Exodus 20:12 "Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which The Lord YAH gives you."

Rastafari have a deep Love and Raspect for their mother and father. Although this is mostly a universal feeling, for most children from any culture will Love their parents this is just natural. Rastafari are generally more conscious about the relationship with our elders and teach to Love your elders even if the relationship is not always as good as it should be. There are plenty of parents that don’t show enough Love for their children through lack of guidance, love, patience, interest and will sometimes even abuse them physically or mentally. Still we try and forgive and show them Love so the relationship might get restored in later stages of Life or we can at least be at peace with our self. Because this relationship is so very deeply rooted, that any disfunction in it can cause some kind of metal or spiritual unbalance (interfering with living a fulfilled life). We can see this happen time and time again, children who have some kind of issue with their parents, they often struggle in life, maybe feeling unloved, unwanted, insecure...now if the spiritual and physical connection wouldn’t have been so deeply rooted, then a bad relationship would be easier to live with, but because it is, we need to make a greater effort to Love our parents even if the relationship is blemished. Not Loving our parents goes against the will of YAH as he commanded I&I to Honour our Father and Mother, so our lives may be longer. The consequences for not doing that are very severe, so we might overstand how important this is.
As Deuteronomy 21:18-21 shows us "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they chastise him, will not give heed to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall purge the evil from your midst"

And Exodus 21:15-17 "Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death ... Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death."

We should not take this literally like other things in the Bible, but it is a clear indication of the Importance about this commandment. 

More biblical reverences can be found in
Ephesians 6:1-4 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour your father and mother," this is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."

Proverbs 23:22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. 23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. 24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. 25 Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. 

Loving our Earthly parents is first step and a reminder to Love our heavenly parents, Mother Earth and YAH the creator of the Iniverse. With the overstanding that this deeply rooted connection that we have with our parents (causing so much trouble when this is not a good relationship), that we also have this deeply rooted connection with YAH, and that when this is out of balance, will cause problems just the same. By strongly being encouraged to Love our earthly Elders (who are supposed to guide and nourish us) we can also be encouraged to Love YAH more, who is the father of the fathers, the greatest teacher and comforter. Therefore it is very important that this relationship is stable and full of Love and this commandment teaches us about it in a parable. If we can’t Love the Ones that created us on Earth, then it might be more difficult to Love YAH the giver of Life.

Rastafari have shown this appreciation for the 5th commandment by making many Reggae songs honouring their mother and father, and therefore also helping YAH in keeping that commandment in remembrance for others. There is no other music genre that reminds people more of this knowledge then Reggae. There have been a couple of musicians that made a song about their mother or father, like some Rappers. But not on the scale of Reggae artists, we are once again on the forefront of keeping and showing I&I loyalty to the commandments of YAH.

Selah