Pinnacle – A story of a new religion and persecution

Near Sligoville, St Catherine, Jamaica’s first free village, there is a huge swathe of land, at the centre of which there is a hill called Pinnacle. From it there is a 360-degree view. There, one of the greatest stories of our history and heritage unfolded, and ended abruptly. It started on November 2, 1930, in Ethiopia, Africa.

On that day, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. His supporters believe that he was the earthly manifestation of God, or Jah. His birth, it is said, was foretold in the Bible and his lineage goes back several centuries before the birth of Christ.

Selassie was born in 1892. Six years later, in 1898, Leonard P. Howell was born in the parish of Clarendon on June 16. At an early age he migrated to the United States, where he joined Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Soon, Howell became one of Garvey’s top-brass members, but Garvey and the UNIA were constantly under the radar of US authorities, which eventually arrested and charged Garvey for mail fraud. He was deported in 1928, and Howell was to follow him in 1932.

But Howell’s activism switched from Garveyism to one that focused on the importance of Selassie I. He saw Selassie as the great Black Messiah, and he established the King of Kings Mission, out of respect for Selassie, and appointed himself Selassie’s representative in Jamaica. He also wrote the first book about Rastafarianism, The Promised Key.

In 1933, soon after his return to Jamaica, Howell stepped up his preaching of Selassie, which, in addition to his faith-healing practices, earned him a huge following. In his book Overstanding Rastafari – Jamaica’s Gift to the World, Yasus Afari says that at the beginning of the 1930s, “the streets of Jamaica (Kingston and St Catherine in particular) were energised by the inspired preaching and teachings of the Honourable Leonard Howell, one of the earliest Rastafarian pioneers”.

Howell was preaching ‘doctrines’ that were considered by the authorities as anti-Church and anti-government. He was charged and sent to prison for sedition. But imprisonment did not shake the foundation of Howell’s resolve. Upon his release from prison in 1940, he set up the first Rastafarian village in Jamaica on 400 acres at Sligoville, St Catherine.

The settlement was called The Pinnacle because of its high hilltop elevation, and the residents became self-sufficient farmers. Howell’s influence spread outside of The Pinnacle, and Rastafarian communities were set up across the country. The original Rasta camps were also regularly raided and dislocated by the police “as the governing class and conservative sectors of the Jamaican society became alarmed by the grossly misunderstood Rastafarians”.

In 1941, government forces swooped down on Pinnacle and arrested many of Howell’s followers. Howell fled, but he was eventually arrested; and on August 20, he was tried again for sedition and sentenced to two years in prison. When he was released in 1943 he returned to Pinnacle.

For almost a decade after his return Pinnacle flourished, as the residents were left alone to carry on their lives. Trading and farming were their major sources of income, of which they earned a lot. The population also boomed, as people saw Pinnacle as a place where they could go to prosper on their own. But the good life was not to last forever.

In 1954, government militia invaded Pinnacle and completely destroyed the village. The residents fled, but some subsequently returned. Yet, Pinnacle never really got back to its heyday, when it was a Mecca for those who refuse to embrace the ethos of mainstream Jamaican society. The persecution of Rastafarians has been ongoing, yet the movement continues to grow in Jamaica and many parts of the world, and has impacted people of various races and cultures.

Over the years, there have been much contention over claims of ownership of Pinnacle and the acres of land that surround it. One private developer who was selling lots was strongly resisted by the Rastafarians and other stakeholders. An investigation was launched by the Government. No report is yet to be tendered, leaving the ownership of the land in doubt. The Ministry of Culture declared the lot on which Howell’s house was built a national monument, and a plaque declaring such was silently mounted.

Whatever the story, whoever the owners, Pinnacle in St Catherine will always be known as the former home of the founders of Rastafarianism, a new religion that the Jamaican people gave to the world. They are a people who charted their own course of self-sufficiency and independence, away from the madding crowd, without the influence of the Church and State, 30 years before Jamaica gained political independence.