When I heard the news of Bassie’s passing, I was as shocked as everyone else by the nature of it and was doubly shocked when I saw his photograph because, until then, I thought I did not know him. He was indeed a quiet and well-beloved young man who loved music. A number of his work mates and friends have got together and decided to make contributions to the Anguilla Stingray Programme so that Bassie’s legacy can be continued with the children who are learning music in this community-based programme.

I am particularly touched because times are hard for everyone, and also because I did not know that these brethren appreciate what we are doing with Stingray. I am not even sure how such fund raising can be regulated but, while I have the opportunity, I want to big up Wayne (Porky) Hodge, Saga Brooks, Neville Carty, Kendon Connor, Rodney Gumbs, Miguel Alvarez and Bob Conrich for their contributions to this cause. Thank you for this gesture which lets us know that some of us do share the same vision for a better Anguilla and with the support of ones like you, we can provide positive options for youth engagement. I am sorry the children could not be there as a group to play a tune for Bassie’s farewell. This is not what I had planned to write about today but it is exactly the spirit that I think will ultimately create the Anguilla and the type of Anguillian who will again survive all odds and continue to thrive under adverse circumstances in a global village. Thanks to those who have given and to those of you who will give to Stingray in the name of Bassie.

There seems, however, to be another spirit at work in Anguilla and one that will surely lead us deeper into destruction and sadly in the name of religion. Last week I listened way beyond my bed time as a small group of Muslims, on Klass FM, tried to engage in a public education radio programme on Islam. Needless to say, despite the best intentions of the host, Haydn Hughes, the telephone callers mostly responded as if it were a debate, and some as if it were an attack, on Christianity. Tempers grew a little short at times but essentially the unintended debate ended as all religious debates do, with no resolution of issues made worse by the fact that some of the points being debated were to my mind non-issues. It was an interesting encounter but I am not a night person and was too tired to respond to the caller who wanted to know if Islam is like Rastafari. I wanted to ask what difference it made whether people’s religious beliefs were the same or different. When such matters get hot, everyone seems to forget the moral principles and common sense conveyed by our elders and ancestors, some of whom could not read either the Holy Bible or the Holy Qur’an. We forget that people existed and knew God before either of them was written. We forget that religion is about a personal relationship and, that like other relationships, must involve self-knowledge and a positive relationship with self. What I also wanted to comment on was the number of times for the night I heard the word “believe”.

While others believe this and believe that, Rastafari knows the divinity of each and every one. The Creator left nothing out in the creation of humanity. It is man in his rape and plunder of earth, who taught us to deny this aspect of self so that we could be good plantation slaves and good colonial subjects. Each one of us is created with that essence of Life which transcends individual flesh. Until we know this essence within ourselves we will always look outside of ourselves, whether in the sky or elsewhere for the solution to our problems. The Rastafari call is not a call for conversion from one faith to another. It is a call for each of I and I and I to look within, to find and tap into this power, this ultimate expression of the Creator manifested within and save ourselves. If we do not know this, we cannot do it and the colonial enterprise would be a complete success were it not for these pesky Rastafari people. Unfortunately, I and I and I are not immune to the wiles of Babylon and some Rastafari sons and daughters indulge in the same kind of self-righteousness that I am criticizing here. It means that even when we see God through our Ethiopian eyes, we become so busy worshipping that we forget to emulate those who share this Spirit of Power and fail to learn the true value and practice of respect for self and each other. Be that as it may, “…dem a go tired fi see wi face, can’t get we outta de race.”

Rastafari has connections with both the origins of Christianity and Islam and though I find it easy to embrace them both as family, neither of them can historically claim to have clean hands and pure hearts. However, I do not know how not to love my Christian brother or my Islamic sister because love is a requirement of humanity. I always wonder what it is that I am expected to do when encountering someone of a different faith. Am I supposed to love them less, keep my distance, refuse them water if they are thirsty or just privately think that I am a better person because I am Rastafari? The first thing that Rastafari learned to conquer was the fear, hence Bob Marley’s Duppy Conqueror. I could not be part of a religious tradition that makes me afraid and as far as I am concerned, if my faith does not liberate, then it enslaves. Been there, done that, not going there again. Having conquered the fear, we are then required to don the mantle of humility so that as a people alienated from our Motherland and our mother tongues, we will not alienate others with a “roast breadfruit” mentality. If you are more familiar with the oreo cookie, then think of that because that is status quo.

While the story Solomon and the Queen of the South and the story of how Christianity got to Ethiopia are partly told in the Holy Bible, the Islamic connection is not as well known. For that connection we have to look to Empress Menen, the wife of Haile Selassie I and a direct descendant of Abdullah bin Muhammed al-Bakir, 5th in descent from the Prophet Muhammad, down through her mother, Sehin, daughter of Negus Mikael (Muhammad Ali) of Wollo. Sure there were religious tensions through the ages but enlightened rulers such as Haile Selassie I put humanity first. In His address to the Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches meeting in Addis Ababa in 1965, He reminded the gathering that “…when several Christian peoples in the North became subservient to non-Christian powers, our country gladly provided asylum to thousands of Christian refugees. It had equally given asylum from religious persecution at an earlier date to the followers of the founder of Islam.” While the overly religious digest this, what more can I say but Heartically Yours will be with you again next week, In sha’ Allah.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News