I grew up confused over Rastafarian Jamaican Culture.
I thought that maybe I didn't know geography right.
Or maybe it was the effects of the sideways map.
Why was there a Native African Village on Native "American" Land?
My American Education came up with some possibilities: "There were Black Native Americans, Right?"
Yes there were/are black Native Americans, one of the colonies is from the area where the Carolinas are now, but that is not where Rasta Culture came from.
Finally, after years of looking the other way, because that is what the American Education system does to Modern Day Native Americans, who are living through a current cultural genocide, I was finally able to see the "why" of the Rasta Culture on Native Land.
Because the same colonizers that fucked us brown natives up are the same colonizers who "stole them from Africa" and deposited them where my cousins used to live.
Ever since I finally let myself admit that (because I had always known, although I had not always seen) I have felt love for the Jamaican Rasta's.
They are being stewards of the land where my cousins used to live, being grateful for the ultimate mother and respecting her. Native to Africa, Native to "America" Native to Asia, wherever we are from, we have a responsibility to be stewards for our land.
This is my connection to the Rasta Culture, I and I, same message, some life mission, slightly different way of doing it.
Thank you for the acceptance you have been giving me in your community.
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