BULL BAY, Jamaica—The robed Rastafarian priest looked out over the turquoise sea off Jamaica's southeast coast and fervently described his belief that deliverance is at hand.


"Rasta church is rising," declared Priest Morant, who wore a vestment stitched with the words "The Black Christ." "There's nothing that can turn it back."


"Its contemporary appeal is particularly fascinating to young men, especially in the absence of alternative sources for their development," said Niaah, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies.

Founded 80 years ago by descendants of African slaves, the Rasta movement's growing appeal is attributable to its rejection of Western materialism, the scarcity of opportunities for young men in Jamaica and an increasing acceptance of it.

For the black nationalist Bobo Ashanti commune, the Rastafarian faith is a transforming way of life, where Rastas strive to live a frugal existence uncomplicated by binding relationships to "Babylon"—the unflattering term for the Western world. They share a deep alienation from modern life and Jamaica is perceived as a temporary harbor until prophecy is fulfilled and they journey to the promised land of Africa on big ships.


"This place is helping me a whole heap. I'm learning every day, and things are starting to make sense," the new recruit known as Prince Adrian said in the shade of one of dozens of scrap-board buildings painted in the bright Rastafarian colors of red, green and gold.



In the United States, the population of Rastafarians appears to be steadily growing due in part to jailhouse conversions, said Charles Price, associate professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of "Becoming Rasta: Origins of Rastafari Identity in Jamaica."

"I regularly get letters from inmates seeking information," Price said. "I also get regular invitations to talk to prisoners at local North Carolina juvenile facilities, often from chaplains trying to figure out what to do."



The worship of Selassie is rooted in Jamaican black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey's 1920s prediction that a "black king shall be crowned" in Africa, ushering in a "day of deliverance." When an Ethiopian prince named Ras Tafari, who took the name Haile Selassie I, became emperor in 1930, the descendants of slaves in Jamaica took it as proof that Garvey's prophecy was being fulfilled. When Selassie came to Jamaica in 1966, he was mobbed by cheering crowds, and many Rastafarians insisted miracles and other mystical happenings occurred during his visit.



"That discriminatory vibe has relaxed. But even so, we still we don't see a person with locks working in a bank these days, we don't see a person with locks in the police force as we would see in America or other places," Rebel said.

The first dreadlocked politician in Jamaica's Parliament was elected only last year.


Some Jamaicans dismiss the faith as bizarre.


But for adherents like Prince Xavier, a 27-year-old Frenchman who moved to the Bobo Ashanti commune a couple of years after being introduced to Rastafarians in his native Paris, it's providing answers and a positive self-identity.

"I'm learning a lot about Rastafari and about our heritage," said the bearded Frenchman, clad in a red turban and black robe. "It is a matter of life and death."


David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd