THE EDITOR: The all-inclusive fabric of our society, married with the recent and continued awakening particularly of African spirituality, as espoused in the Ifa Orisa ancestral veneration and other spiritual practices surviving the transatlantic journey, have proven to be a welcomed change to the mainstream and respected doctrines bequeathed to those of African lineage.

What is alarming though is the apprehension with which these practices are accepted as a working part of the whole, coupled with the deafening silence of most practitioners of senior office in the traditions, who allow the ignorance of the misinformed to prevail unabated; much to the peril of devotees.

The ad nauseam complaints of wanton disrespect have erupted, as evidenced by the forcible removal of spiritual paraphernalia from the wrists of children by teachers while in school. Doesn't this speak to a principle under the Offences Against the Person Act?

Employers in some government and private institutions, notwithstanding policies that speak to dress and general deportment, are making demands that items be removed. What about the decision in Sharon Roop v Attorney General of TT and the fundamental nature of certain practices? I digress.

What a most opportune time to seek these inalienable benefits as for the first time we as a nation will celebrate African Emancipation Day.

The protections enshrined in the Constitution, Laws of TT, have been designed to be complimentary to certain enjoyments without discrimination, yet they manifest as conjecture.

As a concerned citizen and practitioner, I whisper in the first instance for some intervention on the part of the organisations that litter African spiritual practices, and that the call of responsible people be heeded by those in authority.

MARK WILLIAMS

via e-mail

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