In this special CRO-sponsored episode of Beyond the Smoke, Ras Richie sits down with Ras Colin I, a visionary builder whose hands helped shape the physical and spiritual foundations of Rastafari in Antigua and beyond.

Hailing from Guyana, Ras Colin I recounts the early days — when Nyahbinghi worship took place at Fort George on Monk’s Hill in Liberta, St. Paul Antigua, before the sacred grounds of Ras Freeman were secured and built stone by stone. As a contractor who’s built clinics, hospitals, and institutions throughout Guyana, his legacy is both literal and symbolic: a man whose hands were guided by purpose, not profit.

This is a meditation on memory, structure, and the divine role of the builder in sacred community life. Come reason with us — and go beyond the smoke.