In Guyana during the era of indentureship indentured laborers from various parts of Africa especially (so I understand) the Kongo area were brought to the country, although their numbers were small compared to Indians. Since they were not outright slaves they were able to preserve more of their culture intact, for eg. the ritual of Cumfa, which has west african elements but is primarily based on Kongo Bantu culture and spirituality. Cannabis was defintitely used in the Kongo area from long time. I'm sure there must also have been knotty dreads in Kongo. I'm not saying that this is the source of ganja use and dreadlocks in Guyana (really to my knowledge both ganja use and dreads only became really widespread in the late 60s/70s with the growth of the Rastafari movement). Just throwing that out there, and wondering if T&T also had African indentured laborers.
Empress Afrique, coming from Guyana I see where you are coming from, as Ayinde stated for the Trini context, the racial tension in Guyana is mainly African/East Indian although the "hidden hand" of the Brits who originally pitted us against one another is definitely there in the background. Maybe because we are a poorer country and hence have more tendency to fight over the few crumbs we can get, the history between Africans and East Indians in Guyana is more tense and violent than it is in Trini (to my knowledge anyway). We were literally massacring each other in the 60s prior to independence... it was "coolie for coolie and black for black" and it was an all-out if low-scale war, nowadays euphemistically referred to as "race riots" but it was more than "riots", whole villages were wiped out on both sides. Often you might think on the surface that Africans and Indians get along pretty well, at least in cities like Georgetown, as opposed to the more ethnically homogenous villages (many of which used to be mixed African and Indian, but in the 60s when the lines were drawn they became either Indian or African). People do eat and drink together, live in the same areas (to an extent), have sex, marry and raise families together. But the tensions are always there under the surface waiting for the time when "the lines are drawn".
Guyana also has the biggest indigenous population in the english-speaking caribbean. That is another dynamic to the racial scenario. Whether it is a predominantly African gov't or a predominantly Indian gov't, the Amerindians tend to be the most ignored and marginalized group in Guyana.
Rasta is very much an African thing in Guyana but you will find Indian Rastas sometimes, both those who have African blood and full-blood Indians as well. There are Amerindian Rastas as well.
Africans and Indians (who are majority darker-skinned) in Guyana do have many things in common as well as many things that divide us. Remember East Indians indentured servants were not a homogenous mass of people any more than the people taken during slavery from many culturally diverse parts of Africa. There is a community of Madrasi Indians in Guyana, who in addition to being black-skinned like many Indians, are somewhat kinky-haired and share some African features with us, and whose culture and religion has much in common with African cultures, Madrasis and Africans have gotten along pretty well over the years. There were Muslim, Christian and possibly Jewish Indians brought over along with the many different varieties of "Hinduism". It is the fundamentalist traditionalist Hindus who provide most of the ideological armament for anti-African racism in Guyana, they do not reflect the attitudes of all Indians. I do hope that Guyana can "get over the hump" in this and other problem areas we face in the society, cos we do have a chance to do so, before the conflicts escalate to the level of a Hutu/Tutsi, Israel/Palestine type thing. It is not at that stage as yet.