''The Promised Key'', sometimes known as ''The Promise Key'', is a 1935

Rastafari movement Rastafari is an Abrahamic 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 the movement and much ...

tract by Jamaican preacher

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 o ...

, written under Howell's Hindu pen name G. G. Maragh (for ''Gong Guru'').

Content

The tract bears some close similarities to an earlier (1926) writing by Fitz Balintine Pettersburg, the '' Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy'', but omitting much of the

stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which ...

language, long opaque abbreviations, and repetition, and some content from the ''

Holy Piby The ''Holy Piby'', also known as the Black Man's Bible, is a text written by an Anguillan, Robert Athlyi Rogers (d. 1931), for the use of an Afrocentrism, Afrocentric religion in the West Indies founded by Rogers in the 1920s, known as the Afro-At ...

''. Some lines of ''The Promised Key'' were taken verbatim from the '' Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy''; for example, the slogan "Gross beauty is the Queen in hell" may be found in both works, as part of a general condemnation of western

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

. Most significantly, the identities of " King Alpha and Queen Omega" were changed from Fitz Balintine Pettersburg and his wife, as in the Royal Parchment Scroll, to Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

and Empress

Menen Asfaw Menen Asfaw (baptismal name: Walatta Giyorgis; 25 March 1889 – 15 February 1962) was Empress of Ethiopia as the wife of Emperor Haile Selassie. Family Menen Asfaw was born in Ambassel, located in Wollo Province of Ethiopian Empire on 25 Ma ...

. This was one of the key innovations of the Howellites, and is today an article of faith of Rastafari.

History

In 1933, Howell started to preach that Emperor Haile Selassie I of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

(''Ras Tafari'') was the

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 ...

, that black people were the

chosen people Throughout history, various groups of people have considered themselves to be the chosen people of a deity, for a particular purpose. The phenomenon of "chosen people" is well known among the Israelites and Jews, where the term () refers to the ...

, and would soon be repatriated to Ethiopia. He soon attracted the attention of the colonial authorities, and was arrested in December 1934 for

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech or organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establ ...

. In March 1935 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, during which time he apparently wrote ''The Promised Key''. The pamphlet was published 1935 by the Harding Commercial Printery, Kingston with a cover featuring two crossed keys and the name of the pamphlet's putative patron, "Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Editor of the African Morning Post, Accra, Gold Coast."

Nnamdi Azikiwe Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, (16 November 1904 – 11 May 1996), commonly referred to as Zik of Africa, was a Nigerian politician, statesman, and revolutionary leader who served as the 3rd and first black governor-general of Nigeria from 1960 ...

was the editor of that newspaper at that period, but whether he had encouraged the pamphlet in any way or this was a dedication is not known.Stephen Davis, Helene Lee ''The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism'' 201
p.97
"On the cover, under two crossed keys (a Masonic symbol), is the name of the pamphlet's putative patron, “Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Editor of the African Morning Post, Accra, Gold Coast”—present-day Ghana. The work is credited to a “G. G. Maragh" After he was released from imprisonment he published a newspaper called ''The People's Voice''. In 1954, his commune was raided and much literature, including copies of ''The Promised Key'', were burned. Howell was found dead under suspicious circumstances in February 1981.

References

External links

The Promised Key
by G.G. Maragh (The Rt. Hon. Leonard Percival Howell) {{DEFAULTSORT:Promised Key Rastafarian texts 1935 non-fiction books Tracts (literature)

Content

History

See also

References

External links