History Of Dreadlocks

African cultures have always utilized the body as a vehicle for expression. The YORUBA, AKAN and MENDE, associate the head with physical and spiritual well being. In other African societies people with tangled hair are regarded as wizards or witches; agents of the netherworld. Among the IBO(NIGERIA) those with dreadlocks are viewed as shamans, oral history recounts cases of chosen ones being born with a full head of hair.

For the HIMBA of NAMIBIA and ANGOLA dreadlock hair is related to rights of passage that serve to establish social and marital status within the tribe in Kenya from the age of 14, the SAMBURU and MASSAI men maintain locks in very thin strands, then braid and weave these sections with decorative ornaments. Within the warrior class, MORANI, hair indicates rank in Senegal, there are people known as the BAYE FALL, followers of the Mouride movement, a sect of Islam indigenous to Senegal.They wear dreadlocks following their chief Chiek Amadou Bamba, by combining African paganism, Wolof and Sufism, Bamba created Mouridism in Ghana, over 300 years ago dreads; held pride of place in cultural mythology.

India's sadhus of the Hindu faith, have been locking their hair for centuries. Jatta(as it is called) announces that the wearer adheres to strict spiritual and sexual practices, including poverty and celibacy, ,outlined over 2000 years ago in the Naradaparivrajaka Upanishad. A divine directive descended from Upanishadic creation mythologies, matted locks are considered symbolic of a covenant between the Sadhus and SHIVA, the god of destruction and re-generation.

In Japan, Rasta-Buddhists subscribe to the belief systems of both Rasta and Buddhism.Rasta-Buddhists let their hair grow as a sign of their acceptance to nature's divine order. Urban areas of New Zealand offer unexpected pockets of cosmopolitan dreadlock communities, with their locks serving a sartorial purpose. Then theres the MAORI, of which the gang members see their locks as an exernal manifestation of their anti-socialism and general rebellion.

In November 1930, when Ras Tafari, an African prince with ancient lineage was crown Emperor Haile Selassie I of ETHIOPIA, many considered Revelation prophecy fulfilled. BAHATOWIE priests of the Ethiopian Coptic Church had been locking their hair since the 5th century.During the invasion of Italy in 1935, the Emperor was force into exile and the rebel guerrillas swore not to cut their hair until he was re-in-stated.

Hence the birth of Rastafarianism. Rastas throughout the EARTH, believe that their hair is a direct covenant between them and their creator and also a statement representing who they are as African descendants and the heritage is one to be proud of. The dreadlocks expression in all religious denominations, all hold on to the idea of a covenant between themselves and their creators.