Abstract
Abstract In this article, I address how my interlocutors, members of the Rastafari community in Puerto Rico, claim that they identify with Blackness and Africanness in a manner different from other Black-identifying Puerto Ricans. Their identification process presents a spiritual and global construction of Blackness that does not fit within the typical narratives often used to discuss Black identity in Puerto Rico. I argue that their performance of a spiritually Black identity creates a different understanding of Blackness in Puerto Rico, one that is not nation-based but rather worldwide. This construction of Blackness and Black identity allows my interlocutors to create an imagined community of Blackness and African descent that extends past Puerto Rico’s borders toward the greater Caribbean region and African continent. In the first section, I discuss how Blackness is understood and emplaced in Puerto Rico and why this construction is considered too limiting by my interlocutors. I then address their own construction of Blackness, what I refer to as “spiritual Blackness,” and how they believe it diverges from Afro-Boricua/Black Puerto Rican identity. In the final section, I direct focus to how Africa is centralized in the construction of spiritual Blackness.
Highlights
On February 6, 2015, a reggae concert was held in celebration of Bob Marley’s birthday in the Bahia Urbana section of Old San Juan
While they may feel some sort of camaraderie with Puerto Ricans who celebrate their Blackness or African heritage within a Puerto Rican context, Rastas clearly associate with foreign expressions of Blackness not indigenous to Puerto Rico
For Jacob, African refers to the multitude of ethnic groups on the African continent while Black is a state of mind like Afrocentrism, which comes from within—“spiritually.” Generally, while some have argued that the two signify different identities, they still believe the two are inherently linked since Africa is seen as the homeland of all Black people
Summary
Pienso nadie en Puerto Rico más que el movimiento Rastafari está moviendo o peleando por los objetivos de la verdad de la negritud que es retornar a África, sean esta mental o físico. Those who deny it apparently need to relearn this history and they will discover their “origins” and “where they come from.” My interlocutors shared this idea that “knowing where you come from” would result in more Puerto Ricans recognizing and celebrating their African heritage and Blackness. For Jacob, African refers to the multitude of ethnic groups on the African continent while Black is a state of mind like Afrocentrism, which comes from within—“spiritually.” Generally, while some have argued that the two signify different identities, they still believe the two are inherently linked since Africa is seen as the homeland of all Black people. “There is no difference between Black and African because Africa is Black, the culture is Black, and Jah is Black.” He points out that the name of the major Bobo Ashanti church he is affiliated with in Jamaica is called the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress, “Ethiopia, Africa, Black ... you know? It is all the same to us.”
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