Going far beyond the standard imagery of Rasta—ganja, reggae, and dreadlocks—this cultural history offers an uncensored vision of a movement with complex roots and the exceptional journey of a man who taught an enslaved people how to be proud and impose their culture on the world. In the 1920s Leonard Percival Howell and the First Rastas had a revelation concerning the divinity of Haile Selassie, king of Ethiopia, that established the vision for the most popular mystical movement of the 20th century, Rastafarianism. Although jailed, ridiculed, and treated as insane, Howell, also known as the Gong, established a Rasta community of 4,500 members, the first agro-industrial enterprise devoted to producing marijuana. In the late 1950s the community was dispersed, disseminating Rasta teachings throughout the ghettos of the island. A young singer named Bob Marley adopted Howell's message, and through Marley's visions, reggae made its explosion in the music world.
The First Rasta has generally received mixed reviews.
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Review of The First Rasta (2011)
By Paul Brunick (22) for The New York Times (9,847) on 01 Dec 2011
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The First Rasta was released in 2011 and has generally received mixed reviews.
Online reviewers have written 2 reviews, giving The First Rasta (2011) an average rating of 51%.
With a score of 51%, The First Rasta is below the average Cinafilm score for movies made in 2011, which stands at 57%.
Other movies from 2011 with similar scores include films like Battle: Los Angeles, Straw Dogs and Hall Pass.
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