The word itself has no connection with India. Rastafarianism is named after Ras-Tafari, one of the epithets of the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie whom Rastafarians revere. Per Wiktionary, the etymology of that epithet is as follows:
> From Amharic ራስ (ras, “Duke”, literally “head”) and ተፈሪ (täfäri, “revered”) from ተፈሪ መኮንን (täfäri mäkonn, “Haile Selassie”, literally “feared (son of) Makonnen”).
Just for the sake of being circular, I will mention the rumour i once read that Ras Tafari (Halie Selassie) was in fact the product of an affair between the Pricess Woizero and an Indian enginneer, which rasies the eyebrown given his the lack of resemblence the Shuwa King, Makonnen Woldemikael. But mentioned anyhow since it would be poetic if Rastafari also meant Way fairing traveller in Hindi, but i dont know much about poetry.
https://landofpunt.wordpress.com/haile-selassie-abyssinian-r...
There's a song in my playlist where they play a recording of someone calling a hotel and asking them to page "Haile Selassie". I never understood the reference until now!
The Orb's "Towers of Dub"? Genius.com says this song's sample was a "prank call was made by Victor Lewis Smith, a British film, television and radio producer, a TV and restaurant critic, a satirist and newspaper columnist."
Dub music isn't "the chanting of Rastafari", it is a musical genre orthogonal to Rastafarianism that was developed by Jamaican musicians from varied backgrounds. Rastafarianism does have a chanting tradition in worship and e.g. Nyabinghi chants have been recorded over the decades, but it sounds little like dub music, which is, after all a studio-based genre, and it also sounds more West African-diaspora than Jewish liturgical music.
I can't agree. Dub music evolved more or less around Nyabinghi chants through Count Ossie's jazz interpretations. The Nyabinghi chants are spiritual chants, so you may think of dub music as very spiritual. Add to that the lyrics of dub music and there you are. Of course the likes of Lee Scratch and Mad Professor really brought psychedelic vibes with reverb and delay into it, but the point is what it was used for, and what the themes in it are about.
For me dub is undoubtedly psychadelic spirtual music and its sources are in Rastafari. I like it very much, even though I'm don't share all the Rastafari beliefs.
I'm not saying that Nyabinghi drumming has anything to do with Jewish liturgical music. or that Rastafari is a descendant of Christianity, for, or not. Fact is that even though it has no direct connection physically (those people were in Jamaica, right so?), they were absolutely enchanted by the idea of Ethiopian roots. Ras Tafari is Ethiopian, right?
Potentially it was wrong to use "Judaism" as terminology at all here, and I was rightfully downvoted. But what I meant is Old Testament is closely related to the Hebrew Bible, which is a foundational text in Judaism.... These texts contain many of the same books that are found in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, although the arrangement and the number of books may differ. So may wording was not entirely right, I stand corrected.
No you may not know, but Ethiopia has never been colonized, and is very proud for it. And it was one of the first countries to be exposed to Christianity (or Judaism if you want, or whatever it was called in these BC ages). There is very good reason to believe that the legendary Queen of Sheba have actually visited King Solomon, although I'm not going into arguing about Song of Songs, really. This is ... like long before Christ came to bring the New Testament.
But the point here is that Ethiopian Orthodoxy, etc influenced the Rastafari interpretations. Was it for political reasons, for Marcus Garvey reasons - I can't tell. But if you care to listen to what people sing about in the roots roots dub, try https://www.discogs.com/artist/43151-Alpha-Omega. They are for sure much more into this whole stuff - much more than you and me. Listen to the themes. The themes are biblical, and very much about characters and events that you find in the Old Testament. About Israel, Exodus, etc. This is biblical music, like it or not. And such these are the roots of dub. You find similar themes in music by Twinkle Brothers, Pablo Moses, etc...
Appropriating Jewish biblical figures into a non Jewish practice isnt making that a practice rooted in Judaism. It's just very surface level nonsense. They could be named anything.
> From Amharic ራስ (ras, “Duke”, literally “head”) and ተፈሪ (täfäri, “revered”) from ተፈሪ መኮንን (täfäri mäkonn, “Haile Selassie”, literally “feared (son of) Makonnen”).