Meaning
'I' or 'me', spoken by a Rastafari to refer to himself while affirming the divine 'I' within. It replaces the ordinary 'me' with a form built on 'I' — the sound Rastafari treat as the very presence of Jah in the self — so that to say 'iman' is to speak of oneself and of the God within in the same breath. Close kin to 'I-and-I', it belongs to the heart of Rastafari 'I-talk', through which the believer joins self and the divine, and refuses the object-form 'me' that seems to make one small.
Examples
-
Iman nah deal wid dat.
I don't get involved with that.
-
Iman a trod mi own path.
I am walking my own path.
-
Jah bless Iman an mi family.
God bless me and my family.
Origin
From 'I' plus 'man', part of the same Iyaric logic as 'I and I': the self is named through the affirming sound 'I' rather than the object form 'me'.
How it’s used
Closely related to 'I and I' but usually singular and self-referring. A marker of Rastafari speech.