On the evening of Sunday 27th August, 2023, the St. Augustine’s Chorale presented an Evening of Negro Spirituals under the theme “Know the Past, Shape the Future” at the St. Augustine’s Church in East End.
The evening formed part of a programme of events for the St. Agustine’s Anglican Church’s annual Patronal Festival. All the songs depicted the hopes and dreams of the enslaved Africans’ and their freedom and emancipation.
Following the invocation by the Director of the Chorale, Lennox Vanterpool, the event got underway with Mrs. Althea Hodge giving a synopsis of the negro spirituals – a cultural musical tradition of negro slaves:
“Let us focus today on the time period 1619 to 1865,” she said. “This is the recorded period of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Millions of Africans were captured, sold into slavery and transported across the Atlantic to work in forced labour conditions on plantations in the West Indies, in America, Brazil and other regions in the West.”
“Christianity, the religion of the slave masters, was forced upon the enslaved,” she pointed out. “Interestingly, the slaves were not allowed freedom of expression, but they were allowed to engage in various Eurocentric religious practices, as the slave masters felt that was a way to better control them.”
The slaves could not read the Bible, but they memorized the biblical verses which they heard and translated them into their own customized songs known as religious folk songs or spirituals.
The event featured songs which were upgraded in modern lyrics and contemporary tones now known as negro spirituals.
Songs like “Hold On, Deep River”, “Ride on King Jesus”, “Down by the River Side”, “Down to the River to Pray”, “My Lord What a Morning” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” were just some of the renditions performed by the St. Augustine’s Chorale and the St. Mary Pro Cathedral Choir. The St. Augustine’s Junior Choir also rendered an item during the event, backed up by the Junior Choir Band. The men and the women also rendered selected pieces to much acclaim from the audience.
At the end of the inspiring and uplifting event, Priest in Charge Canon Reid Simon said: “It was truly a wonderful gathering in sharing with the Chorale and the Choir and being in the House of the Lord this evening. It was a great treat, and we just want to say thanks for the wonderful items that were rendered. Indeed, we should do this more often.”
He also gave notice that another event of a similar nature, staged by the choirs, will be held at the St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral on September 10th at 6:00 p.m. “It will be an evening of singing on the virtues of faith, hope and love,” Cannon Simon announced. He encouraged the audience and the general public to attend the September 10th event.
The Sunday evening event of negro spirituals was streamed via Lloyd’s Live on Facebook and YouTube.
