Caribbean Beat — November/December 2017 (#148)

on this day
Defenders
of the faith
Exactly a century ago, anti-African prejudice
prompted Trinidad and Tobago’s colonial
legislature to ban the indigenous Spiritual
Baptist religion. But, as James Ferguson
explains, the draconian law never
dissuaded the Baptist faithful
Illustration by Rohan Mitchell
In 1917, eighty-three years after its abolition, the spectre of slavery
still haunted colonial Trinidad and Tobago. The descendants
of emancipated slaves far outnumbered a small white middle
class and an even smaller elite, and were joined by Africandescended
migrants from other smaller and poorer territories
in the Caribbean. The arrival of some 140,000 indentured
labourers from India between 1845 and 1917 dramatically changed
the colony’s demographic profile, yet the legacy of slavery remained
and permeated all aspects of society with antipathy and anxiety.
Of particular concern to the colonial authorities was the resilience
of African influence in many forms of popular culture. Memories of
slave insurrections and, more recently,
post-Emancipation conflicts remained
strong, and the idea of African-based
customs and communal activity was
anathema to those in power. Perhaps
the most conspicuous of such cultural
expressions was that of the Spiritual
Baptist Church, and so it was that one
hundred years ago, on 17 November, 1917,
the legislature of Trinidad and Tobago
banned a self-professed Christian religion.
The decision may seem odd by today’s
enlightened ecumenical standards, but it
was entirely consistent with the contemporary
colonial mind-set. The problem with
the Spiritual Baptist Church was not that it
claimed to be Christian, but that it was explicitly
African in inspiration and practice, and as
such was deemed to be undesirable.
94 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM