Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair's father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, was obsessed with her purity. The threat of what the Rastafari call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home, was his greatest adversary. He believed that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and that a woman's highest virtue was her obedience. In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he controlled every aspect of their lives. The women in his family were required to wear clothes that covered their arms and knees; jewelry and makeup were prohibited; and they were forbidden to cut their dreadlocks. They were allowed no opinions, no friends. Safiya's mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the unbending restrictions of her father's beliefs, she used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion came clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia exploded in increasing violence. As Safiya's voice grew, lyrically and poetically, a collision course was set between them. How to Say Babylon is Sinclair's reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know by name, Rastafari, but one we know little about. -- Provided by publisher.