Dr. Jake Homiak wants the world to know that there is more to Rastafari than ganja and reggae. So, last year he launched Discovering Rastafari! at Washington's Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the first exhibit of its kind by a major cultural organization. On display are rare photographs, newspaper, magazines, video footage, clothing, and artifacts such as Emperor Selassie bubblegum cards to explore the cultural, political and social origins of the Rastafari religion in Jamaica and its spread around the world.
 
“It’s the work of almost 30 years labour,” Dr. Homiak explains to Donisha Prendergrast in the film In Search of Rastafari: A Soul’s Journey. After the Smithsonian asked Homiak and his colleague Carol Yani to curate this massive project, they immersed themselves in the culture. “We went to Sheshamane in Ethiopia, because the inspiration for Rastafari really comes from Ethiopia. Ethiopianism is a philosophy that gained ground in the American colonies in the late-1700s. It emerged as the first literate blacks began to discover a way of relating and reading themselves into the Bible.” He cites a key phrase from the psalms: “Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God.”
 
Fast forward to November 1930 when Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia. “It received enormous media coverage around the world,” says Homiak, pointing to vintage Time and London Illustrated News magazine covers inside an impressively large and detail display. “This event was interpreted as the second coming by some blacks in Jamaica and it was all within the framework of this Ethiopianist doctrine.” Thus, Rastafari was born.
 
The exhibit also looks at the contributions of Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey who preached pan-Africanisms in the 1920s, and reggae. “Reggae was also influenced by an African drumming tradition known as Buru,” explains Homiak, “a music that came from the period of slavery and was generally practiced among the lowest classes of ghetto dwellers in Kingston. The Rastas made common cause with the Buru people, which later became Nyahbinghi drumming.”
 
In addition to extensive research, Homiak who works in the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology sought expert advice. “We had 17 Rastafari from not simply Jamaica but around the world that consulted with us over a two-year period to mount this exhibit on every theme.” Homiak feels that Yani, who passed away during the mounting of this exhibit, would have been proud of the final result: “One the things that Carol Yani and I want to show here is the way in which Rastafari has been internationalist from its very inception.”
 
Discovering Rastafari! opened in November 2007 and runs indefinitely at the Museum of Natural History. Please visit the Smithsonian for details on ticketing, location and hours. For information about the film In Search of Rastafari: A Soul’s Journey, please contact producer Patricia Scarlett at www.scarlett-media.tv