A small community, about one per cent at the 2010 census; a 2019 law permitted sacramental cannabis use in registered Rastafari places of worship.
Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center
This source names Rastafari directly: "on Ganja, his doctoral research on Rastafari at Columbia University, and his standing as the author of Rastafari: Roots and Ideology, the standard scholarly study of the movement, published in 1994."
Source Barry Chevannes (Wikipedia)
This source names Rastafari directly: "Twelve Tribes of Israel, the largest Rastafari organization by membership and reach, arguing that the return to Africa determined both its genesis and the development of branches abroad, and records..."
Source Bonacci, "The Return to Ethiopia of the Twelve Tribes of Israel," New West Indian Guide, vol. 90 (2016)Giulia Bonacci
This source names Rastafari directly: "and the United States, traces the Rastafari movement's return to Africa from the Caribbean, the United States and Britain, situating the Twelve Tribes of Israel's international growth within the..."
Source Bonacci, Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia (University of the West Indies Press, 2015)Giulia Bonacci
Rastafari arose in British Jamaica in the 1930s around the coronation of Haile Selassie, a religion the empire produced without intending to.
Source Religion Versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914Andrew Porter
This source names Rastafari directly: "to his establishment of the first Rastafari community in the hills of St."
Source Dunkley, The Suppression of Leonard Howell in Late Colonial Jamaica, 1932-1954 (New West Indian Guide, 2013)D.A. Dunkley
This source names Rastafari directly: "with Grenada's government or its Rastafari community, reporting Grenada's Parliament passing the Drug Abuse (Prevention and Control) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, including its Rastafari sacramental..."
Source Grenada Parliament Approves Amendment to Marijuana Legislation (CNC3)
This source names Rastafari directly: "of Grenada's government and its Rastafari community though oriented toward the cannabis industry, reporting Governor General Dame Cecile La Grenade's 13 February 2026 assent to the Drug Abuse..."
Source Grenada Receives Governor General Approval for Cannabis Reforms (International Cannabis Business Conference)
Why this is disputed. Rastafari reads Haile Selassies 1930 coronation, with its titles King of Kings and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah and its claimed descent from Solomon, as the fulfilment of biblical prophecy and proof of his divinity as the returned Messiah. Selassie himself, a lifelong Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, publicly and consistently declined to accept that reading throughout his life. The movements central claim therefore rests on how his titles and coronation are interpreted rather than on anything he himself affirmed.
Source Rastafari: Roots and IdeologyBarry Chevannes
Rastafari emerged in Jamaica in the early 1930s, reading the coronation of Haile Selassie I as prophetic fulfilment, and was persecuted for decades, most severely at Coral Gardens in 1963.
Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center
This source names Rastafari directly: "first Caribbean nation to recognize Rastafari in law, citing Jamaica's own 2011 Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and its 2015 sacramental ganja provisions while acknowledging Saint Kitts..."
Source Jamaica Rejects St Kitts' Claim of First Legal Recognition of Rastafari (Jamaica Gleaner)
This source names Rastafari directly: "Nairobi's Milimani Law Courts of the Rastafari Society of Kenya's petition for a religious cannabis exemption, with Justice Bahati Mwamuye's reasoning, the petitioners' planned appeal and the..."
Source Kenya Court Dismisses Rastafari Case Seeking to Legalize Marijuana (The Washington Times)
This source names Rastafari directly: "that Leonard Howell founded the first Rastafari community of roughly 4,500 members at Pinnacle in the hills of St."
Source Pinnacle Great House Ruin (Jamaica National Heritage Trust)
This source names Rastafari directly: "apologising for the violence against Rastafari at Coral Gardens between 11 and 12 April 1963, which the statement itself calls "a grave injustice" marked by "brutality, injustice and repression."
Source PM Holness Apologises For The 1963 Coral Gardens Incident (Jamaica Information Service)Jamaica Information Service; statement by Prime Minister Andrew Holness
This source names Rastafari directly: "of 29,026 Jamaicans identifying as Rastafari, the strongest parish followings in St Andrew (7,630) and St Catherine (4,557)."
Source Religion and the 2011 Census
This source names Rastafari directly: "extending legal recognition to the Rastafarian faith, quoting Drew on the constitutional basis for the change and the new registration process for Rastafari places of worship."
Source Saint Kitts and Nevis First in Caribbean to Recognize Rastafarian Faith in Law (SKNIS)
A visible minority community rooted here since the 1970s, part of the faith's spread through the eastern Caribbean.
Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center
This source names Rastafari directly: "death produced a crisis of faith among Rastafari in Jamaica, documenting the movement's belief in Selassie's divinity as the two hundred twenty fifth descendant of King David through Solomon and the..."
Source Why a Coup in Ethiopia Created a Faith Crisis in Jamaica (JSTOR Daily)Peter Feuerherd
This source names Rastafari directly: "affiliated with Kenya's courts or the Rastafari Society of Kenya, reporting the 15 July 2026 dismissal of the petition, the community's constitutional argument for cannabis as a sacred sacrament..."
Source Why Kenya's Rastafarians Are Taking the Fight for Sacred Cannabis Use to Court (Commonwealth Union)