iTal- taken from the English word vital to mean pure, natural, and unrefined.
iTal can be used to describe clean from unclean or healthy from unhealthy. The terminology originated in Jamaica with the rise of the Rastafarians in the early nineteen-thirties. It is said that Maurice Clark known as Ras I-Rice, now an elder who had fled from the authorities in the city of Kingston to Wareka Hill in the St. Andrew Highlands was indeed the one who coined the word “Ital.” He said that he left the city for the hills with a few sheets of cardboard, a machete, and a sharpening file, with which he immersed himself into a life of recluse contemplation. After years of living in the wilderness bare feet and in sackcloth, commonly called “crocos” bag by locals, Ras I-Rice established an organic bush existence he called Ital as he lived off of the fruits, and herbs of the Jamaican wilderness. Thus, “Ital livity” was born, and many other Brethren and Sistren would leave the parameters of the city to dwell in isolation in the hills of the Jamaican countryside.
Thus, it became the common practice of Rastas to drop the first syllable of a word and replace it with “i” which is also attributed to Ras I-Rice during his self-induced exile in Wareka Hill. Subsequently, he crafted a new interpretation of the English language, which brought about a vocabulary that created a language within a language. i.e. Create = irate, Universe = iniverse, Spirit = irit, Meditate = ititate, Vital = iTal, etc. iTal is to the Rastafarians what Kosher is to the Jews and Halal is to the Muslims, It is the natural way of Rasta. iTal is a consciousness that dictates a discipline that Rastas call livity, which translates to life’s activity.
By choosing iTal, our motivation is to preserve the natural environment and to protect its life forms from violence and extinction. We are convinced that iTal consciousness in its propagation, is a valuable asset in promoting health and wellbeing while restoring balance to the Ecosystem. One of the goals of The International Rastafarian iTal Etiquette (IRIE) Foundation is to create growth, through education, in the iTal marketplace and increase the availability of iTal products.
The awareness of self from an organic perspective is the impetus for natural and organic consumerism. But it is the connectedness to animals to the point of their rights and entitlement to life, that more or less makes a “vegan” vegetarian. Both paradigms are important factors in the context of iTal and as such,”iTalists” in the strictest sense of the word, follow a code of discipline that cultivates love for life and nature in all its untouched forms. Furthermore, Rastafarians recognize the essential role of plants in the existence of all animal life forms. Trees and plant life are the only reasons why we can survive here on Earth. Therefore, plant life becomes the source and support of our life. The Rastafarian understand this fact in the fullest sense of the word.
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