Rastafari

Rastafari emerged in Jamaica in the early 1930s among people drawing on Marcus Garvey's teaching and the crowning of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, and it grew into a religious and cultural movement with its own theology, dietary law and language. Ital food is unsalted and unprocessed; dreadlocks are grown as a covenant; the language reshapes English to remove what adherents regard as its downpressing constructions, which is where I and I comes from. Several houses or mansions exist, including Nyabinghi, Bobo Shanti and the Twelve Tribes, and they differ considerably. Reggae carried the movement worldwide, which is how most visitors meet it first, usually in a distorted form.

What you'll find

• Nyabinghi drumming - the ceremonial drum tradition at the movement's centre.
• Ital cooking - unsalted, unprocessed food, widely available across the island.
• The Rastafari Indigenous Village - a community near Montego Bay open to visitors.
• The language - the reshaping of English that entered Jamaican speech.

When to go

Year-round. Community visits should be arranged in advance. Nyabinghi gatherings mark specific dates including the coronation in November and Haile Selassie's birthday in July, and are religious observances rather than performances.

Things to know

This is a religion, and the version sold to tourists, dreadlock wigs, ganja tours and hotel bands, has little to do with it; several houses do not use cannabis at all. Visiting a community means arranging it and paying properly, and photographing people requires asking. Cannabis remains regulated in Jamaica despite decriminalisation of small amounts, and tourists are not exempt from the law.

Nearby

The Indigenous Village is near Montego Bay; Bobo Hill is above Bull Bay east of Kingston.