Natty Dreadlocks The Study of the Youth Black Faith and the Bobo Dreads

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Natty Dreadlocks The Study of the Youth Black Faith and the Bobo Dreads

The most outstanding characteristic of the Rastafarians is then- hair. Although other people view dreadlocks as disgusting, smelly, and as a symbol of craziness, the Rastas see the dreadlocks as part of who they are and what they stand for. The longer and more developed their dreads are represents their status and their faith. They think of their hair as a crown, like the crown of their king, Halle Selassie, or to the main of the lion symbolizing male strength. The Rastas' crowns let people know they are rebelling against oppression and do not want to"fit in"with the people that view them as freaks.

They started this trend to go against organizational life and challenge the social and religious norms that were implicated at the time. The Youth Black Faith and later the Bobo Dreadlocks made great contributions to implementing the Dreadlock trend and helped break away from the oppression they endured.

In the late 1940's, five brethren, guided by their love for the Rastafarian doctrine. got together to start what would become the Youth Black Faith. These five leaders held their own on the streets. They called themselves Brother Taf, Pete, Brother Firsop, Badaman and Watson. Kingston was expanding rapidly due to peasants leaving the rustic for urban poverty. Back-o-Wall had already entered into Ackee Walk next to the large May Pen cemetery and stretched farther south all the way to the seaside except for an intervening portion that the water commission owned. In Trench Town, also, slums filled up the area with footpaths and alleyways connecting them.

It was at one of these slums in Trench Town, Ninth Street to be exacts that Brother Taf and Pete lived. ...

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... to Walter

Rodney , Africa World Press Inc., 1987

Chevannes, Barry, Rastafari : Roots and Ideology Hausman, Gerald, the Kebra Negast - The-Book-of-Rastafarian Falth--from Ethiopia and Jamaica , St. Martin's Press, 1997

Internet

[precise URLs may be in error due to translation, and they are not the fault of the author. -Editor] Jamaica atlas : http: //WWW. t Urknet. coin/ at I as/ 9 7 august/_I am at ca/page2. htni I

The Bobo Dread: Beliefs and Rituals :

littp:/'/www.envirolink.org/oneworlct/t'OCLts/ettopla/rasta3.litinI

Dread History : 'The African Diaspora, Ethiopianism, and Rastafari

littp://editcate.si.edLL/nllgrations/rasta/pic I O.html

The Bobo Dread : Relations with the Outside

littp: /'/www. etiviro link. org/oneworld/t'OCLIs/etiopia/rasta 1. litral

The Bobo Dread :

littp: //www. envirolik. org/oneworld/ t'OC US/eti Opt a/rasta. htm I

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