Rastafarianism is a religious/political movement. Most of the roots for Rastafarianism , or Rasta as it is most commonly known, came from the teachings of Marcus Garvey. Around the 1930's he preached a message of black self empowerment and from this initiated the "back to africa" movement, which said all blacks should return back to Africa particulary Ethiopia. People who practice Rastafarianism usually wear their hair in dread locks. The reason they wear their hair this way is because it is the image of the lion of Judah. Although wearing their hair in dread locks is not the only practice of Rasta's, I feel it is the most important. Now a days people who wear their hair in dreadlocks are just doing it because it looks good or it's the trendy thing to do. They probably aren't familiar with the meaning and reasons behind dreadlocks. Most are just wearing it as a hairstyle. This is very annoying to me because people who don't know any better would see someone with dreads and automatically assume they are Jamaican. Everyone who has dreads is not Jamaican or a Rasta. A Rasta's dreads aren't perfectly seperated into boxes nor do they go to salons to get them twisted. They are grown naturally and the locks are usually big and very few. You can find more information on Rastafarianism at
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