"Itations Of Jamaica and I Rastafari" is a remarkable three volume Trinity / Trilogy of books. Over a decade in the making Mihlawdhd Faristzaddi's truly beautiful books represent a colorful and poetic expression of the culture, music and spirituality that are embodied in the worldwide movement known as Rastafari. These little editions are nicely bound and stuffed with page after page dazzling color photographs interspersed with poetry, lyrics, Biblical quotations and meditations about the nature of Rasta consciousness.

 
Mihlawdhd Faristzaddi, Jamaican of Arab, Jewish, African, European, and indian ancestry, is an English trained graphic artist and photographer. "Itations Of Jamaica and I Rastafari" is his "Itation" (meditation) of the manifesting culture and the beautiful Caribbean Island of Jamaica. His books are the record of the "I and I" that is his personal history, the history of Jamaica - in the metaphor of the Jamaican creole experience.
 
Each over 200 pages of amazing colour pictures, texts, poetry, DUB poetry, Reasonings, Biblical meditations and Songs of Praise. Visionary images feature the Rastafari way of life, the ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX KEDASSA and MASKRAM / the FINDING OF THE TRUE CROSS. THE CHURCHICAL NIHYAHBINGHI and musical artists; THIRD WORLD, PABLO MOSES, I JAHMAN LEVI, BUNNY WAILER, BURNING SPEAR, MISTY IN ROOTS, JUDY MOWATT, BOB ANDY, LEE "SCRATCH" PERRY, A TRIBUTE TO BOB MARLEY, MUTABARUKA, MIKEY SMITH, OKU ONUORA, ASWAD, NORMAN GRANT, BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH, JEAN BINTA BREEZE, BROTHER RESISTANCE, KAREGA MANDELA, AUGUSTUS PABLO and much more in many beautiful photos.

Each book explores different themes, but the three together are an almost seamless whole in the concept and presentation. The "First Itation" is the most concerned with Jamaica, proclaiming itself to be "An iconography and meditation about Jamaica and the uprising of the most controversial culture and philosophy of Rastafari." The "Second Itation" is mostly concerned with the land of Ethiopia. The "Third Itation" brings it all together with the heartbeat riddim known to all creation as Reggae Music.

 

 

The three volumes are a 640 page one of a kind unique photo essay which stands not as a book about Rastafari and the culture, but rather one created from the heart of IHI and IHI, that IS the RASTAFARI NATION and people and THEIR message to the world; their theology and "reasonings" - poetry and songs in praise of Rastafari. "Itations" is a unique book, a contemporary revelation dealing with the spirit of Rastafari as it is evolving in the world at large today. The Biblical passages are inspirational, there are many poets and writers with their "reasonings - a dialectic line of discussions which Rastafarians engage in when gathered together to give thanks and praise." There are also many Sistrin poetesses with their words of liberation, sister like Sister Faybienne Miranda, Sister Farika Berhane, Askale Mirriam, Daughter Jeenih, Sister Jennifer Gad, Sister Sheilah, Sister Netifah, Sister Asherin Gad amongst many other Ihiyaahtahzhs (daughter) of Rastafari, Sister Alika Selassie with her Twelve Tribes reasoning, Sister Nigisti Selassie with the Knowledge of the Ancient and Divine.
Article : Teacher & Mr. T 

 

Read more about Mihlawhdh Faristzaddi in the interview: