Sarid DVN from demon possession to prayer warrior
Gospel artiste finds success with album ‘Low City’
DANCEHALL-ARTISTE-TURNED-PASTOR SARID DVN is ecstatic that his 15-track album, Low City: The place where God meets people), has been streaming so well since its release on December 30 last year.
“The album has over 15,000 streams, and the most popular track is Island Praise. I am really happy with the response. God is great, “the artiste, whose real name is Donovan Junior Grant, said.
He is particularly grateful for the success of the single, Fear God, which encapsulates the message and overarching theme of the entire body of work.
“The focus is that people need to know that ‘a broken and contrite heart, God will not despise’. If you want to be saved in the Kingdom of God, you must be humble,” he said.
Grant, who grew up in Millers Wood, on the border of St James and St Elizabeth, travelled to Kingston to pursue music, using the moniker Mr. Ice. He released his first single, Thumbs Up Ladies, in 2002 and performed with his crew on shows such as Sting, Merciless’ Birthday Party, Spectrum, and Tribute to Marcus Garvey.
He was on the verge of a musical breakthrough when he suddenly got sick. What happened next was a harrowing experience.
DEMON POSSESSION
Sarid DVN experienced “a form of demon possession” during which he rapidly lost weight, suffered convulsions, was suddenly crippled, and was unable to speak.
“For months, I couldn’t walk. My tongue felt like it was being stretched out of my mouth, my mind gone, mi thin out, mi ah converse with spirits, but it look like mi a talk to miself. My management at the time was involved in witchcraft. They set me up to sacrifice me, and a woman gave me some food and a spliff with cocaine, and that drove me crazy. I was demon-possessed. My people took me to several obeah men, but nothing worked,” he said.
On one visit to an obeah worker, he had an attack during which he was foaming at the mouth. The obeah man placed four banana leaves alongside him on the ground, and when his mother asked what he was doing, the obeah man responded: “Yu nuh see that is a dead man this, Mommy?”
He shared that during a twoyear long battle with mental illness and demon possession, he had several near-death experiences, “but God was with [him]”.
Evangelist Mullings from the Mt. Zion Church of God Seventh-Day, in St Elizabeth, held several weeks of all-night fasting and prayer, and the demons left, but Sarid DVN was still mentally ill. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, he was admitted to Ward 21 at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
“Mi talk to spirits. Demons throw mi down and twist mi hand under mi foot ... but I eventually got well ... the process took about two years. God healed me. There is light, there is darkness, there are people working for the devil and people working for God,” he said.
He got baptised and went into gospel music, using the name Survivor the Gifted. In 2005, he recorded his first gospel song, Fear God, and performed at many concerts.
“But mi backslide ... tried to go back in the dancehall world ... and then mi go back in church again. It’s been a journey. But through it all, God preserved me,” he said.
Sarid DVN eventually migrated to St Kitts and Nevis in 2017 after getting married. He has done regional performances in Antigua and St Lucia, and he performed on two nights of the Hosanna Gospel festival in St Kitts
A two-time nominee in the Antigua and Barbuda Gospel and Media Awards, Sarid DVN won the award in 2020 for a remixed version of Fear God.