Publications

Caryn Anderson

The following is the full text of a letter sent to the Editor of Parabola Magazine in response to the Winter Issue entitled, "The Ego and the I: Which one is Real?" The published version is shown at the bottom of the page.

I-n-I da Source

Full Version

20 June 2002

Full Circle
Parabola
656 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
editors@parabola.org

Dear Editors,

I found your Spring 2002 issue, "The Ego and the I: Which one is real?," to be very engaging. The article about the face of Lincoln was particularly creative and stimulating. I was disappointed, however, that among the detailed discussions of the word "I" there was no mention of the Rastafarian culture/religion of Jamaica and their linguistic practice of replacing the multiple pronouns of he, she, you, me, we, us, etc. with the singular "I" and the noun phrase "I-n-I" (I and I). Their vital, organic, natural and wholesome way of life and style of cooking are even called "I-tal" (pronounce "eye-tall"). As a subculture and religion of a country whose motto is "Out of Many, One People," few cultures have made more of a clear public statement about their concept of "I."

The Rastafarian "I" represents the Rastafarians' reverence for the concept of unity and the oneness of all things. The phrases "I-n-I" is used not only to replace the plural pronouns of "we" or "us," but as a universal synonym for the whole spirit of unity with, and respect for, the "most High" and all living things inherent in the word Rastafari itself.

In the singular, it does away with the egotistical separation between you and me and he and she. We are all "I." ("I tell I da trut." - "You tell me the truth."/"I tell you the truth." etc.) The plural reveals even more of the Rastafarian sense of self as being identical to the whole (the whole of life, all people, all living things, the whole religion). (Words of one rasta describing why the consciously developed this other language: "I-n-I no deal wit Babylon word dat kon-fuse I, make I look in-a-da wrong place..." - "I/we/Rastafarianism don't/doesn't deal with white man's words that confuse us/me/things, and make us/me look in the wrong place...")

As John W. Pulis states in his paper "Up-full sounds": Language, Identity & the Worldview of Rastafari, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in 1990, "When used in reference to person, self or individual, the "I" signified the cornerstone of a renegotiated construction of identity known as 'I-n(within)-I.'" The development of "Dread Talk" (the deep Jamaican patois spoken by adherents of the Rastafarian religion/culture) was a conscious exercise in breaking down the sounds of English words and reassembling them into new words ("up-full" sounds, "heartical" sounds) that were free from the negative, divisive and misleading sounds and character the words possessed in the language of "Babylon" (meaning the language of the white colonists that had enslaved them).

For example, the de sound prefix in the word dedicate (pronounced dead-di-cate) was deleted because of its sound-sense similarity to the de sound in the English words death and destruction. The de prefix was replaced by a sound that signified its opposite, not in Creole, but in English, i.e., live, creating the up-full liv-i-cate. The un sound in words such as understand was replaced by the o sound of over as in overstand, implying that all speakers are competent, i.e., no speaker of Creole, English, or Dread Talk is under, beneath, or below another. The up sound in the word oppression was replaced by down, as in down-press-I, because [oppression pushes people down, not up]. ... the suffix dom was deleted from the word wisdom because of its similarity to the word dumb...The Creole mon, i.e., man, replaced the suffix dumb creating the word-sound wiz-mon.

And everywhere in this recreation of language is "I":

The con sound in words such as kon-scious and kon-trol was associated with the k sound in the Creole word kunni, meaning clever. [or "to con" - "to deceive"] It was replaced by the first-person pronoun I, as in I-trol and I-scious...The first person I replaced the u or you-sound, the second-person derivative, in words such as unity and human creating the words I-nity and I-man, similar to the word-sounds I-trol and I-scious.

This topic is expansive, and a full treatment of it would have provided an excellent counterpoint to the other perspectives in your Spring 2002 issue. Though certainly every view cannot be included in every issue, I was sorry to not have seen it represented. Rastafarians and their Dread Talk language honor the "I" without violently rejecting the separate and divisive ego, but rather by transcending it through the simple removal of its place in their linguistic heritage.

"I and I embraces the congregation in unity with the Most I (high) in an endless circle of I-nity (unity)."

Or, in the words of one rasta, "I-n-I da source." (I am the Source. / We are the Source. / Rastafari is the Source. / All is the Source.)

Thank you for considering my view,

Published Version

I found your Spring 2002 issue, "The Ego and the I: Which one is real?," to be very engaging. The article about the face of Lincoln was particularly creative and stimulating. I was disappointed, however, that among the detailed discussions of the word "I" there was no mention of the Rastafarian culture/religion of Jamaica and their linguistic practice of replacing the multiple pronouns of he, she, you, me, we, us, etc. with the singular "I" and the noun phrase "I-n-I" (I and I). Their vital, organic, natural and wholesome way of life and style of cooking are even called "I-tal" (pronounce "eye-tall"). As a subculture and religion of a country whose motto is "Out of Many, One People," few cultures have made more of a clear public statement about their concept of "I."

The Rastafarian "I" represents the Rastafarians' reverence for the concept of unity and the oneness of all things. The phrase "I-n-I" is used not only to replace the plural pronouns of "we" or "us," but as a universal synonym for the whole spirit of unity with, and respect for, the "most High" and all living things inherent in the word Rastafari itself.

This topic is expansive, and a full treatment of it would have provided an excellent counterpoint to the other perspectives in your Spring 2002 issue.

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