Datenschutz, Impressum
Reggae and the Rastafarian Movement

What is Reggae?

 
Nobody really knows, where the word really comes from. Bob Marley claimed the word was Spanish in origin, meaning "the king's music." Veteran Jamaican studio musicians offer the simplest, and probably the most plausible, explanation. "It's a description of the beat itself," says Hux Brown, lead guitarist on Paul Simon's 1972 reggae-flavored hit, "Mother and Child Reunion," and the man widely credited with inventing the one-string quiver/trill that kicked off Simon's single as well as many of me top island hits of the preceding years. "It's just a fun, joke kinda word that means the ragged rhythm and the body feelin'. If it's got a greater meanin', it doesn't matter," Brown said.


What is Dub?

Dub was born in small record studios in Kingston, Jamaica. The producers took existing reggae-tracks and remixed them by adding echoes, reverbs, rebounds and stretches. They put the vocals and instruments in and out and created a new music-style. When it was revealed, a kind of dub-fever ranged through Jamaica.
Dub music had and still has a great influence on modem music, for example on Hip-Hop, Dance, Techno, and lots of other kinds of music.
 
Who are the Rastafarians?
The source of Rastafarianism lies in Ethiopia. In 1930 a man called Ras Tafari, who descended directly from King David was crowned emperor Haile Selassie I. of Ethiopia. He formed the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Rastafarians acknowledge that their religion is the blending of purest forms of both Judaism and Christianity; they also accept the Egyptian origins of both those religions.

Rastafarians live a peaceful life with low claim. Six out of ten Jamaicans are believed to be Rastafarians.

Worldwide, the Rastafarian movement has over one million "members".

Rastas, as they are more commonly called, have special beliefs and practices.

They use Marijuana ("ganja";"Weed of Wisdom") as a sacrament for an aid to meditation and as a religious rite.

They have special dietery and hygienic laws, which say that they have deny all the things that are not Ital. This is common language for pure, natural or clean. They are not allowed to consume alcohol, tobacco and meat.

It is also forbidden for them to cut or comb their hair. Dreadlocks have their origin in this rule.

The Rastas deny allegations by other religious groups that they were anti-white or anti-brown. They think that there exists a secret hour known only to a devout few, when all the Rastas return to Ethiopia, leaving behind the tropical Jamaica. Until that time, Rastas would refuse to take part in the machinations of daily life and commerce in "Babylon", which means literally the Hell on Earth. As Rastas, they could now await with dignity the Judgement Day, when the last shall be the first and the first shall be last.