“Questioning Religion: The Urgent Call for Mental Emancipation and Decolonial Practice”

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized

“Questioning Religion: The Urgent Call for Mental Emancipation and Decolonial Practice”

About a year ago, I announced online that I will be writing an academic article on this beautiful, thought-provoking, and groundbreaking song “E Si’ L Pavle Vini” (2014)/ (“What if He Doesn’t Want to Come”) by the talented Haitian rasta artist Tiga Jean Baptiste. I also added another song to my analysis, “Guede/Gede” (2004) by the famous Haitian band Rasin Bwa Kayiman. I am pleased to inform you that I have written the article and submitted it to one of my favorite academic journals on religion, theology, and cultural criticism.

In my essay, I offer an exegetical reading of the rhetorical (postcolonial) language and (decolonial) message of the two songs that are written or sung within the framework of a postcolonial critique of imperial and neo-colonial Christianity. In both songs, the artists make counterclaims toward missionary Christianity and call upon the Haitian people to reject its colonized form and reclaim their ancestral traditions. I examine the songs from four different and complementary lenses: political theology, liberation theology, postcolonial criticism, and decolonial framework. At the end of the essay, I make some recommendations to both Christian and Vodou practitioners to engage in healthy interreligious dialogue and education that will contribute to greater religious tolerance and understanding toward the common good in society.

Both songs address the cultural alienation and enslavement of the Haitian people brought by European colonization and imperial Western Christianity, supported by American imperialism. The songs call for the decolonization and emancipation of the Haitian mind and to reject both the colonized version of Christianity and for the Haitian people to embrace the Haitian cultural identity rooted in the practices of African ancestral retentions in Haiti and Haitian Vodou.

I shall hear from the editor maybe in two to three months if the article has been accepted for publication. I will keep you posted during the reviewing process. While both of us are waiting to hear from the reviewers, let us enjoy together this beautiful lyric: “E Si’ L Pavle Vini”

Happy listening!.

August 14: “Bwa Kayiman in Haitian Memory and the Birth of Haiti”

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized

“Bwa Kayiman in Haitian Memory and the Birth of Haiti”
You are invited to participate in this important event. See the flyer for more details!



Topic: Bwa Kayiman in Haitian Memory and the Birth of Haiti
Time: Aug 14, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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“Before You Come”: A New Poem

Dr. Celucien Joseph Uncategorized

I have not written a poem for months. To bid farewell to the month of July, it is my pleasure and delight to share with you my new poem called “Before You Come.” This poem is also intended to pave the way to salute the month of August. I also played with another title “Unlock My Heart.” Which one of the two titles do you like and the one that goes with the meaning of the poem?


“Before You Come”

My life was a guitar with no melodic chords.
A poem with no rhythmic pattern to remember joy;
A song with no refrain to spark emotions;
You poured love into my old griefs.
You relaxed my dried smiles with blue waters.
I only knew tears of blues and gloomy memories.
You unlocked my heart with the new story you created in me.

Before you moved in me, I wandered in the shades of night like a lonely dream.
False lovers dragged me to places where it did not rain.
They sketched a fake image of me with an ink that was made to fade.
With a single click, you deleted their story across the plane of despair.
You pulled me back in to find rest in thee.
You wrapped me in your smile.
I knew the words of the song, but you wrote the full song.
I memorized the steps to the dance, but you were the Lord of the dance.

Before you found me, my lips were hungry for a kiss.
My body has wallowed in the darkness.
I have closed my soul to men.
You looked into my eyes and spoke softly, “I’ll be your lock.”
Your hands around my waist,
We moved to the last beat.
You showed me the way to the studio,
We played the tune with no end.
I made my heart a home for you to rest.
Each word of our story will be tattooed on our skin as one.