I write with a deep sense of concern at the seeming absence of any Ifa/Orisa representation at the recently held National Day of Prayer. The road to recognition and visibility for this spirituality clearly has a long way to go. Let us not forget that African spirituality was deliberately targeted for demonisation in the process of the dehumanisation of the African during enslavement and colonialism.
Some strides were made by dismantling the legal shackles wound tightly around this ancient belief system; targeted indeed, since it was the single most important element in the relentlessly fought battle for Emancipation. Most of this unshackling came in the regime of Basdeo Panday (1995-2001).
These included: the removal of the anti-obeah legislation of 1868, the removal of the ban on African drumming (1884) that came as a result of the African struggle for Carnival (1881), the Orisa Marriage Act of 1999.
During this period, despite much protest from the Christian churches, Ifa/Orisa spirituality was finally added to the Table of Precedence and admitted to the IRO with the strong support of the Maha Sabha. I would, consequently, have expected to see some measure of representation at a National Day of Prayer. Let me say that the Baptist religion is not Ifa/Orisa and cannot represent the Ifa/Orisa community.
The reality is, however, that much discrimination against this spirituality still exists. In some schools, our children are told to get rid of the ide that signifies initiation. Not unrelated is the fact that in some schools and workplaces, natural hair is frowned upon.
This society must move to bring into reality the line in its National Anthem that claims “every creed and race find an equal place”. Ifa/Orisa spirituality must be represented at all national events where religious leaders are invited to speak, to pray.
To the present Ifa/Orisa members of the IRO, I remind you that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. These hard-fought gains are critical to the sense of self of all African people; and consequently, to the entire national fabric.
We must not see this as a simple lapse. We must see it in the context of the lack of monuments, of recognition, of visibility of our African heroes and heroines. We must see it in the widespread lack of sense of self of many of our African youth. We must see it in the widespread crime manifesting amongst our African youth.
Let us recognise that no amount of policing will have any effect.
We must see it in the poor scholastic results of the schools in our communities.
As we move the journey of recognition for the African from Emancipation to reparation, we are at a point where there is no functioning reparations committee. In this regard, we lag, pitifully, way behind our Barbadian and Jamaican colleagues.
May our Imale, our Orisa, our ancestors continue to give us the strength to continue to speak out against any seemingly discriminatory practice that rears its head, lurking ominously after all these centuries.
Eintou Pearl Springer
San Juan
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