Dreadlocked hair, clothing of black, red, gold and green, unorthodox lifestyle, special dietary practices and their unique use of the language are synonymous with the Jamaican Rastafarian culture. But for one man — Ras Pinto — there is more to this faith.

Pinto expressed in an interview with the Jamaica Observer that Rastafari is an inborn concept and from he “resided” in his mother’s womb, he was appointed and anointed in that direction, and this concept manifested itself from an early age.

Some people begin the movement later in life through various factors, and according to Pinto, “Rastafari singers sing because they could spread the gospel of Rastafari, and a lot of persons become converted and get themselves aligned through the music and through scriptural reading… you know, the Bible and other Rastafari literatures.”

The Rastafari movement arose in the 1930s following a statement made by Marcus Garvey: “Look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be your redeemer.” This ‘prophecy’ became the foundation of the Rastafari movement. Following the prophecy was the crowning of the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, and Rastafarians saw this as the fulfilment of Garvey’s prophecy.

Selassie is regarded as the ‘Black Messiah’, Jah Rastafari, who will redeem them from oppression and reunite them with their homeland, Africa.

Pinto reflected on the experience he had in the late 1960s when the realisation of Rastafari came upon him in his pre-teens. “When I just passed Common Entrance Exam and going off to Kingston College that time, the manifestation took place upon me. Hear what my father asked me: ‘It seem as if you want to become a Rasta?’ I said, ‘yes daddy’. He said, ‘tell me what you know about Rastafari’, and I didn’t know what to say ’cause I didn’t know anything about Rastafari. I just know that there was this spirit inside of me that was saying Rastafari,” Pinto said.

The nature of the society towards Rastafarians in those times was one of harshness and rejection. They were seen as outcasts and were treated as such, but Pinto held on to his beliefs, though his father wasn’t too happy with the idea and he didn’t know all there was to know about the Rastafarian faith.

“My father really became violent against me too. He, like, slapped me down and when I regained consciousness my father asked me if I was still a Rasta. I said ‘yes daddy’ and my father said, ‘well, in the family there is no Rastafarian and we don’t want any Rastafarian in the family because Rastafarians are disgraceful people and you can’t stay in this house, you have to leave like now’.

Pinto had no choice but to leave his house and live in the bushes of Maverley, St Andrew.

Other boys in his age group from various high schools, too, were being thrown out of their houses because of their choice to become Rastas. So they all met in the bushes and decided to settle there. Pinto said they accepted the reality of their situation that their loved ones had forsaken them, they’d be abandoned, scorned and rejected by society. But these young brethren believed that through their faith they would overcome.

Pinto could recall himself and his brethren being ‘nice little boys’ growing up… very hygienic and readily accepted in their communities, but when they started saying Rastafari, their lives changed drastically. Being forced out of their homes, they had to find creative means of surviving.

They still attended schooland did their studies at nights, relying on the illumination offered by bottle torches and streetlights. According to Ras Pinto, they couldn’t get properly groomed. “We can’t get our regular showers, no deodorant, we weren’t getting our clothes washed properly, no pressing, and so we became real rejects. And the bus company, Jamaica Omnibus Service, they said no you all can’t come on the bus,” Pinto stated.

Because they were denied bus access due to their conditions, Pinto explained that they had to walk from areas like Havendale and Meadowbrook to downtown Kingston to get to and from school each day.

These young boys had no food or money so they had to stop at Coronation Market in Kingston and pick up what was being swept up for disposal. “We had to go through that for like onion, scallion, tomato, whatever we could find to eat; then we would go in the bushes and cook in cheese pan and that’s how we survived as young Rastas coming up,” Pinto recalled.

According to Pinto, his parents finally came around, after “a couple months”. His mother heard that he was in the bushes and went one night in search of him. Pinto said that when he saw the flashlight, he was alarmed because the youngsters thought it was the police, or thieves. “So I see the flashlight coming so I think it was the police, but then I heard my name being called.”

He said that when his mother saw him she was displeased and said, “no, no, you can’t live like this; you all can’t stay like this. I come for you.” But Pinto was adamant that he couldn’t just leave his brethren and go home just like that.

After being convinced by his bretheren, he decided to go home. They convinced him that he could get things from his house and take for them, and they could get their clothes washed at his house.

Pinto said he was happy to be home — he finally got the chance to do what he hadn’t done for a long time.

“You know how long mi neva get a shower? A tell yu say man, I welcome the shower yu si,” he revealed. After his shower he was summoned by his father who asked him again if he was still a Rasta. His response remained the same, but he realised that his father’s attitude towards his faith changed. Pinto recalled his father giving him books to read and finally accepted who he was.

Pinto said that as a Rastafari he followed his heart and spirit so he did not embrace the physical perception of what Rastafari was. He said that many of his brethren started to grow their hair during school, but he started to grow his dreadlocks about 50 years ago after working with the Government at the Jamaica Defence Force Air Wing.

He recalled a time in his life when his parents moved from their residence in Jones Town to the residential community of Pembroke Hall in St Andrew. There were many Rasta youth uprising, but they had to keep a low profile by not sitting in the front yard or at their gates, but staying to the back of their yard if they wanted to avoid police brutality — something they experienced twice.

They also had to stay away from their neighbours who hated them just the same, according to Pinto. “We get nuff beating man,” he said.

There was another incident in Waterhouse whilst ‘reasoning’ (having conversations) with some Rastafari elders, when the police came to raid the place, Pinto said. “Gunshot start fire, I never even know what to do. Mi see everybody run, mi say mi a go see wa a gwaan. Police jus hol me an’ say how yu look like you a Rasta so, you a Rasta? Me say ‘yes sir’, and dem lick mi down till mi nu know nuttin again. Nex ting me know me dey a Hunt’s Bay Police Station lock up. A my father affi come bail me afta couple days… So I’ve been through it, I know it,” Pinto reflected.

Ganja smoking was another reason Rastas were always being chastised by the police. Ganja is part of the Rastafarian’s religious sacrament and there was no law supporting its use in any way until it’s decriminalisation in 2015. Pinto said that in those days they had to be “really militant and really security conscious.”

Pinto’s father later got a job to manage an auto company in Manchester. Initially he commuted but it became hard, so Pinto’s family had to relocate to the parish. He was really excited about moving away from Kingston into the rural area where to him it was more natural with clean, fresh air.

“That was like a beautiful dream come true for I, so I did welcome da change dey,” he said. He later got a job at Alumina Partners (Alpart) bauxite company in St Elizabeth, and later worked at a bank for a few years until his scholarship to study aircraft engineering abroad was granted.

People who might be clueless about Rastafari, according to Pinto, would make certain remarks, for example: ‘Haile Selassie is a human being’. But he would say to them “yes, Haile Selassie, Ras Tafari might seem to appear as a human person but he is here as a human person so that we can see and learn the order of life, the order of governance and the order of spirituality because it is an actual fact, Haile Selassi is a celestial being and he only appears as a human person because he has certain things for us as human persons to observe and to recognise,” Pinto said.

Ras Pinto has been living a Rastafari life since he has been growing up and he describes it as an exemplary and inspiring life. Pinto regards Rastas as people who are above average; their culture, ‘livity’ (way of life), food are what he honours the most.

“Rastafari has been very very gracious to I and I, and I and I give thanks and praises for the knowledge and for the faith of Rastafari through the powers of Haile Selassie I. I and I give thanks, yu see me”

Pinto expressed how thankful he is that Rastafari is widespread and people respect the movement. He reflected that even if a person was born into a rich family, once he becames a Rastafari, he becomes a ‘reject of the earth’ which led Rastafari people, according to Pinto, to live terribly in cardboard houses, zinc houses, old cars, old trucks, old buses under the cellars, being wary of not only the police who would brutalise them and throw them into lock-up, but also people who had some real misconceptions about Rastafari.

He shared how over the generations and over the years people started observing certain things and changing their attitude, thoughts and understanding about his faith. “For example, I just came back from Chile, I spent like 30 days there and all over South America Rastafari people prevail! I’ve never seen so many Rastafari people in my life, so many Rastafari children, families … so Rasatafari is all over the world right now,” Pinto said.

He shared that the feeling he got when he saw the Rastafari community in Chile was one of humility. It was his first time there and Pinto said: “Because I see where the advancement of the faith and the spirituality, the culture, I mean I’ve been experiencing for myself since I’ve been traveling…but I tell you it really moved me, you know, in terms of seeing the inspiration that we are responsible for…and they living that life really seriously, really progressively and they’re really bright people, who have gone through university, have Masters, have PhD in different areas,” Pinto shared. “I really feel good when I see these things you know ’cause I know sey Rastafari pain could neva been in vain, eh.”

Pinto has faced many challenges in his Rastafari life but they have never swayed his faith.

“Being a Rastafari affects my day-to-day life most positively, most progressively, most inspiringly, most up de up de up de! Rastafari people are really wise people and things that people might do and things that people might say, in a discriminatory way, I and I don’t really make that affect I and I,” Pinto stated.

“People come to me and say: Boy, you know, first time mi neva used to like no Rasta yu nuh ’cause me tink Rasta did this and me think Rasta did that but, my mind change you nuh an me start pree di ting an me woulda love fi be a Rastafari. Lot’s a people come tell me that,” Pinto went on.

Pinto said that many people have changed their outlook on the Rastafari faith and he encourages those who have the desire to pay closer attention to the movement, to talk to “Rastafari people, man, woman and children and try to understand what they are living, and what they are experiencing.”

Asked if he had any regrets, Pinto responded: “No man, I never even knew there was a word called regret. Is pure joy and happiness; whatever faith you embrace is what is gonna make you holistic and well-rounded and the faith of Rastafari for me as a youth coming up really made me into a wholesome person and clean and spiritually inclined, fully cultural.”

He said that his home is like a sanctuary where people come from all over the world to learn about Rastafari culture and to just unwind and meditate.

“People come here to learn about Rastafari, eat their Rastafari food, drink green juice, come drink tonic, fi get dem yoga, massage and all sorts of things. If you go online you will see Sekhmet Retreat. Sekhmet is a female energy which emanates power, confidence, strength, positivity, everything weh up de. And that’s the name of our place,” Pinto said.