Living life as an act of activism

How I became an activist My defintion: An actvist is someone who is an active participant in the bringing about of change to any social issues. This can be a teacher, an entertainer or even a policy maker etc. In light of the above definition I dare to consider myself an a Rastafari activist in that I have become someone who actively seeks to better change the reality of the Rastafari nation in Azania. This was not my intention from the onset but something that rather happened to me along my life path. I remember when I frist recognised my place within Rastafari livity – I was young and still in University going through the normal motions of “finding myself”. My introduction to the faith was a blessing because I was inducted by elders within the churchical order of Rastafari. This was crucial in my understanding of the movement because the first things I learned were the governance and the executive order of the movement. I learnt early on that there needed to be systems and structures that governed the relations between InI. These were to be found within the Nyabinghi order. Being the eager young sister that I was, I never missed an opportunity to travel to churchical gatherings both provincially and nationally and this meant that i met many different people who all interpreted the movement in different ways – what held us together was our mutual agreement in the truth of Rastafari. I grew up a relatively priveledged black child who attened a middle class white private school and had the benefits of higher education. What I encountered in my travels and my general day to day livity with other Rastafari was squatter camp dwellers, artisans, crafters, rural farmers and people whom I would never have thought I would ever meet had we not had Rastafari as our common ground and leveller. Throughout this time I found it disturbing to note how people reacted to my being in university and being as “worldly” as I was. Others were intimidated by it and tried to make it something negative with statements such as “ That is a brainwash system sistren – InI nah gwaan inna dem lie institutions!”. I myself found myself in situations where I started to believe that there was something wrong with being in university and being educated as a Rasta sister. It was only when I finally dropped out of school that this issue became clear for me. I remember walking into the gathering at Tsietsi and reasoning with a brother whom I held in high esteem. He asked me how my studies were going and when I told him that i had dropped out the brother became visibly angry. He asked me why and when i told him my halfhearted excuse he stood up and asked me leave! Yes – he threw me out and told me that there were enough illiterate and ignorant people within the movement and that we really didn't need any more – especially the self imposed kind! This brother broke it down for me the responsibilities that educated Rastafari have in this time and really opened my eyes to the works ahead for InI. It is so easy to get caught up in the cosmetics of the Rasatafari movement that even we who are within lose sight of the great work that is in our hands. We are the ones who have to build an alternative to the babylonian system. We are the ones who have to actively construct our realities now and for the future because we are the ones who have knowledge of both the lie and the truth. We are the powerful ones. OK Ok so I am getting ahead of myself now. But truly this is when I looked at my role within the nation in a totally different light. It was then that I recognised my strength and my ability to reach the masses and create change. This was when I started to speak, teach and heal. I have interpreted this through my writing for RasFleks, as well as being active in addressing issues that affect not only Rastafari women but the entire community because I have since realised that the only way to affect positive change for women is to have active, cosnsistent and productive dialogue with InI men and children too.