In Trinidad the African population was small before the introduction of Indentured Indians around 1845. Then we had Africans migrating to Trinidad from many islands because of the availability of land etc.

Some of the claims you have put forward about the conduct of many Trinidadians are quite valid. Most Trinidadians do not address race and color issues but complain about them. Many dark-skinned Blacks in Trinidad do not consider themselves Africans. The number of diverse people who occupied this land can help explain, not excuse, their warped attitude.

I have explained that early African Rastas faced discrimination not only from Whites but also from other blacks who held fast to their European teachings. They also had to deal with the Indian presence that is quite large here. Today they are around 48% of the population. To discount their history and cultural infusion would be naïve. That does not take away from the fact that Racism from Indians is what consumes most of the local debate on Racism, with whites wielding an almost invisible racist hand.

In explaining the context of Rasta in Trinidad, one has to deal with the landscape of Trinidad that is made up of Taino, Africans, Portuguese, French, Spanish, British, Indians, Chinese, Syrians and later on other Africans who migrated here from other Caribbean Islands.

On this board we have long ‘explained’ the origin of dreadlocks to be among indigenous Blacks in Africa. In fact it is through the ancestral links between Indians and Africans on the continent of Africa that I believe they acquired the idea of dreadlocks being associated with a priestly people e.g. the Sadhus. I am trying to convey that there were not just several groups of people who just happened to wear dreadlocks, but in fact that there was cultural transference, the evidence of which is the fact that dreadlocks have the same connotations among indigenous African societies as well as societies in Indian, and the lifestyles are quite similar to what was done by early Rastafarians in the Caribbean.

We have to be careful not to confuse our contemporary awareness of marijuana to the hallucinogens used by indigenous Taino people, many of whom also chewed coca leaves and other herbs. If you are aware of evidence that they specifically used the cannabis herb, please provide it for consideration. The first concrete evidence I have of cannabis use in Trinidad is among the Indian indentured servants.

Most Black Africans in Trinidad came from West Africa from among the Yoruba and Igbo cultures and among these cultures they mostly used the Kola nut and palm wine for greetings, ceremonial purposes and also while making agreements etc. I have no evidence of marijuana use by these cultures around the time of slavery that would substantiate a claim that these cultures introduced marijuana to Trinidad. If you have evidence to the contrary, would you please provide it for consideration.

I have not heard anything orally or seen any written evidence to support the claim that dreadlocked Africans were in Trinidad before 1845, when the first set of Indians arrived as Indentured servants. We do have evidence of dreadlocks and marijuana in the regions in India where many indentured servants came from, which validates the stories that were told by some elder Rastas and even Indians. We do have evidence of it being part of Indian religious practices in Trinidad going back to around 1845. There is evidence via the Indian traditions to support the view of dreadlocks and the smoking of marijuana by these ‘holy people’ in Trinidad, and that was long before the 1930s era that is popularly associated with the resurgence of Rasta in Jamaica.

If you are making the claim that dreadlocked Africans were in the Caribbean all around the 1600s then you should reasonably explain it, and it will also mean the Jamaican resurgence story that is tied to around the 1930s is not true.

Nowhere in that piece that I wrote did I mention Rastas back then being pro –Black conscious or Pan-African oriented.