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"Dey Give Me a House to Mothers and Daughters

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"Dey give me a house to Mothers and Daughters BY CAROL 6, DUNCAN Cet article disnrte dc kz signifca- some of the women who have worked in, or continue to tion a2 kz rekztion mire-fib dzns work in, domestic service make sense of their everyday The church in la vie des immigrantes afi.0- lives. A crucial part of this critique is a discussion of the antihises qui sont membres dc ways in which the long history ofdomestic workstretching became one of l wise spirituelle baptiste. back to the colonial and slavery eras have impacted on the "homeplaces" contemporary African-Caribbean women's participation Growing up in England, Anti- in the labour force and the ways in which these women where members gua, and Canada, I was moth- have constructed meaning of their lives through subver- could find a sense ered by a variety of women in- sive symbolic re-interpretation of icons of Christian femi- of fellowship and cluding my grandmother, cous- ninity and mothering such as St. Ann. ins, aunties, teachers, and my It is a situation which is fraught with contradictory community and in mother. My experience mirrors images and notions of mothering in the context of the which the church that of many other African-Car- women's work lives, their religious lives in the church, ibbean women who are moth- families left at home in the Caribbean, and new familial Mothers played a ered by "othermothers," who are and interpersonal relations in Canada. A major tension is crucial role. friends or relatives in addition that on the one hand, mothering in the context of church- to, or instead of, their birth life is highly valued and respected while the mothering mothers or "bloodmothers" work performed for pay is largely devalued in the wider (Collins 119-1 23). This article society. Another is the search for "home" in the face of grew out of my reflections on this experience of other- immigration and obstacles such as isolation and discrimi- mothering in my own life as I engaged in research on the nation based on gender, "race," and class. In a very real Spiritual Baptist Church in Toronto. The larger project sense, the church in black communities became one of the documents the history of the Spiritual Baptist Church in "homeplaces" (hooks) where members could find a sense Toronto and explores themes of diasporic African identi- of fellowship and community and in which the church ties forged in the context of migration. The historical and Mothers played a crucial role in the creation of this home. contemporary connections between the experiences of This article discusses the context in which some Afri- mothering in African diasporic religious traditions and can-Caribbean women, members of the Spiritual Baptist wider black community life deserves critical attention Church, who have emigrated to Canada and who work because there is a power link to contemporary black primarily as paid, domestic workers experience and nego- feminist consciousness and empowerment. tiate meanings of motherhood and daughterhood in their Historically, in African-Americancommunities, women everyday lives. Following an overview of the history of the known as "Mothers" have held powerful and influential Spiritual Baptist Church and the tradition of "mothers of roles in sacred and secular settings (Gilkes 1997). The lives the church," I present excerpts from conversational inter- of these women, however, have rarely received critical views I have had with Spiritual Baptist women which attention and examination is crucial in understanding discuss some aspects of mothering including ancestral blackwomen'sparticipation incommunitysettings (Gilkes mothers and religious figures such as St. Ann, the process 1997). In this article, I discuss church mothering within a of becoming a "spiritual mother," and the significance of specific socio-historical context: the immigration ofAfri- the church as a "home." can-Caribbean women from the English-speaking Carib- bean to post-Second World War Toronto whose paid History of the Spiritual Baptist Church work is primarily in domestic service in middle- and upper-middle-class Euro-Canadian households. Makeda The Spiritual Baptist Church is a syncretic African- Silvera's groundbreaking conversations with Caribbean Caribbean religion. It draws on Christianity, in particular domestic workers, documented in Silenced, presented a Roman Catholicism, West African religious traditions as discussion of the conditions of domestic service by the well as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and the Kabbalah. women themselves in their own words. This article adds to The Spiritual Baptist Church can be seen in a number of this discussion through presenting an analysis of how different, and I suggest, complementary rather than op- CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME gather in di chil'ren" in the Spiritual Baptist Church posing traditions and historical der the British colonial regime in Trinidad including a trajectories. First, as James Houk banning under the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance from The Mothers of notes, it isa part of the "Orisha 1917 to 1951. The tradition su~ivedthese repressive religion complexn in Trinidad conditions to emerge as a religion which is international in the church (W;). It is important to note, how- scope with congregations in Canada, the United States, and continue to be, ever, that ;here is a variation and England following the post-World War I1 immigra- amongst Spiritual Baptist con- tion patterns of Caribbean people. leaders and gregations and individual Spir- respected for their itual Baptists regarding partici- The Mothers of the Church leadershipand pation in, and the significance of, Orisha religion. Second, the Spir- The Mothers ofthe church occupy a crucial space in the nurturance in both itual Baptist Church can be seen history of diasporic African communities. These women, church-related as a crucial component of a "Car- were, and continue to be, leaders valued and respected for ibbean emancipatory theology" their leadership and nurturance in both church-related and wider (Davis) which links spiritual lib- and wider community matters. I suggest here that the CO~mU n lfy matt€! rS. eration with socio-pohtical trans- Mothers of the church are linked to diasporic African formation in Caribbean socie- women leadership roles in religion such as the mambo in ties. Historically, the Spiritual Haitian vodun, and political leadership figures such as Baptist church emerged in the Nanny or Ni, leader of the Maroons in Jamaica. The link context of enslaved Africans' and their descendants' re- is the ancestral legacy ofwomen in powerhl and respected interpretation of Christian doctrine and beliefs blended leadership roles in West African societies such as Ashanti with West African religious traditions. This reinterpreta- Queen Mother Yaa Ansantewaa, who led a military and tion supported emancipatory ideals rather than an accept- political struggle against British colonialism in what is ance of the status quo regarding power relations under now contemporary Ghana. In fact, the term "queen slavery and British colonial rule. Third, the Spiritual mothern which is West African in origin (Gilkes 1997), Baptist Church can be seen as a Caribbean-based variant used to denote a woman leader, is used in the Spiritual of the Sanctified Church both in its ritual practices, Baptist Church in reference to the "mother of the home," organization, and patterns of membership. Gilkes notes the head mother of the church. Church work for black that the term Sanctified Church is ".. an indigenous term women "generally encompasses active membership in African-Americans use to refer to Holiness, Pentecostal, local churches, clubs, and religious auxiliaries, as well as Independent, Community, Spiritual and Deliverance de- teaching Sunday school" (Gilkes 1997, 369). This work nominations and congregations collectively" (1993,1005). could also include pastoring and the founding ofchurches Congregations in the Sanctified Church emerged dur- and regional or national associations ofchurch women. In ing the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United the Spiritual Baptist Church, offices which include, but States with predominantly 90 per cent female member- are not limited to Mother, Nurse, Warrior, Evangelist, ship (Gilkes 1993, 1005). Commonalities amongst the Prophetess, and Deaconess are important leadership roles various congregations include an emphasis on "some for women within the church community. These leader- aspect of sanctification and sharing ritual practices em- ship roles are important ways in which church women phasizing the Holy Ghost (Spirit) and such activities as nurture the "children" of their community. "shouting," the "holy dance," speaking in tongues and An examination of family forms and mothering prac- other spiritual gifts" (Gilkes 1993, 1005). Though a tices which diasporic African people developed during thorough discussion is beyond the scope of this article, it slavery and colonialism reveals some of the ways in which is suffice to say that the inclusion of the Spiritual Baptist dominant cultural forms, institutional practices, ideolo- Church within the broader collective of the Sanctified gies, and discursive modes of representation were sub- Church points to disaporic connections in interpretations verted. The prevailing hegemonic beliefs during and after of Christianity by Africans in the Americas. slavery asserted that black family forms were either non- The Spiritual Baptish Church suffered repression un- existent or "deviant"
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