The Politics of Repatriation and the First Rastafari, 1932–1940

Abstract

This article examines Leonard P. Howell’s understanding of repatriation as a form of black resistance aimed at decolonizing Jamaica. Howell, who is considered a Rastafari founder, engaged in political activities that indicated an investment in psychological repatriation as opposed to physical repatriation to facilitate a Rastafari black nationalist agenda for Jamaica. The Rastafari movement was inspired by the conception of Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie I as the promised return of the Messiah, prophesied by the Bible. Howell’s use of repatriation to Ethiopia for black people has been equated to the back-to-Africa campaign of Marcus Garvey, the great pan-Africanist and black nationalist. However, Howell’s efforts to use repatriation to decolonize the Jamaican people suggests an alternative view. His back-to-Africa rhetoric was inflated by the British colonial government of Jamaica, and later creole nationalists, to undermine his political successes. The colonial strategy applied to Howell has left distorted knowledge about his radical anti-colonialism and political agency. While it is indisputable that he paid homage to Ethiopia, this article demonstrates that Howell intended to remain in Jamaica, where he would work to make the island a part of a global diaspora of the kingdom of God in Ethiopia.