Religion, Education and Social

Control in the Caribbean

Dave Gosse
 Introduction
• Historically the Caribbean have displayed the
following types of religious manifestations
• 1. The Indigenous religion of the Early
inhabitants - Tainos and Kalinagoes
• 2. European Christianity and other European
versions such as Judaism
• 3.African derived religion or an Afro-Christian
synthesis
• 4. Asian and Middle Eastern religions.
 Introduction
• This lecture will focus primarily on European
Christianity and the African/Afro-Christian
• Primarily since European Christianity has been
a critical component of slavery and
colonialism in the Caribbean
• In addition to what extent is religious
manifestation in the Caribbean today still a
reflection of colonial values and ideologies?
 The Spanish Paradigm in the Caribbean
• When Columbus reached the American continent in 1492, it
was inhabited by 57 million people, one-eighth of the
world's population at that time.
• Towards the end of 1493, Columbus landed for a second
time, in Hispaniola, with seventeen ships and approximately
1,500 people.
• Among them were clergymen such as the Reverend
Bernardo Boyl, Apostolic vicar of the newly discovered
region.
• Twelve other clergymen accompanied Boyl. Although some
of these clergymen returned home between 1494 and 1495.
 The Spanish Paradigm in the Caribbean
• Despite Queen Isabella’s of Spain attempt in insisting that
the Indians were to receive protection the Indians were
still exploited.
• Each village (congregaciones) was to receive a church with
a priest to educate the inhabitants in the Catholic faith.
• Moreover, a school (doctrinas)was to be built next to the
church where the children would assemble twice daily so
that the priest could teach them reading, writing, basic
Christian prayers and doctrines
• However, the Queen's idea was totally contrary to the
colonists
 Patrona Real
• European Christianity (Catholicism) in the Caribbean,
was fraught with various inconsistencies and difficulties
due to the merger of church and state (Patrona Real)
• Although the advocacy for the Indians intensified under
Bartholemeu Las Casas, (“protector of the Indians”) the
majority of the Indian communities established in
Hispaniola had disappeared.
• Bartholemeu was a Dominican priest from Seville,
Spain who was originally an explorer but became a
devoted advocate on behalf of the Indians.
 The Spanish Church
• The clergy represented a wide cross section of
Catholicism including:
• Dominicans,
• Carmelites,
• Franciscans,
• Jeronimites and the
• Hieronymites.
• These religious orders came between 1400
and 1800
 Aims and Achievements of the Church
• Minister to the needs of the colonists
• Convert and educate the indigenous peoples.
• Create obedient citizens of Spain.
• A better colonial society.
• Provide social services
• It acted as the protectors of the Indians.
[Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Dominican friar; Vasco
de Quiroga; and Antonio de Montesinos]
• Through the Inquisition, the Church acted as an
agent of social control.
 Other Europeans in the Caribbean

• The economic success of Spain brought an almost

immediate response from other Europeans
• As they fought each other for Caribbean space (Holland,
England, France, and Spain) they brought their religion
as part of their attempt to colonize the region.
• Thus, Ministers of the Church of England (Anglicans)
were at work from the early days of settlement in the
British Caribbean
• Meanwhile the Jesuits (Catholics) were the first
missionaries to work with the French colonists as early
as the 1640s.
 The Merger of State and Church
• In each British colony, the Parish church became the
center both of ecclesiastical life and of civil
administration.
• Each parish had a vestry (or governing body) elected
annually by the freeholders of property within the
boundaries of the parish.
• The vestry was required by law to make provision for
the maintenance of the church.
• This included providing a church building, a salary and
suitable accommodation for the incumbent minister.
 Colonial Church
• The church in the colonial Caribbean, was a part of
the colonial ruling class
• The colonial legislators were concerned with a
church to serve the needs of a White society only
• Early attempts to extend the church’s mission
toward the Blacks (slaves and free) were met with
widespread resistance
• The church’s mission to the enslaved Africans was
discouraged in all the territories of the Caribbean –
British, French, Dutch or Danish
 Colonial Church
• The seating arrangements emphasized the distinctions
based on class and race in public worship in any of the
European led churches
• This was necessary for the preservation of a slave society.
• The system of renting pews was managed by the vestry to
ensure that the correct social order was observed in
church.
• As the number of Coloreds and Blacks attending church
services increased towards the end of the Eighteenth
century, they were forced to take their places at the back
of the church and in the gallery.
 Other Protestant Churches
• During the latter half of the eighteenth century into
the nineteenth century, new Protestant churches
arrived and developed in the Caribbean.
• These included:
• The Dutch Reformed and Lutheran Churches
• The Quakers (Society of Friends
• The Moravians, Methodists and Baptists are often
referenced in the literature as ‘non-conformists’
• They were Protestants who did not conform to
doctrines & governance of the traditional churches
 The Non-Conformist Missionaries
• The Quakers are exceptions as they arrived early in the
Caribbean but denounced slavery
• Free Blacks and slaves flocked these churches as no
barriers based on race was practiced
• Blacks held important positions as Deacons in these
churches.
• These churches had to tread cautiously as the planters
blamed them for much of the slave revolts
• They were accused of teaching indirectly the
brotherhood of man and of God. Contrary to plantation
ethos
 African Response
• Africans responded by setting up their own rituals including
Myalism, Pukumina and Vodou.
The African belief system was manifested by:
• The belief in a Supreme Deity
• The existence of intermediaries or lesser gods,
• The existence of good and evil spirits;
• The close nexus between the living and the dead;
• The inseparable connection between humans and their
environment;
• The sanctity of certain fetishes as attributes of the supreme
deity.
 Missionary Activity in the Post Emancipation
Period:
• By the latter 19th & 20th centuries, Protestantism overtook
Catholicism and played a major conservative role in the
formation of the Caribbean
• Most of these missionaries came from the United States
and continued the civilizing mission
• These missionary groups although helping in education
and health, have largely reinforced planter and colonial
ideologies in the Caribbean
• These Protestant churches encompassed the Pentecostals,
Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah Witnesses, the various
Church of God movements and the Mormons.
 Missionary Education
• One of the initial purposes of education was to promote
social control, creating docile citizens.
• Patrick Hylton contends that, “The Christian Churches were
entrusted with the task of programming the minds of the
colonised, of molding them into obedient servant and
labourers.”
• Brian Moore and Michele Johnson argue “Moulded by a
British curriculum, no matter its inappropriateness, the
children were integrated into a wider imperial whole, sharing
with others around the world the belief that the British
culture to which they were exposed everyday was superior
and ought to be aspire to.”
 Missionary Education
• Education was used by the dominant groups to
socialize the masses to accept willingly their
position at the bottom rungs of the social and
occupational ladder.
• Education was also used to convert many Muslims
and Hindu Indians to Christianity
• Colonial education was widely perceived as the
main means of upward social mobility.
• The 1950s-1970s were marked by huge investments
in secondary and university education.
Missionary Activity in the Post Emancipation
Period
• Race and class stratification remains a
particular feature of missionary activity in the
post-emancipation period.
• From around 1840 to the 1900s, race and class
not only shaped colonial society but also
religious membership.
• The colonial state and its ideology of stratifying
persons into religious groups have been
significant in determining church affiliation
even today
 The Afro-Christian Response
• The various Revivalist movements in the Caribbean
have continued to blend African culture and practices
with Christianity:
• The Shouters/Spiritual Baptists in Trinidad & Tobago,
St Vincent, Grenada, & Guyana;
• The Shakers & Streams of Power in St. Vincent;
• The Tie Heads (the Jerusalem Apostolic Spiritual
Baptist Church) in Barbados & St. Lucia;
• The Jordanites of Guyana.
• Bedwardism in Jamaica
 The Afro-Christian Response
• This African response in the 20th century was also
evident in the French, Spanish & Dutch Caribbean
• They include Afro-Catholic:
• Vodou in Haiti,
• Santeria in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto
Rico.
• The Afro-Protestant ones:
• Revivalism, Kumina and Convince in Jamaica,
• the Big Drum in Grenada
• Kele in St Lucia.
 Vodun in Haiti
• Vodun means spirit in the Fon and Ewe language
• Vodun believes in a single divine essence that
governs the earth, but which is manifested in
many spirits
• In Haiti, the principal belief is in deities called
Lwa (or Loa) who are subordinates to a supreme
god.
• Vodun offers protection against witchcraft.
• Vodun in Haiti has been creolised.
 The Yoruba in the Caribbean
• In Yoruba religion God is called Olurun or Olodumare.
• Olorun is the source of Ase (Axe, Ashe, Ache), the
spiritual energy that makes up the universe, all life and
all things material.
• Orishas are manifestations or emissaries of Olorun, and
it is how the world is able to interact with Olorun. The
Orishas rule over every force of nature and every aspect
of human life.
• Communication between Orishas and humankind is
accomplished through ritual, prayer, divination and
offerings as well as song, rhythms, and trance
possession.
 Shango

• The deity Shango is central in Orisha in Trinidad.

• The spirits are mainly Yoruba deities, although a
few Creole spirits have entered the pantheon.
• It begins with Catholic devotions, then
transitions into communication with the Orishas.
• Animal sacrifice is essential for the proper feeding
of the spirits.
 Rastafari
• Rastafari emerged in the 1930s in Jamaica.
• Rastafari is a heterogeneous movement.
• One aspect of Rastafari is a set of religious beliefs based on the
Bible and the reverence of Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.
• Rastafari also involves an Afro-centric worldview and lifestyle,
central to which is the idea that Africa is the home of all black
men.
• Rastafari is also a social movement whose philosophies have
largely been developed by, and appeal to, the oppressed
Jamaican masses.
• The teachings of Alexander Bedward and Marcus Garvey, gave
the movement some of its early direction.
 Hindu in the Caribbean
• Hindu adherents believe that there is a Supreme Being who
is the creator.
• Other divine beings are called devas.
• Hindus believe in the divinity of the four Vedas which is one
of the world's most ancient scriptures.
• The four Vedas are comprised of:
• The mantra or hymn section (samhita).
• Ritualistic teachings (brahmana)
• Theological sections (aranyaka).
• Philosophical sections (upanishads).
• The hymn section is the oldest with the others being added
later.
 Hindu in the Caribbean
• In Hindu theology the universe is constantly evolving with
constant cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution.
• They believe in Karma, the law of cause and effect.
• Each person creates his own destiny by his thoughts, speech
& actions.
• Tied to Karma is the idea of reincarnation of the soul until
Moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth) is attained.
• They believe that all life is sacred and they practice ahimsa
(no harm via thought, word or deed).
• Hindu respects other religions.
 Islam in the Caribbean
• Islam comes from an Arabic word that means submission.
• Islam teaches that one can only find peace by submitting
one's life to God (Allah).
• Central to Islam is the Prophet Mohammad/Muhammad.
• He was born in Mecca in AD 570 and received his first
revelation in 610.
• He went to Medina in 622 and formed the first Muslim
community called umma.
• He died in 632.
• The year of his migration to Medina is called hijra and is the
first year of the Muslim calendar.
 Impact of Hindu in the Caribbean
• It has placed a significant role in preserving and
strengthening East Indian ethnic bonding and culture in
the Caribbean
• The Indenture experience have weakened the rigid caste
system leaving a more homogenized Hindu tradition and
practice
• Helped them to make sense of the Caribbean experience
• It has also helped to strengthen communal bonds
through rituals and festivals
• Strengthening family bonds while inculcating Hindu
traditions and practice among youths
 Impact of Islam in the Caribbean
• It has become a growing religion in the Caribbean
even attracting many blacks adherence all over the
Caribbean
• It is trans-national and provides solidarity with
Africans, Asians and the Middle East
• It provides an avenue in the neo-colonial fight which
is common all over newly independent nations
• It also provides a radical wing which can be
attractive to marginalized youths
• It has a strong emphasis on youths and education
 Islam in Colonial Society

• Colonial society considered itself Christian, and as

such, Islam and Hinduism were signs of lower
status.
• The Ahmadiyya movement, which developed in
India in 1889, stimulated theological debates
among Indo-Trinidadian Muslims.
• Ahmadiyyas were reformists who claimed that their
founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the last
prophet.
• Ahmadiyya missionaries were active in Trinidad in
the first half of the century.
 Pentecostal Christianity and its Impact

• By the 1930s, Pentecostalism had become firmly rooted

in the Caribbean and is the face of Christianity in the
Caribbean
• Its growth is seen as a desire for democratic expression
• Also a form of resistance against British colonialism and
a rejection of the traditional churches
• The participatory nature of its worship and its
simplicity with respect to church symbols and
paraphernalia is symbolic of earlier forms of Afro-
Christian expressions that were always in tension with
the traditional Christianity
 Critique of Pentecostalism
• Their mode of communication in their country’s Creole
language provides a form of affirmation to working class
persons
• Negatively, scholars argue that it has failed to discuss the
sinful social and political structures of the Caribbean and
have promoted the role of individual sin and individual
salvation.
• They are weak in challenging the status quo and in bringing
about social and political change
• They are also maintain a neo-colonial dependency on the
United States in terms of their theology, funding, and in the
type of programs that they execute
 Impact of Rastafari
• The Rastafarians are critical of the established church &
its European theology
• Wealthy leaders of the state looked to the churches to
rationalize their injustices towards the poor blacks.
• The church is a part of Babylon
• Rastafari’s theology of affirmation in which blackness
and the Black race is a badge of honor rather than
shame.
• They focus deliberately on the rich value of Africa and it
culture To a large extent they are way ahead of the
Christian in discussions on race and class.
 Emergence of a Caribbean Theology
• By 1973, the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC)
was formed among liberal church leaders
• The CCC produced several conferences and academic
publications such as essays.
• The CCC engaged in academic discourse using a multi-
disciplinary approach.
• They saw the need to develop a more authentic
Caribbean theology suited to the Caribbean peoples.
• Also to remove the theological and institutional legacies
of Europe and North America and to develop an
indigenous Caribbean church.
 Caribbean Theology
• Despite the bold attempts by the CCC, it remained
largely an intellectual enquiry among their churches and
among scholars.
• Their ability to connect to the masses of the Caribbean
people
• The Pentecostal and Charismatic churches had much
more control of the working class masses.
• Their work is still prominent however in in seminaries
and in journals.
• Such theologians are Ashley Smith, Burchell Taylor,
Garnet Roper, Lewin Williams, Dieumeme Noelliste
 Conclusion
• Colonial Christianity has and is still a potent weapon in
the Caribbean
• Popular Christianity in the Caribbean is still part of the
civilizing task in Euro-centricity
• African, Afro-Christian and Indian religions have advanced
despite the persuasive impact of colonial Christianity
• Much more work needs be done by Caribbean
theologians and what is now indigenous Caribbean
religions to further cement a genuine Caribbean
religions