Robert Athlyi Rogers

Robert Athlyi Rogers (6 May 1891 – 24 August 1931), born in Anguilla, was the author of the Holy Piby, and founder of the "Afro-Athlican Constructive Church".

Biography

He was born on the island of Anguilla on 6 May 1891, and immigrated to the United States as a youth. In 1917, Rogers wrote the Negro Map of Life and founded the United Home and Bank of the Negroes.

Ministry

According to Alfredo Nieves Moreno in the Encyclopedia of Puerto Rico, the 1920s and 1930s were an active and exciting time for the social movements that sought to highlight the importance of African heritage in the world. Among the most significant developments were the government of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I and Marcus Mosiah Garvey's ideas of "Africa for Africans" and his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which also inspired the Rastafarian movement begun by Leonard Percival Howell in Jamaica. Pastor Robert Athlyi Rogers emerged from this evolution of thought and philosophy about the black race.

Jamaican leader Marcus Mosiah Garvey had immigrated to the United States in 1916 and established a chapter of the UNIA there. In 1922, Rogers attended a UNIA meeting in Newark, New Jersey, and was very impressed with Garvey's discourse. Rogers' admiration for Garvey was such that he declared Garvey an "apostle of God" and dedicated the seventh chapter of the Holy Piby to him. Written between 1913 and 1917, and published in 1924 in New Jersey, the Holy Piby was a response to the western Holy Bible, which the author described as of "white origin". To Rogers, the Promised Land for Africans was Ethiopia. Considered "the black man's Bible," the Holy Piby was the first book published by an Anguilla writer in the 20th century.