Christmas today for Bobo Shantis

[Touches]

Source: Trinidad Express

Christmas today for Bobo Shantis
Nazma Muller

Monday, January 7th 2008




CALLING FOR LEGALISATION: Priests Nyah, left, and Erasto Jawanza on the Brian Lara Promenade last Thursday. -Photo: ROBERTO CODALLO

Bobo Shanti Rastafarians will celebrate their Christmas today. One of the elders of the religious sect, Priest Nyah, said the 500 members of his commune at Wharf Trace, Maracas, St Joseph, will mark the "birth of the Earth" with fasting and prayers from 6 a.m. to noon, followed by an evening of song and celebration.

The commune, which is part of the Ethiopian Black African International Congress, has been in existence since 1984, and the compound includes a church, living and eating quarters, a school and a conference room.

The women make nuts, belts, bags, badges and jewellery for the men to sell. There are 10,000 Bobo Shantis scattered across Trinidad, according to Nyah, who spent eight years in Jamaica, at the Bull Bay headquarters of the Congress. He also had a message for Trinidad and Tobago.

"The Bobo Shantis blast Trinidad and Tobago," he declared.

"This place is now Sodom and Gomorrah spiritually...The government needs to ban women from wearing pants to curb the crime. They say they don't know how to curb crime -that is the first step. The women need to cover themselves up... Is that causing rape and all this setta crime."

Nyah renewed the eternal Rastafarian call for the government to decrease the penalties for marijuana possession.

"Gih we ah chance wid ah ounce at least," he said. Fellow elder Priest Erasto Njoko Jawanza went further to state that the plant should be legalised.

"This is a natural tree," Jawanza pointed out. "They legalise cigarette, alcohol and hemp, so why not the herb? The government has to deal with equality and justice for all.

They should ban the rum and legalise the herb."

[Tallman]

Today is Ethiopian Christmas otherwise known as Ganna. As a matter of fact, Christmas is celebrated today by most if not all Orthodox Christians.

[Jumbie]

Today is Ethiopian Christmas otherwise known as Ganna. As a matter of fact, Christmas is celebrated today by most if not all Orthodox Christians.

Yea ah get ketch this morning listening to the radio. The lady say merry christmas .. so I say is eddah I missout or she real late. Then she say it was ukrainian christmas.

[E-man]

Today is Ethiopian Christmas otherwise known as Ganna. As a matter of fact, Christmas is celebrated today by most if not all Orthodox Christians.

Yea ah get ketch this morning listening to the radio. The lady say merry christmas .. so I say is eddah I missout or she real late. Then she say it was ukrainian christmas.

Even some Catholics still celebrated up to yesterday Jan 6 which is "3 kings day", supposedly the 12th day of Christmas when the wise men arrived bearing gifts. But yeah the orthodox Christians kept the Julian calendar which runs 13 days behind the Gregorian one so their "Dec 25" is our "Jan 7".

[fari]

yes, my wife and i celebrated three kings day yesterday. she grew up celebrating it so we share the holiday. i like it because the crass commercialism of christmas is really too much now. is like the spirit not there any more

anyway, back to the bobos, i find it strange that the bredda mention govt banning pants on woman. i can't agree with him there, man have to curb his urges, find his true divinity.

[WestCoast]

anyway, back to the bobos, i find it strange that the bredda mention govt banning pants on woman. i can't agree with him there, man have to curb his urges, find his true divinity.

FINALLY someone who kno de ting
If MEN all over the world would 'Curb their urges" the world would be a much better place.
some fundamentalist religions on all sides need to get this advice.