“Locks” are found in many cultures and by many names, such as: Jatta, Ndiagne, Palu, Natty, Locks, and Dreads & Roots.
The earliest evidence of dreads is in hieroglyphics, cave paintings, and traditional and indigenous legends and folk tales.
Many different indigenous and native peoples have worn locks, especially in olden times, which is not unusual because someone who neither cuts nor combs his/her hair will sooner or later get dreadlocks. The reason that not all prehistoric men and women wore dreadlocks is because they combed or cut their hair, or utilized some local natural form of shampoo and/or conditioner.
The first evidence in writing is in the Veda scriptures of India, whose earliest pieces are dated to 1800 B.C (but are most probably much older in origin due to a long oral tradition). The word describing them is jaTa, within the Sanskrit-English dictionary to mean: “wearing twisted locks of hair” and “the hair twisted together (as worn by ascetics, Shiva, and persons in mourning)” and a contemporary Hindi dictionary translates it as “matted hair”. In the word and concept of jaTa we find the retroflex T which is not of Indo-Aryan origin but from Dravidian languages. As legend has it, the fair skinned Indo-Aryans entered India from the north, but already living there were the darker skinned Dravidians, whose origins remain uncertain but are believed to have founded the Indus Valley culture. Some research and study has proposed that the Dravidians were migrants from northeast Africa, in the land of Kush, or Ethiopia and Kemet. The ancient people and traditions of these lands were also known to have certain kings, mystics, and monks with dreadlocks, as well as many parallels with the Dravidian rites, rituals, linguistics, symbols and beliefs. Indias Ethiopian settlers built the great city Harrapan with its running water and sewage and had been involved in high volume trade. Before the coming of the Aryans, who came down from the North and plundered the city and surrounding villages, forcing the Ethiopians (Dravidians) or Dalits as they are now called, to go down toward the south.
They are the people in India who are called untouchables the very same people that Gandhi referred to as the children of god from who the majority of Indians in the Caribbean descended.
From the earliest days up until today locks in India are frequently found in connection with the God-figure Shiva and asceticism. Shiva remains the prominent archetype for the sadhus (wandering ascetics), for he is the wild and uninhibited leader of the sadhus. His hair in matted locks, body covered in ashes, snakes adorning him, and wandering naked or sometimes an elephant skin around his waist, in a perpetual bliss/ganja intoxication. The sadhus live in imitation and devotion to Shiva believing that such lifestyle with eventually lead to ultimate oneness with Shiva.
In Africa, we find several sects of people wearing locks. Ethiopian Bahatowie priests of the Coptic faith were observers of the ancient Nasir or Nazarite vows of Judeo-Christianity. In Senegal, the Baye Fal and Mouridism, are sects of Islam. In Sudan are found, several small sects of Islam (many Sufi Islam sects wear locks). Within Kenya, the Akorino of the Kikuyu nation is a sect called Oromo Beja or “the church of the living god” and Ghana has the Bono of Techiman and Fitish priests. The Maasai of Kenya grow locks at a stage of age called Moran, symbolizing warriorship. The Mau Mau of Kenya is not a tribe really but the name of a rebel movement which was active 1952–56 of which dreadlocked members utilized their appearance in their revolts to intimidate the Europeans in the so-called white highlands. Pictures and stories of the Mau Mau were shown in Jamaican newspapers in the 1950s and were major inspirations to the early formation of the Rastafari movement. Additional tribes are the Shonja; wearing them thin and calling it string hair, the Pokot tribe of Kenya, wearing them in a sack and calling it ancestor hair, and the Kau, Ashanti, and Fulani. The ancient Egyptians, adorned their locks with jewelry and ornaments, the Pharaohs and royalty especially but also the civilians. It is said that King Tut’s body is preserved up until this day with locks.
Aborigines and New Guineans are similar in African ancestry and few members of these tribes are found with locks as well, usually the shamans or medicine men.
The Celts of northern Europe wore locks and Julius Caesar described them having “hair like snakes”. It is believed by some that the Druids were the shamans and mystics of the Celts, like theyre Indian and African counterparts, and endowed with the knowledge of nature, the cosmos, and the gods. They were connected mysteriously to the rituals and possible formation of Stonehenge, like the God-Kings of Egypt and South America were to their pyramids.
Dreadlocks had a mysterious connection to the ancient rites of the gods, as antennas receiving divine insight and revelation. This belief is still held by the majority of spiritual adepts who wear locks in such a way. There were Germanic tribes who wore locks, Greeks, Asian emperors in the 1400–1500s, Semitic peoples of early biblical history in ancient places like Cannan and Phoenicia, Magi and Zoroastrians, early Jewish-Christian sects like the Essenes, Nazarenes, and Ebonites, Pacific Island peoples, and the Naga Indians (also known as Serpent People). At the stage of renunciation in the life of the Buddha, he was said to have lived on a few hemp seeds a day and allowed his hair to grow long and lock up. Samson was a legendary bible figure said to have locks, which gave him superhuman strength, but which was lost after Delilah cut them off during his sleep. John the Baptist and even Jesus of Nazareth, believed by some to be Essene-Nazarenes were said to have observed the vow of the Nazarite and had worn locks.
The word dreadlocks is not a universal term (each culture seems to have a word of their own). The word “Dreadlocks” is of Jamaican origin. When the Rastafari movement began to take shape in Jamaica, because in the early stages of the movement people were afraid of the Rastamen they called them dreadlocks (dread meaning fear or in terror of). The Rastas gave another explanation: the locks bearer is one who reveres the Black God and King (biblical fear, awe, and reverence of the Lord). Rastafari elder Mortimer Planno, who met Haile Selassie I (the Rastafari God and King of Ethiopia), has said Dread means wise and righteous and the Rastas strive to live in this way.
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