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Jamaica And Religion
by Marcia Davidson





The Bible reached the African-Jamaican people in the 1790’s when 2 black Baptist preachers, who had been freed by their masters, came to Jamaica. George Lisle and Moses Baker. They built up large followings, Lisle in Kingston and Baker in western Jamaica. Their congregations grew rapidly and they appealed to the newly founded Baptist Missionary Society in England for help. By the 1820's white Baptist missionaries, troublesome dissenters in the eyes of the plantocracy had begun to arrive. Never before had the enslaved people held a book in their hands and certainly not the Bible, for it was not regarded with favour on the Jamaican sugar-and-slave plantations. All school doors were closed to African-Jamaicans, so they could not read. Church doors were closed to them, for in the eyes of the plantocracy, God was white and there was a colour line. The African-Jamaicans, a very religious people, sought what comfort they could find in a communion with Obi, Myalism, Cumina, in Haiti with Vodum, in Trinidad in a later period with Shango. Barred from the church, the school and any form of marriage the African-Jamaicans were derided as being superstitious, stupid and immoral.

Now, with the missionaries as their teachers in Sunday School, the Bible became their holy book that contained the word of God, their comforter and beloved companion in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It was their certificate of identity, which confirmed their status as God the Father’s children, their guarantee of a future in the Father’s company and above all their blessed assurance that each one was a worthwhile somebody for whom Massa God gave His only Son. They were no longer the only ones who had been slaves. They shared the Jewish experience of having been an oppressed people. In the prophets, patriarchs and psalmists they found comfort and hope. The Jewish story had for them an almost unbearable piercing relevance.

This is how it came about that Daddy Sharpe, deacon in Parson Burchell’s church in Montego Bay and Thomas Dove, John, Dehany, Linton and all the people walked the Great River Valley tracks together to Retrieve, Lethe, Seven Rivers, and Montpelier with Father Moses. This is how it came about that in the time of execution in Montego Bay, they passed through the Valley of the Shadow with such courage for their Shepherd was with them. This is how, up to the time of Bogle and of Bedward, the shepherd and shepherdess were trusted leaders among Jamaican working class people.

In the dominant Christian sphere, analysis reveals almost equal percentages of Anglicans, Baptists and members of the Church of God. Other groups include Seventh Day Adventists, Methodists, the United Church of Christ and Pentecostals. There’s also a healthy smattering of Roman Catholics, mainly among the Chinese, Lebanese and East Indian communities, whose ancestors came around the turn of the 20th Century. Jamaica is a majority Christian country. There are many Christian churches in Jamaica. So much so that Jamaica holds the dubious record in the Guinness Book of Records with the most churches per capita mile. You can find Church of God, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostals and Baptist. The migration of people of East Indian & Middle Eastern descent brought the Hinduism and Muslim to Jamaica. Recently the Mormon cult has set up temples in Jamaica, as they have recently allowed black to hold positions in their organization.

Recent years have marked the rise of the fundamentalists, handclapping gospel-shouting sects led by voluble aggressive preachers, in whose calamitous sermons, the nervous hear God’s shoulder-knot creaking American-oriented and often American-supported, they made dramatic strides during the 70's socialist administrations of Michael Manley. A generally conservative Christian group, fundamentalists share the U.S. paranoia on communism.

There are also members of the Revival Zion sect. Cousins of those who shuffle through Pocomania, yet clingers to beliefs in Christian dogma. Led by head Shepherd Mallica Reynolds (deceased) better known as Kapo, they regarded themselves as the national church of Jamaica but their small numbers do justify that claim. Revivalists believe in Jesus, Baptism and God. However they also believe in many African religious traditions on spirits. They believe you can be possessed by spirits of the dead that can make you sick, protect you or kill you. Male leaders are called Shepherds & women called Mother. Tambourines, dancing and the clapping of hands are prevalent at these exciting services where African trance like services are held. There are several types of revivalists but the most prevalent is the Zionist who believe in heavenly spirits.

Nowadays, except for a handful of devotees, “jumping poco” is a dwindling religious art form. On the other hand, the drive toward “identity” of a taproot, unentwined with the independence of white Christianity, has turned the search elsewhere. And out of this search for a Deity, whose best strokes would be in the interests of His different folks, has come the most potent socio-religious political happenings since Columbus waded ashore. Kumina or Cumina which has been likened to the cult that is similar to Obeah, draws from African rituals, which include drumming & exorcism. One ceremony is to ensure that the ghosts (duppies) of the dead will not return to haunt others. Obeah (Voodoo) is black magic used to cast spells and to perform exorcism.

On Sunday mornings it used to seem that God moved in a mysterious way among the white people in the front pews – secretly handing out wealth and power. The blacks at the back of the church or in the skinny worship-sheds back in the woods, clapped and shouted and sang like crazy but to no avail. Why did He not, in the words of the reggae song “Pass the dutchie pon the left-hand side?” Did He not know that the hungry children on this side hankered also after the dutchie cook-pot? Maybe they were not of His family. It stood to reason. The Jesus in the religious pictures and plasters on the wall was Caucasian. No doubt about that. Who ever saw a blue-eyed black?

It took a while for a solution to the problem to jell. The belief that all things including man, were an extension of and fused with the God-spirit – the principle of the African religion – had been lost under the intentional cultural destruction wrought by the slave system. The ethnic and family dislocation effectively destroyed the history connections.

Until the advent of the Moravian, Wesleyan and Baptist aggression, the religion of the “raw-eyes” was commonly discouraged from reaching the blacks’ quarters. Now, then. If the whites were His children on earth, it followed that God was also a “raw-eye” bakkra, a blue-eyed boss man. It also followed, as the proverb put it, that “Parson christen him own pickney before anybody else’s pickney. Swelp me Gad, it was enough to vex a bredda!”

Thoughts of a bakkra God need fully gave way. Getting the ackee-and-sal’-fish into the pot was important in a “patch-trousies” economy. In Jamaica, job anxiety has always inhibited dissent. The folk sat in the back pews and hoped. But the murmurs were mounting, especially among the young people. Hardly anybody noticed when it really towered.

What towered was bizarre, as sudden as it was shocking. A handful of “crazy men” appeared in the 1930’s making absurd claims about the Emperor of Abyssinia being the Messiah: Ras Tafari, afterwards crowned as Haile Selassie, which translated means, “ Power of the Trinity". Few suspected then the profound effect the movement would have on Jamaican society. Rastafarians were longhaired and bearded long before the advent of hippy fashions. If their interpretations of the Bible were outrageous, they quoted with conviction and were ready to suffer for their beliefs – strangely sure and proud in the midst of ridicule.

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Tales From the deep......Prot Royal Earthquake




The dotted line denotes the margins of old Port Royal, that "wicked city" that now lies partially submerged. All images on this page courtesy of Donny L. Hamilton, Institute of Nautical Archeology.

Sin city sunk under sea
One of the advantages of marine or nautical archeology is that, in many instances, catastrophic events send a ship or its cargo to the bottom, freezing a moment in time. As one archeologist phrases it, in shipwrecks -- and mammoth mud slides and volcanoes -- "people haven't had time to clean up." That may be bad luck for the victims. But it's a bona fide bonanza for archeologists.

One such catastrophe that has helped nautical archeologists was the earthquake that destroyed part of the city of Port Royal, Jamaica. Once known as the "Wickedest City on Earth" for its sheer concentration of pirates, prostitutes and rum, Port Royal is now famous for another reason: "It is the only sunken city in the New World," according to Donny L. Hamilton of Texas A&M University's Institute of Nautical Archeology.






Port Royal began its watery journey to the Academy Awards of nautical archeology on the morning of June 7, 1692, when, in a matter of minutes, a massive earthquake sent nearly 33 acres of the city -- buildings, streets, houses, and their contents and occupants -- careening into Kingston Harbor. Today, that underwater metropolis encompasses roughly 13 acres, at depths ranging from a few inches to 40 feet.

For nearly ten years, Hamilton and his colleagues, many of them students, explored the buildings of this sunken colonial city, cataloging the artifacts and structures, encountering the remains of the human victims, and sorting through the detritus of everyday life. "To me, it's like walking through your home town," explains Hamilton. "I probably know more about these people who lived in 1692 in Port Royal than I do about my next door neighbor."

Excavating a sunken city: Brick paving and building walls.

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Invasion by Columbus and Conquistadors

Columbus came to Jamaica in 1494. With him, he brought fear, disease and terror to the Jamaicans. He named the island Jamaica because he heard tthe natives call it Xaymaca. He brought smallpox and other horrible dieases, to which islanders had no antibodies. Most of them died out soon after Columbus arrived, and those that didn't were tortured and terrorized by Columbus and his sailors. He then left and returned several years later on his last voyage to the new world. During this voyage, he spent a year stranded on Jamaica trying to rebuild his boats.

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The first people to come to Jamaica were people from Venezuela, known as the Arawaks. They are thought to have come to Jamaica in two major waves, the first in 650 AD, and the second in 900 AD. They were then joined by the Caribs, who came from Guiana. While the Arawaks were a peaceful people, the Caribs were cannibalistic and fierce fighters. Much fighting arose between these two groups.

Those two things that I underlined I had no idea about. Is this true or is this a myth.

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JAMAICAN HISTORY I

1494-1692
COLUMBUS TO THE DESTRUCTION OF PORT ROYAL

The recorded history of Jamaica may be roughly divided into six periods:

The first period may be said to date from Columbus’ arrival in the island in 1494 to the destruction of Port Royal in 1692. This covers nearly 200 years. But very little is known about the days when the Spaniards were masters of Jamaica. On the other hand, a good deal is known about the first fifty years of Jamaica as a British colony.

The second period of our history extends from.the destruction of Port Royal to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. During this time Jamaica flourished as an agricultural colony and became very rich. It reached the height of its prosperity just before the slave trade was abolished; that is, just before the British Government decided that no more slaves were to be brought from Africa and sold as private property

The third period of Jamaican history covers the years between the abolition of the slave trade and the Morant Bay rebellion in 1865. During the 46 years between the abolition of the slave trade and the rebellion, the country passed through many misfortunes and there was a great deal of misery and ill-feeling among the different classes of people in the island.

The fourth period dates from 1865 to the end of July, 1914.

The fifth period began with the outbreak of the First World War on August 1, 1914 and ended on August 1962.

The sixth period began on August 6, 1962, and records the history of Jamaica as an independent country.

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Out Of Many Cultures
The People Who Came
The Arrival Of The Indians

A group of East Indians re-enact their arrival to Jamaica, stepping onto new ground at Old Harbour Bay, where they first landed in May 1845.

From 1845 to 1921, over 36,000 East Indians, mainly of the Hindu faith, were brought to Jamaica. Close to two-thirds of them remained. Following the abolition of slavery in the1830s, after failed attempts to source much-needed labour through bountied European immigration, the Jamaican Government turned to India and China. Indian labourers who had already proved successful in Mauritius, were therefore considered to be a good bet for survival in Jamaica.

They were, however, paid less than the ex-slaves and therefore originally lodged at the bottom of the society. Ironically, under the terms of their caste system, which valued light skin over dark, they in turn looked down on the ex-slaves. Relations between the two groups did not therefore begin on the best of footings.

The Indian Government took great interest in indentured labour. Recruiting depots were established in Calcutta and Madras and agents were paid significantly less, per recruit, than for a European labourer). The Government monitored recruitment, the terms and conditions of indentureship, and the guidelines for transport to Jamaica as well as eventual repatriation to India. Most Indians who signed onto indentureship did so with the hope of returning to their homelands with greater wealth and therefore better social positions. It even appointed a Protector of Immigrants in the country of indenture.

Unfortunately, as the Protector was never an Indian national, he tended to be more interested in the welfare of the employers than the labourers * a sign that the programme would equal one of hardship for the labourers.

In order to sign onto an indentureship Indians were to appear before a magistrate, hold a government permit and fully understand the conditions of the labour contract. However, the contract was often explained in English and thousands of labourers simply put their thumb marks on the required line, without any true understanding of what awaited them following their journey across the sea.

ARRIVAL IN JAMAICA
In 1845 the first group landed at Old Harbour Bay. They came from Northern India, 200 men, 28 women under 30 years old and 33 children under 12 years old, 261 people in all. The next year, five times more arrived, 1, 852 the following year, almost double that number, 2,439. At that point, the Indian Government stopped immigration in order to examine the way the system was working. The programme began again 11 years later in 1859 and continued without break until it was interrupted by World War I even though by the 1870s the Indian government began to regard the practice with disgust as stories of the hardship encountered by Indians on arrival in the West Indies began to circulate.

On arrival, the labourers were given one suit of clothing, agricultural tools and cooking utensils. Divided into groups of 20 and 40 they were then sent first by mule cart and later by overcrowded freight trains to plantations in Portland, St. Thomas, St. Mary, Clarendon and Westmoreland. Many were forced to walk to the plantation from the nearest railway station. Once on the plantation itself, they were forced to work five to six days a week for one shilling a day and lived in squalid conditions. Barracks of no more than 3 or 4 rooms were expected to accommodate several individuals and families in each room. Two shillings and six pence were deducted weekly for their rice, flour, dried fish or goat, peas and seasoning rations. Children received half rations and employers were warned to treat the children well. For example, they were supposed to receive quarterly medical check ups.

During the 70 years of Indian immigrant labour, little consideration was shown for their religious beliefs and cultural practices. For example, non-Christian unions went unrecognized until 1956 and many were therefore forced to accept Christianity. The terms of indenture could be as short as one year and as long as five, with two weeks annual leave. Labourers could be released from their indenture due to illness, physical disability or in the rare case, manumission or commutation, when the labourer paid the unexpired portion of the contract to their employer. They could only leave the plantation, however, if in possession of a permit. If caught without one or if they failed to work because of ill health or any other reason, they often faced fines and even imprisonment. Many suffered greatly from yaws, hookworm and other tropical diseases such as malaria. Although available, quinine, able to prevent malaria, was not often provided by the planters.

When their indentureships were up, they became known as time-expired Indians and issued certificates of freedom that enabled them free access to any part of the island. Two years later and no earlier, they could apply for repatriation. If they did not do so they became ineligible even though they could only be repatriated after having lived in Jamaica for 10 years. Of course, there was always the other option * to renew their contracts and become "second-term coolies". Few made this choice.

SETTLEMENT AND REPATRIATION
Most of the planters were against repatriation as the costs of sending the immigrants home were thought to exceed any advantage gained from having them in Jamaica. They effectively lobbied the Government to provide incentives for settlement and to limit their required contribution to repatriation costs. In the early years of Indian immigration, land and money were used as the main incentives. Time-expired Indians could accept 10 or 12 acres of Crown land. Often the land offered was mountainous and infertile so many chose to take the cash in hand. By 1877 close to £32,000 had been spent on these money grants.

In 1879, however, money grants were suspended so all who decided not to take up the land grants were forced to find land on their own. The land grants themselves were suspended briefly from 1897 to 1903 and then finally abandoned in 1906. The land grant system was proving to be as expensive as repatriation themselves with land grants costing £12 per person and repatriation costing some £15 per person.

In addition, the number seeking repatriation did not diminish drama-tically even though after 1899 male immigrants seeking repatriation were obliged to pay up to one-half of their passage and female immigrants up to one-third. Immigrants were further required to pay for blankets and warm clothing.

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Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured, every step of the way....

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world." - Ghandi

The First European Settlers

Soon after Columbus, in about 1510, there was an influx of Spanish Europeans. The Spanish, under the rule of Jaun de Esquivel, treated the Jamaicans no better than Columbus had and even more of the aboriginal Jamaicans died. At first they settled a beautiful area near St. Ann's Bay, and made a exquiotselty beautiful town named New Seville (sfter the governor) but then had to move due to the area's climate and swampy conditions. They then settled in present day Spanish Town. They built a beautiful city, with 500 houses and several churches. Unfortunately, none of this city remains, have rotted away after years of neglect and disuse.

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JAMAICAN INDIANS
Indian contributions to Jamaican culture are legion. Indian jewellery designs have made their mark especially in the form of intricately wrought thin, gold bangles. The tradition goes back to the 1860s when plantation workers began to create these pieces and organized traveling salesmen to peddle them island-wide. It was the Indians who first managed to grow rice in Jamaica, establishing the island's first successful rice mill in the 1890s. They also dominated the island's vegetable production until well into the 1940s.

Old animosities forgotten, elements of traditional Indian dress can be found in Jonkonnu processions and many African-Jamaicans participate alongside their Indian-Jamaican brothers and sisters in the Indian inspired cultural celebrations of Hosay and Divali. Hosay is a muslim festival that re-enacts a war between Mohammed's sons, their death and burial. It lasts for 9 nights and on the tenth day the tazia (a paper and bamboo replica of a tomb) is taken to the streets in a large, colourful procession led by a Tasa drummer and followed by stick and horse dancers.

In the past, every plantation in each parish celebrated Hosay. Today it has been called an Indian carnival and is perhaps most well known in Clarendon where it is celebrated each August. Divali, a Hindu festival linked with the reaping of grain, the return of Prince Rama after 14 years in exile, and the victory of good over evil, is celebrated late October to early November on the darkest night of the year. Houses are cleaned and brightly lit and everyone is in high spirits.

Today there is an estimated number of close to 70,000 Indians living in Jamaica. They maintain their own cultural organizations, aspiring to keep links to their roots whilst still managing to assimilate into the national scene. This is perhaps well illustrated by the fact that traditional Indian foods such as curry goat, roti and callaloo have become part of the national cuisine. Caste is not a significant issue and arranged marriages are no longer common. Descendants of the immigrant workers have influenced the fields of farming, medicine, politics and even horse-racing. Names such as Chatani, Chulani, Tewani, Mahtani, Daswani, Vaswani and Chandiram have become synonymous with manufacturing, wholesale, retail and in-bond businesses providing employment for thousands of Jamaicans.

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Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured, every step of the way....

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world." - Ghandi

TRUE!!!............

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The Arrival Of The Chinese

THE BEGINNINGS

The story of the Chinese in Jamaica is linked to Panama and railways. In the mid-19th century, many Chinese looked west: to California, answering the call of the gold rush, and to Panama, where labourers were required for the building of a railroad from Panama City to Colon. Both options promised improvement in their lives and those of their children and led many Chinese to break the law and leave China prior to 1891, the year the Chinese Government officially allowed emigration. The first large group of 267 Chinese immigrants came from Hong Kong on July 30, 1854, just months before those from Panama, on a ship called Epsom. They were destined for indentureship. Later that year, 205 Chinese workers demanded to leave Panama fearing yellow fever. They arrived in Jamaica on November 1 and 18, on ships called the Vampire (195 people) and the Theresa Jane (10 people) respectively. Panamanian authorities sent them to nearby Jamaica solely due to its proximity and in exchange for Jamaican labourers. Many were already ill on arrival and were sent to hospital in Kingston where they eventually died. Less than 50 immigrants survived. Of these, one, Robert Jackson Chin (Chin Pa-kung), opened a wholesale house on downtown Kingston's Pechon Street (where the Desnoes and Geddes building now stands). In doing so he unknowingly paved the way for many of his countrymen. Two others, Chang Si-Pah and Lyn Sam opened grocery stores nearby. All three men provided guidance to successive batches of immigrants.


The Altar with the god, Kuang Gung, on the third floor of the original Chinese Benevolent Association building on Barry Street, Kingston. In the past, on Chinese New Year people would go there to pray for good fortune. Courtesy of the Patrick Lee. Taken by Mr Lee, 2002.

INDENTURESHIPS AND THE RISE OF THE CHINESE GROCERY

A decade later in the 1860s another set of Chinese arrived from Trinidad and British Guiana. There they had worked as indentured labourers in the canefields until hurricane and insects threatened their job security. Some 200 Chinese workers answered a call for three-year contract labourers in Jamaica to tend to the American-led large scale planting of coconuts, bananas and sugar. When their three-year contracts were up, some continued in the fields even though they were not welcomed with open arms by the newly emancipated slaves who saw them as competition. Others started small shops of their own where total weekly sales tended to amount to less than £8 on average. By this time, Chinese grocers were becoming known for extending credit to favoured customers, selling by barter, providing round-the-clock service and selling goods in small, affordable quantities. It is as a result of their importation activities that items such as rice, saltfish, saltmeats, flour and cornmeal became staples of the Jamaican diet.

A COMMUNITY GROWS

In the 1860s, a close-knit Jamaican-Chinese community began to emerge with many living above, behind or somewhere near to their shops. Downtown, a retail area became known as Chinatown. Two decades later, in the 1880s, another group of 680 immigrants arrived * this time directly from China. They had been recruited as farm labourers. There were 501 men, 105 women, 54 boys and 17 girls who docked in Kingston Harbour in 1884 after having survived a typhoon aboard the 67 day voyage. Upon arrival, they were claimed by the plantation owners who held their contracts and scattered across the island. Among this group was Chin Tung-Kao, who in 1891 would found the Chinese Benevolent Society to offer humanitarian and social aid as well as protect Chinese customs and preserve their ethnic identity, at 131 Barry Street in downtown Kingston.

Following 1885 large-scale immigration of Chinese labourers occurred in an attempt to satisfy the demand for field labour created by the departure of African-Jamaican and East Indian labourers from the plantations. This fourth wave of immigrants totalled close to 700. Some came without contracts and were thus able to choose their occupation, which was generally divided between farming and the retail grocery trade. These immigrants, like many of those who had come before, were not generally well-received by Jamaicans, and so they tended to stick together. There were continual racial slurs, some were held in Spanish town on arrival under armed guard until they were shipped out in mule carts to the various plantations.

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Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured, every step of the way....

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Ghandi

"Hate the sin and not the sinner is a precept which though easy enough to understand is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads in the world." - Ghandi

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Jamaica’s National Heroes dared to challenge the institution of colonialism and in so doing changed the course of Jamaica’s history giving social and political freedom to its people. Today, the statues of Jamaica’s seven National Heroes stand in proud acknowledgment, in the National Heroes Park in Kingston where they are viewed with inspiring pride, unforgettable symbols of Jamaica’s enduring strength.
PAUL BOGLE
birth date uncertain-died 1865.
Paul Bogle, a Baptist Deacon was generally regarded as a peaceful man who shunned violence. He believed in the teachings of the Bible, endorsing the principles of charity and endurance. Yet he was also a leader and organizer who knew well the terrains of the land and had spent time in educating and training his followers. He lived in St. Thomas and led the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865.

Attached Images

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