Mt. Zion Hill

This Rastafarian farming community is based in a squatter settlement known as Mt. Zion Hill (call Priest Dermot Fagan to request a visit, cell tel. 876/868-9636). The carefully maintained trail and fence along the path up the hill demonstrates the respect given to Priest Dermot Fagan, referred to simply as "the priest" by his followers, who rank in the range of 50-odd adults and children living at Zion Hill. Fagan has established His Imperial Majesty School of Bible Study and Sabbath Service, with a small yurt-like structure at the entrance to the community serving as its chapel. The small community follows primarily an agrarian life, growing food and herbs and selling roots wine around town to bring in a little cash. There are several people who espouse the school’s teaching but live in town rather than on Zion Hill. It becomes evident when the group descends on Papine Square every Saturday for a Nyabinghi Sabbath Service of singing and drumming that the following is significant indeed. Fagan advocates a total rejection of and distancing from the Babylonian system that has separated humankind from direct reliance on our labor and the food we can provide for ourselves. He warns of an even greater divide between man and his sustenance through the impending mass implantation of micro-biochips. He sees the use of implantable homing devices in soldiers in Iraq or in medical patients, or their common use in wildlife management, as a precursor to more universal implantations, which he says will result in the consolidation of the global labor force and a new kind of slavery. The Mt. Zion Hill community has established itself as one of the more colorful, albeit apocalyptic, Houses of Rastafari.