Liberating the Mind: Rastafari and the Theorization of Maroonage as Epistemological (Dis) engagement

Abstract

This article explores the concept of maroonage (other spellings “maronage,” “marronnage,” and “marronage”) as a process of epistemological engagement and disengagement using the way in which the Rastafari movement constructs, organizes, and legitimates knowledge and knowledge production. By focusing on the Rastafari processes of knowledge production and legitimation, this article allows for a theorization of maroonage as a constant engagement not only in the sense of physical withdrawal from hegemonic systems of dominance but an ideological opting out. While many Rastafarians live in secluded communities and choose not to participate in systems that work against their interest, many have renegotiated the process of knowing such that they can be in Babylon but not of Babylon. The epistemic shifts in Rastafari discourse on a Black God, King, and Zion stand as exemplars of epistemological self-determination characteristic of the maroonage on the ideological level. The article develops by: (a) looking at ideology, (b) the contours of Rastafari epistemology, (c) the sociopolitical context of epistemological (dis) engagement, and (d) the epistemic shift in Rastafari discourse on a Black God, King, and Zion as epistemological self-determination.