By Kenneil Bess (Comrade Bess)
For generations people here in St Vincent and the Grenadines have been taught to reject their own religion and culture. We have been told that our African spiritual practices are evil and wrong. But we are here praising the religion brought by Europeans who enslaved our ancestors. We have been made to feel ashamed of who we are and where we come from.
If a white man was to ring a bell and light a candle while worshipping God, many would say it is holy and good. But because the white man does not do these things and it is something done in African spiritual practices, those acts are called evil and labeled as obeah. That is the truth many refuse to face. We are made to hate what is ours simply because it is not theirs.
They want people to believe that obeah is bad. They only show the dark and harmful side of it. But obeah is about healing, protection, and justice. It was feared by slave masters because it gave power to those they tried to control. Obeah kept our ancestors strong and connected to their spirit when everything else was taken from them. It is not evil. The lies about it are.
The Spiritual Baptist faith was seen as a threat because it is African and powerful. The system feared it. The colonial laws banned it. They locked up people for just praying. They beat them and forced them into hard labour just for worshipping the African way. They tried to wipe it out. But they could not. The Spiritual Baptists never gave up. They rang their bells. They lit their candles. They prayed and they fought for freedom in the spirit. They carried the fire of Africa through the storm.
Think about all the Christian groups that came from Europe: Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and Pentecostal. Each created their own version of Christianity. Each changed the Bible to fit their needs. How can anyone be sure they are worshipping the true God when the Bible was edited and controlled by the same people who enslaved our ancestors? The spiritual world is much larger than this earth. Sometimes what we think is God may be another god made by man to control us.
Many quickly shout hallelujah but are ashamed to honour their ancestors or follow African ways. They are ashamed to light a candle or ring a bell in worship, but they will kneel in churches built with slave money and sing songs used to control them. That is the painful truth.
The time has come to change how we do things in this country. When there is national prayer or official ceremonies, it must not only be the European way. Why only the white man’s style of religion in a Black country? Let the Spiritual Baptists pray. Let the Garifuna sing. Let our people speak in the tongue of their roots. This land is ours. This spirit is ours. Let our culture take its rightful place in the nation’s heart. Let the bell ring. Let the candle burn. Let the drums speak.
Our culture is not evil. Our religion is not backwards. It is deep. It is divine. And it is real.
I do not care who laughs or talks. I love obeah. I love my Spiritual Baptist. Nobody can not stop me from worshipping the way I choose. This is who I am. This is what my ancestors died for. This fire lives in me.
We must stop letting others decide what is godly and what is evil. We must stop believing that the white man knows God more than we do. We must reclaim our spiritual identity.
This is my truth. This is our truth. And no one can take it from us.
