May is a very special month for all Haitians and for all blacks that populate this planet. The people of Haiti were the first black people to say NO to colonial slavery on May 18, 1803. Useless to point out here the devastations that colonial slavery made on this planet. We just have that to look at the state in which the African continent is and the mental confusion in which many blacks are today. The colonial slave system not only destabilized the black people but disconnected it from its roots, of its original religion that linked it with its creators. The aim of my article is not to tell the history of the independence of Haiti. I propose here a glance on this unfinished independence that must pass by the spiritual decolonization, and of the return to the original religions.
Among the black peoples, Haitians were the first to find their freedom while saying NO to colonialist powers. Admittedly, there still remains much to be done since the colonial powers still exist in Haiti in several forms. The great independence is not completed yet. The hour has come for a total spiritual decolonization, which will lead the Haitians to find their roots and their religions. When this independence is acquired, the Haitians will find their true autonomy and will finally be in charge.
Haiti already gave the example once by saying no to colonial slavery and her black brothers followed it in this step. Today, Haitians must once again show the example by saying NO to the religion of its colonizers; Catholicism, which is a form of spiritual colonization. This religion does not help in any way the black man to be in charge, quite to the contrary; it slows down all progress. Moreover, our ancestors were converted by force to this religion. The instructions coming from the Holy See were simple: a missionary arrived at the village accompanied by some soldiers pronounced some Latin sentences, – incomprehensible language for the villagers – and those who refused to convert to Christianity were dealt with by the soldiers. It was not the message of the Christ any more who spoke, but rifles. As for the others, they were brought in the new world; and one knows what awaited them. Well yes! Thus our ancestors were Christianized a bible in the left hand and a rifle in the right hand. Can somebody tell me what is glorious about being Catholic today? Some will say to me: “Yes, but Christian Faith…” The Catholic Church has nothing to do with the Christ’s true teachings that are: “love your neighbor like yourself, don’t do to your neighbor (or a stranger) what you don’t like others to do to you”. If they had really come to bring to Africans the Christ’s true teachings, filled with wisdom and love, there never would have been this May 18, 1803 and its useless blood baths.
Among all these deaths, there were incontestably geniuses that could have forwarded in a considerable way the African continent, thus saving it from never ending diseases and famines. It is clear today, that the true messages of Christ were diverted by this organization to serve the colonial powers. Some will say; “But all that is the past”. They continue by saying: “Because it is the past, we should not betray their memories, knowing what they underwent by the Catholic Church, by continuing to be Catholics”. Please, let us not close the eyes on these many African Prophets who were condemned to die on pyres or were imprisoned for life by the Catholic Church.
Among these persons, a young woman named Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatrice, her Christian name), born in 1684 in the kingdom of Congo. Slavery had already started at that time and Kimpa Vita rose against the injustice to which the Portuguese missionaries subjected the local population. She taught dignity to the women and incited them to rise up against the injustice. She was a young woman of great beauty. She attracted an increasingly large crowd and the population appreciated her teachings. She unfortunately attracted the wrath of the local Clergy that did not appreciate the deviations from the
Christian dogma, because for them, Antonians (name of Kimpa Vita’s movement) threatened the Christian faith. Finally, Kimpa Vita was burnt at the stakes with her baby and her companion in the same way as all those who 2 centuries earlier had defied the doctrines of the Catholic Church. One can recognize here Copernic, Galileo, Jean Hus, Tommaso Campanella, Giordano Bruno, but also tens of intellectuals and great scientists who rotted in the prisons of the Holy Office or who were executed under the commands of the Holy Office, the Inquisition tribunal, in order to keep the Catholic dogma intact and to protect its theology, therefore its political power, social, colonial, educational… it was thus necessary to eliminate Kimpa Vita.
Kimpa Vita was executed on July 2, 1706. She was burned at the stakes, dead with as pretexts the message of Jesus. After the death of Kimpa Vita, many Congolese were enslaved. These Congolese worked in coffee plantations, the greatest number in Haiti, where they had brought with them their cultures and their religion, of which that of Kimpa Vita. The teachings of Kimpa Vita still linger in Haiti under mystic forms. Wouldn’t this be a tribute and a useful training to find these teachings, respectful of human rights, and stimulating liberation and true independence? By continuing to give its power to its colonizing aggressors, all these sufferings are useless and it even perpetuates the slave system. On the other hand, liberating oneself from the stranglehold influence of the Catholic Church – contrary to the message of Jesus – all the peoples of this Earth regain their life, their power and their future in hand and it is only at this time that one can pronounce the words of INDEPENDENCE.
Who says independence, says freedom. And being free of ones colonizers, free of this message that induces feeling of guilt and of the criminal past, it is a great step towards progress, the end of the famines, and especially, towards Love.
Riquet St-Hubert
Haitian and raelian
