Devon Dick The Baptists acknowledged that "slavery and the slave trade were the very negation of God".
At the end of last month, the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) in its 157th annual assembly, through its president Rev. Karl Henlin, made a declaration to mark the 200th anniversary of the passing of the Act of Abolition in the British Parliament in 1807.
The Baptists declared, "Slavery and the slave trade were and still remain a blot and stain on the consciences of the nations that encouraged, organised and participated in this act of evil and who, to this very day, have not demonstrated any adequate act of repentance for their acts of iniquity."
Many persons feel that the expressions of British Prime Minister Tony Blair were inadequate.
Wind of change
However, there is a wind of change in Britain with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, and others in the Anglican Communion, repenting for the role of the Anglican church in slavery. The church enslaved people in the Caribbean.
The Church of England recognised that slavery had led to the impoverishment of nations and pledged to fight against human trafficking and oppression world-wide. Of a fact, the slave trade seriously blighted the development of the continent of Africa.
Beverley Carey, in her book on the Maroons, made the point that slavery enriched the British Empire but many English persons were not taught about that aspect of their history.
Repentance is indeed necessary. Repentance is great sorrow for undesirable actions and a desire not to commit the same offence in the future and if there were an opportunity to live one's life over then that offence would not have been committed.
The Baptists also acknowledged that "slavery and the slave trade were the very negation of God".
Importantly, the Baptists recog-nised the link between the slave trade and the extermination of the original inhabitants of Jamaica.
They said, "Slavery and the slave trade led to the genocide and extermination of the over three million Taino inhabitants of Jamaica and the Greater Antilles."
This awful tragedy was graphically described by the Baptists who said, "Slavery and the slave trade stacked our ancestors like cargo beneath the stinking and fetid decks of ships where they lay in their waste and vomit, suffering pain from the sores and ulcers and chafes from their shackles and diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria, dysentery, smallpox, typhoid, yaws, leprosy, hookworm, scurvy,yellow fever and measles ran riot and rampant thinning their ranks and mercifully ending their suffering."
The Baptists continued, "This was the holocaust of the particular race of human beings that was subject to them. Untold millions died on the voyages between Africa and the Caribbean and there are no memorials."
The Baptists were not only recalling the horrors of the slave trade but also gave thanks. They gave thanks for the passage of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade on March 25, 1807 and which became effective on May 1, 1807 which declared the African slave trade unlawful.
They also gave thanks "that this law and those who urged its passage redeemed that section of the Church which in error justified this evil trade, sanctioned slavery and treated our ancestors with unmitigated cruelty". They recognised the culpability of some members of the Church.
The Baptists also made a commitment that they "shall not betray, neglect or forfeit the blessing of the freedom we have inherited".
This is a serious pledge because the Baptists have committed to be in the vanguard in the fight to challenge spiritual wickedness in high places and, in the words of the president of the JBU, the principalities and powers.
Rev Devon Dick is pastor of Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: the Church in Nation Building'.
