CONTRARY to what we believe, North Africans are credited with the first acknowledgement as the custodians of what we today address as Christianity: those who survived the destruction of Carthage. But the barbarism of the pagan Romans drove many of those Africans deeper into Africa. The irony of that age was that the Romans themselves would adopt the religion that would later be called Christianity. The Romans stopped tormenting Africans, turned to their religion, and became its followers. For the exact chronicle, explore “The Arab Invasion of Egypt and the Last 30 Years of the Roman Dominion”, by historians Alfred Butler and John Henrik Clarke.

That the hierarchy of religion played a profound role in the slave trade in Africa and the New World should not be alarming. The adaptations will surprise, but do not be alarmed or overwhelmed; it also played a role, even in the destruction of European pagan belief systems. A prominent poet in the making of the embracing of emancipation in colonial Guyana, P. H. Daly, the writer, in his book “Revolution to Republic”, quoted his brethren on Main Street. We knew this man, and we listened to his poetry. As the poet sat with us, he defined our world at the moment. Smiling, he read a poem on the social classes of the day:

“Show you to make a living on the minimum of work and the maximum of bluff and make-believe, while the law of compensation shouts:

‘A thief!’

Such were the men whose nature did begin our nation…

From colony to Emancipation, as they began to recognise themselves as men with much to say and to do.”

Join me next week as we conclude the poet’s narrative…