Jamaican Rasta Conference

We have participated in the Inaurgural Rastafari Conference held in UWI, Mona Campus in Jamaica.The conference started on the 17th August and concluded on Friday 20th August with a series of panels and an address by noted Jamaican researcher Barry Chevannes.

The conference held under the title "Negotiating the African Presence: Rastafari Livity and Scholarship" dealt with a number of issues including Early Rastafari Thought, Family Life, Identity, Repatriation, Reparations, Gender and Resistance.

With the conference finished we are exploring Jamaica and connecting with various Rasta/African groups and individuals. Members of the Nyabingi Council asked me especially to convey that the spirit of Rasta as African agitators and resistors is very much alive.

Soon we will share a fuller account and some of the many pictures we took while covering the conference. Certainly the dynamics of the conference emphasized the need to keep the issues of racism and white arrogance/privilege firmly on the table to be continually addressed.

Tyehimba