The intent of my original post was to share with others the values which I believe all Rastas hold in common.

Others took one paragraph out of a lengthy article and tried to paint me as an anti-African one love hippie. Anyone who has observed my comments here over the past years knows this is a false picture.

I never stated that I want to 'eliminate' Selassie from Rasta. What I said is, that as ones and ones look to the African sources for Christianity and indeed all religious thought in the world, and see in the fullness the majesty of indigenous African thought and tradition, they may have an increasingly difficult time with Christianity, and thus with Selassie. I said 'may'. Ones disagree. That is fine!

So,far from being an evil white who wants to remove black and Africa from Rasta, I am thinking in quite the opposite direction. It might interest some to look at the roots and culture of the Oromo and the roots and culture of the Amhara and make their own conclusions.

I am not the first or the last person here who has come raising these issues. Mutabaruka holds views similar to mine, as do other black Rastas. The problem seems to be that I am a white person raising them, and so the immediate conclusion ones have drawn is that I do so out of some evil intention to divide and conquer. I even see this as understandable, given that it is what many whites have tended to do, even if unconsciously.

But I have done a lot of work to be sure that I do not remain unconscious, either of my white privilege or of my true Divine identity, of which all humans partake equally. This is the meaning of I and I to me. This has made it impossible for me to worship another human being, no matter how great and exalted, as JAH Almighty.

All that I am and all that I have come to is the result of following the Rasta trod for my entire adult life, and I hold Selassie in high esteem.

But really, and finally, what does it matter to ones here what a white person thinks for them to react so emotionally to what I said? I will never lead in Rasta or be an appropriate symbol for Rasta. I do have the same right as anyone here to share my thoughts, and ones have an equal right to disagree.

What I see that Rastas all hold in common is a disgust for the Babylon system of white supremacy and the conviction that looking to Africa for our common indigenous values is the source of salvation. And yes, even as a white person I will say that the assertion of Black identity, Black remembrance, Black history, and Black pride, is central in all of this. I say it as a supporter, a helper, but I can be no more than that. And I know it.

Rootsie