Searchlight Logo
special_image

    • News
      • Front Page
      • News
      • Breaking News
      • Press Release
      • Features
      • Special Features
      • From the Courts
      • Sports
      • Regional / World
    • Opinions
      • Editorial
      • Our Readers’ Opinions
      • Bassy – Love Vine
      • Dr. Fraser- Point of View
      • R. Rose – Eye of the Needle
      • On Target
      • Dr Jozelle Miller
      • The World Around Us
      • Random Thoughts
    • Advice
      • Kitchen Corner
      • What’s on Fleek this week
      • Health Wise
      • Physician’s Weekly
      • Business Buzz
      • Hey Rosie!
      • Prime the pump
    • ePaper
    • Obituaries
      • In Memoriam / Acknowledgement
      • Tribute
    • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Letters To The Editor
      • General Contact Information
      • Contact our Webmaster
    • About Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Interactive Media Ltd
      • St. Vincent & the Grenadines
    • Subscribe
    • News
      • Front Page
      • News
      • Breaking News
      • Press Release
      • Features
      • Special Features
      • From the Courts
      • Sports
      • Regional / World
    • Opinions
      • Editorial
      • Our Readers’ Opinions
      • Bassy – Love Vine
      • Dr. Fraser- Point of View
      • R. Rose – Eye of the Needle
      • On Target
      • Dr Jozelle Miller
      • The World Around Us
      • Random Thoughts
    • Advice
      • Kitchen Corner
      • What’s on Fleek this week
      • Health Wise
      • Physician’s Weekly
      • Business Buzz
      • Hey Rosie!
      • Prime the pump
    • ePaper
    • Obituaries
      • In Memoriam / Acknowledgement
      • Tribute
    • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Letters To The Editor
      • General Contact Information
      • Contact our Webmaster
    • About Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Interactive Media Ltd
      • St. Vincent & the Grenadines
    • Subscribe
Round Table with Oscar
September 6, 2011

Emancipation 4

Emancipation is an act of God. That is how Christians faith sees it. Putting it a more strategic way, God has always been on the side of the poor, and the underclass. In other words, God represents good news to the poor.{{more}} Now all of this is nice ole talk, but when we face colonial slavery with the Christian God, was God on holiday during that time or even worse, was God a part of the slavery machine? That is what we have to ask.

Faith and Emancipation:  A believer’s view

Let us be clear. Those who established colonial slavery, who wiped out all but a few Caribbean people, who invented the plantation system to extort wealth and crush lives; those who built glowing cities, mansions, factories and fortunes out of Africa’s broken bodies and Caribbean agro industry, they were Christians. They had the Christian Church, the gospel and the Christian God on their side and even in their hands. Colonial slavery was a Christian institution from its beginning. In Britain, the king was the head of the Church and of slavery!

But while kings and ruling classes carry out their policies as if God is committed to their class and made in their image, there is another side to the story of God that throbs throughout Hebrew Christian Scripture. Look at a few high profile examples of the other God story.

In one account of the origins of the Hebrew people, God picks out or calls out a footloose migrant refugee clan in the shadow of Great empires for world mission. Gen 12:1-3, Deuteronomy 26:15

Then there is the underclass Egyptian rabble whose ease God takes up for them to be the basis of a people and nation. (Exodus 3). Don’t forget the young village girl who said “Ah hafu big up the Almighty which choose me, the Miriam ya…me heart a bus wid praise”. (Luke 1:48-55)

It was the Hebrew Christian God too whom the High Priests and temple leaders in Jerusalem represented, who had the ordinary, colonized Galileans and others take over the city streets in a critical challenge to the Temple coalition.

In the 1st Generation years of the Church in the New Testament, the Hebrew Christian God emancipated those believers who were not Hebrews, from taking Abraham as their ritual Father, although the Hebrew Church leaders-James, Peter and others were against emancipation. (Galatians 5:1-3).

Yes, God emancipates.

This verse has the metaphor and the message of slave faith:

When the cruel slaveship
retched me weak and bold
in the scorching canefield

I saw your face in the lonely cloud
 
And Damballah’s God raised his rod

and a plaque fell on
sugar and Africaribia’s children rose
that night over masa.

Today’s Christian church is not strong in emancipation faith. Still rooted in European and North American biblical views, we question God at our side. In a recent book which Adrian Fraser has released on our Spiritual Baptists, we need a community still bonded to colonial slavery, trying to imprison black faith. The signs of our calling, emancipating God in Christ Jesus are there for Faith to embrace. It came back to me recently from a “Global Highlights” programme dedicated to Philip Potter. How easily we miss God’s signs. For more than a decade this courageous apostle, an Afrocaribbean Pastor from Dominica, led an assembly of colonial Christian Churches to provide moral and material support to those people in Africa who were struggling for Independence and against Racism. Led by Apostle Philip Potter, the World Council of Churches stood side by side with PAIGC in Guinea Bissau, ANC in Namibia, ANC in South Africa, ZANU in Zimbabwe and many other sections of God’s poor people in Malaysia, Australia and elsewhere. It was God emancipator bringing colonial faith to its knees before Christ Jesus.

It is for us to say “The Right hand of God is why we sing Calypso”.

  • FacebookComments
  • ALSO IN THE NEWS
    Villa woman in  hospital after being stabbed over 20 times
    Front Page
    Villa woman in hospital after being stabbed over 20 times
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    Police are said to be carrying out investigations into the stabbing of Rafia Sardine, a 20-year-old female of Villa. Reports are that Sardine, a FLOW ...
    RSVGPF most hacked of gov’t agencies
    Front Page
    RSVGPF most hacked of gov’t agencies
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    In St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), an analysis has found that the most hacked government entity was the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Polic...
    Event staged locally to mark Africa/ Caricom Day
    Front Page
    Event staged locally to mark Africa/ Caricom Day
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    Leaders of Governments and institutions from countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the continent of Africa, gathered at the weekend for ...
    PM, proud of his constituents
    Front Page
    PM, proud of his constituents
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, is proud of the persons in his constituency who continue to aim for higher education. Dr Gonsalves is the parliame...
    Van conductor to be sentenced for beating pregnant ex-girlfriend
    Front Page
    Van conductor to be sentenced for beating pregnant ex-girlfriend
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    A van conductor, who beat his five- months pregnant ex-girlfriend after she refused to get back with him, has been remanded pending sentencing. Onez J...
    King selected again for the ULP in West St George
    News
    King selected again for the ULP in West St George
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    To the haunting timeless reggae melody of Jimmy Cliff’s classic ‘Journey’, Curtis King, who was selected as the candidate for the Unity Labour Party (...
    News
    King selected again for the ULP in West St George
    News
    King selected again for the ULP in West St George
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    To the haunting timeless reggae melody of Jimmy Cliff’s classic ‘Journey’, Curtis King, who was selected as the candidate for the Unity Labour Party (...
    Steel wielding Lowman’s Hill man to be sentenced tomorrow
    From the Courts, News
    Steel wielding Lowman’s Hill man to be sentenced tomorrow
    Webmaster 
    September 9, 2025
    A Lowman’s Hill man who struck another villager in his head with a piece of steel will know his fate tomorrow, September 10, 2025. Kevin Roberts, 25, ...
    Minister of Information Technology  emphasises the importance of Cybersecurity
    News
    Minister of Information Technology emphasises the importance of Cybersecurity
    Webmaster 
    September 5, 2025
    Robust cybersecurity must be at the heart of the digital transformation that is currently taking place in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) says Min...
    Entities team up to boost disaster communication capacity
    News
    Entities team up to boost disaster communication capacity
    Webmaster 
    September 5, 2025
    The Climate Change Resilience Network (CCRN) in collaboration with the Youlou Radio Movement (YRM) recently embarked on a disaster preparedness initia...
    Ministry of Health to get more dialysis machines
    News
    Ministry of Health to get more dialysis machines
    Webmaster 
    September 5, 2025
    The Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment, is to obtain three more Heamodialysis machines as part of the revolution in the healthcare secto...

    E-EDITION
    ePaper
    google_play
    app_store
    Subscribe Now
    • Interactive Media Ltd. • P.O. Box 152 • Kingstown • St. Vincent and the Grenadines • Phone: 784-456-1558 © Copyright Interactive Media Ltd.. All rights reserved.
    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok