Mother Melvina Rodney aka Iyalorisha Melvina Rodney celebrated her 92nd
birthday on, November 8. Mother Rodney was born on November 8,1914.
According to her granddaughter Michelle Rodney, Mother Rodney is the
spiritual mother of approximately 500 spiritual children belonging to the
Spiritual Baptist religion and the Orisha religion. Among those
children are legendary calypsonian Lord Nelson aka Robert Nelson, cultural
activist Pearl Eintou Springer, Rudolph Eastman, Mother Dolories Denny, and
Sheppie Chris Joseph.
In
2000, the Trinidad and Tobago
awarded Mother Rodney the Chaconia Silver Medal for her contribution to
religion. Journal authors have also written about her. Also lecturer at
the University of the
West
Indies, Dr. Funso Aiyejina, has immortalized her in his poem ‘Birthday Orika
for Iyalorisa Melvina Rodney’.
The
Spiritual Baptist Online News Magazine learned that Mother Rodney will
celebrate her big day with close relatives at her grand-daughter’s home at 8
Dallas Avenue Cocoyea village, South Trinidad.
Mother Rodney shot into national headline sometime in the 1990s when the
Ooni of Ife visited Trinidad and Tobago
as a guest of that country’s the government in commemoration of Emancipation
Day. When the Ooni visited Iya Rodney’s compound at
Battoo Boulevard,
Marabella, he crowned Mother Rodney Orisha Priestess of Trinidad and Tobago.
