Imam Shaykh Safraz Bacchus, middle engaged a number of African youngsters throughout his 2024 journey to proceed his humanitarian work, He distributed college provides and meals hampers.
Photograph courtesy of Imam Shaykh Safraz Bacchus
Guyanese-born Imam Shaykh Safraz Bacchus is an excellent religious chief whose inspiring journey from his homeland started on the tender age of 16 when he stated he had the distinctive blessing of dwelling and finding out in North Africa.
Bacchus, who serves on the advisory council of the 106 Precinct and Police Academy Program and at present serves as a member of the clergy advisory council of Queens’ District Legal professional Melinda Katz, delivered a transferring reflection on July 31 at an Emancipation observance hosted by the Guyana Consulate at Medgar Evers School.
Imam, a distinguished religion chief who has served his New York Neighborhood for over ten years, instructed Caribbean Life that whereas dwelling and finding out in North Africa, Cairo, Egypt, it was a time of progress, studying, and deep reflection.
“Throughout these years, lots of my closest companions have been from West Africa—Senegal and The Gambia, Mauritania and Mali.”
“By them, I not solely discovered about scholarship and tradition, however I used to be launched to tales that pierced the soul—tales of battle, survival, and the scars of slavery which have formed generations, stated Bacchus, who in 1993, was granted a full scholarship by the federal government of Egypt in collaboration with the federal government of Guyana.
At that younger and tender age, he mirrored, “I listened to accounts handed down from their fore dad and mom, tales of ancestral ache and unimaginable struggling.”
“What haunted me most have been the tales of households torn aside: how slave masters would beat, abuse, after which separate husbands from their wives, youngsters from their moms. That trauma, the deliberate shattering of human bonds, left an impression I’ve by no means been capable of overlook.”
Bacchus, who immigrated to the US in 2013, earned his grasp’s diploma in Islamic Research and accomplished 4 items of medical pastoral schooling with Northwell Well being. He stated he discovered of Gorée Island in Senegal and Kunta Kinteh Island in The Gambia—”locations etched with the ache of our African brothers and sisters and their ancestors.”
“Final 12 months, I had the chance to go to The Gambia and Senegal. I traveled to West Africa twice. Whereas I took out footage, I felt conflicted emotionally- ought to I stand and take a picture- is it applicable,” he questioned himself.
Nonetheless, he went forward and stood earlier than the dungeons. “I noticed the shackles, the chains, the instruments of torture on show. I stood on the “Door of No Return,” the ultimate passage via which our brothers and sisters have been compelled onto slave ships—many to be bought into bondage, others to perish at sea, changing into meals for sharks.”
“One factor the tour information stated nonetheless echoes in my coronary heart: “The one dwelling witnesses to those horrors are the timber that also stand right here right this moment. If they might communicate, they’d inform us the whole lot that occurred.”
“Maybe, that’s what we should develop into—the voices that talk, so their tales are by no means forgotten,” expressed Bacchus, a humanitarian and champion of causes in his Queens group.
By his indelible work, and fixed presence at quite a few Guyanese occasions, this younger scholar, felt the anguish Africans endured whereas dwelling and supporting households, whether or not, distributing meals and faculty provides, or praying at gatherings, he had a deep connection to the African nations, as seen in his interactions when he returned to the continent in 2024.
“I don’t take a look at folks’s shade, or race, he stated throughout his reflection. As a son of Guyana, I bear in mind our nationwide motto: One Individuals, One Nation, One Future. These phrases are usually not simply political however a name to empathy, unity, and shared humanity. We should really feel one another’s ache, rejoice one another’s triumphs, and commit ourselves to remembering the previous, to not dwell in sorrow, however to make sure such atrocities by no means occur once more on this so-called civilized world,” urged Bacchus.
“Allow us to be the voices the timber by no means had, stated Imam Bacchus, recipient of the Life-Time Achievement Award for his contributions to his group from the Workplace of the President of the US in 2002.
His advocacy to finish gun violence via religion has earned him the popularity of Speaker of the New York Metropolis Council, Adrian Adams. He was additionally appointed to ship the invocation for the opening season of the New York State Meeting.
The Guyanese group applauds and thanks Imam Bacchus for his extraordinary dedication to creating his group a greater place via religion and prayer.
