Change n' Hues

January 31, 2019 Jhaye-Q Baptiste 0 Comments


The Baptist in TnT had been hounded for, then banned from practicing their religion. Some things do change over years. 


OPPOSITE to where I have sat down is a Baptist woman in full white. Headwrap, flowing dress, sash: flush.
       How connected, I mused. I'll tell you why.
       See, I'd taken this moment to sit and write in my latest little notebook (I have dozens; go through them in a few months, fill them with life's word-milk).
       What was so pressing? I had seen a man, as the maxi passed by, with long ras hair, dressed in flush white robes, like a Baptist, too. Not uncommon in TnT.
       What made him all intriguing was that he had been engrossed, right out there on the narrow pavement near the very public Port-of-Spain Market, in helping a younger, shorter woman, who stood close in front of him, to arrange a headwrap.
       She was dressed all in white, too; and the image of them on the long, bare stretch of sidewalk made me wish I'd had my phone out to capture the sight forever.
       As the maxi had sped on, I resolved to press pause on my traipsing, to sit and write the vision while it was clear and resonant in my mind's eye: this eager, patient man helping his daughter or sister or wife drape and attach her expansive white headcloth.
       Both of them standing out against the stark world like clouds still pale in a dusking sky.

  Shine on  


Present day Baptist at prayer: a regular sight in Trinbago. Photos by Jhaye-Q