Rastafari Studies Minor

Introduction and Rationale

The growing discipline of Cultural Studies and Caribbean Cultural Studies more specifically has signaled the need to define cultural products, knowledge and pedagogy. In this endeavour, great demand for knowledge of local contexts in a globalized world makes it an imperative to increase the course offerings of the Institute of Caribbean Studies to match demand and satisfy the need for documentation of Caribbean cultural phenomena.

The proposal for a minor in Rastafari Studies developed as an outgrowth of an existing level II course offering in Cultural Studies, AR25R - The Culture of Rastafari . Many view Rastafari as a religious phenomenon emerging in Jamaica in the twentieth century. This view, however, limits the purpose that the movement holds in a wider pedagogical sense. This proposal has been developed to meet gaps in the existing curriculum which at best is only able to introduce and provide overviews of the Rastafari Movement's history and culture. There is however far more scholarly investigation which is possible through further study of the Rastafari movement which has potential to not only contribute to students' quantum of knowledge, but can also provide epistemological and ontological quality to those interested in understanding the contribution of Rastafari to Caribbean and New World pedagogy in general.

With the introduction of courses in the African Diaspora, Anthropology and Caribbean Cultural Studies, a Minor in Rastafari Studies offers great Viability University wide and provides a more systematic and creative delivery of a knowledge system for which Jamaica holds the unique distinction to have contributed to the world.

AIMS

The Minor is intended to offer students access to a body of knowledge developed through and around the manifestation of Rastafari in Jamaica over the last century, in viewing and assessing the importance of this Movement's contribution to the development of not only Caribbean culture but African Diasporan sensibilities through a multidisciplinary focus on thought, practice and experiencing.

The minor will, therefore, address the following specific objectives:

• Contextualize Caribbean Folk Philosophy as an accessible branch of knowledge bearing inner logic, analytical process, iconography and a range of approaches of which Rastafari is one of the most developed;
• Demonstrate the working, construction and folk theorising of a new Ethiopianism in the twentieth century practices of African Diasporans and in particular Rastafari, driven by the Coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia;
• Introduce students to the Rastafari Diaspora and the continued experiencing of Rastafari Livity in a globalising environment;
• Conceptualise the contribution of the Rastafari manifestation at the level of an African Diasporan Reggae, Resistance Aesthetic;
• Deepen understanding of methods for Caribbean cultural inquiry, especially as it relates to grounded research.

REQUIREMENTS

Consistent with the requirements (Faculty's Regulation 7g) that a Minor be at least 15 credits, from level II and III courses in that discipline, the Minor requires 15 credits from the following specific courses:

• Level II:
  • Introduction to Caribbean Folk Philosophy [ AR20R ]
  • Modern Ethiopianism, Practice and Theory [ AR20X ]
  • The Culture of Rastafari [ AR25R ]
  • Beginners Amharic Language
  • Reggae Poetry [E27F]
• Level III:
  • Rastafari in the Global Context [ AR35R ]
  • Reggae Aesthetics & the Dialogue of African Diasporan Resistance [ AR333 ]