Rastafari Quotes

“Emperor Haile Selassie was certainly a defining figure in both Ethiopian and African history, and as Rastafarians revere Haile Selassie as the returned messiah, it’s possible that the routes of Rastafarianism are deep-seated in the Queen of Sheba. Trip on that! A queen who was part Genie, or Djinn, is possibly the focus of Rastafarianism”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“Trip on this! Haile Selassie, who Rastafari regard as God, was possibly greatly influenced by a French poet who although he gave up writing at the age of 20 (which at first glance appears like a huge waste) must certainly have still held an esoteric, otherworldly mind. It can’t have just deserted him, can it? Rimbaud had a bewitching and at times ghoulish psyche which managed to explode out of long-established poetic forms while still in his teens. He did it with more rhythm and beauty than almost anyone you care to name. It’s extremely likely that ten years later this man had incredible influence on the child who Rastafari were to later think of as God.

An intriguing thought.”
― Karl Wiggins

“Know this,
that lions who trod don't worry bout reaching Zion. In time
is Zion that reach to the lions.”
― Kei Miller, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion

“For a man like Bob Marley, life and Jah were one and the same. Marley saw Jah as being the gift of existence; that is, he believed that he, Bob Marley, was in some way eternal, and that he would never be duplicated. He believed that the singularity of every man and woman is Jah's gift. What we struggle to make of it is our sole gift to Jah. He believed the process of that struggle becomes, in time, the truth.”
― Timothy White, Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley

“Rastafarianism is bringing black people back to the so-called promised land. The bodies live in Africa, but the mentalities are somewhere in the Middle East.”
― Mwanandeke Kindembo

“While he warned us of Bablyon, she showed us Zion.”
― Safiya Sinclair, How to Say Babylon

“And the ras says
it's all a Babylon conspiracy
de bloodclawt immappancy of dis world—
maps which throughout time have
gripped like girdles
to make his people smaller than
they were.”
― Kei Miller, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion