On the eve of today's celebration of Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, resplendent in colourful robes befitting the royalty of the religion, promised the faith's leadership her support for the establishment of a secondary school for Shouter Baptist children.This was met with cheers and applause, as might be expected in the emotionally and spiritually charged circumstances of the event, and followed on what has now become a tradition by sitting governments– offering salutary gifts to the once fiercely ostracised community.
However, there is an existing gap between promise and delivery that the Prime Minister ought to deal with first. In March 2012, she opened the St Barbara's Shouter Baptist Primary School in Maloney. It was an occasion made memorable for another, unwelcome reason–a strong stench from nearby chicken farms.
While that irritation has been dealt with, there has been no word on the promised second phase of the school, due to be completed a year later, in early 2013, at a cost of $28 million. It promised to improve the curriculum of the institution by adding a music room and a playing field among other facilities. It promised to double the student body from 240 to 480. Citizens for a Better T&T welcomed the establishment of the school as a hallmark moment for the community, which it said would now have "a vital vehicle to further raise the self-esteem of young Baptists."
Today, spiritual Baptists celebrate the strides they have made in leaving behind a history in which their religion had been banned, derided and heavily policed to stamp out even acts such as bell ringing and wearing a white head tie. However, from the standpoint of the Baptist community, there are more hurdles to be cleared in bringing the faith more clearly into the mainstream. They see the government's support for creating schools as a welcome expression of its commitment in general, but think that more needs to be done–by both the state and the elders of their faith.
That includes documentation of their history, traditions, stories and religious practices in general, through the recording of oral histories of their past by their elders. It's also important, from the point of view of the Baptists, that the Trinidad and Tobago public understands the struggles of brave men and women who stood behind their beliefs.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar can point to equal opportunity treatment when it comes to the religions of Trinidad and Tobago, which, after all, offer up many of the same prayers in different forms. There was her government's multi-million dollar gift to Christian churches over Christmas.And, despite the unmet promises when it came to expanding the Shouter Baptist primary school, she can claim, with justification, that the secondary school won't be the first one that she has backed for the community.
The Prime Minister, who has listed herself as bi-religious in the Hindu and Baptist faiths, has played her part fully in the symbolism of the occasion, marking all her recent public appearances with magnificent displays of Baptist attire. For the elders of the faith, her government now needs to take the remaining, tangible steps towards raising their faith to equal standing with the other great religions practiced in the country.