Why was the rastafarian movement started?

Answer 1

The rastafarian movement started as a method of resistance to western

society which was considered oppressive. It began based on the beliefs of Marcus Mosiah Garvey who promoted the idea of a "Back to Africa" movement for the black people whose ancestors were originally brought over as slaves, as well as encouraging pride in themselves as black people. It has an afrocentric belief system where (due to resentment of slavery and post slavery society) white run systems and government were "Babylon" and so were bad, even evil, from the rastafarian perspective.The rastafarian belief system is against western society and looks at Africa, specifically Ethiopia, as the source of the first man and as a holy land. It also looks at Haile Selassie the first, an emperor of Ethiopia as an incarnation of 'Jah' on Earth.

Leonard Howell, the earliest named rastafarian leader, was persectued greatly by the Jamaican government as a public nuisance. He established the first organised rastafiarian group and essentially set down the belief system by which they currently abide; anti-white and anti-western society beliefs, belief in Selassie as a god and belief in Africa as a holy land to which they must return.