Devon Dick

According to Hartley Neita, it was February 23, 1814. He said in the informative feature This Day in our Past: "The Baptist mission is founded in Jamaica when Rev John Rowe, who is sent by the English Missionary Society, arrives in Montego Bay, St James, to start the establishment of the denomination."

However, it was George Liele, an ordained Baptist minister of African origin, who started the Baptist mission in Jamaica, and not the English Baptists.

It was a common mistake to claim that the English Baptists established Baptist work in Jamaica because English Baptists made that claim. The English Baptist missionaries produced a document in 1833, A Narrative of Recent Events Connected With the Baptist Mission in the Island, From its Commencement, in 1814, to the End of 1831, which said that the Baptist mission commenced in Jamaica in 1814. In 1842, the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) made a similar claim.

But Baptist work had begun three decades before, through the instrumentality of Liele in 1783 and later Baker, who started Baptist work in western Jamaica in 1788. In fact, when the BMS missionary, John Rowe, arrived in 1814, there were approximately 7,000 - 8,000 Baptists.

Jubilee celebration

This misplaced credit started in the 19th century. The jubilee of the arrival of the English Baptists was celebrated in 1864, but the Jubilee of the arrival of Liele was never celebrated.

However, in 1983, the Jamaica Baptist Union celebrated the arrival of Liele. In this bicentenary celebration, Union Baptists located their heritage in Liele.

This was further enhanced with the publication of Clement Gayle's seminal work on George Liele, which labelled Liele as a pioneer missionary in addition to being the founder of the Baptist work in Jamaica.

There was also the George Lisle Educational Centre at East Queen Street Baptist Church, which kept his name alive.

However, after 1983, Baptists hardly mentioned the establishment of Baptist work and what is highlighted each sssembly is the number of years since the Jamaica Baptist Union was believed to be founded.

A significant development that might enable Liele to re-take central role in Baptist work and witness in Jamaica is the annual George Liele Lecture which started four years ago.

Like the native Baptists who formed their missionary society around 1840 in reaction to the unfair treatment by English Baptists, Liele is not being given credit for the establishment of the Jamaican Baptist mission. The native Baptists felt that Baptists of African origin were not treated by the English missionaries with Christian love and that they had neglected to appreciate the ministry of their ancestors as founders of the Baptist mission in Jamaica.

In 2005, on a Jamaican Government website, it declared, "these two slaves [Liele and Baker] started what came to be known as the 'Native Baptist Movement' which had certain superstitious and pagan beliefs."

Liele was not given the credit for starting the Baptist mission, but rather erroneously, the native Baptist movement, which was considered pagan! In addition, when they came to Jamaica, they were not enslaved. However, as Hartley Neita stated, Rowe was invited to Jamaica by Liele and Moses Baker and Liele.

Giving credit

The issue about when the Baptist mission began is not an issue about an accurate date. It has to do with giving credit to persons of African origin who have made outstanding contributions but who have been overlooked.

Dr Billy Hall, veteran journalist, is the only person who I recall appealed for George Liele to be made a national hero.

He might not get that designation but at least let us hail him as the founder of the Baptist mission in Jamaica.