In search of identity: Being a Rastafarian in Democratic Malawi

Abstract

Although the Rastafari movement continues to attract a growing number of people around the world, not much is known in relation to how they have managed to sustain their identity despite the persecution and discrimination that most encounter. This is especially so in the case of Malawi where Rastafarians make up a minority of the country’s religious population, the majority of whom are adherents of the Christian and Islamic faiths. As Malawian Rastafarians continue to be marginalised, this paper sets out to explore how they have managed to remain firm in their identity. Using the Nigrescence Theory of 1971 that was formulated by American psychologist William Cross to describe one’s process of becoming Black, we set out to investigate how this theory could be utilized to understand the identity transformation of Rastafarians in Malawi. This was in line with the fact that Rastafari is rooted in Afrocentrism

Keywords

• : rastafari
• malawi
• identity
• identity transformation
• nigrescence theory
• religious conversion
• minority religion