AR35R: Rastafari in the Global Context
Lecturer: Mr. Arthur Newland
Pre-requisite: AR25R or SY36C or GT23M
Semester: 2
Credits: 3
Level: 3
See also Course Flyer
COURSE RATIONALE:
Since the inception of the Rastafari Movement in Jamaica in the 1930s, there has been a significant dispersal of the faith, practice and influence, not only in the Caribbean but throughout the world. It is said that all nations now manifest the faith of Rastafari. This course maps the global spread of the Rastafari Movement along with the issues, new directions and problematic related to this cultural manifestation outside of it original Jamaican locus.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Students should be able to:
- assess the significance of Rastafari as an African Diasporan ‘Liberation Theology’
- explain how it has become increasingly globalised and universalised and why
- describe the transitions and evolutions in the traditional discourses
- interpret how such issues influence the core manifestation of this faith system.
COURSE OUTLINE
- MODULE ONE
- Contextualisation of the Rastafari Movement in the trajectory of African Diasporan Movements
- Historical account of the dispersal of the Rastafari (Nationally and Internationally)
- Mapping the demographics of Rastafari presence throughout the globe
- MODULE TWO
- Mapping Rastafari Journey & Presence
- Documentations of Rastafari in:
- South America & the Caribbean;
- North America & Europe;
- Asia & Oceania;
- Africa
- MODULE THREE
- Africans at Home and Africans Abroad: issues for the Rastafari Global family
- Repatriation as Practice
- Doctrinal & Religious Ritual Elaboration
- Yard vs. Zion : The Jamaica / Ethiopia connection
- Rastafari Political Economy and the appropriation of Rastafari Iconography
- MODULE FOUR
- Contextualising the "Glocal" from the Global: Area studies
Teaching Methodology:
Mandatory weekly Seminars and two weeks of field study
Students are expected to develop field journals from which a report is to be developed (60%).
Final Exam (2 hrs.) 40%.
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