It didn’t take long, Neville Livingston just excommunicated Snoop Dogg, oups Snoop Lion (no more?) from the Rastafari community on Facebook! In a short post, following by an ongoing conversation with people, Neville Livingston, a.k.a. Bunny Wailer (an original member of the Wailers) explained what is exactly an excommunication, using a definition coming straight from Wikipedia:
‘SNOOP LION IS OFFICIALLY EXCOMMUNICATED FROM THE RASTAFARI COMMUNITY! Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it. Some groups use the term disfellowship instead. The word excommunication means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group. Excommunication may involve banishment, shunning, and shaming, depending on the religion, the offense that caused excommunication, or the rules or norms of the religious community.’
I wonder what Snoop will have to answer to this, but apparently it didn’t really please the Rastafari community that Snoop had suddenly exchange his pimp attitude for the dreads and reggae style as if it was his favorite new ice cream favor. No, no, no these Rastafarians take these things too seriously to accept someone like Snoop advertising his recent conversion at each occasion: they didn’t buy it. May be Snoop didn’t see past the weed smoking and the fashion statement, but for Neville it is a religion, a spiritual and environmental movement, an African liberation movement…. You can’t fake all this, and other articles show there is a concern in the community about Snoop’s sincerity and some ‘members of the Rastafarian community in Jamaica allege that Snoop Lion is only seeking to make a profit off the Rastafarian culture.’
It’s true that, despite receiving the endorsement of Rohan Marley, Bob Marley’s son, despite promising he will soon record a reggae album and give back to Jamaica, Snoop Lion looks only like a cartoon character to me.