The Sunday Mail
June 16 is observed, celebrated, memorialised and commemorated as the beginning of the life of one brave soul, rebel Leonard Percival Howell.
Ibo Foroma
Born in 1898, the first of eleven children to Charles Theophilus Howell and Clementina Bennett in Red Hills, Clarendon Jamaica, he is considered to be one amongst the most prominent individuals to develop and establish the Rastafarian Faith and Movement.
For that, he is known as the “First Rasta” and understanding his life is pivotal to comprehending the complex Ras Tafari-inspired way of life.
The coronation of Ras Tafari as Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia in 1930 had been massively publicised around the world, and Biblical interpretation of the event as the return of the living God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was popular among populations of dislocated Africans.
Ethiopia was the only non-colonised country in Africa, and this “land of the free” with unimaginable riches on display was considered “Paradise on Earth/the Promised Land”.
During the coronation, representatives from around the world, including the son of King George V, presented gifts to the new king, bowing down before His Imperial Majesty in recognition of his majesty. At the glorious coronation ceremony, precisely 72 nations did bow down before the Great King, exactly according to Biblical prophecy.
In late 1933 and early 1934, this very bowing down by the son of King George, became the basis of a charge of sedition against Percival Howell, who said during his frequent meetings “The Lion of Judah has broken the chain and we the black race are finally free. George V is no longer our king. George V sent his son to bow down to our new King Ras Tafari”.
Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life for a similar charge, seeking and expressing racial equality in a racially-biased environment.
Percival Howell went on trial on March 13, 1934 and was prosecuted by the same HM Radcliffe whose murder case he scuppered when he refused to testify as a boy. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
But the publicity increased his following. In the late 1930s, Percival Howell took over ownership of 500-plus acres of land in Sligoville, St Catherine, and named it Pinnacle. He paid the previous owner, Mr Albert Chang, in cash.
Percival Howell was resourceful and independent. He did not use money for personal fulfilment but instead he led a humble life on Pinnacle.
Pinnacle became a safe-haven for thousands of ex-slaves, suffering racism, oppression, homelessness and hunger, who desired to live and work communally.
Under Percival Howell’s leadership, Pinnacle was transformed into the largest self-reliant, economically empowered community in Jamaica.
Several farmers lived and worked in Pinnacle, producing a variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, yams, banana, cassava, corn, coconut and many other products.
Cannabis, adapted from India’s River Ganges, was grown mainly for spiritual meditation, worshipping, medicine, textiles and clothing, food, drink and fuel.
The Rastafarians at Pinnacle built a food store “for the tough days”.
Many skilled craftsmen and women, nurses and other professionals shared this faith and lived there under the motto “One God, One Aim, One Destiny”.
Between 1941 and 1957, Pinnacle was raided several times. Each time the authorities would take away cash banked in the community that amounted to thousands of dollars under the claim that it was money earned from selling ganja.
Percival Howell was reputed for walking the streets of Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine and other parishes giving money to the poor and children.
He did not give in to the harassment, beatings, torture, numerous arrests and incarcerations. He always went back to live in Pinnacle upon his release from prison.
By the time of his death, in suspicious circumstances in 1981, Percival Howell had been arrested, incarcerated and sent to Jamaica’s mental institutions more than 50 times.
Although stiff competition exists, Percival Howell qualifies as the most brutalised Rastafarian in the name of our Lord of Lords Jah Ras Tafari.
During the last raid on Pinnacle in 1954, ordered by the British Secret Service, the local police burnt to ashes homes belonging to thousands of Rastafarians.
Having no place to live and their elder in jail, most Rastafarians relocated throughout Kingston, St Catherine, Clarendon, St Thomas. That was the beginning of the Rastafari dispersion and relocation in groups of churches and mansions.
Until today, neither the Rastafarians of Pinnacle, nor Percival Howell himself, were ever compensated for their loss of property, homes, lives, and humiliation.
During the 1980s, the Jamaican government sold off most of this land to foreign and private investors.
Pinnacle is now sub-divided and being sold off by the St Jago Hills Development Ltd and the developers are suing The Rastafari Nation, Nyabhinghi Theocracy, Leonard P Howell Foundation, Ras Lion, and Ras Howie for possession of the Pinnacle site and land.
Although not directly related to the movement, we do not forget the June 16 Soweto Massacre of 1976. More than 700 people, children mostly and some adults were brutally sprayed with bullets in order to silence their protest against the language Afrikaans that had since been forced into their lives.
High school students were exterminated like pests for peacefully protesting a new statute that compelled everyone to learn through the slave monsters language.
From the King of Peace, “where there is no justice, there is no peace” Emperor Haile Selassie I the first lives forever.
