Editing Leonard Howell (section)

== Trials and punishments ==
In January 1934, Howell and Robert Hinds, another pioneer of the Rastafari movement, were arrested and charged with sedition due to their gatherings and speeches at a meeting of 300 people at [[Seaforth, Jamaica|Seaforth]], St Thomas, on 10 December 1933.<ref name=":1"/>

Howell was put on trial for sedition on 13 March 1934, and pleaded not guilty to openly expressing hatred and contempt for the Jamaican government and the King in addition to disturbing public peace on the island. Howell defended himself in court, using a photograph of Haile Selassie as evidence. During this historic trial, Howell is remembered as being the first person to declare that Haile Selassie was "the Messiah returned to earth". Ultimately he was sentenced to two years in jail for sedition by the Jamaican chief justice, Robert William Lyall-Grant.<ref name=":1"/>

Later, in 1938, Howell was sent to a mental asylum in Kingston called the [[Bellevue Asylum]] after being certified as insane for the inflammatory statements he published in his book ''The Promised Key''. In this publication, which was released while Howell was still incarcerated, he labelled the [[Roman Catholic Pope]] as "Satan the Devil" and created the impression that war was being declared against colonialism and white supremacy – which Howell asserted should be replaced with "[[Black supremacy]]". Furthermore, he openly objected to locally created religious systems like Revivalism and [[Obeah]], a Jamaican folk practice. Although small, the book was powerful and very popular to the dismay of the Jamaican government.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.academia.edu/9963034|title=D.A. Dunkley, Leonard P. Howell's Leadership of the Rastafari Movement and his 'Missing Years', Caribbean Quarterly 58:4 (2012): 1–24|access-date=2016-11-27}}</ref>

As one of the most charismatic and outspoken of Rastafarian leaders, Howell was incarcerated at notably higher rates than other pioneers of the Rastafarian movement, such as [[Joseph Hibbert|Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert]] and Hinds.<ref name=":1"/> Described as "the most persecuted Rastafarian to date", Howell suffered considerably under constant state surveillance because of his Rastafarian teachings.<ref name=":1" /> Especially threatening to the powers that be was his prophetic call for people to destroy the legitimacy of "international [[white supremacy]]", a message that caused people to reconsider their identity, agency and socio-political mobilization in Jamaica and elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Black Heretics, Black Prophets: Radical Political Intellectuals|last=Bogues|first=Anthony|date=2003-04-06|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415943253|edition=1|language=en}}</ref>