Caracas, June 21, 2024 – As part of the Drums of ALBA: Beats of our Identity event taking place in Venezuela, the conference “Caribbean Identity and Spirituality” was held this Friday.

Anthropologist and Venezuelan researcher Diógenes Díaz began his presentation by emphasizing that “spirituality in the Caribbean was a political stance, just as all traditions and ancestral cults of the Caribbean were a political response to colonial practices in order to subdue us”.

He also noted that each tradition highlights deities and spiritual leaders to confront those who seek to dominate peoples. “Drums and ceremonies disrupt the order because these are celebrations of black people”, he concluded.

He added “All the traditions we have are part of our great political instruments to counteract dominant narratives that labeled us as witches, fetishists.”

He emphasized the urgency, in the current times, to strengthen the spiritual wisdom of our peoples with our own strength.

Art and spirituality in the Caribbean

Sophia Lee, an artist and cultural researcher from Barbados, stated that this Caribbean country was impacted by colonialism through the imposition of slavery. “However, this did not stop the colonized from expressing their art.”

Lee emphasized that in the 21st century, the “corruption of colonization” continues. In this regard, she indicated that art and traditions must continue to be tools for promoting freedom.

Furthermore, Lee mentioned that rituals and dances also have a connection with the entire African and Caribbean spirituality. In this sense, she noted that she has been working on proposing the inclusion of spirituality as a subject of study in schools and universities.

The Spiritual and the Physical

María Fernanda Romero, a researcher at the Centro de Saberes Africanos (Institute of African Knowledge) in Venezuela, said that without spirituality, there is no body, and that spirit manifests in the physical reality. “Separating the physical from the spiritual goes against humanity,” she added.

Romero explained that capitalism has tried to attack, persecute, and eradicate the spirituality of peoples. “The stripping away of spirituality, our culture, our territory, aimed to kill the beliefs of the African people to be used for production, all related to the economic aspect”, she stated.

She added that “it is the same dispossession being done to Palestine today, but the people continue and will continue to resist.”