Not just Naijans, Jamaicans too! The ones I especially love are the less educated sole speaker of Patois (similar to Naijan Patois) who emigrate to America, "assimilate" by emulating the inner-city black accent, and return to show off. Comedy Central!

Then there's the more educated who can speak English but thinks that to sound Jamaican is still not good enough. They tend to emulate white people, going nasal and all. He! He! He!

I pass by this forum maybe once a week and check out "Culture" and "Family" for the most part. Usually I just read and don't post, but I cannot pass up this topic. I'm Jamaican, over 50, and while I never have been a Rastafarian, I've been close to them and know a bit about them.

Trom TerraCotta: «The first Rastas claim to have been inspired by photos of Mau-Mau rebels in Kenya who were fighting to overthrow British colonialism. Some other scholars believe that they absorbed the concept of long, locked hair, ganga smoking and a vegetarian diet from the saddhus amongst the Indian indentured workers that came to Jamaica in the 19th century.»

Right you are on both counts, Mau-Mau and the Siddhus, plus more. The look of bible-times religious men and prophets (as intimated by another poster) is one, and yet another is the lion's mane (Ras Tafari, a.k.a. Haile Selassie, was fond of lions - had tame ones roaming his palace grounds). Such influences all converged on a nascent Rastafarianism. To wit, the cry of "Lion!" will still be heard in Rasta speech to indicate "Yes!", "Great!", "Nice!", etc. The Jamaican word for marijuana, "ganja", came via the Rastas from the aforementioned Siddhu workers (the Indian word to this day is "ganju".

From the nineteen-eighties on the look of Rastas became more and more fashionable and dreadlocks today is mostly just another hairstyle. We even used to try to make the distinction between a genuine "Rastaman" and a mere "Dreadlock".

In light of the topic being "Dreadlocks: What's The Whole 9 Yards About It?", I won't get into the early days of the sect and the hardships and prejudice they endured until about the nineteen-eighties.

--Æ.

Ogejov, my dear, you're welcome. I wish you all the luck in the world. Remember, your future kids will not deserve being looked down on for stupidity like Osu, so please move or migrate.

I cannot even recall what I was looking for when I came across this Web forum. Woowee! The more you live, the more you learn! I just had to bookmark the site and register. I'm Jamaican but a great part of our culture is owed to Igbo input from slavery times (e.g., we still say "oonu" for "you" plural). But thank heavens that this 'Outcast' or 'Osu' system didn't survive; what an abomination!

From what I've learnt here, the young lady must be congratulated for making the brave choice of "love first". Somebody suggested that she move to a neutral place, I agree. How about a big city, or better yet, Europe of North America? In fact, every Osu should do so! In time there wouldn't be any of the caste left! The law against that system needs to be renewed and teeth put into it.

I must say thanks particularly to "Youngies" for the fine explanation of the system and its roots. I wonder if someone from the West, say I for instance, were to be in Igboland, whether I would be an Osu too (being a slave offspring). Wow!