In
William Gibson's
Neuromancer, Zion is a earth-orbiting
space colony founded by workers who, after having built
Freeside decided not to return to earth via the
gravity well and stayed in orbit to found their own colony. The original founders,
old Rastafaris founded the colony using the
Rastafarian religion as a basis for their society and as they say they have "no respect for
Babylon law." As such, the colony grows a lot of
marijuana, which is part of the Rastafarian religion, and sells it with no regard for the laws of the rest of the world. Throughout the entire colony, the sounds of
dub, a musical style which is a mix of raggae beats
sans lyrics, can be heard constantly.
The colony has its own
tug for transporting goods and personnel, freeing it from the costly service of the
JAL shuttles. The tug is named after
Marcus Garvey, a leader of early pushes for black civil rights reform who advocated that all
African-Americans should return to Ethiopia, or as it is known in the Rastafarian relgion, Zion. Thus, the tug serves the same purpose as the man, removing the
chosen from the evil of
Babylon and delivering them onto the promised land, Zion.