Rastafarians chant at the public viewing of the late Cedella Marley Booker. - File

SINCE THEIR explosion on the local scene in the 1930s, members of the Rastafarianism religion have bucked the trend in food, dress, language and music.

But perhaps one of the most phenomenal aspects of Rastafarianism is its pull on the Jamaican male.

In comparison to Christianity, where there is a noted disparity between the number of men who gravitate towards the religion as opposed to women, Rastafarianism has been able to appeal to more men than women.

According to a 2001 census conducted by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, the Rastafarian movement had 23,067 men compared to 3, 678 women - about six men to one woman. A stark contrast when compared to the fact that women significantly outnumber men in the Christian church.

MEn outnumbered in church

In a Gleaner article entitled, 'Church not macho enough for men', published on Sunday, September 23, 2007, statistics provided by the Jamaica Baptist Union indicate that between 2004 and 2005, there were approximately 9,084 men in comparison to 23,585 women attending 310 churches in that denomination. For the period 2005 to 2006, there were 10,105 men, compared to 25,148 women, in 308 Baptist churches.

Other denominations provided similar statistics. The Seventh-day Adventist Church estimates that its denomination comprises about 75 per cent women - or three women to every one man.

Based on the observations of Bishop Everton Thomas of the Jamaica Pentecostal Union, the gender difference in most churches ranges from about 25 to 40 per cent males, with a corresponding 60 to 75 per cent females.

Rastafarianism is one of the few religions in Jamaica that has a larger following of men than women, with Islam and Judaism following closely behind.

Professor Barry Chevannes, Research Fellow at the Mona School of Business and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies, Mona, suggested that there was a historical reason for this discrepancy.

Chevannes, who is the author of the book Rastafari: Roots and Ideology (Utopianism and Communitarianism), said when the movement first started in the 1930s there was a higher proportion of women involved.

"There were more men, but it was more like a 60-40 type of ratio, two to one at the very least," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

However, the shift came in the late 1940s, early 1950s when the dreadlocks trend began, particularly among the Nyahbinghi sect.

marginalisation of women

He argued that this led to a marginalisation of women in the movement, based on notions of purity and uncleanness, and also on Old Testament ideas about male domination over females. This, he said, led to a subordination of the woman, to such an extent that, among a large section of that particular order, it was believed that a woman could only gain insight into Rastafari by attachment to a man.

"That is what is meant by 'growing a daughter', and if you noticed, this patronising attitude towards women continued for a very long time, that is why they still refer to women as 'daughter'.

"So, the idea of a woman coming to her own sense of what Rastafari is, and accepting the manifestation of Rastafari in herself, did not prevail and it led to very few women in the movement," he added.

Chevannes continued: "Women never appeared in the leadership of the movement and it wasn't until in the mid-1980s that you began to have a turn and they began to call them by the name 'Empress'."

Dub poet Mutabaruka agreed that the patriarchal outlook of Rastafarianism might be one of the main reasons women are put off by the movement. He said Rastafarism took most of its tenets from Judaism and the Old Testament, which assert a strong patriarchal mindset.

"The Old Testament is what manipulates Rastafari thinking, look at the mannerism and the way they speak, it is more of a Old Testament kind a thing," Mutabaruka argued. "More men find comfort in the kind a thing that lean more towards the macho man, man vibes thing," he added.

Entertainer and educator, Michael 'Ibo' Cooper, further proposed that for the woman, a lot of it had to do with cultural perceptions and the feminine fashion sense.

"Women are more prone to the Eurocentric fashions, which is a big part of the culture of Christian churches," he told The Sunday Gleaner. "The hairstyle and dresses that are allowed in the Christian church, many people perceive Rastafari as being against those things, because Rastafari had been advocating an African view of ourselves."

Cooper argued that African people also had a sense of fashion but the African fashions were never in vogue in the western world.

militant attitudes

He also reiterated the argument that the teachings of Rastafari were more in line with the militant attitudes and machismo of most Jamaican men.

"The whole business of turning the other cheek does not appeal to the Jamaican macho," he said. "It's not that Rastafari is not advocating mercy, but the whole business of 'bun down Babylon', if it is even verbally, is more appealing to our maleness," he argued.

Cooper continued: "Rastafari appears to be more of a man statement to our boys than Christianity, with a white deity and a soft sort of outlook."

Chevannes, however, maintained that the movement was constantly changing and that more women have begun to join the religion. He suggested that later censuses, after 2001 (next census is due in 2011) would most likely reveal a larger proportion of women.

"The change where women can, by themselves, on their own, through their own insights, manifest Rastafari is becoming increasingly the norm," Chevannes argued.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com