RASTAFARI
THE STORY
A spiritual and political fire from the 1930s. It filled the music’s language, its drum heartbeat, and its sense of what the songs are for.
GO DEEPER
Rastafari is a cultural and spiritual fire, not a music style. Rising from 1930s Jamaica — Leonard Howell’s camps, the crowning of Haile Selassie I read as prophecy — it gave the music its world: Zion and Babylon, repatriation, livity, the sacred heartbeat of Nyahbinghi drumming. It lives in the air around roots reggae — language, purpose, and drum — not as a parent style on a family tree.
HOW THEY STAND
SPIRIT OFSaturates roots reggae’s themes and reggae’s self-understanding.
CAME BEFORENyahbinghi drumming feeds the music through Count Ossie’s camps.
livity · italNyahbinghi heartbeatword-sound-power
LISTEN
Oh CarolinaFolkes Brothers · Count Ossie · 1960
MEET
Leonard HowellCount OssieMortimo Planno
EXPLORE
Find RASTAFARI among the roots
See how they stand with the music around them.
Hear this era in the Riddim Deck →
Updated 2026-09Ranges kept honest · contested dates marked “c.”