In our interview in 2013, Bishop Peters of Mount Union Spiritual Baptist church insisted that ‘Spiritual Baptists in Grenada have no say’. The bishop contrasted Grenada’s African-inspired religious landscape with the freedom of worship that exists in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago.Footnote 1 Grenada’s political climate is starkly distinct from its neighbour Trinidad and Tobago: it is shaped in no small part by Grenadians, Uriah Butler and Elder Griffith, who laid the path for a tolerant environment for Spiritual Baptist and Orisa traditions. The repressive Spiritual Baptist legislation there was overturned in 1951, and the Black Power Movement in the 1960s significantly enhanced the visibility of the Spiritual Baptist Faith, attracting African-descended Christians to the Yoruba-Orisa nation.Footnote 2 By the 1970s, Orisa had become visible in civic life and its ‘custodians partnered with or doubled as Spiritual Baptists’ to lend ‘ritual reinforcement and spiritual sanction to the movement for black social justice’.Footnote 3 The anthropologist Frances Henry similarly described how Spiritual Baptist and Orisa devotees emerged from an ‘underground and almost secret forms of worship to overt, large-scale public celebrations of their religion’.Footnote 4
In addition to the repeal of Trinidad’s Shouter Prohibition Ordinance in 1951, two major Orisa organisations were registered and incorporated into acts of parliament in 1981 and 1991, respectively. These legislations provided Orisa shrines with protection and state sponsorship, and assistance to worshippers in their mission to continue Orisa practices by drawing on the expertise of Africa and its diaspora. Orisa followers were given a public festival day in 1995, and the Spiritual Baptists were given a national holiday on 30 March 1996. Later that decade, the Orisa Marriage Act was passed, allowing Trinidadians and Tobagonians to celebrate marriage following Orisa rites; in 2002, the first Orisa wedding ceremony was held. In 2000, both Spiritual Baptists and Orisa adherents were granted twenty-five acres of land, shared among the various groups. The same year, the 1868 Obeah Prohibition Ordinance was repealed, thanks to the activism of Spiritual Baptist and Orisa workers. Furthermore, Orisa was recognised as an official religion when it was first included in the country’s census in 2011. Trinidad and Tobago’s Orisa community have collaborated with several leading spiritual groups and leaders around the world. The Ooni of Ife, Nigeria paid a visit to Trinidad and Tobago in 1988. Trinidad and Tobago played an active role in the International Congress of Orisa Tradition and Culture, and in 1987, hosted the third World Conference on Orisa Traditions and Culture (the second conference was held in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, in 1983). Additionally, a prominent Orisa group hosted the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, on the island in 1995. The Dalai Lama visited Orisa sites and met with Orisa audiences from Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria during his stay. Trinidadian and Tobagonian groups have also collaborated on events and ceremonies with the neo-Yoruba Oyotunji Village, founded in South Carolina in the 1970s.Footnote 5
Trinidad and Tobago’s support of Orisa worship and the Spiritual Baptist Faith signals substantial success in securing national and global acknowledgement – in stark contrast to their Grenadian neighbours. Why is the situation so different in Grenada? Trinidadian and Tobagonian politicians vied for the votes of religious communities, appeared at public events hosted by practitioners, incorporated followers into their political campaigns, and pledged and or granted land, holidays, and other forms of recognition and legitimacy.Footnote 6 Grenada experienced a similar, but thwarted effort. There, like the Grenadian-born trade unionist Uriah Butler in Trinidad and Tobago, trade unionist and emerging nationalist Eric Gairy (1922–97) sought to end the subjugation and spiritual oppression of the Black masses. Later in 1988, he would declare his interest in ‘spiritualism, the occult, voodoo and a similar African religion called Shango’.Footnote 7
As leader of the newly formed Grenada Manual and Mental Workers’ Union, Gairy led the marginalised and disaffected peasantry in a struggle against the British plantocracy from 1950.Footnote 8 Gairy commenced his meetings in the style associated with Spiritual Baptist sermons: worshipping with practitioners, and incorporating African work imagery and devotees into his movement.Footnote 9 The healer Norman Paul became Gairy’s spiritual guide.Footnote 10 Gairy enlisted other African work leaders as campaign chaplains to garner popular support for his party.Footnote 11 Christine McQueen recollected that she and other African work leaders attended meetings where they conducted drumming and dancing to support ‘Uncle Gairy’, as he was affectionately called.Footnote 12 One of Gairy’s promises was to confer freedom of worship on Spiritual Baptists and similarly marginalised groups. He had invited the various Spiritual Baptist groups to the south of the island to True Blue, St George, and attempted to unite them under the umbrella of the Grenada United Baptist Religion.Footnote 13 Bishop Andrew recounted Gairy’s pledge to give government land at True Blue to the Spiritual Baptists, along with money to build a cathedral there.Footnote 14 Gairy’s promise should be viewed in the context of the worsening socio-economic conditions on Grenada. Gairy became the first leader of an independent Grenada in 1974. High unemployment and the violent repression of opposition movements by his government alienated large sections of the population, particularly the working class. Seeking to garner their support, Gairy performed several religious gestures: he proclaimed days of public prayer and erected Christian symbols in strategic locations across the island.Footnote 15 David Franklyn argued that Gairy ‘manipulated the religiosity’ of the Grenadian people, including followers of African-derived religions, for political gain.Footnote 16
Gairy’s efforts to manipulate the people – if the accusations are true – could not overcome the people’s disaffection; in 1979, Gairy and his government were overthrown by the main opposition movement, which went on to establish the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG). Under the leadership of Maurice Bishop, the PRG ruled until the US invasion in 1983. For Spiritual Baptists, the abrupt and bloodless revolution disrupted their plans for wider recognition. The money to purchase land and erect a cathedral was in the treasury, but the change of government meant that the Spiritual Baptists could not access those funds.Footnote 17 Had their plans for their own land on which to build their own cathedral come to fruition, those visible symbols of broad acceptance would have undoubtedly represented a major victory for Spiritual Baptists and African work devotees and greatly boosted their struggle for political recognition and legitimacy.Footnote 18
Out of government, Gairy was accused by revolutionary forces of practising obeah, and African-derived traditions were shunned.Footnote 19 Because African work and obeah were seen as synonymous and thought to have helped secure Gairy his seat in power, both were considered as threats to the new regime.Footnote 20 As a result, African work, obeah, and the Rastafari movement were marginalised as Bishop’s government attempted to suppress ‘potential folk dissent’.Footnote 21 Although the Revolution was inspired by Trinidad and Tobago’s Black Power Movement and itself had possessed a ‘Black conscious’ element, the Grenadian Revolution failed to lead to equality for African-inspired groups.Footnote 22
Bishop Andrew of Mount Union Spiritual Baptist church recalled that period as one immensely challenging for Spiritual Baptist and African work devotees.Footnote 23 Religious persons and others who were considered threats to the new regime were regularly rounded up and imprisoned, and at times, ‘whole families’ were incarcerated. In total, 3,112 persons were imprisoned.Footnote 24 Curfews were imposed, which meant cultural and spiritual workers who travelled around the island to conduct and attend ceremonies were restricted in their movement. Bishop Andrew noted that they could no longer conduct ‘work [ceremonies] during the nights’.Footnote 25 Gloria Payne-Banfield, who served as cabinet secretary under Gairy, stated that as a result, African work ‘went underground during the Revolution’.Footnote 26
To further understand the difference between the Trinidadian and Grenadian legitimation movements, the ethnic and religious diversity of both islands must also be considered: people of South Asian heritage represent 35.4 per cent of Trinidadians and Tobagonians, compared with 2.2 per cent for Grenada. Notably, a quarter of Trinidadians and Tobagonians identify their religion as Hindu, Muslim, or Orisa, and the country’s national holidays celebrate these multicultural realities and diverse religious affiliations, which leads to a more ‘harmonized vision of citizenship’ in which all those religions are integrated into mainstream civil society and their adherents are granted religious freedom.Footnote 27
Gairy observed the role of both traditions in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago’s independence movement, and similarly incorporated African work and the Spiritual Baptist Faith into his political strategy, albeit with different outcomes. Independence from the colonial legacy of religious stigmatisation and oppression was far from realised in Grenada, where devotees were unable to secure legitimation and full recognition. It is clear that the recreation of Yoruba-based religious traditions must be seen as part of an ongoing process of change and cross-fertilisation, one which is incomplete and uneven.
Reviving Egungun in the Twenty-First Century
In the twenty-first century, the prestige of Yoruba spirituality continues to be imported from Trinidad and Tobago by Grenadian returnees. In 2018, Universal Empress Iya Ifatokie (also known as Bishop Yvonne Drakes), a Spiritual Baptist, Orisa practitioner, and leader of a cultural collective, The Shrine of the Seven Wonders of Africa Inc., introduced the Ifa Festival to Grenada. Just two years earlier, Universal Empress Ifatokie had been initiated into Ifa in Nigeria, which increased the reputation of her practice.Footnote 28 The Universal Empress is a Grenadian returnee from Trinidad and Canada; her great-grandmother was an Orisa practitioner who was trafficked to Grenada during enslavement. The unyielding desire of organisers of the Ifa festival is to revive the ‘pure’ form of the Yoruba culture in Grenada, which they declared had ‘lost its original rites and precepts’.Footnote 29 The following year, the festival was held again, over a period of three days, and supported by spiritual leaders from Nigeria who worked with Trinidadians to offer various rites and ceremonies.Footnote 30 In 2023, American, Canadian, and Trinidadian delegates, including those of Grenadian descent, once again travelled to Grenada. The following year, American delegates delivered ‘Ifa 101’, a series of educational workshops explaining Ifa and its divination system, which are absent in the Grenadian pantheon.Footnote 31
In 2023, the organisers restored a long-lost egungun ritual last observed in mid-twentieth-century Munich that was recorded by Norman Paul (Figure E.1). The egungun parade was facilitated by one Araba Ifakolade Atinumo of Lagos, Nigeria, who lent his ritual expertise. As in Yorubaland, the identity of the newly initiated egungun was concealed because egungun represents spirits of departed ancestors. The 2023 newspaper article revealed that the initiate was born in North America to Grenadian and Trinidadian parents and their upbring was ‘rooted’ in Islam and the Spiritual Baptist religion. The initiate declared:
I hope to attend every Ifa festival in Grenada going forward. I will assist in growing this African tradition wherever it connects with people … I recently found out I have Yoruba ancestry through my mother, who is Grenadian, so it is no surprise I was called back to my roots. Ifa is not a religion, more a way of life, more connected with nature and our ancestors, a better understanding of who you are. I hope to see many more Grenadians returning to their roots and finding clarity to some of the questions of life.Footnote 32
That the initiate stressed his newly discovered Yoruba ancestry – who he identified as ‘Ijesha’ at the 2024 event – through his Grenadian mother, emphatically underscores how Yoruba-based customs in Grenada are situated within multi-generational, local, transregional, and transatlantic genealogies. The Ifa Festival and African work represent a confluence of the legacies of liberated Yoruba in Grenada and the movement of peoples and ideas around the Eastern Caribbean Sea and across the Atlantic.
Figure E.1 The Egungun parade at the 2024 Ifa Festival.
Egungun masquerade, Araba Ifakolade Atinumo of Nigeria (rear), Universal Empress Iya Ifatokie (front left), Iya Alison (center), and a second egungun figure.
Figure E.1 long description.
Figure E.1Long description
Group of individuals in traditional attire at the 2024 Ifa Festival. Araba Ifakolade Atinumo of Nigeria stands at the rear, Universal Empress Ifatokie in front left, Iya Alison in center, and a second Egungun masquerade figure to the right.
It may be instructive to ask: did the original singers of ‘Yoruba people are on an island’, mentioned in the introduction to this book, envision their new surroundings as part of the vast Atlantic Ocean region, or did they understand themselves as inhabiting a distinct part of the Atlantic?Footnote 33 To put it differently, what physical spaces did recaptured Africans and their spiritual and biological descendants actively engage with? On arrival on Grenada, some liberated Africans discovered that they shared ethno-linguistic similarities with other Africans, particularly Yoruba and West Central Africans. They organised independent communities around those similarities, practising Yoruba-derived and other cultures of African origin. Recaptured Africans also reinvigorated local cultures established during slavery, such as the Nation Dance, and combined their African languages with French Creole and drew from Roman Catholicism.
The Atlantic Ocean, which poses a formidable barrier to an African return, features prominently in oral narratives by descendants of recaptives whose ancestors yearned for their homelands. Revealingly, such yearnings are embedded in African work and saraka rituals on Grenada. Further, recaptive Africans engaged with ideas that originated across the Atlantic: Orisa veneration and esoteric literature emerged in the South and North Atlantic, respectively. Yet these components were also introduced to Grenada and strengthened through sustained contact with Trinidad and Tobago, thus magnifying the significance of social and cultural networks within the Eastern Caribbean. Inter-island dialogue between Grenada and its neighbour Trinidad and Tobago underpins the religious worlds of Grenada devotees.
Grenadian African work adherents are largely isolated from direct participation in larger Black Atlantic religious networks with Orisa communities in West Africa, Brazil, and the United States. The Ifa Festival offers recent examples of engagement with West Africa, albeit via Grenadian returnees and other transnational delegates. An Atlantic history perspective – a single, coherent unit of investigation – does not fully represent how African-descended peoples in Grenada rethought and exchanged their cultural and political ideas. Such a perspective flattens the Atlantic space, failing to consider the relevance of distinct spheres or subsections of the larger Atlantic oceanic space. As the historian David Armitage usefully pointed out, smaller seas possess their own ‘infra-Atlantic histories before trans-Atlantic contact and their inhabitants would continue to live such histories even when they became more deeply implicated in an emergent Atlantic world’.Footnote 34 As it had been for their Indigenous predecessors, the Eastern Caribbean Sea was meaningful to post-slavery arrivals and figured prominently in their diasporic imaginary. By visiting loved ones, searching for better wages, trading in provisions and animals, and engaging with new spiritual and political ideas, indentured workers, their descendants, and African work devotees actively participated and shaped commercial, cultural, and political currents in the Eastern Caribbean.
Refocusing attention from islands to archipelago, island studies scholars ‘un-island’ histories and ideas, conceptualising island spaces and cultural traditions such as African work as ‘mutually constituted, co-constructed, and inter-related’.Footnote 35 Grenadian and Trinidadian and Tobagonian cultural custodians interacted with Yoruba-based cultures in their respective territories, and in doing so, shaped cultural and political expressions in both islands. African work also made an impact on nearby Carriacou through inter-island migration, where, African work specialists were required for functions, and elements of African work were incorporated into the Nation Dance. Vincentian Spiritual Baptist adherents carried their faith to Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago, and the Trinidad and Tobago variation made its way to Grenada. In this way, St Vincent, Carriacou, mainland Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago are inextricably related, each functioning as key nodes in the African-derived religious networks of the region.
