Senator, Archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke
The Spiritual Shouter Baptist Faith and its observances were banned in this country for a period of 34 years from 1917 to 1951. The colonial government of the day passed a piece of legislation, The Shouters Prohibition Ordinance, on November 16, 1917.
The then Attorney General noted in his comments that: "Apparently the Shouters have had a somewhat stormy history from all I have been able to learn regarding them. They seem, if they did not arise there, to have flourished exceedingly in St. Vincent, and to have made themselves such an unmitigated nuisance that they had to be legislated out of existence. They then came to Trinidad and continued complaints have been received by the Government some time past as to their practices."
The legislative Council of St. Vincent had already passed such a prohibitive ordinance in 1912, and that of Trinidad some years later was closely modeled after it. The Ordinance prohibited a person from holding flowers or a lighted candle in their hands at a public meeting; ringing a bell or wearing a white headtie and any form of shaking of the body.
During the prohibition, the Shouter Baptists fled into the forests and hills to hold their services. Even here they were not protected. Sister Reyes Hypolite describes how the police came to their service in Sans Souci.
"When the police came, they said 'not a man move !' The police came in ordinary clothes and only two in uniform on the road, and she called out the window: 'Sister Lopez, police !' and one of them not in uniform arrest her and give her three charges: giving a house to keep a Shouters meeting, attending a Shouters meeting and disturbing the police on duty. They took 26 of us, they had to make two trips, carry us to Toco the Saturday night. They charge us and send us back and tell us to come up on Tuesday to attend court. They charged us with first offence, Ten shillings or 7 days in jail; the mother of the house $21 dollars for three offences and $14 for the second offence or 14 days in jail. Some of us pay and some did not and they went to jail. So, when they arrest me, I was living there, I went for my child because I can't leave the child alone, they rough me up and tell me 'get in the van !' One of the child aunt was there and she say 'go on, I will see about the child' and they take us up."
A woman relates how Elton Griffith having just come from Grenada "...where he didn't have anything to do with the Baptists, was walking in Prince St. and somebody was keeping a meeting, a gentleman, and he met the police arresting the man, and kicking down the bell, the lota and tyra and he stand and watch. Then he question the policeman who tells him that it's against the law. He said from that day, he took up that as his own and to work to free the Shouter Baptists."
The stated reasons for the Ordinance were that the Shouters made too much noise with their loud singing and bell ringing. There were complaints that they disturbed the peace. The expressive and emotional behavior of the worshippers which included dancing, shaking, falling to the ground was unseemly by more traditional elements in colonial Trinidad society.
The police had been persecuting Shouter Baptists for years prior to the Ordinance and had even lost a case to them in the courts. Thus the Ordinance was enacted because the colonial government of the time deferred to the complaints of property owners, taxpayers and the police. In addition, the established churches also thought that such practices were heathen and anti-Christian and they were increasingly alarmed at the number of worshippers leaving the established churches to join the Shouter Baptists. Underlying all of these reasons however was the idea that many of these practices derived from an uncivilized and barbaric African past. A cultivated Christian society therefore had no room for what were considered to be barbaric rituals. The shame associated with slavery and the so-called uncivilized African heritage of much of the population of Trinidad led many people at the time to try to ban the religion.
In General, the colonial ruling class of the time went to great lengths to suppress the culture and traditional religions of the non-white majority. For example, an even earlier Ordinance in 1869 cited any 'African' form of religion as Obeah or black magic, and practitioners were subject to imprisonment and flogging. Playing drums or any other musical instrument between the night hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. was made illegal and even bongo and drum dances could not be held without official permission. Although this Ordinance was withdrawn, the "music bill" of 1883 prohibited drum-playing of any kind.
That the dominant elite of the day were in favor of the banning is evidenced by an article in the Port-of-Spain Gazette on Oct 10, 1917. It stated that: "An ordinance has been introduced into the Legislative Council looking into the elimination of the pseudo-religious body known locally as "Shouters". This is a body that has mistaken noise for enthusiasm, and shouting for religion. It no doubt began in a conscientious way with a desire to worship God, but it has long since degenerated into a burlesque upon religion and a general nuisance to every community where it has squatted down and deceived the feeble-minded..."
Despite the banning Ordinance and the subsequent persecution of its adherents, the Shouter Baptist movement survived and flourished. Although their houses of worship were broken into, their public meetings crushed and their adherents jailed by the police, there forms of persecution and oppression merely strengthened the beliefs and faith of its members.
Throughout the many years of their prohibition, calypsonians sang about them. Although some of them actually recorded Shouter Baptist hymns and folk songs, some ridiculed and mocked the faith as did the Growling Tiger in a calypso called 'That is the Shouter' or 'Is This Religion'.
"We have the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Salvation
But what is a Shouter band ?
It if is a religion, do tell me please
I am tired with the nonsense, give me ease
But the Shouters is a husband, children and wife,
And they living miserable a corrupted life
If is that they call civilisation
It's a disgrace to my native life."
Throughout the twenties and thirties, the Shouters fought many court battles and tried to counter the general contempt with which the public held them. It was not until the arrival of Honorable Uriah Tubal Butler on the political scene that attitudes towards the Shouter Baptists began slowly to change.
Honorable Butler was himself a deeply religious man and closely tied to the Spiritual Baptist religion. His public meetings resembled those of a Baptist Gathering, using candle light, opening each meeting with a prayer or inviting a Baptist leader to do so. Butler's close ties with the religion began giving it some legitimacy. By the 1940s the Baptists entered the political arena primarily to fight for the repeal of the Ordinance banning their faith. Grenadian born Deacon Elton George Griffith led the fight (footnote 2).
Griffith, who was then a member of the Pentecostal Assembly, was motivated by several visions, in one of which he heard a voice saying "Elton Griffith, I am sending you to set my people free". Griffith was led to leave Grenada and migrate to Trinidad, where he shortly joined the Baptists.
((Footnote 1 - These stories are related in the video "Spirit Water Deep", shown on Trinidad and Tobago Television in March 1998.))
((Footnote 2 - Cited in Gordon Rohlehr, Calypso and Society in pre-Independence Trinidad 1990. p 157))
3. The Repeal of the Ordinance
By the 1940s the campaign to repeal the Ordinance against the practice of the Shouter Spiritual Baptism gained momentum. In the first place, the many independent Baptist churches organised themselves into the West Indian Evangelical Spiritual Faith led by Deacon Griffith and presented a petition to the Legislative Council in 1940 asking for the repeal of the Ordinance. In part, this remarkable petition read:
"We as African descendants crave indulgence of the Honorable Legislative Councillors to use their good office by assisting us to modify or repeal the 'Shouters Ordinance'. We consider that this form of religion or sect, is our ancestral heritage. Owing to this Prohibition Act of Shouters Chapter 4 no. 19 has affected thirty thousand (30,000) members of our faith."
A few years later, The Honorable Albert Gomes, a then member of the Legislative Council, appealed to the Council to appoint a Select Committee to inquire into the repeal of the Ordinance of 1917.
A committee was formed but it took several years to release its findings, which were to recommend the repeal of the Ordinance against the Shouters. Deacon Griffith and his followers in the meantime led and actively lobbied the members of the Legislative Council, which had undergone many changes and now had members who were more representative of the population at large.
Several of its members had close and intensive relationships with the Shouter Baptist Church. These included Honorable Albert Gomes, Honorable Uriah Butler, Honorable Raymond Quevedo (the calypsonian, Attila the Hun), the Honorable Sinanan brothers and the Honorable Audrey Jeffers. Albert Gomes' constituency contained many Baptists whose votes he courted, and because he was such a prominent supporter of the cause, he was appointed to head the Select Committee. The debate in the Legislative Council was led by Albert Gomes and supported by several prominent members of Council, and the bill to repeal the Ordinance was passed on March 30th, 1951. A jubilant Archbishop Elton George Griffith was carried out of the Legislative Council chamber on the supporters to Woodford Square, where he led a Thanksgiving celebration.
The struggles of the Spiritual Shouter Baptists to achieve their victory has been aptly described as a struggle of indigenous people against foreign rulers" (footnote 3).
((Footnote 3 - Honorable Senator Martin Daly S.C., Senate debate, cited in Sunday Express, March 29)).
Rituals, Beliefs and Practices
The Spiritual Shouter Baptists believe that their religion derives from the biblical John the Baptist and their name comes from the practice of immersing believers in water as a means of baptising of initiating them into their faith.
Mourning, bell ringing, visits from the Holy Spirit and a distinctive form of shouting as a means of expression, baptism, proving and mourning, the phenomenon of the possession by the Holy Spirit, the physician manifestation of possession in the shaking, dancing, speaking in tongues, and bringing back of spiritual gifts are also practices of the religion.
The religion has a complex series of ranked positions. These can be as many as twenty-two named ranks, although the smaller churches recognise fewer of these. The commonly found ranks are those of Leaders, Mother, Shepherd, Pointer, Nurse, Prover, Captain and Teacher. The duties that are privileges of these positions vary somewhat, but the first two indicate the highest-ranking male and female members. These positions of the faith are made known to an individual during the process of 'mourning', the most important of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist rituals.
These descriptions are drawn from J. Houk, "Spirits, Blood, and Drums", Temple University Press 1995; S. Glazier, "New World African Ritual: Genuine and Spurious" in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Dec. 1996.
The mourning ritual involves a period of three to seven of more days where the initiates are placed upon an earthen ground where they lie, sit or kneel, their eyes are covered and they are given minimal food and water. Members of the church, usually the Pointer, officiate at the mourning while the Nurse takes care of the physical needs of the initiate
During the mourning, the initiate 'travels' spiritually to different places, receives spiritual instruction through visions and dreams and is told what position in the hierarchy he or she is to occupy. When the Leader decides that the time is up, usually during a Sunday service, the persons are brought back into the church, and share their experiences with the congregation. From the perspective of the belief system, 'mourning' involves symbolic death and resurrection in that those mourners shed their impure beings. In psycho-biological terms, the rite of 'mourning' actually involves a period of intense physical sensory deprivation as the initiate is deprived of light and movement and receives minimal sustenance.
Some scholars allege that the ritual can be traced to the rites of some African tribal groups when they initiate their new members. They argue that traits such as fasting, not eating salt, a new name and the colour symbolism of the bands covering the eyes of the initiates suggest African derivation. Others claim that it originates in the Book of Daniel, which states that Daniel mourned for three weeks. In either event, the ritual is the central rite of the Shouter Baptist Faith in Trinidad and in all areas of the Caribbean and the Southern United States where this religion is practiced.
Services are typically held on Sundays and are opened by the Leader or Mother of the church by the ringing of the brass bell. Candles are also lit, and water and aromatic oils, as well as sometimes peas, rice and flour are dropped at the four corners of the altar. A liturgy is then recited followed by hymn singing accompanied by ritual handshaking and the touching of everyone gathered. The Leader delivers a sermon, followed by more singing and praying. Throughout the service, worshippers clap hands, tap their feet, and shout out praises to the Lord. Visits by the Holy Spirit upon worshippers may happen anytime during the service. A person will begin to sway, hold his or her head, shout, speak in tongues, shake and eventually fall to the ground in a state of trance.
Other rituals of the faith include baptism wherein a church leader who is then recognised as a spiritual father or mother to the initiate, immerses a person in water at least three times. In fact, membership in the Baptist faith involves the creation of a new 'family' bound together by common membership. Initiates become the 'children' of the leaders who have baptised them, but also brothers and sisters to the persons baptised with them. Other practices include a feast called 'Thanksgiving' held annually or at special occasions. This rite is normally undertaken for the children of the community and involves the distribution of special foods. Prayer, the singing of hymns and sermonizing accompany it.
The Religion Today
Despite its despised position of earlier years,Spiritual Baptism today has been given an important new status by the granting of an annual holiday. The United National Congress had promised in its campaign to grant a holiday to the Shouter Baptists, which the prior government had been reluctant to do. Upon assuming office in 1995, the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Basddeo Panday granted the holiday to be held on March 30, the date of the repeal of the Prohibitive Ordinance against the Shouters. In addition to their newly legitimated status, the Shouter Baptists along with two Orisa groups were also granted 25 acres of land in Maloney to be shared among them. Plans to use the land include the building of a Shouter Baptist Primary School and the construction of a Spiritual Park; several other ideas are being examined.
Both religions today are vibrant manifestations of the deep religiosity characteristic of Trinidad and Tobagonian society. They are especially attractive to younger members who are interested in relating to their African heritage. Even Shouter Baptism, although largely Christian in its main focus on Jesus Christ as the Savior and its deep belief in the living reality of the Holy Trinity, nevertheless contains elements clearly derived from an earlier origin in Africa. Both contain elements of the African Yoruba religion, but Orisa has maintained more of these than have the Shouter Baptist. The most important of these is the belief in Spirit possession in which the Orisa or African deities take over or possess the body of the worshipper.
Similarly, Spiritual Shouter Baptists believe in a form of trance brought about by the entry of the Holy Spirit into the body of the adherent. In trance or possession, worshippers act according to the wishes of the spirit who has entered their bodies. In addition, Spiritual Shouter Baptists believe in an overt emotional form of worship, which is also thought to be African in origin.
Despite some similarities in ritual and observance, the relationship between the two religions of Shouter Baptists and Orisa is ambiguous. There is some overlap between Spiritual Shouter Baptist and the Orisa worship in Trinidad. Some members practice both religions, and some Baptist leaders also hold Orisa ceremonies. Other members, however, vehemently deny that there is any relation between the two. Both religions are, however, very active in Trinidad and Tobago today.
Although it is difficult to ascertain their membership, estimates of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist faith range anywhere from about 11,000 to more than 100,000. The numerical strength of the group is complicated by the patterns of religious behavior in this country.
Persons may say they 'belong' to as many as four or five different religions, because they attend several churches and services. One common expression describing this form of religious behavior is that 'The more roads to Heaven one takes, the better'.
We the Spiritual Shouter Baptists are different from all other Baptists. Firstly, we plant flags into the earth symbolising different passages of the Bible, for example: the second book of Moses second Chapter of Exodus second Verse to the fourth Verse reads as follows: "When she could no longer hide him, she took for him An Ark of Bulrushes, and daubing it with slime and with pitch and putting the child therein; and she laid it on the flags by the river brink."
We use coloured uniforms, according to our gifts in the spirit, teachers, provers, surveyors, etcetera. The other groups do not use colours, except maybe one or two members of their faith. Very high-ranking Mothers will use the colours blue or brown; whereas all our faithful use colours.
The other groups wear white dresses and veils predominately. Spiritual Shouter Baptists use a red gown, plaid gown, or rainbow colours, just to name a few and we use wrapped headgear.
The Spiritual Shouter Baptist Elders have a private room in their churches or sometimes a separate room, which we enter into to do solemn fasting, singing or praying. Elders of the faith read the Bible and preach the gospel to pilgrims. There we go off into the spiritual realm within the cosmic. By this time our bodies are here and we transcend into spiritual travel. Out of this exercise come our spiritual gifts and the beholding of our spiritual face. There we are set apart from the things of the world.
There are churches with drums, which they beat during the services. Our drums send and receive messaged. We also chant hymns. The churches are built with centre poles bearing a wheel on which candles are placed. While the services are in progress we spin the wheel. These are calabashes in our rituals, bearing flowers together with a lit candle. The other groups, if they do carry a calabash, will keep it in their fasting room.
We have women as Ministers of Religion, officiating in our churches; in the other groups women cannot become Bishops, furthermore they can never be elevated to Archbishop. Women are debarred from holding certain offices 'in the clergy'.
Spiritual Shouter Baptists are a unique set of people.
The other groups I am speaking about are The London Baptists, Hockett Baptists, West Indian Sacred Order Spiritual Baptists and the Umbrella Group by the name National Congress of Spiritual Baptists of Trinidad and Tobago.
In Jesus' Almighty Name they are all different to the Spiritual Shouter faith of Trinidad and Tobago.
