
Jamaica Religion: European Traditions Meets African Influences
In Jamaica, religion is an integral part of our culture and influence many things in our everyday life. Look at the opening lines of a popular song. "Children children come to de river. I want to born again a want to feel brand new. ... I want to feel this ya spirit passing through". If you think that this is some rivival church song, you are wrong. It was, in fact, a number one song on the reggae top chart in Jamaica in the 1985. In fact, reggae up-tempo rhythms came out of the church.
Religion
Jamaica religion is a product of colonialism, African influence and religion imports from abroad. Jamaicans are very religious, although on the surface it may seem that way. In fact Jamaica is in the Guinness Book of Records as the country with the most churches per capita mile. There are many places where there is only a house or a few houses separating churches. This does not mean that most Jamaicans goes to church. As a matter of fact, many don't. But Jamaicans fervently believe in God and and are overwhelminly against things such as homosexuality and abortion.
Jamaica Religion is predominantly Christians. There are about 65% Protestants and 4% Catholics. The remainder is a sprinkling of various other religions such as Budahism and Hinduism and religious cults such as the Revivalist sect and Rastafarianism. Rastafarianism is unique because it originated in the island and has a huge influence on the Jamaica music and pop culture.
African Creole
During colonization and slavery, Jamaica religion was made up of either the Anglican church, which was the domain of plantation owners or Creole religions brought by the slaves from Africa. Two such religions were Obeah and Myal.
As a Jamaica Religion, Obeah was considered by many to be witchcraft. It involved the use of spells, herbal potions, and other forms of african mysticism. The plantation owners view Obeah as a threat because the slaves believed in its magical powers which could lead to rebellions and uprisings among the slaves. Myal, although similar to Obeah, were thought to be able to drive out the bad spirits caused by Obeah.
Today, none of these Jamaica religions are widespread. Obeah is still, somewhat, practiced, although not as a religion but as a cult. Myal was absorbed in a new creole religion known as Revivalism.
Pentecostal Movement
After slavery was abolished, Baptist and Methodist missionaries began arriving in the Island. They taught the slaves protestant beliefs in congregations they setup throughout the island. But the slaves held tightly to their African beliefs. Many combined their African beliefs with the beliefs of the Protestant church to create a new Jamaica religion called the Revivalist church.
There were two Revivalist sects; the Zionist and the Pukkumina. While they both deal mostly in sprits, the main difference between them was that the Zionist believed in the heavenly spirits such as the sprits God, the saints, and archangels. The Pukkumina, on the other hand, deal only with earth bound spirits such as fallen angels and the spirts of the dead.
Today, the Zionist movement has been absorbed by mainstream pentecostal church and the Pukkumina cult has all but dissappeared. Although no longer around, the rivivalist movement has significantly influenced the music of the church and pop culture. Today, the up-beat tempo of revival music can still be heard in pentecostal churches across the Island. It was this same music style that influenced and shaped both reggae and dance hall music.
Rastafarianism
Jamaica is the roots of Rastafarianism. The Rastafarian movement was inspired by the famous Jamaican Marcus Garvey. His teachings of black self empowerment and the return of black people to their homeland of Africa, eventually grew into the Rastafarian religion.
Rastafarianism is based on the belief that Prince Ras Tafari AKA Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was the Messiah for the Black race. To them, he was the King of Kings, the conquering lion of the Tribe of Judah, and a direct decendant of King Solomon and Queen of Sheba. Rastafarians believed that Africa is the promise land and anywhere else is considered the Babylonian lands of greed and enslavement.
Although Rastafarians used the Bible, they believed that most of the King James version has been deliberately distorted by the white men when it was translated. So they only read selected passages that reinforce their beliefs and ideologies.
Rastafarians do not gather formally like other religions do. Instead they meet informally in what they called "Reasonings" where they discuss their ideology with their sacrament of ganja (marijuana). Ganja is considered "wisdom weed" as it was believed to be founded on the grave of King Solomon.
Today the red, green, and gold colors of Rastafarianism and Ganja are much a part of the Island as they are of the religion. Even words such as "dreadlocks" and "Irie" which originated from the movement are now mainstream Jamaica.
Other Religions
Although the plantation owners brough their religion, the Church of England or Anglican to Jamaica, the Island had stong Catholic influence. Before the English, Jamaica was colonized by the Spanish who were Catholic. Furthermore, many of the plantation managers and servants were imported Irish who brought their catholic faith along with them. Today both Anglican and Catholic churches can be found in most major towns across Jamaica.
Other religions also have temple and churches in Jamaica. The East indians who came as indenture servants from India maintain several Hindu temple. There is also the Bahai faith as well as Jews who practice their religion freely.
Within the last five years, the Mormon church has been setting up Temples throughout Jamaica. They were only allowed in after blacks were allowed to hold leadership position within their organization.
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