author
Robert Athlyi Rogers
1891–1931
A spiritual writer and preacher from Anguilla, he is best remembered for The Holy Piby, a 1924 work that became an important early influence on Rastafari thought. His life was brief, but his ideas traveled widely across the Caribbean, the United States, and Africa.
1 Audiobook
The Holy Piby
by Robert Athlyi Rogers
About the author
Born in Anguilla on May 6, 1891, Robert Athlyi Rogers later moved to the United States and became a religious leader, organizer, and writer. Early in his public life, he produced The Negro Map of Life and helped found the United Home and Bank of the Negroes, reflecting his interest in Black self-determination and community uplift.
Rogers is most closely associated with The Holy Piby, published in New Jersey in 1924. He wrote it for the Afro-Athlican Constructive Gaathly, the Afrocentric faith he founded, and the book went on to be regarded as one of the important early texts that influenced Rastafari theology, even though it was not originally written as a Rastafarian work. His admiration for Marcus Garvey and the broader current of Pan-African thought shaped much of his message.
He preached what he described as Ethiopian redemption and liberation, carrying his ideas across the United States, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa. Rogers died in Newark, New Jersey, on August 24, 1931, but his writing continues to be remembered for its place in Black religious and intellectual history.