The Twelve Tribes of Israel: An Organizational Movement

4234 Words9 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The growth of the rastafarian movement

The Twelve Tribes of Israel: An Organizational Movement

The Rastafarian Movement has been one of the most important movements of our time. It has proved to us that it is possible to make lemonade out of the lemons that are dealt to us, and that violence is not the only way to deal with troubles or get what you feel you deserve. It has also provided a system of faith and following for over 700,000 loyal people. A Social, political and religious explosion with as few negative connotations as possible, Rasta is just about as good as it gets.

Like all religious trees, Rasta has branched out into a variety of sub-movements, such as Nyabinghi, the Ethiopian National Congress or Bobo dreads, and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, just to name a few. The Twelve Tribes are especially interesting because they believe in salvation for all races, whereas the doctrines of other Rastas are exclusive to Blacks, primarily because of the very roots of the religion: Whites making slaves out of them. While this idea may seem quite revolutionary, there are other aspects of this movement that are completely receded. Frankly, the faith resembles its influences of Christianity and Judaism more than Rastafarianism, in a lot of instances.

The purpose of this paper is to shed a little bit of light on the widely unknown subject of this interesting and persistent movement. First I will discuss the history of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, an ideal embraced primarily and whole-heartedly by the Jews.

The name 'Israel' comes from heaven. Most of us, when we hear the word ‘Israel’ think only of the Jews. But from the beginning they have had to share this title with a great many others, because in scripture the House of Israel consists of twelve tribes and the Jews are just one of those twelve.

Jacob was just an ordinary guy, living long before the birth of Jesus Christ. He had 2 wives who were sisters, and two slave-wives. Between them were born 12 boys. One night while these kids were young, an angel came to Jacob and they spent the entire evening wrestling. The angel was God. Suprisingly, God didn’t annihilate this mere human, and the match ended in a stalemate. God then changed Jacob’s name to Israel, which means, "rebel". Who else but a rebel would physically fight with the angel of God?

Show More
Related

  • History and Function of the Bar Mitzvah

    1423 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon. "Jewish Traditions." World religions: western traditions. 1996. Reprint. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2011. 127-157. Print.

    Read More

  • Hawk Roosting& Golden Retrievals Analysis

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poems "Hawk Roosting" written by Ted Hughes and "Golden Retrievals" written by Mark Doty, both poets compose their poems as speakers "talking" (thinking) through animals' point of views. Although both poems are written through an animal's eyes, both take on the world from very different views through their complex characterization of an egotistical hawk to a lighthearted golden retriever. Hughes and Doty portray their animals in a way that makes it seem like they feel that they're superior to humans (although in different manners) through the usages of alienated alliteration, inventive imagery, straightforward syntax, melodramatic metaphor, and perplex personification.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes and Stereotyping in Invisble Man

    459 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ras the Exhorter (later the Destroyer) is the stereotypical black supremacist. One of the most memorable characters to me, Ras battles for social equality; literally. Literally meaning prince in one of Ethiopia's languages and mimicking the sound of Ra, the Egyptian sun God, Ras encompasses the stereotypical black-nationalist. By using these allusions, Ellison is establishing the character's personality even before he acts. Ras's philosophy, one that was unorthodox at the time of publishing, is that blacks should cast off oppression and prejudice by destroying the ability of white men to control them. This inevitably leads to violence. This anti-segregation from blacks was unheard of.

    Read More

  • Black Power as Interpreted by Stokely Carmichael

    1714 Words  | 4 Pages

    The concepts of Reform and Revolution are nearly polarizing by their very nature, with one seeking to modify, and the other seeking to destroy and rebuild. If an organized Black movement was to find itself in an opportunistic position -whatever that may be- with which to attempt a radical movement (in either case; reform or revolution, the resulting movement would need to be large and radical if it would hope to accomplish its goals before the opportunity for change ceases to present itself) it would only serve to befall their efforts if they found themselves in a splintered state of conflicting ideologies. But, in either case, be it reform or revolution, a reconfiguring of the thought processes behind how one looks at the nature of American politics is undoubtedly necessary in order to look into the potential for future Black liberation.

    Read More

  • Essay On Jfk Assassination

    2312 Words  | 5 Pages

    The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States marked a tragic historical moment in American history. The president was fatally shot by a sniper while traveling with his wife, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally’s wife in a presidential motorcade at 12.30 pm on Friday, November 22, 1963. JFK was pronounced dead shortly after rushing to Parkland Hospital, where a tracheostomy and other efforts failed to keep him alive. Although Lee Harvey Oswald, a former United States Marine was convicted of the crime, the purpose behind the assassination remained inclusive as Oswald’s case never came to trial as he got shot to death two days later by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub operator in Texas. The assassination raised many questions and theories concerning the murder. As Oswald’s motives remain unknown, many scholars and investigators yearned to find the key to this mysterious crime, and came up with plausible theories searching for motives behind the assassination. While some straightforwardly blamed Oswald for the murder, claiming Oswald’s personal motives as the cause and supported the theory of the Lone Gunman, many developed more critical theories concerning conspiracies connecting the involvement of Cuba, Russia, the Central Intelligence Agency and the 36th President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson. The Warren Commission was established by President Johnson to exclusively investigate the assassination. The Commission published a detailed report and concluded that Oswald acted alone. The deficiency of the Warren Commission’s evidence to support its theory along with the cordial relationship between JFK and the CIA refute both the Lone Gunman theory and conspiracies involving the CIA in...

    Read More

  • Ed Skopal: A Quest for Rastafarian Wisdom

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    Those who are uneducated in what exactly the Rastafarian lifestyle contains may think that Rastafarians are people who have dreads, people who only wear pan-Africanism colors, and people who inhale narcotics while listening to reggae music. True Rastafarians are those who follow the doctrine of Haile Selassie I, even though Haile Selassie I never regarded himself as a god, nor did he adhere to the Rastafari lifestyle. Marcus Garvey is the one people are holding responsible with the adaption of Rastas regarding Selassie as a god. I was also surprise that Skopal only mentioned Ethiopia but once or twice when, Ethiopia is the foundation of the Rastafari ideology. Rastafari’s believe that Hallie Selassie I was the second coming of my Christian savior

    Read More

  • The Woman Who Fathered Me: A Caribbean Woman's Role in the Family

    4370 Words  | 9 Pages

    10. Yawney, Carole D. Moving with the dawtas of Rastafari: from myth to reality. pgs. 15--23; 33--55; and 65--73. (excerpts from Teresa Turner's New Society.)

    Read More

  • The Assassination Of John Kennedy

    1748 Words  | 4 Pages

    From examining John F. Kennedy’s assassination, many people have come to the conclusion that there was a second party involved in the shooting of the President of the United States. The writers give great theories and facts leading people to believe that the Warren Report was false and later used to cover up the death of John Kennedy. With this great information out to the public it is obvious that the mob was involved with the planning assassination. After, all this evidence it only makes sense that the Warren Report is false, and that the mob was involved the whole time.

    Read More

  • The Connections Between Judaism and Rastafarianism

    3663 Words  | 8 Pages

    "The Rastafarians emerge as a loosely organized inspirational group (or groups?) of men and women concerned at the plight of black people, especially the plight of those whose ancestors were forcibly removed from Africa to become the slaves of the white man on his plantations in the islands of the Caribbean"(Cashmore, 1). The English takeover of Jamaica in 1660 started the terrible beginning of the African Diaspora. Millions of Africans were stolen off of their continent and were shipped over to the Caribbean where they were fashioned to do slave labor so the Europeans could make money. Over 80 million Africans died in the process of departing to the islands. The slaves were denied any form of religion and were treated like animals. They were also denied food and were made to grow their own food so they could feed themselves. Many years went by till the slaves started to rebel. The 'Maroons' were a group of runaway slaves who started a powerful group of guerrilla warriors who lived in the most dangerous woods in Jamaica. But the Maroons gave in and signed a peace treaty in 1738 and were paid to catch the runaway slaves and became supporters of slavery.

    Read More

  • Sacrifice within the Israelite Religion

    1594 Words  | 4 Pages

    1996. “Sacrifices and Offerings in Ancient Israel” in Community, Identity, and Ideology: Social Science approach to the Hebrew Bible., ed. Charles E. Carter.

    Read More

  • The Emergence of Two Types of Jews in America

    1984 Words  | 4 Pages

    If one were to ask a New York resident in the 1950’s how many people he or she would expect to be living in New York sixty years from now, he would most likely not say 20 million. Among those 20 million, it is even more unfathomable that an estimated 1.7 million Jews reside within New York City, making New York home to over a quarter of the Jews living in America today . Amongst those Jews however, how many of them consider themselves religious? Seeing that only an estimated 10 percent of Jews today classify themselves as observant, how and when did this substantial dispersion occur? The period post World War II in America presents the many different factors and pressures for Jews arriving in America during this time. Although many Jews believed America would be the best place to preserve and rebuild Jewish presence in the world, the democracy and economic opportunity resulted in adverse effects on many Jews. The rate of acculturation and assimilation for many of these Jews proved to be too strong, causing an emergence of two types of Jews during this time period. Pressures including the shift to suburbanization, secular education into professional careers, covert discrimination in the labor market and the compelling American culture, ultimately caused the emergence of the passive and often embarrassed ‘American Jew’; the active ‘Jewish American’ or distinctly ‘Jewish’ citizen, avertedly, makes Judaism an engaging active component of who and what they are amidst this new American culture.

    Read More

  • Rastafari Culture The Extreme Ethiopian Rasta Vs. The Mellow Dallas Rasta

    5309 Words  | 11 Pages

    A lot of people’s understanding of Rasta’s only goes as far as to think that Rasta’s are people that live in Jamaica, smoke weed, and have Dreadlocks. These people do not begin to think what is behind the movement. The idea that Rastafari is strictly Jamaican is also very wrong. Since the origination of Rastafari, the Rasta movement has expanded far beyond the island of Jamaica. Rasta’s now live all over the world. There are Rasta cultures in all parts of Europe, Asia, New Zealand, United States, and especially Africa. This paper seeks to explain Rastafari and to show it’s expansion by exposing Rasta’s culture from it’s most holy form in Ethiopia to one of it’s least holy in Dallas Texas.

    Read More

  • African Dread and Nubian Locks

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Popularizing the style known as dreadlocks are a group of people known as Rastas. These societies of people are the founders of an Afro-Caribbean politically orientated religion known as Rastafarianism. Rastafarianism is more of a way of life than a religion, although several religious beliefs of Christianity are strongly followed. Rastas outlawed the cutting or combing of their hair citing the aforementioned scriptures from the Bible. The style was copied from photographs of Masai warriors from East Africa and is a defiant assertion of their Africaness. The name dreadlocks was...

    Read More

  • The Rastafarian Movement

    7475 Words  | 15 Pages

    Despite the often negative image projected in the press and other writings, the Rastafarian movement has grown at a rapid rate. In 1977, an estimated 75,000 native Jamaicans were followers of Rastafari (Davis and Simon, Reggae Bloodlines, 63). By 1988, Barrett conservatively calculated the membership of the worldwide movement to be 300,000 (2). Forsythe observed that Rastafarianism "represents a growing force wherever sizable West Indian communities are found--in Britain, Canada, the USA and in the Caribbean" (63).

    Read More

  • Bob Marley's Redemption Song

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rastafari is a theology based upon the writings of Marcus Garvey a Jamaican social activist. The movement’s global spread from Jamaica across the world has been strongly influenced by Bob Marley and closely associated with reggae. Many of Marley’s songs captured the essence of Rastafari religion and its social and political beliefs. (bbc.co.uk, 2014)

    Read More

More about The Twelve Tribes of Israel: An Organizational Movement

Open Document