linguistic:translation
Jamaica and the Americas

Barrett described Rastafari as "the largest, most identifiable, indigenous movement in Jamaica." In the mid-1980s, there were approximately 70,000 members and sympathisers of Rastafari in Jamaica. The majority were male, working-class, former Christians aged between 18 and 40. In the 2011 Jamaican census, 29,026 individuals identified as Rastas. Jamaica's Rastas were initially entirely from the Afro-Jamaican majority, and although Afro-Jamaicans are still the majority, Rastafari has also gained members from the island's Chinese, Indian, Afro-Chinese, Afro-Jewish, mulatto, and white minorities. Until 1965, the vast majority were from the lower classes, although it has since attracted many middle-class members; by the 1980s, there were Jamaican Rastas working as lawyers and university professors. Jamaica is often valorised by Rastas as the fountain-head of their faith, and many Rastas living elsewhere travel to the island on pilgrimage.

Both through travel between the islands, and through reggae's popularity, Rastafari spread across the eastern Caribbean during the 1970s. Here, its ideas complemented the anti-colonial and Afrocentric views prevalent in countries like Trinidad, Grenada, Dominica, and St Vincent. In these countries, the early Rastas often engaged in cultural and political movements to a greater extent than their Jamaican counterparts had. Various Rastas were involved in Grenada's 1979 New Jewel Movement and were given positions in the Grenadine government until it was overthrown and replaced following the U.S. invasion of 1983. Although Fidel Castro 's Marxist–Leninist government generally discouraged foreign influences, Rastafari was introduced to Cuba alongside reggae in the 1970s. Foreign Rastas studying in Cuba during the 1990s connected with its reggae scene and helped to further ground it in Rasta beliefs. In Cuba, most Rastas have been male and from the Afro-Cuban population.

Rastafari was introduced to the United States and Canada with the migration of Jamaicans to continental North America in the 1960s and 1970s. American police were often suspicious of Rastas and regarded Rastafari as a criminal sub-culture. Rastafari also attracted converts from within several Native American communities and picked up some support from white members of the hippie subculture, which was then in decline. In Latin America, small communities of Rastas have also established in Brazil, Panama, and Nicaragua.