Perspective: “The Power of Love”

Speaking at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  … Bishop Michael Curry in his eloquent and most relevant sermon/exhortation examined the various forms of love as he saw them from his own perspective … among them is “redemptive love, love is stronger than death”.  He declared. The goodly reverend Bishop Michael Curry, an American who is the presiding bishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Communion in America was at his best, articulate, animated and amusing, as he captivated his captive and stately audience, held them as if in suspended animation and also  spellbound in an enraptured state.  Some thirteen million worldwide tuned in to listen and watch this spectacle on various media platforms.  It was an event befitting of royalty. Ironically, it was between a member of the royal family and a Commoner of mixed race.  A descendant of slavery of that. The enslaver who benefited so much economically albeit immorally from the slave trade is now the toast of royalty. Can you imagine, being thrust in the heartland of aristocracy. By marrying  to a descendant of the enslaved this is some vindication by enslavers for past wrongs.

Bishop Dr. Alfred Charles Reid

Speaking at a recently concluded two session musical/  hymn festival focusing on the freedom hymns which we’re considered pivotal in the struggle to unleash the abominable shackles of slavery in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, W.I.. Bishop Reid most articulately  narrated and chaired this excellent function comprising choirs with the theme ” Power Of Love .”

Scars

In Jamaica, W.I. our own retired 13 Th Lord Bishop Alfred Charles Reid declared on May 6, 2018,  that “Slavery and the middle passage were worst than the holocaust” . This most degrading slave trade was indeed a human tragedy as the dignity of human beings was at its lowest.  Africans were put at  the lowest level as they were sold into slavery.  It was so degrading that it has left indelible scars on the black race across the world. You may argue that various races across the world including Indians and Jews etc. have been enslaved. In fact in 2018 … there are still slavery units being found across the world. As Bob Marley, that internationally acclaimed reggae recording artiste from Jamaica has declared,  asking his listeners “to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, none but us can free our minds”.  Mans inhumanity to humankind in the name of financial gain. The colonialists like France and Britain swelled their coffers from their empires.

Poetic Perspective:

Slavery

Slavery was inhumane …
Wreaking undue pain …
Morally, a downright shame
A degrading exploit the game …

Many died in Middle Passage …
It was a treacherous miscarriage
Overcrowded and insanitary …
It was indeed an atrocity ..

Colonialists got rich off trade
Request for reparation a tirade
PM Cameron said forget the rape
Was he for real or a fake …

The slave trade was inhumane
The concept was a shame …
The idea of chaining humankind
Was atrocious,, most unkind …

By humankind of any land …
Shackling his fellow man …
Transporting them as if cargo
Still bound as they go ….

Meghan uplifted her black race
By presenting talent of taste
They graced the stage with pride
It was talent of high tide …

Slavery was a shameful act …
No joke … an undisputed fact
Much anger it does evoke
By the gentry even white folk

To the shackled it trampled
Of self-esteem it did berate
Many met an unfortunate fate
There was a high death rate

If water was not up to date
Slaves were thrown over board
To preserve stock on board …
This was so absurd …

Such were the atrocities …
Inhumane were their activities 
Human cargo,  diminished worth
A subject we dare not skirt …

By Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie, poet, satirist, and SIC for Vision Newspaper Canada