Thursday, December 10, 2009

Rastafari's ancient future, foretold by a believer



By Susana Wolds
New Thought News Service


Rastafari made an appearance on the world's stage this week.  
In the spotlight was Yasus Afari, the Rasta ambassador to the Melbourne Parliament. Emphasizing the individual's connection to all of creation and to Jah, the divine, in a workshop on the philosophy, Afari explained how the human family must usher in the future by honoring the past.
"Humanity is the temple of the most high," Afari said in discussing human spiritual identity. "We say 'I and I' to invoke our oneness with God as our true essence.
"This reminds us who we are," he said, pointing to the bundle of locks atop his head.  
Afari explained family as a sacred expression as well. 
"If we are the children of Jah, then Jah must have a wife."  Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the representation of God for Rastafari believers, desired that the empress be recognized with the same pageantry as he was, Afari noted, which reminded Selassie's people that God is both masculine and feminine.
"Religions are fingers on the hand of the Almighty," Afari said. "Our spirituality is to be used as a tool for liberation and enlightenment."
Alluding to holy scripture, Afari said humanity will witness the Genesis of a new era when "international morality and the rule of conscience" cure the shared plagues of hunger, war, disease and ignorance.  
Rastafari envisions a future in which we blend the best of ancient traditions with the best of contemporary reality.
"Don't forget your roots," Afari advised his audience. "Don't lose your knowledge of the land, of food and of the herbs. We need this knowledge for the future." 

In the photo above, Afari gives his audience a moment to take it all in. "Let's take a breather," he says, and plays Bob Marley's "Exodus" as people relax and begin to move to the rhythm. Marley's music carries the vision of Rastafari: one human family marching towards an ancient future, a movement of the people. Photo by Susana Wolds.

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