Happy Birthday Leonard Howell!!! Credited as the founder & 1st Rastafarian Preacher's in his birth place of Jamaica!!! Today we celebrate you!!! #LeonardHowell #islandpeeps #islandpeepsbirthdays #rastafari #thegong #thefirstrasta #jamaica #kingselassiei (June 16th 1898 - Feb 25th 1981) (at Jamaica)

The Gong, Acrylic on canvas, 16x20 stretched canvas, painted and signed by me @qahutchins2 /@africanartofqahutchins2 yesterday. Leonard Percival Howell, one of the first black men to preach about the Rastafari movement, was also known as “the Gong” which is also short for Gangunguru Maragh. The first name, Gangunguru, meant in three words of the name: Gyan means filled with knowledge and also means wisdom, gun- talent, and guru means teacher or elder. Howell was also known as the First Rasta. #LeonardHowell #BlackArt #AfricanArt #TheGong #Rastafari #RastafariMovement #redgoldandgreen #jamaica #AfricanHistory #AfricanArtwork #acrylicpainting #acryliconcanvas https://www.instagram.com/p/BrndNsDHC5U/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=vje0xx6u2srl

"LEONARD HOWELL" Howell organized what was known as the "Ethiopian Salvation Society" and quietly recruited a large following and by the year 1940 he was the chief leader of a #Cult commune deep in the hills of Saint Catherine overlooking the city of Kingston. In his continued effort to avoid the harassment of the police, Howell headed to the privacy of the hills and, like his Maroon ancestors, either purchased or capture a piece of the country near Sligoville "about twenty miles a from Kingston." The name of the commune was Pinnacle. Followers were estimated from five hundred to as many as sixteen hundred. The entrance was known only to member and can be reach only by foot, as great hazard. Life in the commune was strictly patterned after the Maroon communities of Jamaica. Howell served as chief "African Style," and was reported to have taken thirteen Wives for himself. For a living, they planted native cash crops, among them the famous Ganja "Marijuana" herb that has remained the center of the movement's ritual practice. #LeonardHowell #AshantiWarrior #War1896 #TallawahRoots #MLKD2K17 #OurBlackHistory (at Jamaica)

"Honorable Prince Edward Emanuel" It was under the auspices and leadership of Prince Emanuel that the 1958 convention was called. One of the oldest Rastafarian leaders since the days of #LeonardHowell, the Prince's leadership is still the strongest and his group the most organized on the #Island. It was his invitation that brought the #ReverendClaudiusHenry, the mastermind of the abortive repatriation scheme, to Jamaica to visit the 1958 convention. The Prince, as he is called by his followers, had been one of the most prominent Rastafarian leaders of Back-O-Wall since 1953, and had been in almost every confrontation with the Government on behalf of African Repatriation. In am interview he reported that he appeared on earth in the Parish of St. Elizabeth in 1915, and, like #Melchizedek, is without Father or Mother; he came to Kingston in 1930, and was fortunate enough to see #MarcusGarvey. The Prince is the picture of an #EthiopianPatriarch ---- six-foot-four-inches tall and now sixty-two years old. #Repatriation #Ethiopian #NotableIcon #OurBlackHistory #RasTafari #PrinceEdwardEmanuel #SaintElizabeth #BackOWall #Convention #Negus 👊🌍✊ (at Siloah, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica)

Happy Birthday Leonard Howell!!! Credited as the 1st Rastafarian Preacher's in his birth place of Jamaica!!! Today we celebrate you!!! #LeonardHowell #islandpeeps #islandpeepsbirthdays #rastafari #thegong #thefirstrasta #jamaica #kingselassiei (at Kingston, Jamaica)