rogers, the book highlights three figures: Leonard Howell, Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert, and Pa Ashanti.
We know Leonard Howell through the work of Robert Hill and Hélène Lee ("The First Rasta", available as a book and on DVD, ed.). We know less about the figures who appeared at exactly the same time as Howell, and some of whom walked alongside him for a while. One of them is Joseph Hibbert, who was also a great traveller and who came back to Jamaica in 1931, a year before Howell. He too went on to preach this new spirituality. Another, whom we will discuss in the next book with Robert Hill, who had the chance to talk to him, is Henry Archibald Dunkley, a sailor. These were strong personalities who left Jamaica to travel the world and came back at around the same time, after the coronation of the Negus, to spread this new, subversive doctrine.
 Dès le début du mouvement, il y a cette remise en cause de la tutelle coloniale et des autorités jamaïcaines 
This doctrine varied from one figure to another: each defended his own vision.
These men did not all share exactly the same conception, the same vision of Rastafari. Each of them brought his own sensibility to it. There has always been a great deal of diversity within the movement. That is rather a good thing. The movement has often been criticised for being disorganised, but that is also what makes up its richness, its complexity and its freedom. It has never been centralised in a single organisation. Most Rastas do not belong to an organisation, in fact. There is a variety of brotherhoods, groups and organisations; it is a mosaic of influences and not a hierarchical church. There is a strong aspiration to unity while preserving the diversity of its expressions. From the beginning, the Bible has been used by Rastas. Some accept the Bible from A to Z, like the Twelves Tribes of Israel or the School of Vision, who consider that every passage of the Bible is valid. Others are more selective and read between the lines. In fact, the Bible accompanied slavery, through the forced conversion of slaves. There is a phenomenon of both attraction and repulsion towards this text. It is a rather ambivalent relationship: the biblical text was at once an instrument of subjugation in the hands of the slave owners, and also a weapon used by the Rastas against the colonial system and the oppressor, by reclaiming this text. There is a double aspect, positive and negative, to this text. Some embrace it fully, others only partially. Others still reject it.
Pa Ashanti, the third figure, brought the Burru drums into Rasta ceremonies.
The Burru drummers and the Rasta community were naturally drawn to one another; each lived on the margins of the social order, and a phenomenon of mutual fusion took place. The Rastas appropriated the kete drums, what came to be called Nyahbinghi percussion (the trio of funde, repeater and bass drum). We all know the contribution of Count Ossie and his group The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. Pa Ashanti is a figure who stands a little further back from the official history, but he is just as important. He belongs to that new generation of dreadlocks, at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s, which broke with the previous one, that of Howell, Hibbert and Dunkley. This new generation of radical Rastas set up new cultural codes. They appropriated these Nyabinghi drums and created their own rhythm, with the chants, psalmody and praises that go with it. Pa Ashanti represents that submerged part of history, which Jakes has rediscovered to a very large extent. We tried to pay tribute to him because he appears almost nowhere. As a footnote to history, he had recorded a grounation with Lee Perry, but it seems the tapes burned in the fire at the Black Ark. I think it was called "Pa Ashanti slaughter the dragon" (Pa Ashanti slays the dragon, ed.). He also appears in the documentary "Rastafari Voices", which can be watched on the internet.
From its birth, the Rasta movement challenged the colonial system and was therefore hunted down by the police.
Even before the Rasta movement emerged in the early 1930s, a number of groups in the wake of Robert Athlyi Rogers, such as The Hamatic Church, or Bedward's movement, were persecuted. The Rastas would be accused of blasphemy, of inciting hatred between communities, and of challenging the legitimacy of the British Crown, since they considered Haile Selassie to be their king, and no longer King George. From the very first Rasta gatherings, there was this challenge to colonial rule and to the Jamaican authorities. The movement appeared seditious and was very harshly repressed by the authorities, both before and after independence.
 Wika Ipple strikes the bass drum with his mallet inside the Nyahbinghi tabernacle at Scotts Pass. (March 2012 / © Boris Lutanie)
Does ganja play a part in this persecution? It is notably what caused the raids on Howell's Pinnacle.
It was used as a pretext to put an end to the Pinnacle. The commune of the Pinnacle, led by Howell, appeared to the ruling power as a counter-society. Ganja was not really a problem in the early 1930s. It was a popular practice that was not exclusive to the Rastas. The sacralisation of ganja, like the wearing of dreadlocks, appeared with the generation of Pa Ashanti, at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s. It was a cultural codification that they created, what they call Livity, a whole way of life with codes, rites and symbols. Ganja was not venerated from the start of the movement, but it was very widely used among the population in a non-ritual way. Ganja had been in Jamaica for a long time, since after emancipation, when Indian and African workers were hired under contract following the abolition of slavery. Ethnobotanists think it was most probably the Indians who brought the seeds with them.
A decisive moment was Selassie's visit to Jamaica in 1966. The government hoped that Selassie would deny his divinity. Not only did he not deny it, but he showed respect and consideration for the Rastas...
The Jamaican government thought it could publicly discredit the Rastas by hoping that Haile Selassie would make a statement denying any divine dimension. It was a risky gamble! It was a turning point for the movement because, indeed, not only did he not reject the Rastas, he received them. There were several private audiences during his stay, including one at which he handed out medals to certain representatives of the movement on 22 April 1966. This thwarted the Jamaican government's plans, and it accelerated the development of the movement, which grew greatly in importance after his visit. Young people like Bob Marley, who wasn't there, incidentally, but who began to grow his locks as soon as he returned the following year. It is truly a crucial moment for the movement. Everyone has a personal anecdote about that particular day. It is hard to separate what belongs to mythology from what is factual truth, but that is not really what matters. Many people personally felt invested with a personal connection to the Negus, and sometimes claim a direct communion with him. It is a moment that is still very present in memories and in discussions.
Bob Marley played a key role in spreading the Rasta message.
From the start, Bob Marley met Mortimer Planno, a highly respected Nyahbinghi patriarch. He then joined a new congregation, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, which appeared in 1968. Before his death, he converted to Ethiopian Christianity, and a great deal has been written here and there about that story. He thus passed through all the Rasta currents. It cannot be seen in a chronological and exclusive way; that would be too simplistic. It is not because he was in the Twelve Tribes that he disowned the Nyahbinghi, and it is not because he was baptised by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church that he disowned his attachment to Rastafari. It is more complex than that. There is a principle of free association and free movement within Rasta groups and communities. When he stayed in London, Bob Marley attended meetings of the Ethiopian World Federation. He also knew the Bobo Ashanti of Bull Bay... He always had the desire to unify the movement, and regretted that it was too fragmented and failed to speak with one voice. He is an extremely important figure for the international spread of the movement. If it has taken on a worldwide dimension today, it is to Bob Marley that we owe it.
 This Boboshanti banner bearer proudly holds up the flag marked with the "R" that signifies the righteousness of the faithful, "Righteousness", Bobo Hill, Bull Bay (March 2012 / © Boris Lutanie)
If the 1970s saw the rise of the Twelves Tribes of Israel, the 1990s brought another group to the fore, the Bobos Ashantis. Theirs is a much stricter vision...
There was the whole period of the 1980s, during which the Rastas lost a little ground as gun lyrics and slackness developed. Then came the roots revival with Garnett Silk, and finally new figures such as Sizzla, Capleton and Anthony B, who popularised the Bobos Ashantis and their leader Prince Emmanuel. They do indeed have a much more rigorous and ecclesiastical vision. It is a priestly order. It is very ambivalent, by the way, when we talk about the Bobos, because there is quite a glaring gap between the Bobo musical phenomenon in reggae and the Boboshanti who live in the Rastafari community at Bobo Hill, up in the hills of Bull Bay. In this very monastic community, reggae has no place. Nyabinghi drums are the only music played there. Capleton and Sizzla had contact with the community, but they subsequently developed on the margins, Sizzla with his Judgment Yard and Capleton with his David House.
Can we then truly speak of Bobo artists?
It is a bit problematic, indeed... The Bobos regard reggae as profane music at best, and at worst as commercial music, even diabolical according to some. In other words, a Babylonian industry that commodifies Rasta culture. So it is rather ambiguous.
Today, is the movement united or does it remain fragmented?
There is a variety of groups coexisting within the movement, such as the Nyahbinghi, the Boboshanti, the Ethiopian World Federation, the Twelve Tribes, the IEWF, the Millenium Council, the Orthodox... In short, these are the organisations, fraternities and congregations that have historically structured the movement. But most Rastas around the world are independent personalities with no affiliation. Today, the generation of Dreadlocks patriarchs to which Pa Ashanti belonged is sadly dying out. As a result, there is a phenomenon of generational renewal. Recently, the movement has gone through several controversies, with Bunny Wailer (against the film "Marley", then Snoop Dogg), with Sizzla (who was reportedly proclaimed President of the Rasta movement by a few figures) and also the so-called conversion of Snoop Dogg, which seems to many a purely media event, whose ins and outs we don't really know. We don't quite know whether all this is a publicity stunt or whether there are other underlying stakes. All these controversies tend to sow confusion and tension within the movement, which is searching for itself a little at the moment. We may be reaching the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. Time will tell...
 "Rastafari - De la Révélation à la révolution"
By Jakes Homiak and Boris Lutanie
Editions Joffrain-Garain
Out now / €19.95
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