By Basil Walters Sunday Observer staff reporter
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Sunday, April 01, 2007
Rastafarians have enthusiastically embraced the crowning of the first
Rastafarian Miss Jamaica Universe 2007, Zahra Redwood, in apparent
contradiction of their well-known anti-beauty pageant stance.
Redwood, 25, strutted the Miss Jamaica Universe stage last Sunday, her
dreadlocks rolled into a neat 'bun' to the back of her head, to beat
out 15 other beautiful Jamaicans for the coveted title, grabbing
sectional prizes for 'most aware' and 'most congenial' contestant at
the same time.
"I think the event speaks to the redefinition of the concept of beauty,
which speaks to the idea of a redefinition of self and identity and so
on," Rastafaran poet Yasus Afari told the Sunday Observer.
"It is a great thing that a big-lip, black, picky picky natty head
woman should a win a beauty contest," said Mutabaruka, the outspoken
dub poet and entertainer. "So, it jus' show a level of change weh a tek
place inna di mind and consciousness of whosoever a dweet, yuh nuh."
Some Rastafarians, members of a religious movement which was spawned in
Jamaica and worships the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie as
divine, read much significance into the crowning of Redwood.
They pointed to the coincidence that the pageant was held on the day
commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; the 117th anniversary of the birth of
Empress Menen, wife of Haile Selassie and the closing day of the
Empress Zion's fourth annual conference at the University of the West
Indies; in the 77th year since the emergence of Rastafari as the
world's youngest socio-religious worldview; 44 years after the Coral
Gardens' incident in which police rounded up Rastafarians and forcibly
cut their locks, and 41 years since the visit of Emperor Selassie, "the
King of Kings" to Jamaica.
Rastafarians have traditionally opposed beauty contests, describing
them as akin to a cattle shows and that such pageants promoted a
"Eurocentric perspective of the concept of beauty".
"...The emphasis was so much on the physical and too much on the
glorification of the flesh and too much on parading the dawta dem as if
dem a chattel fi di lust and the shenanigans of the power brokers of
the society," explained Yasus Afari.
"The stereotypical concept that is attached to the competition and what
else go with it, used to anti what Rastafari stands for," the poet said
at the launch of his book, Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift To
The World and CD, Revolution Chapter 1 Yasus Afari.
But he added that despite the traditional Rastafari position on beauty
contests, Redwood's history-making achievement - which would previously
have stirred some disquiet or even now some measure of reservation
among members - was still an important vantage point and an important
occasion for the movement.
"This dawta kinda neutralised the radical response by her charm and her
intelligence, her focus and her upbringing, yuh nuh," he said.
Rastafarian Abba Zero commented: "As a Rasta I know that beauty lies
within. And the beauty within, I shall say to you here and now, she
manifests the totality of such knowing. Externally manifest. We give
thanks and praises to know that within Rastafari our beauty need not be
validated by any forces, because we are so confident within knowing who
we are. Give thanks that the external world can see us for who we are."
Ras Junior Manning, an elder of the Nyahbinghi Order, expected some
"extreme Rastas" to oppose the event. "But the reality is, once the
sister knows who she is...this is just a way how to break the barrier
and go through the system. So I think this is the right direction," he
said.
"The beauty bout it, it's something little different," added Manning.
"That's the beauty bout it. And I like the parents' background. We see
sey is a complete Rasta dawta...And so this is like a big new direction
which will encourage other Rasta youths and will bring about a level of
self-confidence among other youths out there who nuff a dem come from
Rasta parents and dem end up inna Babylon..."
Dr Sonia Stanley-Niaah, lecturer in Cultural Studies at the UWI, Mona,
hailed Redwood as the first Miss Jamaica Universe contestant "to
self-identify as Rastafari".
"Rastafari is what put Jamaica on the map, Rastafari is what Jamaica is
known for, coupled with reggae music," she said. "And for us as a
nation to be celebrating something that has taken us so long to
achieve, it means that we are backward. However, I wish her well and I
hope that it is a sign that the nation is progressing towards greater
acceptance and appreciation for what it is we have produced as
indigenous products for this nation."
Chicago-based Rastafarian social scientist Sekou Tafari said: "I think
it is about time, as our women have always been considered to be the
most beautiful women; is just that the outside world never really look
in and saw them."
Sister Mitzie was overwhelmed: "I'm very proud... Because these
contests are usually stereotypical in terms of what they are looking
for as far as beauty is concerned. And I think we would not have
expected a Rasta sister to ever cop a title like that. So I'm very
happy for her. She is very beautiful, intelligent and I think she can
do the job just as anybody else. I hope she goes as far as she wants to
reach."
Robin 'Bongo Jerry' Small saw the crowning of Zahra Redwood as
significant. "I was first curious to know if she was Rastafarian or
just have on locks. Now that I heard that she is a Rastafarian, it is
kind of significant, especially in a year like this.... at the same
time it shows a certain amount of withdrawal of the ignorance of the
people who host such an event like this."
Dub poet, Nato Meeks of Royal African Soldier's fame noted that with a
black Rasta woman winning, "it set a new concept or thought towards
what is beauty, from what is the stereotypical concept. So jus pon dat
alone, dem fi give it a greater hype".
Fellow poet/singer, Italee Watson added: "For me, a black Rasta woman
winning the Miss Jamaica Universe is a phenomenal success. For one, we
were trained to think that only European beauty is real beauty. So even
when we look on our fellow black female and black male, if them don't
have European attributes like straight hair, straight nose, thin lips,
we wouldn't consider them beautiful. So it's good to see a black woman,
not just a black woman, a black Rastafari woman winning this event."
From a religious point of view, Ras Fagan, head of the Blue
Mountain-based Haile Selassie I School of Vision, thought it not
fitting, "because of the nudity and the semi-nudity that would be
observed in the way she has to portray herself by dictates".
"Based on what I've heard, and the fact that I've also seen other
beauty contestants being crowned, I was thinking then, that she has to
walk in her bikini and so forth. If that is not the case, there should
be no opposition... because, the time is now for the locks to be shown
in all its glory."
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