Rastafari culture does not encourage mainstream political involvement.

In fact, in the early stages of the movement most Rastas did not vote,

out of principle. Ras Sam Brown formed the Suffering People's Party

for the Jamaican elections of 1962 and received fewer than 100 votes.

In the election campaign of 1972, People's National Party leader

 Michael Manley  used a prop, a walking stick given to him by Haile

Selassie, which was called the "Rod of Correction", in a direct appeal to

Rastafari values.

In the famous free One Love Peace Concert on April 22, 1978,

Peter Tosh lambasted the audience, including attending dignitaries, with

political demands that included decriminalising cannabis. He did this while smoking a spliff, a criminal act in Jamaica. At this same concert,  Bob Marley  led both then-Prime Minister Michael Manley and opposition leader Edward Seaga onto the stage; and a famous picture was taken with all three of them holding their hands together above their heads in a symbolic gesture of peace during what had been a very violent election campaign.

"He the Almighty taught us that all human beings are equal regardless of sex, national origin and tribe. And He also taught us all who seek Him shall find Him." – Haile Selassie I, Dec. 1968 interview with Dr. Oswald Hoffman on 'The Lutheran Hour'.

Per the Rastas' perception of what Haile Selassie's consistent lifelong message was, Rastafari tend to be firm adherents to the proposition that in the eyes of Jah, all men and women deserve equal and just rights, treatment and respect. With both King Alpha and his Queen Omega as examples, Rastafari bredren and sistren (collectively idren) seek to emulate kings and queens according mutual respect and dignity. According to them,  all people are equal, regardless of race, because all 

 people are children of Jah .

However, in terms of sexual behavior, there are many in the Rastafari movement (like most other biblical religions) who consider  homosexual acts to be a Babylon-promoted sin  against the Creator, and therefore may not support LGBT rights movements. The Bobo Ashanti mansion has been noted for this; with other mansions it tends to vary.

Rastas assert that their original African languages were stolen from them when they were taken into captivity as part of the slave trade, and that English is an imposed colonial language. Their remedy has been the creation of a modified vocabulary and dialect known as " Iyaric ", reflecting their desire to take language forward and to confront the society they call Babylon.

The Ital vegetarian diet is one of the main tenets of the Rastafari movement. Those who adhere to it abstain from all meat and flesh whatsoever, asserting that to touch meat is to touch death, and is therefore a violation of the Nazirite law. Some Rastafari eat limited types of meat in accordance with the dietary Laws of the Old Testament but in accordance with those laws, they do not eat shellfish or pork. Some are vegetarian but make a special exception allowing fish, while abstaining from all other forms of flesh. Most Rastafari maintain a vegan or vegetarian diet all of the time. Food approved for Rastafari is called ital. The purpose of fasting (abstaining from meat and dairy) is to cleanse the body in accordance to serving in the presence of the " Ark of the Covenant ".

Usage of alcohol is also generally deemed unhealthy to the Rastafari way of life, partly because it is seen as a tool of Babylon to confuse people, and partly because placing something that is pickled and fermented within oneself is felt to be much like turning the body (the Temple) into a "cemetery".

The wearing of  dreadlocks  is very closely associated with the movement, though not universal among, nor exclusive to, its adherents. Rastafari maintain that locks are required by Leviticus 21:5 ("They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in the flesh.") and the Nazirite law in Numbers

6:5 ("All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head:

                                                                                                                                         until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow."). The Dreadlocks represents A lion's mane and Yeshua (Jesus) in his Kingly Character. It has been suggested (e.g., Campbell 1985) that the first Rasta locks were copied from Kenya in 1953, when images of the independence struggle of the feared Mau Mau insurgents, who grew their "dreaded locks" while hiding in the mountains, appeared in newsreels and other publications that reached Jamaica. However, a more recent study by Barry Chevannes has traced the first hair locked Rastas to a subgroup first appearing in 1949, known as Youth Black Faith. In 1844, the trade of coolies was expanded to the colonies in the West Indies, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara, where the Asian population was soon a major component of the island demographic. The Indian coolies brought their culture with them, which includes, prominently, the wearing of dreadlocks by holy men. This god Shiva of the Indian trinity wears dreadlocks.

Also, according to the Bible,  Samson was a 

 Nazirite  who had "seven locks". Rastafari

argue that these "seven locks" could only have

been dreadlocks, as it is unlikely to refer to

seven strands of hair. Locks have also come

to symbolize the Lion of Judah (its mane) and

rebellion against Babylon. In the United

States, several public schools and work

places have lost lawsuits as the result of banning locks. Safeway is an early example, and the victory of eight children in a suit against their Lafayette, Louisiana school was a landmark decision in favor of Rastafari rights. More recently, in 2009, a group of Rastafari settled a federal lawsuit with the Grand Central Partnership in New York City, allowing them to wear their locks in neat ponytails, rather than be forced to "painfully tuck in their long hair" in their uniform caps.

Rastafari associate dreadlocks with a spiritual journey that one takes in the process of locking their hair (growing hair locks). It is taught that patience is the key to growing locks, a journey of the mind, soul and spirituality. Its spiritual pattern is aligned with the Rastafari movement. The way to form natural dreadlocks is to allow hair to grow in its natural pattern, without cutting, combing or brushing, but simply to wash it with pure water and herbal shampoo. For Rastafari the razor, the scissors and the comb are the three Babylonian or Roman inventions. So close is the association between dreadlocks and Rastafari, that the two are sometimes used synonymously. In reggae music, a follower of Rastafari may be referred to simply as a "dreadlocks" or " natty (natural) dread ".

The Rastafari colours of green, gold and red (sometimes also including black) are very commonly sported on the Rastafari flag, icons, badges, posters etc. The green, gold, red, are the colours of the  Ethiopian flag  and show the loyalty Rastafari feel towards the Ethiopian state in the reign of Haile Selassie. Red is said to signify the blood of martyrs, green the vegetation and beauty of Ethiopia, and gold the wealth of Africa.

Music has long played an integral role in Rastafari, and the connection between the movement and various kinds of music has become well known, due to the international fame of reggae musicians such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.  Reggae  was born in Trenchtown, the main ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica, amidst poor blacks who listened to radio stations from the United States. Jamaican musicians, many of them Rastas, soon blended traditional Jamaican folk music and drumming with American R&B, and jazz into ska, which later developed into reggae under the influence of soul.

​

​

​

​

​

​