A Rastafarian is a member of a Jamaican religious group which considers Haile Selassie, the former Emperor of Ethiopia, to be God. Rastafarians often have long hair which they wear in a hairstyle called dreadlocks. He was one of the few thousand committed Rastafarians in South Africa
{i} member of the Jamaican religion of Rastafarianism (aspires to freedom and equality of black people and holds that the Messiah is present)
Rastafarian is used to describe Rastafarians and their beliefs and lifestyle. Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah. someone who believes in a religion that is popular in Jamaica, which has Haile Selassie as its religious leader, and has the belief that one day black people will return to Africa (Ras Tafari, title of Haile Selassie (1892-1975), Emperor of Ethiopia). Member of a political and religious movement among blacks in Jamaica and several other countries. Rastafarians worship Haile Selassie, considering him the messiah. They believe that blacks are the Israelites reincarnated, who have been subjected to the evil and inferior white race in divine punishment for their sins; they will eventually be redeemed by repatriation to Africa and will compel the whites to serve them. These beliefs, first enunciated in 1953, can be traced to several independent prophets, particularly Marcus Garvey. As the movement grew, ideas of repatriation tended to give way to either black militancy or mysticism. The Rastafarian life usually includes vegetarianism, the wearing of dreadlocks, and the smoking of marijuana