Rasta Lesson: Archibald Dunkley, Joseph Hibbert, Robert Hinds

This post is a combined post of three early Rastafari leaders because there is not a great deal of literature out there about any one of them in particular. This post is just to cover the ground level of early rastafarian leaders. These three men, Dunkley, Hibbert and Hinds were along the same lines as the more prominent early rasta leader, Leonard Howell. All four began preaching independently of each other in the slums of West Kingston, Jamaica where they discovered each other and a movement was born. 

Dunkley was a Jamaican seaman who studied the Bible for 2 years before concluding that Selassie was the messiah about which Marcus Garvey had prophesied. They all subscribed to the Garvey ideas of Back to Africa and of an Ethiopianism philosophy. Dunkley had much prestige along with Howell and they were attributed with divine characteristics. They were arrested around the same time and Dunkley was also committed to an asylum later in life. Dunkley along with Hibbert may be responsible for some of the small strains of mysticism in rastafarianism. They had both spent time in the Masonic Lodge. More specifically the Ancient Mystic Order of Ethiopia. 

While Hinds began preaching with Howell it is said that after a time he went his own separate way. It's hard to find information on him specifically yet he is always lumped together with the other early rastafarian leaders.

In any case these men spread the message that Garvey started and Howell preached. They were a kind of group of 'apostles' for the early rastafarian church.