Taj Weekes, a leading Saint Lucian reggae artist and global goodwill ambassador, has strongly responded to criticisms made by Archbishop Gabriel Malzaire.
In a recent article published in this newspaper, the Archbishop discussed the issue of ‘lowering standards in schools’ in Saint Lucia.
In 2020, the government announced Taj Weekes among the names of 12 Saint Lucians appointed as Goodwill Ambassadors, and one of nine as Brand Ambassadors.
Here is a full text of Taj’s reply:
Archbishop of Castries
Gabrielle Malzare
Your recent statement on school deportment policies says more about the Church than it does about our children. To lecture the nation about “lowering standards” while ignoring the Church’s role in slavery, colonialism, and the sexual abuse of children is hypocrisy of the highest order.
You argue that discipline in schools is “under strain.” But much of that strain comes not from children’s hair, but from the generational trauma created by the very systems the Church helped enforce.
For centuries, the Church’s rules were used to justify slavery, suppress culture, and impose shame on Black bodies.
To this day, many still carry the wounds of that hypocrisy, taught to obey but never empowered to heal. Is it any wonder that discipline falters when so many of our people are still recovering from the weight of such history?
The issue here is not order versus chaos. It is power. When Black children are told their natural hair is “disorderly” or “a distraction,” they are not being taught respect they are being taught to be ashamed of themselves.
That is not discipline; it is the same colonial logic that insisted whiteness was the standard of decency.
If the Catholic Church truly wishes to lead, let it begin with honesty: by acknowledging its complicity in slavery, confronting its record of abuse, and rejecting the colonial standards it once sanctified. Until then, sermons about hair and discipline ring hollow.
Our children deserve better. They deserve schools that build character by affirming who they are not by repeating the chains of history disguised as “standards.”
Taj Weekes- UNICEF Champion for Children