Religious Education S.B.

Introduction

The Rastafarian symbols are important tools to the Rasta’s and their religion and a massive amount of Rasta’s see it as a way of life rather than a religion as a result of this the researcher did a research in order to find out “The importance of the Rastafarian symbols to the Rasta’s and why does the Rasta’s of the community of Rose Hill District, St.Mary join this religion?”

Acknowledgment

The researcher would like to thank a number of persons for their assistance and cooperation throughout this research without them the successful completion of this study would not have been possible.

Firstly the researcher would like to thank his teacher Mrs. Thomas and his friend Christopher Stephenson for giving him the task of completing this research truly it had positively impacted and the researcher and for instructing the researcher so he could put the research together. The researcher would like to thank his parent for relieving him from his chores and for her encouragement throughout this stressful period so that the research could be properly conducted and completed.

The researcher would also like to thank the Rasta’s of the community of Riversdale, St. Catherine for answering the given questionnaires, for making sure the researcher was on the right track in conducting his research and the Highgate Library and their internet source for providing the researcher with the necessary important information and last but not least the researcher would like to thank God for giving him the strength and patience so that the research could be properly conducted and completed.

Topic: Rastafarian Symbols

Aims

The importance of the Rastafarian symbols.
The significance of the Rastafarian symbols.
The founder and foundation of the different Rastafarian symbols.
The different uses of the Rastafarian symbols.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

The researcher used both primary and secondary sources to obtain information. The primary source used is questionnaire. A questionnaire may be defined as a written set of questions answered by a number of people to provide information for a survey. A total of twenty (20) questionnaires were issued to twenty Rastafarians, eighteen males and two females living in the Riversdale community in St.Catherine on July 28, 2011 and were collected back within ten working days. The reason the researcher decided to use written questionnaire are:
Questionnaire allow data to be collected from a large number of people
Questionnaire is cost effective
Questionnaire make it possible to compare the responses of many respondents
Questionnaire can be used to collect data that can be expressed in statistical for using graphs and tables.

The secondary source used to obtain information is literature review. The researcher used literature review to gain factual information of what books and reliable websites have said about the topic, Rastafarian symbols and this allow for comparison of the different views. The limitations experience in using these methods to collect data is that the respondents may not answer the questions truthfully and the questions may be ambiguous.

Summary of finding

Literature review have shown that the Rastafarian religion was formed in 1930 by a group of Rasta’s and from that time until now it have been widespread throughout the world. The Rastafarian movement is said to be a male dominated religion with about 92% of the members of this religion been male and a small 8% been female. Rasta’s are expected to be purity and righteous people and are not expected to eat any & everything thus they eat what is known as ital food as been part of their main diet to remain healthy & fit. The ganja is one of the most recognized symbols of the Rastafarian and thus is smoke in abundance by them and all some none Rasta’s as they said it help them to meditate. The marijuana is not only use for smoking by the Rasta’s but they use it as medicine and they also use it in worship to get closer to God. The word jah is used in the everyday life of the Rasta’s and also non Rasta’s whether in worship when reaching out to their supreme being Haile Selassie or in their every life talking.

The word jah has become a profound word use by almost every entertainer in the music industry today in their songs whether Rasta or non Rasta and is seen printed on buildings and vehicles of Rasta’s and non Rasta’s. Unlike the word jah the Rastafarian flag is seen printed on the buildings & vehicles of many Rastafarian living in the world today. The dread locks should be a symbol that as you see a Rasta you know that he or she is a real Rasta but it is not quite so in the world today, many person living in the world today tend to use the dreadlocks hair style as a fashion and not as a symbol of been part of the religious group.

This is not good for the Rastafarian religion for if these imitators when out and do something which is not righteous or profound to the Rastafarian religion it would not only give this person a bad name but instead giving the Rastafarian religion a bad name. Many person today use the dreadlocks hair style & the Rastafarian religion as just a stepping stone for making money and one place where this is widely use is the entertainment industry. The Rastafarian religion today have not just benefited Rastafarian alone but also non Rasta as during the fast tourist season such as the summer time many person make arts of the Rastafarian symbols & other instrument of the Rastafarian movement and sell it to tourist to make a living and also some men tend to Rasta up their hair to become marketable to the tourist as it is said that tourist love and cherish Rasta men and are willing to pay for their service sex wise.