Henry Archibald Dunkley was, along with

Leonard Howell Leonard Percival Howell (16 June 1898 – 23 January 1981), also known as The Gong or G.G. Maragh (for ''Gangun Guru''), was a Jamaican religious figure. According to his biographer Hélène Lee, Howell was born into an Anglican family. He was one ...

Joseph Hibbert Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert (1894 – September 18, 1986) was, along with Leonard Howell, Archibald Dunkley, and Robert Hinds, one of the first preachers of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica following the coronation of Ras Tafari as Emperor Haile ...

, and Robert Hinds, one of the first preachers of the

Rastafari movement Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

following the coronation of Ras Tafari as Emperor

Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles ...

on 2 November 1930. Dunkley had spent much time away from Jamaica, as a seaman employed by the

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...

, and he returned to

Port Antonio Port Antonio is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for b ...

, Jamaica on 8 December 1930, where he switched professions, becoming a street preacher. His studies of the Bible had convinced him that the newly crowned Haile Selassie was the returned

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

, and that ''Rastafari'' was a name of God. By 1933, he had relocated to Kingston, where the King of Kings Ethiopian Mission was founded. Following Howell's December 1933 imprisonment for sedition, Dunkley too was imprisoned briefly by the authorities a number of times in 1934 and 1935 on charges of "disorderly conduct". In August 1938, he became one of the foundation members of the first Jamaican local chapter of the Ethiopian World Federation, Local 17, which however became dormant soon afterwards, to be replaced by the more permanent Local 31. Although not as much is known of his life as that of Howell (the most outspoken founder of Rastafari), Dunkley was reported as still alive in 1991.Barry Chevannes, "The Rastafari of Jamaica", in ''When Prophets Die'' by Timothy Miller, p. 143

References

History of the Ethiopian World Federation
*''The Rastafarians'' By Leonard E. Barrett: - p. 82 *''Africana'' By Henry Louis Gates - p. 645 *"Rastafari - Black Decolonization" by Michael Hoenisch in ''CrossRoutes: the Meanings of "race" in the 21st century''. p. 139 *''Exploring New Religions'' By George D. Chryssides, p. 271 *''Arise Ye mighty people!: gender, class, and race in popular struggles'' - by Terisa E. Turner, p. 60 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunkley, Archibald Founders of new religious movements Jamaican Rastafarians Year of birth missing Possibly living people People from Port Antonio