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SPIRITUAL/SHOUTER BAPTIST LIBERATION DAY
By Rev.Teacher Hazel Ann Gibbs DePeza
March 30, 1996 marked a milestone on a long journey from
November 28, 1917 with a major junction along the way on March 30, 1951. On
March 30, 1996, the first Spiritual/Shouter Baptist Liberation Holiday was
celebrated as a result of the declaration by Prime Minister Basdeo Panday
granting a national holiday recorded in the declaration as “Spiritual
Baptist/Shouter Holiday”. This declaration was made 45 years after the
Legislative Council repealed the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance on March 30,
1951 granting the members of the Faith the freedom to worship without breaking
the law. The law, the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance remained in effect for 35
years, passed in November 1917 to “render illegal practices of the body known as
Shouters”.
The legal proceedings are recorded in the Hansard as proof
of the facts of the legislations for and against the “body known as Shouters”.
The legislations are only part of the story, significant, but still part: the
half has not yet been told. The reality of the need and the cause for
celebration is a long painful journey marked by the sorrow of rejection and
deception on the social plain but lit by the fires of redemption on the
spiritual plain. Thanks to the power of God to “heal the broken-hearted ... and
... to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18) the wretched of the
earth are blessed and placed in pleasant places.
There is no official documentation of the early beginnings
of the Spiritual Baptist Faith. Nevertheless, the available histories of
Trinidad and Tobago, the works written about religion in the nation, writings
about the Spiritual/Shouter Baptists, and the oral tradition provide sufficient
proof that the people among whom the Faith emerged were the Africans of the
slave and ex-slave community residing in Trinidad. In 1843, George Cowen
attempted to offer respectability to the already existing Baptist community
under the cover of the Baptist Missionary Society of London, under the condition
that they “give up shouting and the manifestation of spirit possession”.
Those who accepted the offer came to be known as London
Baptists. Those Baptists who rejected British domination divided themselves into
two: one group like the London Baptists who gave up shouting and the
manifestation of spirit possession, the Independent Baptists, the other group
who continued to walk the byways and highways preaching the Gospel, calling man
to repentance, prophesying of impending danger called Wayside, Candle, Barefoot,
Shouter, Spiritual Baptists. This latter group maintained their shouting and
manifestation of spirit possession as integral to their worship.
An elder of the Faith, Bishop Eudora Thomas wrote in her
work, Short History of the Spiritual Baptist (commonly called Shouters) (n.d.)
“Relatively little is known about the first Spiritual Baptist Leader... the
Faith slowly developed sometime during the 19th century... the Spiritual
Baptists or Shouters played a large role in spreading the knowledge of
Christianity throughout the islands, by their evangelical labours, crusades,
byways and hedges preaching to all who cared to listen. Their duty was to make
the teachings of Jesus Christ known” (Thomas, p.1).
The consistent growth of this “slave movement” threatened
the status quo and “The Shouters Prohibition Ordinance of 1917 was a direct
attempt by the plantocracy and the Colonial authorities to destroy this effort
of the ex-slaves at unity” (Michael Ramcharan). Archbishop Oba Douglas
described it as “a most iniquitous Act perpetrated against a people for
worshipping God”. Yet, Spiritual Israel was not daunted by persecution; they
were following in the footsteps of the Apostles and Early Christians. “The
beatings, imprisonment, and fines resulting from infractions of the Ordinance
bear witness to the tenacity of our people in the face of difficulty” (Michael
Ramcharan).
The Repeal of the Act came in 1951, after many strategies
and multitudes of prayers of the Baptist community, and by the much lobbying of
the committee of Baptists led by Archbishop Elton Griffith. The removal of the
legislation put an end to police brutality and the criminalization of Baptist
worship. It did not stem the scorn and contempt of the national society for
those “outlaws” who disturbed the peace of the “civilized” classes with their
loud singing, shouting, and ringing of bells. The Faith remained ostracized from
society and endured social persecution long after the authorities ceased legal
prosecution.
Seeking societal status the strategies and prayers of the
Baptist community shifted to a call for recognition by the state in the form of
schools, a cathedral, or a national day. Archbishop Barbara Burke launched a
successful lobby for recognition during her tenure as a government senator and
in 1996, the repeal of social ostracization came in the form of a national
holiday bearing the name of the Spiritual/Shouter Baptist. Fourteen years after
the declaration of recognition of the struggles of the Faith, sadly, the Faith
is still not fully accepted into the fabric of society. Gladly, however, each
year on March 30, every creed and race in the nation of Trinidad and Tobago is
compelled to take notice that the only indigenous religious movement in Trinidad
and Tobago is alive, well, and growing.
Celebration of Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Holiday is
significant of the resilience of the people of God to withstand wiles of the
devil. It commemorates the suffering, persecution and prosecution of a people
who were determined to worship God in the black beauty of holiness. It
acknowledges the struggles and efforts of the freedom fighters of the Faith to
ensure the development of the Faith. It highlights the achievements and growth
of the Faith. And most significantly it proclaims the power of God in the
affairs of man, for though He
“has made us to drink the wine of astonishment” (Ps. 60:3),
“now may Israel say,
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men
rose up against us;:
Then they had swallowed us up...
Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to
their teeth.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and
earth”
(Ps. 124: 1-3, 6, 8).
Reference
Gibbs Depeza, H. A. (2007). My Faith – Spiritual Baptist
Christian. U.S.A. : Xulon Press.
Appendix .
CHAPTER 27
SHOUTERS PROHIBITION
An Ordinance To Render Illegal Indulgence In The
Practices of The Body Known as Shouters.
28th November, 1917.
[1] This Ordinance may be cited as the
Shouters Prohibition Ordinance.
[2] [i] A “Shouters” meeting means
a “ meeting or gathering of two or more persons , whether indoors or
in the open air, at which the customs and practices of the “BODY”
known as ‘SHOUTERS” [ Thereafter in this Ordinance referred to as “
the Shouters” ] are indulged in . The decision of any Magistrate in
any case brought under this Ordinance as to whether the customs and
practices are those of the “Shouters” shall be final, whether the
persons indulging in such customs or practices call themselves
Shouters or by any other name.
[ii] A “Shouters “ house means
any house or building or room in any house or building which is
used for the purpose of holding “Shouters” meetings, or any house or
building which is used for the purpose of initiating any person into
the ceremonies of the “Shouters” . The decision of any Magistrate in
any case brought under this Ordinance as to whether a house or
building or room is a “Shouters” house shall be final.
[iii] The term “Manager”
includes any person having control over or charge of any estate or
land whatsoever in the Colony.
[3] It shall be an offence against
this Ordinance for any person to hold or take part in or to
attend any “Shouters” meeting or for any ‘Shouters” meeting to be
held in any part of the Colony indoors or in the open air any
time of the day or night.
[4] It shall be an offence against
this Ordinance to erect or to maintain any “Shouters” house or to
shut up any person in any “Shouters” house for the purpose of
initiating such persons into the ceremonies of the ‘Shouters”.
[5] [i] If it shall come to the
knowledge of the owner or manager of any estate or land in the
Colony that a “Shouters” house is being erected or maintained , or
that “Shouters” meetings are being held, on the estate or land over
which such owner or manager has control, he shall forthwith notify
the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Constabulary Station
nearest to such house , estate or land of the erection or maintenance
of such “Shouters” house or of the locality or place at which such
“Shouters” meetings are being held.
[ii] The manager or owner of
any estate or land in the Colony who fails so to notify such
non-commissioned officer as aforesaid , or who knowingly permits the
erection or maintenance of any “Shouters” house or the holding of
“Shouters” meetings on any estate or land over which he have control
shall be guilty of an offence against this Ordinance.
HARRY L. KNAGGS.
Clerk of the Council.l.
Reference:
C.M.Jacobs [1996] Caribbean History
Society . # 40 Duke Street, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.W.I
JOY
COMES IN THE MORMING-Elton George Griffith and the Shouter Baptists.
About the Author.
Rev.Teacher Hazel Ann Gibbs
DePeza is an ordained Spiritual Baptist minister ,Spiritual teacher ,and
Principal of The Herman Parris S.B .Southland School of Theology. She
has been a teacher and teacher educator and is now a Senior
Instructor at The University of Trinidad and Tobago’s School of Studies
in Learning , Cognition ,and Education.
She holds a Diploma in Theology,
a Teacher’s Diploma, a B.A.[Hons], a Master of Philosophy in Linguistics,
and has completed her Doctoral Studies for The Doctor of Education in
Educational Leadership.
Rev.Gibbs DePeza is also an
author , editor , and a poet . She has publications with York University
and the University of Puerto Rico and has presented papers at
various local and international conferences on education. She hosts
two radio programmes and is involved in youth and prison ministry.
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