Black Wadada: dreadlocks, beards, and anticolonialism among rastafari men in Jamaica
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2525-3123.gis.2022.183458Keywords:
Rastafari, Body, Dreadlocks, Politics, JamaicaAbstract
In this essay, I unpack the politics intertwined with two bodily practices observed by many Rastafarian men in Jamaica: the sporting of dreadlocks and beards. I begin with the political history of the dreadlocks and beards in Jamaica, showing how they became connected to notions of Africanism and the social life of biblical texts in the Rastafarian Movement. I argue that these techniques of caring for the body translate Rastafarian anti-colonial politics that challenge and criticize colonial and postcolonial aesthetics and modes of existence on the Caribbean island, which gives rise to reflections on belonging, sovereignty, and diasporic Africanity.
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