The Rastafarian movement, which is cultural and political as much as religious, was founded in the 1930’s and is a celebration of black Jamaicans' African heritage. At its root is the smoking of ganja and the search for biblical justifications of its use (much like the Ethiopian Zion Coptics). Indeed Ethiopia, with its long cannabis traditions, is looked to by Rastafarians as a symbol of freedom and sovereignty and the late emperor Haile Selassie is regarded as God reincarnated.
The tradition and reverence of cannabis was bought to the Caribbean with the slaves in the 19th Century and the means to cultivate the plant was a result of an abandoned British attempt to grow industrial hemp in 1800.
Among the many Rasta words for cannabis (Kaya, herb, lambsbread) are two words of clear Hindu ancestry - Ganja & Kali, possibly the result of early Indian migrant workers in Ethiopia.
