Rastafari movement

The Rastafari movement is a monotheistic, Abrahamic, new religious movement^[1] that contends that Haile Selassie I, the former, and final, Emperor of Ethiopia, is the incarnation of God, called Jah^[2] or Jah Rastafari.

The movement encompasses themes such as the spiritual use of cannabis, colloquially known as marijuana^[3][4], and the rejection of western society (called Babylon, in reference more to the metaphoric Babylon of Christianity than to the historical Mesopotamian city-state). It is also based on various Afrocentric social and political aspirations,^[3][5] such as the sociopolitical views and teachings of Jamaican publicist, organizer, and black nationalist Marcus Garvey (also often regarded as a prophet). Haile Selassie was in favor of a Westernized Ethiopia, introducing the first hospital and airport to his people. The Rastafari movement predominantly emerged in Jamaica in the 20th century, and it proclaims Africa (also "Zion") as the original place where the body of the first man was found.

The name Rastafari is a portmanteau of "Ras" (literally "Head," an Ethiopian title equivalent to Duke and which was the pre-regnal title of Haile Selassie), and the first name of Selassie's pre-regnal given name, Tafari Makonnen. The movement is commonly referred to as "Rastafarianism", but this term is considered derogatory and offensive by some Rastas.^[6]