This essay is taken from the text of a public lecture that was given by the author at The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education on April 13, 2005. It formed part of an annual "Black Theology Consultation" at Queen's, at which Noel Erskine was the principal speaker that year. This piece builds upon Erskine's groundbreaking research detailed in his seminal Decolonizing Theology, in which he outlined a Jamaican/Caribbean perspective on liberation theology that draws upon the hybridity of Caribbean identities and the plurality of their religious sensibilities; moving from the practices of the Afro-Jamaican Christianity, to Garveyism and, later, Rastafari. This essay outlines the religious dimensions of rebellion against White colonial rule in Jamaica, which provides the antecedents for the religio-cultural doctrines and practices of Rastafari. Further details of this work can be found in From Garvey to Marley.
“Black people have read the Bible in a way which informed them that God's freedom challenged all forms of bondage in the world … If black power can be defined as the search for black humanity and freedom, then black power would be rooted in divine power. As divine power is related to black power, an encounter between the divine content and the contemporary context takes place.”
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