BBC: Maya Feller’s Rastafarian ital stew

By Apple Mandy
2nd September 2023

The iconic vegetarian stew is a popular Jamaican dish made from a medley of fresh vegetables, herbs, and spices, all simmered in coconut milk.

In Jamaica, there’s nothing more comforting than a bowl of ital. The popular island stew eaten by the Rastafarian community is a medley of fresh vegetables, herbs and spices, all simmered in coconut milk.

Rastafarians are practitioners of Rastafari, a religion founded in Jamaica in the 1930s. It is also classified as a social movement to oppose systems of oppression by the country’s then-dominant British colonial rule. Historically, as Rastafarians continued to challenge Jamaica’s colonial society by expressing themselves through their African roots, they wore their hair in dreadlocks, which represented a connection to Africa and a sense of pride in African physical characteristics. They smoked marijuana because they believed its use was directed in biblical passages, and they played reggae music as a voice of the oppressed.

Continue reading on BBC.com