- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books; Tra edition (Jun 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1556524668
- ISBN-13: 978-1556524660
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 16 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 576 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#261,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Rastafari
- #57 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Tribal & Ethnic
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Powerful historical and social forces come together in Lib‚ration journalist Lee's extraordinarily useful book, which appeared in 1999 to acclaim. Jamaican prophet Leonard Howell's revelations in the 1920s about the symbolic portent for the African diaspora of Ras Tafari's crowning as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia led to the birth of one of the 20th century's most enduring and influential religious awakenings. The colonial forces that ruthlessly suppressed Howell and Rastafarianism in his lifetime have also hidden much of his biography, which Lee has reconstructed through impeccable research and dogged sleuthing. Partly a record of its author's journey in search of those who knew and followed Howell, The First Rasta moves with a truth seeker's determination through the slums of Trenchtown and Jamaica's back country, revealing a dauntingly complex landscape and history in which oral history is often more reliable than the written record. Between his part in the intellectual ferment of the Harlem of Langston Hughes and Marcus Garvey, and the destruction of his religious compound in the late '50s, Howell endured lengthy stays in both prisons and mental hospitals, but emerges in these pages as confident and vindicated. Lee's passionate biography, which includes 11 b&w photos, should draw in not only for students of religion, reggae or Jamaican history but has something to offer to anyone interested in the people and ideas that continue to shape the postcolonial world.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Lee, a French journalist, draws on extensive knowledge about the Rastafarian movement made famous by Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley. Considerably less famous is Leonard Howell, the man who developed the movement, cobbling together African culture, divine adoration of Ethiopian ruler Haile Selassie, and the aspirations of African diaspora of the Americas. Lee visited the remains of the Pinnacle, the Rasta compound maintained by Howell in Jamaica in the 1940s with more than 4,000 members and an independent agricultural enterprise that produced and exported marijuana. She recaptures the history of the religion and culture, spawned from the grinding poverty and a people hungry for a god and a place of their own. Howell lived for a while in New York, crossed paths with Marcus Garvey, and eventually returned to the turbulent Jamaican political and economic environment that influenced the spread of Rastafarianism with its trademark dreadlocks, ganja, and reggae. Readers interested in Jamaican culture and the Rasta movement will appreciate this insightful look at one of the most influential mystical movements of the twentieth century. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
When Bob Marley began his reggae crusade in 1972, he came armed not just with the best street poet's songbook since Bob Dylan, but with a strange new spiritual nationality as well. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
When Bob Marley began his reggae crusade in 1972, he came armed not just with the best street poet's songbook since Bob Dylan, but with a strange new spiritual nationality as well. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Place to Start,
By John Boyle "John" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism (Hardcover)
A great deal has been written about the Rastafarian movement, and about Bob Marley in particular. This book, by Helene Lee, goes back about as far as is possible into the foundings of the Rastifarian movement. She treats her subject with sympathy and humour.Ms. Lee gives days, dates, and names for her sources, and is quick to recognise that information on the various indigenous Jamaican religious/political movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are as much to do with local mythology as local fact. This does not mean, however, that the mythology is not true. It just means,that we readers are asked to open our minds a little to a thought system that does not seem to be in keeping with the white western tradition. Jamaica is much more than the tourist spots of Montego Bay etc. It is an island with a great history. The political and religious obstacles with which Leonard Howell struggled are still to be found in modern-day Jamaica. There is a direct line from Leonard Howell to Bob Marley and Ms. Lee traces that lineage.
5.0 out of 5 stars
HAILE BLESS!!!,
By Raphael Black (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism (Hardcover)
This book was very informative and the research done was astounding!!! I would like to thank the author for her taking the time to research such a delicate and profound subject matter as most of Howell's origins are obscure. This book answered many questions for InI on this topic of InI "calling" to Rastafari. Blessed thanks!!!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shockingly Informative,
By Achis (Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism (Hardcover)
I absolutely love this book. Never really one for reading, this book has kind of enthused me to go back and actually READ some of the dozens of books I had purchased over the years but never really set down with.As a descendant of Rastafarians (and a person whose family majority consists of Rastas, I found it very interesting, and answered some of the questions more distinctly than any of my family had in the past. Its mainly about Leonard Percival Howell, "The First Rasta", and talks mainly about his life and times, but the parts of this book that i find most interesting are the parts that deal with other figures in Rastafari culture i.e. Selassie and Marley. As I said, I was never one for reading too much, so if this book got me re-interested in reading then there is definitely something to it. Written by the ex-wife of legend Alpha Blondy. If you're interested in the topic, not a bad place at all to start.
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