This film captured and confirms the depiction of Rasta life in Edmonds’ Rastafari. However, the extent of the system of symbols surrounding a “movement to Africa” at play in Rasta culture was surprisingly a much more driving force in the video clip.
Many of the specific behaviors and traditions Edmonds describes are seen in the video. The scheduled ceremonies throughout the day, the Ethiopian dress, and the separateness of the culture are all confirmed in the clip.
What Edmonds doesn’t emphasize as much is the pervasive of the system of symbols that underlies these traditions. In the video, the Boboshanti derive their name from “bobo” meaning African children. The scheduled ceremonies are described by one Rasta in the video as symbolic of being “on the move” to Africa. Their Ethiopian dress is also described in the clip as the Rasta’s “creation image”, their true image an identity. Even the location of the community, alone on a mountaintop over the sea is symbolic of the movement to Africa.
This underlying system of symbols provides some insight into Rastafarian tradition and culture, tying them to the core values.
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