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  • 8 months ago
Retired Professor at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, and Doctor of Education, Reverend Hazel-Ann Gibbs De Peza says, there is still some discrimination toward the Baptist community, but the country is moving in the right direction .

Her statements come as we approach the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day celebrations.

Nicole M Romany has more.
Transcript
00:00Reverend Dr. Gibbs-DePisa explains that she has personally experienced students
00:06walking out of the classroom she was lecturing in because they refused to be
00:11taught by a Baptist woman. She tells the Morning Edition there is still a lot of
00:17resistance towards their community. People are not fully aware that the
00:23Baptist is a Christian faith so that they still think of us in the image from
00:31the 1917 Prohibition where they called us devil worshippers and they found all
00:39the derogatory terms to use. She also notes the suggestion of Prime Minister
00:45Stuart Young to remove the word shouter from the holiday as it was the colonial
00:50term cast upon the people. She says it will be considered but there are aspects
00:55to be examined closely adding that the entire Baptist community must also be in
01:02agreement. What does that do to the holiday because the holiday is spiritual
01:10Baptist liberation shouters day. That's the official name of the holiday in the
01:16Hansard or whatever it is right. So what happens to that? What happens to the
01:24effect of the shouters prohibition? Are we going to erase that history by
01:31erasing the name? Dr. Gibbs-DePisa tells TV6 it was a great struggle to get from
01:38the prohibition to where they are today. Two of us together we could get locked
01:44up for that. If we held a glass in our hand we could have got locked up for
01:50that. If we sang, if we looked like if we were praying and they believed that we
01:56were shouters as they called us at the time, we were in trouble. The spiritual
02:01Baptist community received a grant of ten million dollars from the government
02:06for the completion of their sacred Cathedral administrative complex and
02:11Heritage Park. Dr. Gibbs-DePisa says it was a positive step for growth and
02:17development. Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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