Safiya Sinclair On Cutting Herself Free From Rastafari Roots

萨菲亚·辛克莱 (Safiya Sinclair) 谈如何摆脱拉斯塔法里根源

Fresh Air

艺术

2024-08-14

43 分钟
PDF

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Poet and writer Safiya Sinclair grew up in a devout Rastafari family in Jamaica where women were subservient. When she cut her dreadlocks at age 19, she became "a ghost" to her father. Her memoir, How to Say Babylon, is out in paperback. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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  • This is FRESH AIR.

  • Im Dave Davies.

  • Today were going to listen to the interview Terry Gross recorded last year with jamaican poet Sophia Sinclaire when her memoir, how to say Babylon, was published.

  • The book is now out in paperback.

  • I'll let Terry introduce it.

  • My guest, Sophia Sinclair, grew up in a Rasta family in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

  • Her father is a reggae singer and guitarist.

  • Her hair was twisted into dreadlocks until she was 19.

  • Here's what being Rasta meant in her life.

  • Men ruled.

  • Women were subservient.

  • Women's place was as mother, cook and homemaker.

  • The outside world was Babylon, corrupt, debauched or associated with colonialism or the police.

  • The people in Babylon were heathen and to be avoided, God.

  • Jah was Haile Selassie, who was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.

  • His portrait, Sinclair writes, was exalted and worshipped in the many rented homes of her childhood.