Poet Safiya Sinclair On Her Rastafari Roots

Fresh Air

NPR

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4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

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Summary

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 new memoir is How to Say Babylon.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm glad you said that because nobody says that.
0:03.4	Can I just say thank you to you for such a thoughtful interview?
0:07.4	Oh my god, yeah, I think you nailed it.
0:09.8	Bullseye!
0:10.8	Interviews with creators you love and creators you need to know.
0:14.3	Listen to the Bullseye podcast only from NPR and Maximum Fun.
0:19.9	This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross.
0:22.6	In the US, Rastafaurians are known mostly for reggae music,
0:26.3	dreadlocks and smoking gonga, marijuana.
0:29.4	My guest Sophia Sinclair grew up in a Rasta family in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
0:34.4	Her father is a reggae singer and guitarist.
0:37.2	Her hair was twisted into dreadlocks until she was 19.
0:41.2	Here's what being Rasta meant in her life.
0:43.8	Men ruled women were subservient.
0:46.3	Women's place was as mother, cook and homemaker.
0:49.5	The outside world was Babylon, corrupt, debauched,
0:53.6	or associated with colonialism or the police.
0:56.8	The people in Babylon were heathen and to be avoided.
1:00.2	God, Ja, was highly salassy,
1:03.0	who was the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.
1:07.7	His portrait Sinclair writes was exalted and worshiped
1:11.3	in the many rented homes of her childhood.
	...

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