https://padlet.com/shyo18/i539o8p8dd8u Made with serendipity en-us 2017-07-08 15:53:54 UTC 2023-08-02 13:40:27 UTC hello@padlet.com shyo18 https://padlet.com/shyo18/i539o8p8dd8u/wish/178306265 According to Shastri Boodan article published in the Guardian News Paper on the 30^th of March 2017, this year’s commemoration is a special one as it marks 100 years since the Spiritual Baptist faith was outlawed in 1917 and 66 years since it was repealed. Spiritual Baptist endured great difficulty in being a recognized and respected religion in Trinidad and Tobago. During this Caribbean Civilization course, it was seen that Catholicism was the most dominant religion as the Europeans tried to convince African slaves to convert to Catholicism to control the slaves based on attitudes and conduct. Slavery brought several different religions as it brought different ethnicities. However, the African slaves were the only ones not allowed to practice their faith, due to their practices it was perceived that the Baptist religion was one of witchcraft and ungodly teachings and that they were chattel slaves with no rights. 
The activities of the Spiritual Baptist in T&T were prohibited in 1917 by the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance, which was eventually repealed in 1951. Thereafter the Baptist endured over 30 years of prosecution. 
Despite their challenges, they never gave up they never stop practicing their religion even though it was scrutinized. They practiced their religion on the run. If found practicing their religion, police officers had the right to detain the said individuals. The Spiritual Baptist (or Shouter Baptist) faith is a syncretic Afro-American religion that combines elements of traditional African religion with Christianity. Despite the African influences, Spiritual Baptists consider themselves to be Christians.
The late opposition parliamentarian Ashford Sinanan moved to repeal the ordinance under the PNM government and was successful.
In 1996 the government of T&T granted a public holiday to the Spiritual Baptist faith, to be celebrated on March 30, called Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day, in memory of the struggle and in recognition of the repeal of the prohibition laws. T&T is the only country that celebrates a public holiday for the Spiritual Baptist faith.]]> 2017-07-08 15:57:43 UTC https://padlet.com/shyo18/i539o8p8dd8u/wish/178306265 shyo18 https://padlet.com/shyo18/i539o8p8dd8u/wish/178306555 Cultural diversity refers to people of different origins, culture, and ways of life, living alongside each other, without one getting in the way of the other and trying to force their way on other people.  University of the West Indies Professor Rex Nettleford has said. The awesome complexity of Caribbean life and culture, which ranges from language and religion to artistic manifestation in the literary, performing, and visual arts, is more than “the binary syndrome of Europe suggests,” The first evidence of Cultural diversity, can be seen during the colonial times where there were different races of labor being imported all over the world, some of which were African Slaves, Indian Indentured laborer’s, and the Chinese workers. They all brought with them aspects of their culture into the Caribbean. These aspects would include food, religious practices, and languages. Although the difference amongst the various cultures in the Caribbean ranged greatly, they had to co-exist. Over the years cultural mixing has been seen through relationships, schooling, and social groups. Persons are now of the opinion that they can interact with persons outside of their culture. This was not so during slavery. Each ethnic group would stick to their own people. As the Caribbean developed, so did the cultures, Africans were now seen having children with Indians and so with the other cultures.  This opened the platform for not just the mixing of races but the mixing and understanding of different cultures as they became widely accepted and respected across the Caribbean. In the Caribbean today, people of different races, cultures, religions, nationalities are seen making up communities. Now there is a wide understanding of the various cultures within the Caribbean as it pertains to language, dress, tradition, and the way people interact with the environment. All cultural or religious groups are honored and respected in Trinidad and Tobago with their own Public Holiday. This is a great example of cultural acceptability.


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