Formerly enslaved people created Revivalism

FROM THE Catholics to the Baptists to the other denominations, Christians from Europe and American came to the West Indies to Christianise and save the souls of the Tainos (the natives) and enslaved people on the plantations in Jamaica.

It is a fact that many were converted to Christianity, and some themselves became preachers and conveyors of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some even became missionaries, travelling to America, other Caribbean countries, and Africa with a zeal to Christianised the “wretched”.

On the plantations, the spiritual rituals of the enslaved people were banned because of the fear and misunderstanding coming from the enslavers. These practices were regarded as sorcery, an anathema to the ‘Word’ of God.

But, many enslaved Africans, even some of whom were converted, could not and would not expunge their belief systems from their heart, body and soul. They were deeply entrenched, coming from generations of DNA. In public, and in the presence of their enslavers, they were worshipping the Christian God; but, in private, in their own space and time, they were embracing nature, and communicating with ancestral energies.

SPIRITUAL MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION

They had absolutely no knowledge of middle-eastern and European religiosity, and thus had no mental, emotional, psychology and familial connection to it. For them, it was about the family, and the relationships within, and with those who have departed to another dimension, for they were not easily forgotten. They were still considered family members, and, as such, they were venerated as if they were still alive. The rituals then were spiritual media of communication. This is principally what the colonisers/enslavers did not understand.

Public demonstrations of spiritual rituals were banned, but the thoughts and beliefs were alive and well in the minds of the enslaved. And then Emancipation came along. Yet, the great majority of the freed people had to remain on the plantations working for the owners and overseers since they had nowhere to go. The drum and the practices were still banned on private properties, yet, in secret, the ‘free’ people did not let go of them.

That is why the 1860-61 Revival exploded in the land. It was 22 years after Emancipation, and ex-enslaved people released their pent-up emotions, the need to express and practise their beliefs in their style and tenor was no longer suppressed across the board.

In Part I, published on October 5, I write, “Emancipated people were now using the Christian church to cover their own beliefs and this practice evolved into a syncretisation of African spirituality and European Christian philosophy … In Jamaica, Revivalism is now a popular folk religion that has pervaded the land, mainly comprising grassroot people who regard it as a way to express their spirituality, to bare their soul, to communicate with ancestral energies, and to seek solace in the bosom of an eternal father.

RELIGIOUS ETHOS

“Revival churches and Revival people are easily identifiable, away and apart from other Christian churches and people. They are a significant party of Jamaica’s religious ethos. And, the world has noticed. Last year, the ‘Revival Pilgrimage to Watt Town’ was officially inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Zion Headquarters and Jerusalem Schoolroom are located in Watt Town, St Ann.”

Revival people find acceptance in the Revival Church space where they can use and wear objects that others will not view with suspicion. It is self-liberation, self-determination and self-empowerment at the highest level. Through the objects, they express themselves without strictures, chains and censure, telling their own narratives of joy and sorrows, success and failures, betrayal and redemption, hope and faith.

In all of this, there is encoding and decoding, perception and feedback through the Revival table, ritual gowns, turbans, banners and flags, brooms, water, basins, cutlery, drums, spirit writing, Revival seals, herbs, scissors, tape measures, singing, drumming, dancing, trumping, etcetera.

In Chapter 1, ‘Come Journey With Me’, of her book, Revivalism – Representing An Afro-Jamaican Identity, the recently departed Dr Maria A. Robinson-Smith writes, “Revivalism is an Afro-Jamaican folk religion that was recognised after the Great Revival, which took place in Jamaica between 1860 and 1861. During this time, there were spiritual outpourings of African manifestation, which included African spirit possession in the mission houses all over Jamaica.

“The result was the establishment of a Jamaican New World religion that was greatly influenced by myalism and the black Baptist movement. Revivalism not only is a permanent addition to the religious profile of Jamaica, but is also deeply rooted and functional in the psyche of Jamaicans of African ancestry.”