What is My Creed?

There are two things in this life I really do not like to do. The first is to go to funerals and the second is to visit people in prison. Both of these places make me feel ill and for the latter I usually end up seeing what I don’t want to see and thinking what I don’t want to think.

This article was born of a brief reasoning held earlier this week with the Acting Superintendent of Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) and before I go any further, I want to again give him my full assurance that what is written here should not be taken personally. The context is that on Monday I tried to persuade him that he should widen the bases on which he exercised the discretionary authority of his office to allow me to visit my breddren in Her Majesty’s Prison more than once per fortnight. When I failed to persuade him that I needed to check on my brother’s condition more often than that, I tried to use the matter of faith and his spiritual needs but to no avail. Food items could be delivered as those were “essential” but apparently spiritual food is not considered to be quite so essential so we did not agree. What prompted me to write this, however, was the matter of the word and concept of “creed” as it appears in the Anguilla Constitution. The Officer’s interpretation of “creed” in the Constitution is that of an officially registered religion but this led me to question whether that is the interpretation held across the board and to find out what legal references exist, to give guidance regarding the interpretation of the concept of creed, to those who make and enforce the law and well those whose job it is to meet out and guarantee justice. I know that there is a requirement for the registration of churches or denominations in most jurisdictions but I am not sure that this extends to religions.
I started by checking on dictionary definitions and looked first at Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (10th Edition) which gave the Old & Medieval English, Latin (credo- I believe) and French roots of the word which means “to believe, trust, entrust;” However, the formal definitions are, “1. a brief authoritative formula of religious belief. 2. a set of fundamental beliefs; also: a guiding principle.” Another source, Webster’s College Dictionary, defines “creed” as “1. an authoritative formulated statement of the chief articles of Christian belief.” When I read that I thought that the Officer was right and that I just needed to verify that interpretation as the official one to guide our thinking on the Constitution. I then went on to the second meaning, “2. an accepted system of religious or other belief,” and that led me to ask the Banksian question, “acceptable to whom?” Yet another publisher, the Oxford Study Dictionary defines creed as, “a formal summary of Christian beliefs. 2. a set of beliefs or priciples.” These meanings may not be exhaustive but they serve the purpose of strengthening the foundation for my questioning.
What I want to know and would appreciate an answer from the Constitutional Review Committee is what is the legal interpretation of the word “creed” in the Anguilla Constitution, whether there is national consensus on this as the best working definition and whether this should also be subject to review and reform if the existing interpretation is not adequately protective of people’s rights. I want to know because if the legal interpretation is tied to a definition that specifies Christian beliefs, those of us who are not Christians may find that our human rights may be breached in ways that are in fact not unconstitutional. Anguilla may not have the same record but right across the Caribbean I an I an I files show abuse that in some instances have led to the death of Rastafarians who may not have been equipped to stand up for their rights but who were in the hands of the legal, or judicial and penal systems. It was a long time ago, but the memory is still there of our Brother Kabinda (formerly Desmond Trotter) of Dominica who ended up on death row for a murder he did not commit. In spite of international appeals, it was Hurricane David I believe, that broke down the prison walls and set him free for a later pardon. Our records also show that those responsible for such atrocities have usually remained free.
This is by no means meant to be an attack on Her Majesty’s Prison or the officers there for even casual observation during my recent visit indicated that working conditions there are far from ideal. I can well imagine too that HMP is not on the priority list for increased budget allocations because institutions like those are usually low on the list alongside others that do not generate revenue. However, it is meant to draw everyone’s attention to the matter of interpretation of what obtains in the Anguilla Constitution. I know that our women fought long and hard to add the word “gender” to that list which includes, race, class and creed as areas that people cannot be discriminated against without being in breach of the constitution. However, I am now not sure how this is interpreted in a legal sense and whether the legal interpretations are in harmony with social ones. I am thinking that next time I visit it would be interesting to see the female quarters for my visit may last more than half an hour. I am also remembering now that when the prison was being planned, the British had sent out a young woman as one of their social consultants I think. I had loaned her some of my Social Work textbooks on the design of total institutions and joked with her about the possibility that my books would be used to design a prison that I could later critique from within. I noticed immediately that the visiting area is much too small and could barely accommodate three visitors to two prisoners with two officers present.
I know that there are limits on the terms of reference of the Constitutional Review Committees but only when the man, woman and youth on the streets of Anguilla are familiar with these kinds of detail regarding the country’s Constitution that the work of this Committee as well as the Human Rights Committee’s work can make sense. Concerning the prison, there is also more work for these Committees to ensure that every prisoner knows his and her rights and also to ensure that the incarceration of mentally ill persons in HMG is not in breach of their rights. I hope someone somewhere can provide an answer to my questions but let them not come just from me for these are matters of relevance to the lives and future of all Anguillians.

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