243 p, "Explores the Rastafari movement and the Nation of Islam as institutions that provide a group-identity for their adherents. The study seeks to determine the characteristics of the identity that is institutionalized by each movement, and the nature of the institutionalization process. The research was conducted primarily in South Florida where both movements exist... Both movements were found to be millenarian in nature, essentially because of the significant utility of the concept that their members would rise to prominence through God's grace. Additionally, both movements were identified as expressive social movements, since they were determined as being primarily concerned with changing the attitudes of their members rather than effecting structural social change." (author)
Gossai,Hemchand (Author) and Murrell,Nathaniel Samuel (Author)
Format:
Monograph
Publication Date:
2000
Published:
New York: St. Martins Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
320 p, The Bible is the most widely read and influential book in the Caribbean. It seems to be everywhere and in every thing. The Bible has been used to name, claim, oppress, and exploit natives and the diaspora populations in the Caribbean, and it continues to define Caribbean reality and morality in the 21st century. In this anthology, scholars analyze the most fundamental assumptions and practices derived from different readings of the Bible at different epochs in Caribbean history. It tells a gripping tale of the struggle of ethnic peoples to find meaning, “existence,” and reality in a world they did not create; Includes a chapter that analyzes the songs of reggae singers Bob Marley and the Wailers for theological content, and another that examines the poetry of Ras Benjamin Zephaniah for biblical allusions
