CULTURE-SIERRA LEONE: Rastafarians in the Run

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Mar 3 1998 (IPS) - Members of Sierra Leone’s Rastafarian Movement, known as the ‘Twelve Tribes of Israel’, are shedding their dreadlocks and hiding out after the fall of the military junta.

The ‘Rastas’ – whose estimated membership is more than 5,000 – have become the victims of mob justice for their alleged collaboration with the deposed military junta of Major Johnny Paul Koroma.

“I’ve cut off my dreadlocks, because I don’t want to carry the blame for the sycophantic behaviour of some Rastas here,” said one youth known as ‘Reuben. Since the overthrow of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) last month by the West African Peacekeeping troops (ECOMOG), he witnessed a mob beating up another Rasta, he said.

“They tied him up with a rope, forcefully cut off his locks and beat him…,” Reuben recalled.

Members of the Rastafarian movement are known in this West African country by their rope-like dreadlocks, modest lifestyles, arts and crafts workshops, and their band, the ‘Israelites’.

Rastas have been evicted from their homes, others have had their property looted, and many are in hiding since the junta’s fall from power. The Rastafarian Temple, Garveyite Passe, located in the west Freetown valley, has been deserted.

Soon after the army’s coup in May 1997, prominent members of the Twelve Tribes openly backed the military officers who had ousted the civilian government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

Rastafarian elder, Ras Oray Simeon, even gave an interview to the international media declaring the movement’s support for the junta. The new government apparently rewarded the movement by allowing the sale, consumption and distribution of marijuana.

But not all members of the movement agreed with the elders’ political position. “That was a complete betrayal of the cause,” said Reuben. “Rastas should not work for Babylon (the military junta), because they were against peace and process.”

But a local youth leader Sam Conteh, lumped all Rastas together and vows revenge. “We will lynch all those traitors calling themselves Rastas, because we saw their role clearly in the brutality and carnage perpetrated on the people of this country,” Conteh said.

What has angered pro-democracy youth even more is the fact that Rastafarian youths were seen with AK-47 rifles fighting alongside army troops when the Nigerian-led ECOMOG force launched ‘Operation Sandstorm’ on Feb. 25 to oust the AFRC.

Sociologist Thomas Kamara however, said that the Rasta youth may have joined the battle, because most are uneducated and “the culture of drugs has made them violent”.

The Rastafarian Movement in Sierra Leone is now in turmoil and has split into two factions. Those who supported the junta are still known as the Twelve Tribes, while the new pro-democracy group is calling itself ‘Deep Roots’.

“I will never link up with those political and commercial Rastas – those brethen who took up arms to fight and who, before, were actively participating in junta operations,” a Rasta who is defecting to the new group told IPS.