Vilores “Sister Vi” Goodman, matriarch of the Twelve Tribes of Israel Rastafarian organisation, died at her home in Kingston Monday. She was 85 years old.

Her daughter, Tashai Carrington, who confirmed Goodman’s death, said her mother had been seriously ill for the past two years.

Goodman was the widow of Vernon “Prophet Gad” Carrington, who founded the Twelve Tribes of Israel in Trench Town in 1968.

Gad, who died in 2005, was the charismatic and spiritual leader of the organisation which has branches in the Caribbean, United States, Canada, Africa, Europe, and New Zealand.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel enjoyed its highest level of popularity during the 1970s when the ranks attracted scores of high-profile Jamaicans. They included reggae stars Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, and Peter Phillips, who became a Government minister in the administrations of prime ministers P J Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller.

Tashai Carrington said her mother was the eldest of four children born to parents from Trench Town. She dedicated her life to the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

“She got pregnant at 17 and her father put her out. After that, it was her children and Twelve Tribes; she gave her all to Twelve Tribes,” Carrington told the Jamaica Observer.

Goodman is survived by three children (her eldest child predeceased her), nine grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.

— Howard Campbell