Professor talks rastas and reggae
If you’ve ever had any questions about rastafaranism, the man to talk to is Professor Barry Chavannes. Tonight Chavannes, an Anthropologist from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, will be talking about the religion and its relation to reggae music. Chavannes says culturally, rastafaranism has been an important factor in the lives of many Caribbean people.
Barry Chavannes, Anthropology Professor, UWI
“Within the African Caribbean rastafari articulates a view of life that recognizes the inherent dignity of being black. Being African. I think that is essentially what is rasta. It arose out of that sort of compulsion and has spread, really because of it, and really because of its fundamental humanism. It has a very humanistic aspect to it as well”
Janelle Chanona
“Is it a common misconception that rasta is more about music, growing dreadlocks and that kind of things?”
Barry Chavannes
“Well yes, but it’s not so much of a misconception more of a limited conception of it, that is true. This is one of the things that I am attempting to address because there was really a sort of merging of two sort of traditions. There was the religious movement rastafari on one hand and there was reggae music on the other as you know that had separate developments so to speak, and they just married, and so rastafari has taken off. So a lot of people would have come to hear about or believe rasta through the music and the danger for them is that they are limited in that particular conception.”
“It’s a very interesting fact that reggae music is a popular music, but it is also about God and the soul and salvation and redemption and so one. It’s most interesting because popular music does not do that, it’s about love and this and that. I think it’s because of that that we have this particular dimension to reggae music. So my talk will focus on giving a kind of explanation or tracing the course of the history of the development of this aspect of reggae music.”
Professor Chavannes’ lecture gets started at 7:30 tonight at the University of West Indies Auditorium on Princess Margaret Drive.
