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Making Jesus a black man:
Garvey and Rastafari
One of the first major reworkings of the image of
Jesus in Caribbean cultures occurs with Marcus
Garvey. Celebrated in Rastafari, Garvey understood
that black people needed an image of Jesus that
worked for them. Through black lenses, Garvey’s
Jesus was a black man, who understood what it
meant to be black. Garvey’s Jesus identified with the
sufferings of blacks and knew what it meant to be
the last to &R