Three Rastamen arrested for smoking marijuana have been battling in a magistrate’s court in Blantyre, saying the constitution guaranteed their right to conscience, religion, belief and thought.[1] One of the three accused, Natty Lame, told the packed court that he had no case to answer and that he used chamba, the local name for marijuana, to worship his God, quoting Genesis 1 as authorising the herb and claiming it had medicinal properties.[1]
Malawi’s civil rights arbitrator, Enock Chibwana, said he could not grant the Rastas’ plea to smoke marijuana, arguing that a practice which infringed democratic principles had to be put to a public test to gauge whether the majority were comfortable with it.[1]
On the outskirts of Blantyre, about 20 Rastas had created a village called ‘Away from Babylon’ where they intended to practise their faith free from harassment, and police, the account says, proceeded to arrest several of them for smoking marijuana.[1] During the 30-year authoritarian rule of Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Rastafarianism in Malawi was virtually banned, and it was only after the change of government in 1994 that Rastas began to emerge in the public consciousness.[1]
