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ABSTRACT
This essay examines the contributions of four Caribbean theologians to the disciplines of theology and anthropology, and human rights conversations. Jean-Bertrand Aristide (Haiti), Idris Hamid (Trinidad), Noel Leo Erskine (Jamaica), and D.H. Kortright Davis (Antigua and Barbuda) articulate a common vision of a Caribbean theology of emancipation and decolonization. Arguably, their political theological discourse is an attempt to engage the Caribbean experience within the framework of the postcolonial life and anti-imperial reason. There exist substantial convergences and confluences, as well as ideological parallels and connections in the political theology and contextual theology of freedom and hope in the work of these four thinkers who emerged from four different geographical corners of the Caribbean. Finally, we will make some connections to the revolutionary ideas and political theology of Fidel Castro. Caribbean theology of emancipation, decolonization, and hope emerges out of the labyrinth of European slavery and colonialism, American imperialism, White supremacy, and globalization.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on Contributor
Celucien L. Joseph (PhD, University of Texas at Dallas; PhD, University of Pretoria) is Professor of English at Indian River State College. His most recent publications include Thinking in Public: Faith, Secular Humanism, and Development in Jacques Roumain (Pickwick Publications, 2017) and Between Two Worlds: Jean Price-Mars, Haiti, and Africa (Lexington Books, 2018).
Notes
1 Segovia, Decolonizing Biblical Studies, 119.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 119–20.
4 Ibid., 126.
5 Sugirtharajah, Asian Biblical Hermeneutics, 126.
6 Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa, 1–4.
7 Dube, Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation, 16.
8 Ibid., 105.
9 Dussell, Beyond Philosophy, 33.
10 Davis, Roots and Blossoms, xviii.
11 Glissant, Caribbean Discourse and Poetics of Relation.
12 Glissant, Caribbean Discourse, 89.
13 Torres-Saillant, An Intellectual History.
14 Ibid., 17.
15 Ibid., 19.
16 Castro, “History Will Absolve Me,” 62.
17 Chancy, Frame Silence, 5–7.
18 Ibid., 5.
19 Ibid., 19.
20 Ibid., 11.
21 Danticat, Create Dangerously.
22 Ibid., 64.
23 Ibid., 64.
24 Ibid.
25 Benitez-Rojo, The Repeating Islands, 2–3.
26 Pfaff, Conversations with Maryse Conde, 109.
27 Hurbon, Dieu dans le Vaudou haïtien.
28 Davis, Roots and Blossoms.
29 Hamid, In Search of New Perspectives.
30 Erskine, Decolonizing Theology.
31 Davis, Emancipation Still Comin’.
32 Gregory, Caribbean Theology.
33 Fontus, Effective Communication of the Gospel in Haiti.
34 Fils-Aime, Vodou, je me souviens.
35 Casseus, Toward a Contextual Haitian Theology.
36 Qtd in Davis, Emancipation Still Comin’, 95.
37 Casseus, Toward a Contextual Haitian Theology.
38 Ibid., 25.
39 Ibid., 25–6.
40 Fontus, Effective Communication, 3.
41 Ibid., 3–4.
42 Davis, Roots and Blossoms, 115.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid., 116.
47 Ibid.
48 Hamid, Troubling of the Waters, 11–12.
49 Ibid., 9.
50 Davis, Emancipation Still Comin’, 88–104.
51 Gregory, “Ministry Formation for the Caribbean,” 80.
52 Ibid., 81.
53 Ibid., 79–100.
54 Gregory, “Introduction,” xi.
55 Ibid., xvii.
56 Keller, Nausner, and Rivera, Postcolonial Theologies, 3; Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970.
57 Dussel, Twenty Theses on Politics.
58 Keller, Nausner, and Rivera, Postcolonial Theologies, 19.
59 Ibid., 17.
60 Davis, Emancipation Still Comin’, 88.
61 Ibid., 89.
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid.
64 Ibid.
65 Ibid., 90.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid.
68 Ibid., 90–1.
69 Ibid., 92.
70 Ibid.
71 Erskine, Decolonizing Theology, 45.
72 Betto, Fidel and Religion, 184.
73 Lowe-Ching, “Method in Caribbean Theology,” 24–5.
74 Ibid., 25.
75 Ibid., 110.
76 Ibid., 24–5.
77 Ibid., 27.
78 Ibid., 28.
79 Ibid.
80 Hamid, In Search of New Perspectives, 3.
81 Ibid.
82 Betto, Fidel and Religion, 217.
83 Castro and Ramonet, Fidel Castro My Life, 308.
84 Ibid., 7.
85 Ibid., 8.
86 Betto, Fidel and Religion, 184.
87 Ibid., 185.
88 Ibid.
89 Ibid., 7.
90 Hamid, Troubling of the Waters, 4.
91 Ibid., 8.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid., 18.
95 Ibid., 17.
96 Hamid, In Search of New Perspectives, 17.
97 Hamid, Troubling of the Waters, 5.
98 Hamid, In Search of New Perspectives, 15.
99 Ibid., 16.
100 Hamid, Troubling of the Waters, 6.
101 Davis, Emancipation Still Comin’, 47.
102 Ibid.
103 Ibid., 80.
104 Ibid., 81.
105 Ibid., 82.
106 Ibid.
107 Ibid.
108 Davis, Emancipation Still Comin’, 83.
109 Ibid.
110 Ibid.
111 Ibid.
112 Erskine, Decolonizing Theology, 36.
113 Ibid.
114 Ibid.
115 Ibid., 118.
116 Betto, Fidel and Religion, 217.
117 Ibid., 118–19.
118 Ibid., 119.
119 Ibid., 120.
120 Ibid.
121 Ibid.
122 Ibid.
123 Ibid.
124 Ibid.
125 Aristide, Aristide: An Autobiography, 202.
126 Erskine, Decolonizing Theology, 2.
127 Dussell Ethics of Liberation, 41.
128 Aristide, Aristide: An Autobiography, 198.
129 Ibid., 198–9.
130 Ibid., 200.
131 Ibid., 200–1.
132 Ibid., 189–205.
133 Castro, “History Will Absolve Me,” 65.
134 For further analysis on this topic, see Joseph, “Prophetic Religion.”
135 See for example, Joseph, “The Rhetoric of Prayer.”
136 Joseph, “Prophetic Religion,” 29–30.
137 See, Joseph, “The Rhetoric of Prayer.”
138 James, The Black Jacobins, 4–20; Joseph, “Prophetic Religion,” 7.
139 James, The Black Jacobins, 391.
140 Castro and Ramonet, Fidel Castro My Life, 226.
141 Ibid., 584.
142 Aristide, Aristide: An Autobiography, 192–3.
143 Aristide, Theologie et politique, 193.
144 Aristide, Eyes of the Heart, 10, 13, 16.
145 Aristide, Aristide: An Autobiography, 194.
146 Hopkins, Being Human, 2.
147 Ibid., 2.
148 Ibid.
149 Castro, “History Will Absolve Me,” 67.
150 Betto, Fidel and Religion, 124, 139, 141.
151 Ibid., 139.
152 Ibid., 140.
153 Ibid., 145.