“One Shall Not Make Their Stomach a Cemetery:” A Musical and Philosophical Approach to Rastafari’s Environmental and Animal Ethics

From the early 1930s until the end of the twentieth century, Rastafari livity (i.e., Rastas’ lifestyle), which includes, among other things, wearing dreadlocks, smoking ganja, walking barefoot, chosen poverty, a plant-based diet, and a rejection of manufactured products, has made an impact worldwide. So far, scholars have predominantly highlighted the most confrontational aspects of the movement, such as the figure of the dreadlocked outcast, repatriation to Africa, or confrontations between Rastas and the colonial State, often in lieu of its more day-to-day facets such as alimentation, care, farming, or gardening. However, the Rastafari movement has articulated one of the most important environmental and animal ethics of the twentieth century, and this from within its anti-racist and anti-capitalist ideals. Overlooking Rastafari’s engagement with the land and (all) its inhabitants leads to a partial understanding of the transformative power and potential of the movement, which finds its strength in the fact that it extends the scope of colonial violence from societies (understood as separated from nature) to the way people inhabit and experience the land. In this chapter, I will focus on livity (i.e., Rastas’ lifestyle) and, more particularly the Ital diet—a mode of eating that aims to reduce harm to plants, animals, and the planet and emphasizes the spiritual unity of all (Powell, Black Theology 19:32–52, 2021)—as it encompasses Rastafari’s conversations on the environment and non-human animals.