"This Spot of Ground" Migration, Community, and Identity Among

by Carol B. Duncan entries as an integral part of this paper embrace African elements of wor- acknowledges, and includes as a part ship, in particular orriha "work." of my approach, the fact that, as a It became apparent, as I interviewed L hutcure dc cet artick analyJc Le researcher, I am not external to the Spiritual Baptist Church members in syncrktisme cntrc L2?gfisc baptiste events that I witnessed and experi- Toronto and attended church serv- spirituefk et k Shango. Ehmaminc, enced. By including journal entries, I ices and ceremonies at two churches, mtrc autres, la sig- am attempting critically to reflect on that there were elements of Orisha Some members nifiation du con- the boundaries of the research proc- religion incorporated into worship. cmtrchez-soiw' I bOUr ess as both subject and researcher Some members were comfortable saw their inclusion ks immipantes- et whose own autobiography is shaped with these practices while others a 200 mix-up, immigrantsdc Tri- by the history and culture of which I claimed no allegiance to them. Some >> nidzdqui viventau am writing (Clifford). My multiple members saw their inclusion as "too mix-up, a state Cadct qui re- and sometimes conflictual position- mix-up, mix-up," a Patois term refer- of confision. tournent dam kur ing as researcher and, relative to the ring to astate ofconfusion. However, pays pour prmdre life experiences of church elders, it was precisely the "mix up, mix up" part aux deux young woman as well as the fact that contradictory nature of this relation- systknes rcliginus. I am not a practitioner of either reli- ship on which I focussed as a site of gion, affected my research experi- multiple identity and community August 18,1995 ences and the questions which gave formations. them form. Thus my own experi- In the context of contemporary It's l 1:46p.m. I'm seated in seat ences of the university, being "away immigration to Canada, what, then, 19~ofa Boeingjet on Air Canaria from home," living in Toronto since would it mean for African-Caribbean Flight 964 on my way to Port of childhood as an immigrant black immigrants who are practitioners of Spain, Trinidzd. I'm actually woman ofAfrican-Caribbean descent, the Spiritual Baptist faith to return waitingfor the plane to take 08 and "going home" guided my con- "home" to Trinidad? "Home" for It? been an extremely hectic week tinually open answers as a participant many such people in Toronto is a prcparingfor this trip. lin tired, on this journey. repository of dual experiences of eco- excited, andexhilarated. ZjeL Like Both the Orisha religion and the nomic hardship, which prompted Avey Johnson in Praisesong for Spiritual Baptist Church, emerging emigration, and a greater sense of the Widow-+ middle-chs black as spiritual expressions of African self-acceptance and belonging woman making a voyage of dis- people during enslavement and colo- through everyday life experiences, covny of the self:Somehow sitting nialism, drew on denominational such as being in closer touch with here on the plane seems a Littlc Christianity and West African reli- relatives and having- a network of unreal... And now .. . the jour- gious practices and spiritual beliefs, community-based relationships. I ney begins, or is that really contin- particularly Yoruban and Catholic wondered how these two seemingly ues? A continuation of a voyage ones. They also incorporate elements contradictory points of reference, which began 400 years ago. from Hindu, Protestant, and hardship, on the one hand, and a Kabbalah religious traditions (Houk source of regeneration, on the other, This excerpt from my personal jour- xii). Both religious forms were im- affected their consciousness and ex- nal from a research trip to Trinidad in portant aspects ofpsychic survival for perience of life in Toronto and the August and early September 1995 African-Caribbean people. The Spir- return to "home." points to the two key themes of this itual Baptist Church can be consid- "Home" is visited physically via paper: first, journeying and the re- ered a form ofAfricanizedNew World Air Canada, but it is also a spiritual turn "home" in the context of immi- Christianity, while the Orisha reli- place accessed through the ground in gration and diasporic African con- gion can be considered a New World the mourning room,l in trance, in sciousness, and second, the blending African religion. However, given the visions and dreams, and in the vibra- of two syncretic African-Caribbean syncretism which characterized the tions of the human voice raised in religious forms, the Spiritual Baptist formation of the Spiritual Baptist song, the clap ofhands, and the move- Church and the Orisha religion, of- Church this classification is called ment or the "shout" of barefeet ten referred to as "Shango" by church into question by the practices and "tramping" or rhythmically moving members. My inclusion of journal beliefs ofsome Spiritual Baptists who on the gound. It is the place of

32 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME Spiritual Baptists in Toronto

African ancestors, the "long time" In doing this research, I employed Bishop of a Spiritual Baptist Church people, according to Mother Ruby, a conversational interviews with church in Toronto. Mother Yvonne invited Queen Mother in Trinidad. A Queen elders and Shango leaders, attend- me because she thought that I should Mother, the female spiritual head of ance at church services, and prepara- experienceand observe what she called a Spiritual Baptist Church, may lead tion for, and attendance at, an Orisha "another side of the faith, the African a congregation on her own, or with a feast. I refer to this procedureas "tryin' work, root work," in order to deepen male leader called my hand." This expression, used by my understanding of her practice of Bishop or Leader. Mother Ruby and my own Antiguan the Spiritual Baptist faith. She was The Queen Mother The position of grandmother, refers to an approach returning to Trinidad to "close off' haancestral ties to Queen Mother which incorporates both past knowl- the Shango yard or chapelk of an West Afiiccan politicai has ance~ralties edge and experience and yet is open older deceased female relative, in ef- to West African to the newness of the current experi- fect, to desanctifythe ground because and spirirml leadership oolitical and soir- 1 ence and all of the challenges that it Mother Yvonne's spiritual "work" roles of women. itual leadership may hold. there had finished and would now roles of women. My research is informed by a con- move to another ground. sideration of race, class, genderlsex, My referring in my first journal "Tryin' my hand": concerning and spirituality as elements in iden- entry to the character Avey Johnson race, class, genderlsex, spiritual- tity and community formation in the in Paule Marshall's Praisesongfor the ity, and identity context of Caribbean immigration to Widow resonates with the novel's cen- Canada. I sought theories and re- tral metaphor of journeying. Avey search methods which would be au- Johnson's journey of "spiritual thentic to the Spiritual Baptist Church reintegration" (Pettis 1) is symbolic I am sitting on the galkty with and the lives of immigrant, working- of the trip to Trinidad in many ways. Mother Ruby. The neighbour? ra- class black Caribbean women in or- In the preparation for and conduct- dio is playing "No Woman No der to undercut theobjecti+ingprac- ing of the feast, Mother Yvonne was Cty. "Mother Ruby [is] bent dou- tices that Eurocentric discussion of able to bring closure to the ground in bk in her chair replanringpotted African-Caribbean religion uses. As a Trinidad. This action symbolized a plants.. .. Her hand sift through result, a variety of perspectives influ- movement to another ground in the soil doing what she cab "an enced the construction of the theory Canada. Thejourney was both physi- unpredicted work. 'Shehadplan- and research methods of this study: cal and spiritual in its significance nedforyears to uproot one of the African-Caribbean music, dance, and so wove diasporic links among plants. Had tried in fact, to no theatre, and literature; black theo- avail. "Something" told her this logical writing, including fictional morning to "try her hand. " She texts; feminist methodologies and Thejourney war both did and out came the plant. She histories. Of critical importance are physical and spiritual said When something telh you the epistemology and philosophy of and so wove diasporic a5 something, you should do it. the Spiritual Baptist Church which You have tbe energy to do it. "A the oral culture of the church ex- links among ~$.ica, I$ ksson for me-most of my presses; the songs, prayers, sermons, Trinidad, Canada. conversations with Mother Ruby and testimonies. That is to say, I have been like that... . soqght the theory and research "Long time people say ants is method from the subjects themselves Africa, Trinidad, Canada, and, in my not a good sign," Mother Ruby and, in so doing, acknowledged and case, Antigua as well. When Mother says looking up from her replant- incorporated my research subjects as Yvonne and other participants in the ing. We both look at the neigh- active knowers, philosophers, and feast "catch power" and "manifest" bours who are shaking out all of theorists of their own reality. the gods, they are making a spiritual their clothing aflrr waking up to journey which reconnects them with an infestation of red ants. The Journeying an African unconscious. Similarly, "long time peopk " are the ances- when the participants in the Spiritual tors. Mother Ruby always rcfers to I was invited on this journey by Baptist services I attended "manifest them in this way. Mother Yvonne, the Queen Mother de Holy Spirit of Almighty God,"

VOLUME 17, NUMBER 1 they experience a rejuvenation such earth and with the ancestors, to have Pickering, Scarborough, and that those at the service say that they aUsolidfoundation," as church mem- Thornhill. In this sense, "home" is are "filled with the Spirit." bers often say. This ground can shift linked to politics of cultural and eco- in terms of material time and space. nomic survival ofAfrican-Caribbean "This spot of ground" One can be "grounded"; this means people living in Toronto. that the relationshipwith the ground, "This spot ofground" and "home" The phrase "this spot of ground," with the earth, with the mother, with are linked to politics of identity and along with the phrase "so spiritually, the womb is active. community formations in Toronto's so carnally," is apart ofwhat I refer to For example, the ground shifted black and Caribbean communities. as the "spiritual nation language" of from Africa to Grenada, to Trinidad, The central point here is that there is the Spiritual Baptist Church. Here I to Canada. And yet it remained be- more than one black community and am using Kamau Brathwaite's notion neath the feet ofthe travellers through Caribbean community in Toronto. of nation language as being a part of involvement in the Spiritual Baptist In defining authentic notions of self the self-definition of a people. This Church and other cultural practices and community, questions of indu- "spiritual nation language" expresses which maintain a connection with sion and exclusion arise in relation to the epistemology and worldview of "home." both internal (within the individual the Spiritual Baptist Church. For the "This spot of ground" is also bell or community) and external ("out- Spiritual Baptists, nationhood is hook's "homeplace." Hooks discusses side" of the individual or commu- rooted in the spiritual and material "homeplace" as a space of psychic nity) power dynamics. Power rela- worlds, and so "this spot of ground" and cultural survival and regenera- tions based on division and exclu- refers to both the physical and the tion created mainly byAfrican-Ameri- sion, such as sexism, classism, and spiritual location in which people are can women for black people facing homophobia, as well as those based gathered. racism. Hooks asserts that this on inclusion such as the notion of an The ground signifies not only the homeplace was necessary in the con- extended, diasporic family "in the physical world and the earth, but the text of black people's survival and spirit," inform community and iden- material conditions in which people resistance to racism, and, as such, its tity formations around the notion of live their lives. It also refers to a construction was shared throughout "home." In other words, the ques- sanctified space where the spiritual the diaspora. tions of who is welcome as "family" and the material meet. Thus, the Hooks notes the historical impor- and in whose "home" under what spiritual and material aspects of life tance oftheslave hut and the wooden conditions are of key importance. inform each other in a complex set of shack as homeplaces. In the context Though a comprehensive discussion relationships or, according to the of African-Caribbean culture, I also of these issues lies beyond the scope Spiritual Baptist Church, "so spiritu- include the chapelle or Shango yard of this paper, I am raising them here ally, so carnally." and the church as a pan ofhomeplace. because analysis of identity and com- The ground is sacred in both the Significantly, Spiritual Baptist munity formations within syncretic Spiritual Baptist Church andshango. Churches are referred to by their African and Caribbean religions in The "powers" manifest themselves members as "homes" and the male the Americas needs to be linked with through the gound in the Shango and female leaders as the mother and these struggles in other areas of social feast. Mother Ruby spoke of the need father of the "home." In the spiritual life. I am suggesting this linkage pre- to be "rooted and grounded in the nation language of the church, cisely because of the central role that name of the Lord." On August 30, "friends" and "visitors," "cousins" and these religious forms have played in 1995, as we sat on her gallery we sang "aunties" from other churches are social life historically in African the following chorus: welcomed to feel "at home." diasporic communities. Homeplace continues to be a vital You have to rooted andgrounded part of the survival of black people Shango Baptist?: ancestral legacies in the name of the Lord living in North American societies. and spiritual regeneration You have to rooted andgrounded Thus homeplace, in the context of bless His holy name immigration to Canada, extends from One of the questions guiding this Ifyou want to get to heaven the mourning ground of Spiritual paper is the contradictory experiences You have to rooted andgrounded Baptist Churches in Trinidad to that I had had concerning the place in You have to rootedandgrounded storefront Spiritual Baptist Churches the Spiritual Baptist Church of ex- In the name of the Lord. in Toronto, to the townhouse and plicitly African based spiritual prac- apartment in areas of the city associ- tices associated with the Orisha reli- To be "rooted and grounded" is to be ated with working-class and poor gion. Members of the church in To- sanctified in the name ofJesus. To be people such as Regent Park and Jane ronto are divided on their acceptance rooted and grounded also points to and Finch, and to the detached house of these practices. Young's notion of the need to have connection with the in middle-class suburban areas of dualistic "ancestral legacies" is useful:

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME Ancestral legacies also connote An important part ofthe feast which the lives of AfLican-Caribbean immi- contradictions, sometimes symbolically addressed the connec- grantpeoplcs and their communities. within a single individual, be- tion between nationhood, politics, tween alienation from and con- and black religious forms was Mother 'A sacred space in Spiritual Baptist tinuity with African heritages. Yvonne's role as "mother of the tribe" Churches where members "mourn" The ancestors are not only pro- and "mother of the nation." On the -a practice of prayer and fasting in genitors of Niger-Congo second day of the feast, the "feeding which the mourner or "pilgrim" jour- heritages, [but] they are also pro- of the children" took place. In this neys spirituality. genitorswho separate themselves ritual, neighbourhood children and from those heritages. Thus an- others from nearby areas were fed a References cestral legacies refer to an inher- meal and given gifts of small toys, itance entailing both the living paper, and pens brought by Mother Brathwaite, Kamau. History of the memory of the ancestors' spir- Yvonne from Canada. The feeding Voice: The Development of Nation ituality and the alienation from and the giving of gifts was a ritual Language in Anglophone Caribbean this memory as a result ofslavery enactment of her role as "mother of Poetry. London: New Beacon and colonialism. (1) the tribe" whose responsibility is to Books, 1984. feed and nurture her "children." Clifford, James. The Predicament of The term "Shango Baptist" points In returning "home" to Trinidad Culture: Twentieth-Century to a syncretism between Shango and to "this spot ofground" with Mother Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Christianity in the Spiritual Baptist Yvonne I participated in the remem- Cambridge, MA: Harvard Church and the simultaneous exist- brance ofthe ancestral legacyoforizha University Press, 1988. ence of a legacy of remembrance and worship. The feast paid tribute to the Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: forgetting. According to a Shango Orisha. It also paid tribute to the Modernity and Double leader in Trinidad, there is no such ancestors of all those present "in Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: category, spiritually,as a Shango Bap- spirit." The voice of the elders saying Haward University Press, 1993. tist. The two forms of worship are the prayers, singing the songs, and hooks, bell. "homeplace." Yearning separate. However, a person can be telling stories in the chapelle and in Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. an orisha worshipper who chooses to the church, respectively, is also a point Toronto: Between-the-Lines, serve the Spirit in the Spiritual Bap- of spiritual regeneration. For it is in 1990.41-49. tist faith. A Spiritual Baptist Queen these oral transmissions that Houk, James T. Spirits, Blood, and Mother in Trinidad, for example, "phenomenological libations" Drums: The Orisha Religion in defines herself as an African "in the (Prince) are offered which rejuvenate Trinidad. Philadelphia: Temple spirit" and therefore as someone and renew the participants. University Press, 1995. whose consciousness resonates with Pettis, Joyce. Toward Wholeness in orirha worship even though she is a Thispaper waspresented at the Centre Paule Marshall i Fiction. Spiritual Baptist. for Feminist Research i "Conference on Charlotteville and London: According to this Queen Mother, Female Spirituality: A Celebration of University Press ofVirginia, 1995. all people of African descent belong Worshippers, Goddesses,Priestesses, and Prince, Althea. Personal interview. to an African tribe, and, through Female Saints," held at York Univer- Sept. 1995. participation in the feast, the differ- sity in March 1996 Fundingassistance Young, Josiah U. A Pan-African ent tribes are able to manifest and jbm the SocialSciences and Humani- the oh^: Provihnceandthe Legacies greet their members who may be ties Research Council (SSHRC)for the of the Ancestors. NJ: African World present. The Shango leader also noted presentation and publication of this Press, 1992. that the "powers" or deities and all of paper is grate&lly acknowledged. the ancestors of the people present at the feast are manifested at the feast. Carol B. Duncan i doctoral disserta- In this way, the feast serves the tion research on the Spiritual Baptist Help make tomorrow purpose of a homecoming and self- Church in Toronto, A Passport to a better place. recognition and definition in radical Heaven's Gate: Identity and Com- opposition to the brutality and vi- munity Formations among Spiritual Iupport familier in Africa and Alia. ciousness of a slave regime which Baptists in Toronto, is concernedwith Please make your pledge to USC stripped enslaved Africans of their the tramformation ofa syncretic Afii- by calling: 1-800-5656 USC and identity and selfhood. It is also about can-Caribbean religio~~~form,theSpir- 234-9335 for Ottawa calls. nationhood and ancestral memory, itual Baptist Church, through immi- 705-56 Sparks Street for, in belonging to a tribe, one be- Ottawa KIP 581 ~ - gration to Canada and the subsequent (6131 234.6827 longs to a nation and in so doing responses to this process in the political, [email protected] remembers one's place of origin. social, economic, andculturalaspcctsof

VOLUME 17, NUMBER 1