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Channer’s debut poetry collection achieves an intimate and lyric meditation on family, policing, loss, and violence, but the work is enlivened by humour, tenderness, and the rich possibilities that come from honest reflection. Combined with a capacity to offer physical landscapes with painterly sensitivity and care, a graceful mining of the nuances of Jamaican patwa and American English, and a judicious use of metaphor and similie, Providential is a work of “heartical” insight and vulnerability.

No one, since Claude McKay’s folksy Constab Ballads of 1912, has attempted to tackle the unlikely literary figure of the Jamaican policeman. Now, over a century later, drawing on his own family knowledge of the world of the police, on the complex dynamic of his relationship with his father, and framed within the humane principles of Rasta and reggae, Channer has both explored the colonial origins of that police culture and brought us up to date in necessary ways. Here are poems that manage to turn the complex relationships between a man and his father, a man and his mother, and man and his country and a man and his children, into something akin to grace. Providential does not read like a novelist’s one-off flirtation with poetry, but an accomplished overture to what ought to be a remarkable literary journey for a writer of immense talent and versatility.

“…Written with pitch-perfect rhythm and a keen eye for supple, limber turns.” —Lorna Goodison, author of From Harvey River

“Channer writes with a moving vulnerability and much lyric grace, revealing new facets to familiar themes—home, family, history, and the evolving journey of self. A universal, timeless meditation.”
—Chris Abani, author of The Secret History of Las Vegas

Born in Jamaica to a pharmacist and cop. Colin Channer is named by Junot Díaz calls him “one of the Caribbean Diaspora’s finest writers.”

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Set on the island of St. Christopher, Pamela Mordecai's latest book, Red Jacket, confronts the issues of prejudice and colorism in Africa and its diaspora. Growing up in a large extended black family, the protagonist, Grace Carpenter, must face the taunts of neighbourhood children and elders who are disturbed by her presence. For Grace is a redibo with copper coloured skin, red hair, and grey eyes. Adding to Grace's confusion about her place within her family and culture is her ignorance of her birth mother and the resistance of family members to reveal the identity of her father. Grace’s quest to discover her familial origins takes her on a journey away from the Caribbean to Africa and back home again.

After reading this remarkable novel, I had the pleasure of conducting this interview via email with Pam.

1. Why did you choose an imaginary island as the Caribbean setting?

I chose an imaginary island for the Caribbean setting because it gave me latitude. In answering that question – because it's been asked before – I've invoked a poem of mine in Certifiable called "Jus a Likl lovin.” There are two lines in that poem that speak of "the Mona moon heaving/ up from the sea". Kamau Brathwaite called me to account on that, since of course the Mona moon does no such thing! So I had to confess to him that I moved the moon because I needed the rhyme! I didn't want to be hamstrung by that kind of constraint.

If I made up my own island, I could write without being accountable where physical and social settings, behaviours, customs and even history are concerned. Thus, Marcus Garvey visits the imaginary St Chris, St Chris children speak 'standard' English exclusively when they are on school premises, and so on. Though I know Jamaica over fifty years well, I didn't want it to tie me down. To put it simply, I took the line of least resistance and greatest imaginative freedom.

2. Is this the same reason you chose Mabuli (the imagined West African country)?

In the case of Mabuli, the situation was the same and quite the opposite – the same because I needed the imaginative freedom with Mabuli also, the opposite because I needed it for other reasons. Where the island setting was concerned, I didn't want to be constrained by the need to be accurate in describing a real and very familiar place. Where the West African setting was concerned, I was working on the basis of research alone, for I've never been to West Africa. Though I was describing a made-up place, it's a place with a very specific location – Mali to the West, Burkina Faso to the east, Côte d'Ivoire to the south.

In order to be persuasive, I had to be accurate about climate, topography, flora and fauna, the history of the region, the weather over the period of years when the action in the novel takes place, and so on. So that there is indeed a Bandagara Escarpment in Mali, and the Tellem people did live there before the Dogon, and the Tellem were indeed reputed to fly, never mind that the specific incident in Red Jacket that explains how English got to Mabuli is imagined.

I needed to make Mabuli persuasive in those respects, but I needed my fancy licensed to advance some important aspects of the story, for instance the 'fact' of an organization such as the Oti, as well as certain, if you want, magical realist elements, like the walking stones and the weeping keystone in the Kenbara Stone Circle.

3. Why did you include Marcus Garvey in the narrative?

Many people fail to recognize what an extraordinary man Garvey was, and the breadth of his influence. It stretched far and wide, and I wanted my imaginary St Chris to be one of the places that he visited, and where he left his mark.

4. Ultimately, Red Jacket is about Grace's search for identity and one of her most steadfast allies is the priest, Father James Atule. Are you suggesting that the quest for self-awareness is also a spiritual journey?

At this point in my life, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all one: as Lauryn Hill famously said, “Everything is everything.” For a while now, I’ve avoided the word “religion” because it suggests allegiances, and these have always led to fights, but I’m not sure that I even distinguish between spiritual and physical any more. There is only the journey of the individual self trying to find its way with other selves through time, in a perhaps imagined, perhaps material, world. Grace is lucky to have James Atule S.J. join her on that journey, but not because he’s a priest – because he is who he is, a fellow pilgrim, fallible and sometimes frightened, but generous and caring deeply about his fellow human beings nonetheless. Even if she hadn’t met him, there are others who from early on show Grace (not by instruction, but also by being who they are) that the journey to self-awareness and a sense of worth as a person is not a material one.

The most important of these persons is of course, Gramps. As a child Grace observes that Gramps’s God is different and that “he and Gramps have conversations all the time.” Also, “God and Gramps are often scamps together.” Her idea of a rascally God in cahoots with her rascally grandfather is an early grasp of a person with rich self-awareness, a conviction of his unique and worthy personhood. Shortly after that, she makes this quite clear: “Gramps is special. God is smart so he would know.” We walk in quest of our specialness, but neither wealth nor importance nor fame will bestow it on us. For sure, our journey to discovering who we are is what we call “spiritual” – for lack of a fuller appreciation of the Everything-that’s-everything!

5. I was really struck by this passage: "Jesus says to love our neighbours as ourselves... He exemplified that proper self-love, daring to be who he was, the Messiah, son of God, and getting killed for it. Whenever we are rejected, we need to remember that and to remember too that he rises again and his resurrected self renews the sacred self of each of us, making us more lovable.” Would it be presumptuous to suggest that this manifesto of faith is not merely part of a text, but refers also to your life and career?

It wouldn’t be presumptuous at all.








About Pamela Mordecai

Pamela Mordecai was born in Jamaica. She has published five collections of poetry, with a sixth, de book of Mary, to appear in fall 2015. Pink Icing, an anthology of short fiction, appeared in 2006, while Red Jacket is her first novel. She has published five children’s books and her poetry for children is widely anthologized – indeed, one of her children’s poems recently appeared in The Guardian (UK) in a list of “top ten poems to remember and recite”. She has also written many textbooks and edited or co-edited groundbreaking anthologies of Caribbean writing. Her poems have been shortlisted for the Canada Writes CBC Poetry Prize and the Bridport Prize (U.K.) and her short fiction for the James Tiptree Jr Literary Award. She is the recipient of the Institute of Jamaica’s Centenary and Bronze Musgrave Medals, the Vic Reid Award for Children’s Writing, and the Burla Award. Pamela lives in Kitchener.

FIve Questions With Pamela Mordecai
http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/2012/09/five-questions-with-pamela-mordecai.html

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 (From L-R: Andrene Bonner, Paul Campbell, Dr. Michael Wiltshire)

By  Faith P. Nelson

Playwright Andrene Bonner and veteran actor and director Paul Campbell are pulling from the annals of American history to celebrate Harlem’s massive contribution to the world with a Broadway-style  musical at Brooklyn’s Boys and Girls High School on June 14, 2015. Listening in on their discussions about plot, scene structure and production elements, one can’t help but imagine the process of discovery, the quiet excitement that would have permeated the literary salons of 1920s Harlem. 

Jumping forward half a century, Bonner and Campbell prompt some meditation on the power duo - legendary director choreographer Geoffrey Holder and one of his chief collaborators, actress and dancer Carmen de Lavallade. West Indians have long made permeable the cultural boundaries between the island nations and New York, the US’s most powerful and populous city. Following in the footsteps of Trinidadian Geoffrey Holder and his Broadway legacy, creative virtuosos Bonner and Campbell, fluent in the language of both cultures, have no problems crossing the divide to honor, on a grand scale the long gone Renaissance heroes.  

The idea for the project was the brainchild of Dr. Michael Wiltshire, executive principal of Boys and Girls High School and Medgar Evers College Prep in Brooklyn. He invited Bonner to come up with a concept to celebrate the Centenary of the Harlem Renaissance. The result was Ruby the Musical penned in a very short time by the novelist and high school teacher.

This June revival comes very soon after the initial one-day run in Spring 2015. Reviews of the earlier production were so encouraging that Wiltshire decided to hire Paul Campbell to bring a world view to the production. This go-round, Sweet Honey in the Rock alumna Tulani Kinard has teamed up with the playwright to create original music in the Jazz, Blues and African tradition. Fitting the rich contributions of this period of American history into 90 minutes is no small feat. When asked what her priorities were for the script, Bonner said that her approach was to “anchor Ruby in ancestral Africa where it all began and to cover the different vocabularies – visual art, music – that articulated the political perspective of the time. A proponent of education and women’s rights she intentionally built the lead character “to take agency of her own life as a young woman.”

Magical realism at its most entertaining and educational, the play follows Ruby from a freedom starved south to the lights of New York and artistic expression in Harlem. In one evening, the audience experiences with Ruby, the transforming narratives of Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, James Baldwin, W E B Dubois, Marcus Garvey and Ethel Waters among other figures.

Paul Campbell’s superior teaching skills are in evidence as he takes romantic leads Javia Richards and Hyven Charles and the rest of the 120-member cast through their paces in scene study and technical rehearsals in this ambitious production. Nothing escapes his attention whether costume improvement or the need for a quick huddle with choreographers Michael Forde and Wilhelmina Taylor.  Bonner gushes at the opportunity to continue to open her students to this level of creative production.

There is more to the night than the staging of Ruby the Musical. Like Geoffrey Holder before him, Paul Campbell is an accomplished visual artist. He picked up painting while at the Jamaica School of Drama and never abandoned his brushes. His large canvases are a blend of surrealism and cubism, a nod to modern African art and lush elegant Caribbean vernacular. Some of his work will be on display at the student and staff exhibition and reception which precedes the performance. Bonner herself, post the School of Drama and well paid acting jobs, collected more degrees in theatre arts and literature in California and New York. Her activities extend beyond the stage. When asked what she will do after the play, Bonner replied, “I will return to my other babies, my two fiction novels that are pining for attention during this production.” She further confided that both herself and Campbell have their own stage productions in development and plan to tackle other projects as a team. That collaboration is promising for theatre on New York soil.

The art reception and play launch on June 14, 2015 at Boys and Girls High School.

Faith Nelson is a freelance writer in Washington DC.


Andrene Bonner, Playwright
Photo Credit: Yvonne Taylor

Paul Campbell, Director
Photo Credit: Ray Balgrove

Dr. Michael Wiltshire
Photo Credit: Medgar Evers Preparatory Collection

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There has been an amplification in incidences of reported child sexual abuse in Jamaica. Lavern Deer, President, Jamaica International Female Football Development Inc. (JIFFD), Dr. Susan Davis, former Jamaica Diaspora Advisory Board Representative for Southern USA, Dona-Lee Raymond, a concerned citizen, and other members of the Diaspora, have consequently joined forces with ‘EVE For Life’ (EVE) in Jamaica to take immediate action!.

“For the past 20 years, in Jamaica land we love, 20 per cent of girls and women consistently report that they have been forced to have sex. This means that ONE IN EVERY FIVE WOMEN IN JAMAICA has reported being raped or has had their bodies violated against their will as corroborated by the National Sexual and Reproductive Health Surveys. 

In Jamaica, a total of 10,000 cases of child abuse were reported in 2013 alone, according to the Jamaican government statistics. 

In America, The American Medical Association also states that:
•    1 in 3 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18.
•    1 in 5 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18.
•    There were 307 report FORCIBLE RAPES in Broward County in 2012 and 309 reported FORCIBLE RAPES from January to June 2013

To achieve successful outcomes both locally and internationally, the newly formed Diaspora task force will focus on mobilizing community support, fundraising, public relations, and legislature.

The "NUH GUH DEH" – Jamaica Campaign is administered by EVE and is supported
by United Nations (UN) agencies including UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNAIDS,
UNESCO, and UN Women.

The “NUH GUH DEH” – Diaspora Campaign is administered by a JIFFD local task force, has the endorsement of the Consul General of Jamaica to Miami and support from elected officials such as Miramar Mayor, Wayne Messam and his office.

“This issue of child sexual abuse is a worldwide problem, and one which affects local communities.  Of the thirty one Broward cities it is estimated that an average of two cases are reported per month, per city.  With this in mind I am prepared to support the NGD initiative as it addresses the problem locally and internationally”
~Mayor Messam, City of Miramar

CALL TO ACTION

On October 11, 2014, EVE for Life officially launched the “Nuh Guh Deh!” National Campaign to end sex with the girl child. It is their response in trying to curb the number of pregnant and HIV positive girls as young as thirteen years, who are referred to their programs. The overarching goal is to contribute to reducing the incidents of sexual abuse of the girl child in Jamaica.  By extension JIFFD has partnered with EVE to highlight the campaign and to encompass not just our young girls, but our young boys as well.

There is an array of legislation which should serve to protect our children from sexual abuse: the Sexual Offences Act, the Child Care and Protection Act, the Trafficking in Persons Act, the Child Pornography (Prevention) Act, among others. Jamaica also has a number of government organizations and systems to protect children against all forms of abuse, including the Office of the Children’s Registry, the Office of the Children’s Advocate, the Child Development Agency and the Ananda Alert.

To this end the NUH GUH DEH - Diaspora here in the USA will align its key outcomes to those of NUH GUH DEH - Jamaica, which includes bringing awareness and urging a zero tolerance approach to the abuse of children by:

1.    Increasing awareness about the long term physical, emotional, health, financial and social consequences of sexual abuse of young girls and boys
2.    Mobilizing Jamaicans to report acts of sexual violence against children
3.    Encouraging Jamaicans to use the phrase “Nuh Guh Deh!” to challenge current behaviors of men who sexually exploit children.
4.    Supporting the efforts of EVE and other similar agencies in Jamaica, and assisting local initiatives to empower young people and foster positive development.
5.     Helping to fund-raise so we can realize the key objectives outlined.

About EVE for Life (EVE)
EVE is a non-governmental organization in Jamaica, founded to support women and children infected and affected by HIV, but now additionally are undertaking the task of combating Child Abuse. Women and children are increasingly seeking psychosocial support and skills to help them to live normal lives. Eve for Life seeks to fill that gap.  
They were registered in February 2009 as a non- governmental organization (NGO) with charitable status.Their ‘Mission’ is to contribute to the Jamaica HIV response through innovative interventions that will prevent new infections and improve the quality of life of women and children living with or affected by HIV.

EVE for Life works with different national and international non-governmental organizations, civil society, governmental agencies and multilateral agencies
http://www.eveforlife.org/

About JIFFD

The Jamaica International Female Football Development, Inc. (JIFFD) is a 501c3 NPO and a US Federal Government SAM Vendor. JIFFD is dedicated to serve as a facilitator and conduit, for the holistic development of young females, in Jamaica and the international communities that impact same. The extended concept is to aggressively engage domestic and international stakeholders, to foster increased and consistent awareness of the systemic problems impeding such development, primarily in socio-economically challenging communities.

Their ‘Vision’ is to provide aggressive outreach, strategic collaboration amongst municipal, business and NGO stakeholders, and international partnerships, creating a holistic female development framework and program for girls ages 6 through 24, encompassing football training; educational support; health support; and social development. http://jiffd.org/

The Partnership

Both EVE and JIFFD under their purviews of interest and work with young girls in Jamaica, have now extended their portfolios to include: protecting children at large from the pervasive sexual abuse; and eroding the taboos associated with highlighting these offenses, which continue to be rife in our communities. Through the NUH GUH DEH Campaign we pledge to break these strongholds for the love of our girls and our boys.

www.nuhguhdeh.org

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The poems collected here were written from 1922 to 1931, and were found in 2004 in the apartment she had shared with Ms Allen-Burns.These poems reflect different stages and periods in Eliot Bliss’s life: There are poems that bring to mind the Caribbean, where she was born and whose memory she would always carry with her; others are dedicated to spiritual life; some to important literary figures, women who had an influence on her life.

About the Editor





Available @ Amazon: http://goo.gl/QnjkaC

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The prevalence of violence, especially domestic violence with Caribbean families, has been one of the themes in my two short story collections, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien and Who's Your Daddy? 

In the short story, "Cry to Me," from Who's Your Daddy, which I've republished as an eBook, I've combined domestic violence with fatherhood in the story of David Hamilton, a respected professor, whose life is disrupted when his daughter become a victim of domestic violence.




I think "Cry to Me" is a precursor to a darker story that I am currently working on in which fatherhood turns ugly. Stay tuned.

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Pepperpot is the inaugural publication of Peekash Press, a joint imprint of 
Caribbean literature by Akashic Books (Brooklyn) and Peepal Tree Press (Leeds, UK). In collaboration with the Commonwealth Writers, the British Council, the Kingston Book Festival, and CaribLit, Akashic and Peepal Tree -- already recognized as publishers of high-quality Caribbean literature -- further their commitment to writers from the region with this exciting new imprint. Pepperpot gathers the very best Caribbean entries to the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, including a mix of established and up-and-coming writers from islands throughout the Caribbean.

Featuring short fiction by: 

Sharon Millar (Trinidad & Tobago)
Dwight Thompson (Jamaica)
Kevin Baldeosingh, (Trinidad & Tobago) 
Ivory Kelly (Belize)
Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad & Tobago) 
Sharon Leach (Jamaica)
Joanne C. Hillhouse (Antigua & Barbuda)
Ezekel Alan (Jamaica)
Heather Barker (Barbados)
Janice Lynn Mather (Bahamas) 
Kimmisha Thomas (Jamaica) 
Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad & Tobago)
Garfield Ellis (Jamaica)

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Redemption of Africans at home and abroad
Education
Self-Respect

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A night of poetry, good food and raffle prizes to raise funds for Franklyn March, a sickle cell patient in Jamaica who desperately needs a hip replacement surgery.

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From The Caribbean Writer (Volume 27):

Philp's Marcus and the Amazons is a suspenseful and spellbinding bildungsroman page-turner that holds all who would lead, all who would teach, accountable to educate at the highest level of scholarship towards the advancement of peoples and nations. Above all, his message to rise to the higher self, begs to be considered as integral to curricula development for “kids from 1 to 92.”

Andrene Bonner 

Mount Vernon, New York 

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The U.S. Embassy (Kingston, Jamaica) is hosting its first competitive youth poetry slam, “Understanding the World around You: The Environment and Climate Change” on August 12, 2014 from 10am-12pm. 

Winners of the “Best Performance” and “Best Written Piece” will receive iPads and tablets! If you are interested in competing send an original poem about the environment or climate change to [email protected] by Aug. 8th. Must be ages 10-19 to enter.

Everyone is welcome to come and watch as members of the audience! There will be an open mic intermission for anyone who wants to perform a poem outside the competition. To attend one must also RSVP at the email address above or call 702-6172.

For more information about rules and regulations visit http://goo.gl/vlUvV2 or call 702-6172/6229

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Louise Bennett Coverley, ‘Miss Lou’, has for decades represented the ‘face’ of Jamaican culture, the essence of what it is to be Jamaican. As a poet, performer, storyteller, singer, actress, writer, broadcaster, folklore scholar and children’s television show host, she won hearts and souls for Jamaica with her humorous yet compelling performances worldwide.

It is Miss Lou, more than any other figure in Jamaica’s history, who showed that the language spoken by most Jamaicans – patois or Jamaican Creole – is worthy of respect.

In Miss Lou: Louise Bennett and Jamaican Culture, Mervyn Morris traces the life of this legendary Jamaican from early beginnings through to her local and international eminence, and discusses aspects of her work.

A listing of recommended books and recordings is an added feature of this worthy biography of Miss Lou.

Mervyn Morris is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing and West Indian Literature at the University of the West Indies, Mona. He is the author of ‘Is English We Speaking’ and other essays (1999), Making West Indian Literature (2005) and six books of poetry, including I been there, sort of (2006).

Ian Randle Publishers:
https://www.ianrandlepublishers.com/miss-lou-louise-bennett-and-jamaican-culture.html

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Tell me about your religious history.
.
Mine has been an interesting journey. I was born and raised a Catholic, did all the stuff associated with that: church every Sunday, first communion, confession, confirmation etc, etc. I attended and graduated from Catholic elementary and primary schools in London and Kingston. I think the thing that first made me begin to question was what I experienced while at St. Francis de Sales Elementary School in North London.  My siblings and I were only a handful of blacks at the school and we got little to no protection from the nuns, priests and teachers at the school against the very blatant acts of racism we experienced there. We were called monkeys, gollywogs--people asked to see our tails and stuff like that.

Then, at St. Richard’s Primary in Kingston, the nuns, almost all who were light-skinned were so classist and immersed into colorism that they routinely granted all types of favors to the light-skinned children, but also to those who parents were wealthy and donated liberally to the church. While serving as an altar boy, I saw a lot of the rituals up close.

I think the last thing that shook my faith was going to church every Sunday at Our Lady of the Angels and seeing one woman in particular, who had like eight to 10 children, all stair step – a year or two apart –she was not wealthy. She had that many children, I thought, because the Church prohibited contraception. It just made no sense to me for anyone to have that many children and the church didn’t really extend its hand to help.

I also thought the church’s stand on sex, intimacy and marriage was quaint. So from the time I was 15 or so, I went on a journey, making stops at churches, synagogues, mosques, revival tents, converted halls, anywhere I could search for a connection: Seventh Day, Jehovah’s Witness, Methodist, Episcopal, Pocomania, Rastafari, and Mormons. I talked to everybody, all the time, in search of that je ne sais quoi.

I “gave” my life to Christ several times, including when the Billy Graham Crusade came to Jamaica. But that lasted a hot minute or only as long as a pretty woman walked by. And after brief moments of euphoria, I still felt a void that nothing filled. 

As a teenager, I rebelled against the idea of a white Jesus and a white God, and I resolved to find a spiritual path that embraced my Africanity and my humanity as a black man. I was drawn to Rastafari as a teenager, started loxing my hair, but my mother put a stop to that. But I have always carried Rasta tenets and beliefs while on this amazing spiritual path.

In 1996, my marriage was in trouble and a friend suggested that we go to a marriage counselor, who happened to be an Akan priest and Reiki master. My ex and I started counseling and at some point I was invited to attend an Akom, a worship service. I liked what I saw, began to feel very comfortable and never left.

In subsequent research, I discovered that my maternal grandmother was a Maroon who traced her ancestry to Ghana. So it was like my journey dovetailed culturally, genealogically and spiritually. 

I began as a general member, trained and served as an Okyeame, a linguist and interpreter for my spiritual godmother who was also a Queen Mother. At some point, during a reading, I was told that I needed to go into priest training. I resisted for several years because I had never thought of myself as possessing anything remotely priestly, but in conversations and readings, I learned of the many reasons people were drawn to the priesthood: to save their lives, heal, help their family, serve the community spiritually and so on.

What sparked your desire for change? 

My life was going along in what I called “splendid chaos.” It was unraveling personally and professionally. I enjoyed some aspects of my life, but sought to find spiritual peace. I was dissatisfied with a consumer- and celebrity-driven society. I have never bought into the materialism that is consuming this country and I always thought there should be more. I wanted more, wished to have a closer relationship with the Creator and I looked high and low, had conversations with friends and strangers, ministers and laypeople trying to understand more. The questions always lingered: Who am I? Why am I here? How can I make a difference? Luckily, the Creator guided my footsteps and led me in the right direction.

I was ordained into the priesthood in 2006 which actually marked the end of the beginning. I went on hiatus and on March 20, 2014, I traveled to Ghana to finish the second and most crucial part of my training. I had a teacher, plus my spiritual godparents, who have taught me, instructed and guided me. He was open, answered every question and showed me how to be the type of priest I’ve wanted to be. My teachers say that in order to lead you have to serve and I am ready to serve.

What is the name of your spiritual path? 

I am Akan. It is an ancient religion that predates Christianity by more than a thousand years or more, I'm told. It is practiced in Ghana, Benin, the Ivory Coast, Congo and other parts of Central and West Africa. We believe that there is one God and a multitude of Angels who are manifestations of the Creator. 

We believe that everyone who comes to earth makes a pact with the Creator (Nyame, Almighty God) to fulfill his/her spiritual destiny while we're here. It doesn't have to be as a priest, but we are called upon to help our families, improve the community, be of service to those around us, and make positive contributions to our growth and development spiritually, economically and in other ways.

We believe in God, acknowledge Jesus and other prophets and respect all spiritual paths. We don't proselytize or force anyone to convert because we feel that if a person is led to what we believe, God, the Angels and our Ancestors will show them the way. 

Our Ancestors are very important to us and we believe that they play an active role in our lives and in guiding us and helping us navigate this world. We honor and venerate them, but do not worship them. They are a part of our foundation and their sacrifices have helped us as we move forward. As ones who have been here, and lived their lives, they can help us avoid the pitfalls and problems they encountered. They are also the custodians of the culture and traditions and the keepers of order in our lives.

How does Akan differ from Christianity?

In Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God and the belief is that Christians can only go to Heaven through Jesus. There are varying views from others who share my beliefs, but I see Jesus as a prophet.

Christians believe in heaven and hell. We believe that honorable people who have contributed to the community and live good lives go to Heaven (Asamando). Catholics have saints which enslaved Africans correlated with their deities (angels). 

Christians believe in conversion. We do not.

Akan Priests are the vessels and instruments of the Spirit and we are trained to possess and hold the Spirit, use that power to heal, divine and help those in need. 

Akan is African-based, Christianity mostly Eurocentric.

How has your worldview changed?

I think I’m more optimistic, desirous of peace and amiable relations with friend and foe. I am fully aware that there is a Higher Power and that we are not in control the way we’d like to think. I continue to work to be honorable, decent, a good father, companion and friend. I’m looking forward to what life has in store for me going forward.

I am more convinced that religion and spirituality as practice is more of a detriment and divider than a unifier which makes me sad. But spirituality, in my mind, has the seeds for our renewal and resurrection as human beings.  

About Barrington M. Salmon.

Barrington M. Salmon (https://barringtonmsalmon.contently.com/) is a British-born Jamaican journalist who has been writing for more than 20 years. He recently completed a master’s degree in Creative Writing and New Media from Demontfort University. Barrington is a traditional African priest in the Akan Akom tradition and has lived, worked, and studied in Washington DC, United States; Miami and Tallahassee, FL; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Leicester, United Kingdom. 

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Giving thanks to Small Axe for publishing poems from my latest collection, LETTER FROM MARCUS GARVEY.

I am also happy to share the creative writing space with my talented sisters, Opal Palmer Adisa and Donna Aza Weir-Soley


Bless.

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The first issue of Susumba's Book bag is now online, and features the work of Opal Palmer-Adisa, Sharon Millar, Joanne C. Hillhouse, Lisa Allen-Agostini, and Roland Watson-Grant, among others.

The inclusion of my short story “Blessed are the Meek” was especially gratifying because it has been the closest to an autobiographical story that I’ve ever written, and to see it in print has been cathartic. Publication closed the circle, so that I could lay those demons to rest.

Give thanks Tanya Batson-Savage and the Susumba team for providing another publication venue for Caribbean writers. 

Read and enjoy!

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The Betsy Writer's Room presents a multilingual, multicultural Reading at The Betsy, Friday, June 27 at 6 p.m. in B Bar.

The Betsy hosts authors from various Hispanic and Caribbean countries in a multilingual reading in B Bar. The evening will be broken up into two readings:

Escribe Aqui will feature readings in Spanish with Hernan Vera Alvarez (Argentina), Pedro Medina Leon (Peru), Camilo Pino (Venezuela) and Jose Ignacio Valenzuela (Chile) at 6PM.

Write Here will follow, with readings in English by Anjanette Delgado (Cuba), MJ Fievre (Haiti), Mia Leonin (Cuba) and Geoffrey Philp (Jamaica).

Special Musical Performance by jazz saxophonist, Nestor Zurita.

Books & Books will have copies from selected works available for purchase.

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW.<http://the-betsy-south-beach.ticketleap.com/betsy-write-here/details>

Cash bar available. This is a free event.

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Professional and amateur writers are being encouraged to submit their work for the annual Jamaica Creative Writing Competition 2014, organised by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC).

The deadline for entry is Wednesday, April 30, and forms and guidelines are available at the JCDC's website www.jcdc.gov.jm or at any JCDC parish office.
Writers wanted - Annual Jamaica Creative Writing Competition 2014 now open - Entertainment - Jamaica Gleaner - Monday | April 28, 2014:



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