‘Free up the ganja’: Rastafarians in Kenya fight to decriminalise marijuana

Marijuana plays a sacred role among Rastafari followers and they say criminalising it violates their rights About a dozen people sang along to the pulsing vibrations of drums and a tambourine in a dimly lit room in Nairobi’s sprawling Kibera neighbourhood. For more than an hour they belted out song after song, the lyrics suffused with references to Ethiopia, Jah, Zion, Rastafari and Haile Selassie I. One song went: “No night in a Zion, there is no night there / Hallelujah there is no night there / Rastafari is our light, and we need no other light / Hallelujah there is no night there.” The singers and musicians were members of the House of Nyabinghi, one of the main denominations, or “mansions” of Rastafari, a religion and social movement that recently came under the spotlight in Kenya after a court ruling on 15 July dismissed a petition to decriminalise the use of marijuana for spiritual purposes. Three days later, the House of Nyabinghi – named after and inspired by a legendary east African woman whose name means “mother of abundance” or “she who possesses many things” – met for their weekly communal gatherings, which Rastafarians call a “groundation”. A