Rasta Lessons: Leonard Howell

Leonard Howell 1898-1981

Putatively founded the Rastafarian movement - he is considered the "First Rasta" and in some circles is considered as part of the Rasta Trinity along with Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie I. Howell started preaching in 1933 that the newly crowned Ras Tafari Makonnen as Emporer Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was God come to earth. He was the first to make this claim. Howell wrote "The Promised Key"  which is a codification of his teachings and a foundation on which early Rastafarianism was founded.

Howell had 6 foundations of Rastafari that he preached.

1. Opposition to the wickedness (oppressive structures summed up in the term "Babylon")

2. Dignity of the Black race (along with Marcus Garvey)

3. God's revenge on the wicked for their wickedness

4. The negation, persecution and humiliation of the government and legal bodies of wicked world

5. Preparation to return to Africa (repatriation)

6. Acknowledgement of Emperor Haile Selassie I as the Supreme Being and the only ruler of the Black people.

Howell was obviously inspired by Garvey's "Africa for the Africans" as well as reading the Bible through African lenses. Howell was so set on repatriation and Selassie that he would sell pictures of Selassie and tell people that they were passports to Africa. Garvey looked down on this as a Methodist. 

Howell's philosophy was of self-reliance leading to self-responsibility. The solution to the Black problems needed to come from the Black people. Howell was arrested and imprisoned for his ideas. Charged with sedition (Jamaica was still under colonial rule) Howell was imprisoned for 2 years but his message was spread. Howell was relentless in his criticism of the government.

Once released Howell found recluse in the hills of Jamaica and founded a Rasta community called Pinnacle. There he lived in community with thousands of his followers. Pinnacle was a safe place from the oppression of the colonial society. Pinnacle was ransacked by the government in 1954 - they were tired of the large amounts of marijuana being cultivated there. The Rastafarians returned to the urban ghettos of Jamaica where their poverty helped strengthen their belief in the Rasta ideology. 

It's interesting to note by 1933 the trademark dreadlocks have still not developed in the rastafarian ideology. Howell was a 'dapper' gentleman wearing three piece suits and a beard like Haile Selassie I. Dreadlocks will start to form during the Italo-Ethiopian War starting in 1935. Dreadlocks and other elements of the Rasta lifestyle hadn't really caught on until the early 1950's during a reformation of Howell's ideas.

Howell most likely died a dissident's death in a mental institution.