Children of Africa

The Bobo shanti appear to be a spiritually developed group of Rastafari, especially the many spiritual precepts they observe as such. They appear to have firmly established themselves as “Children of Africa”, and the way they have organized a system of ideology around that concept is what I thought was the most striking aspect of their way of life. The stress our textbook puts on the individualist characteristics of each Rasta as being their major concern is still at work here, but we see it in terms of a community of spiritually dedicated themselves and each other.

The men of the group earn the right to live with each other, spending the days focusing on spiritual development without the stresses and troubles of non-spiritual life. They wrap their dreadlocks in turbans, which they claim is Ethiopian, as “children of Africa” they make several specific mentions to the crown of Ethiopia. They are also waiting for the time to sail across the Atlantic from Jamaica. The Boboshanti organized themselves in a loosely based individualistic standpoint yet work as a group through these individual practices to create a symbolic group, the “children of Africa” who wish to return and escape injustice.

The loose organization of the Bobo shanti as a mansion is precisely the symbol that confers the title “children of Africa” and the practices which they celebrate in their way of life in order to return to Africa once again and be freed from spiritual enslavement. This is not shocking, as our textbook make it clear that the most important facet of Rastafari faith is self-acknowledgement. I and I and the importance of the individual play into this organization and the main focus of each Boboshanti is his introspection and desire to understand himself. However, together, they create a symbolic idea like the kind they are introspecting about, and a mutual end to their spiritual journey as “children of Africa”.

A Bobo shanti Rasta