Category: Culture

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Culture Music Religion

Trinidad and Tobago celebrates Black History Month in New York

Trinidad Guardian’s New York Correspondent, Dr. Glenville Ashby, reports on the event held at the Trinidad Consulate New York offices to commemorate Black History month.

Drummers ignite the large audience.

The Trinidad and Tobago Consulate in New York was transformed into a virtual palais as members of the Orisa and Shouter faith, backed by drummers, ignited the packed audience. The occasion was Black History Month celebration, the first of its kind at the downtown Manhattan consular offices. In her opening remarks, consul General Rudrawatee Nan Ramgoolam stressed the importance of culture in the lives of people the world over. She lamented the cultural disconnect by many of the nation’s youths, and beckoned them to re-examine their rich cultural heritage and the people who have excelled in every field despite struggles and obstacles. “Too many of our youths are without positive mentors and even heroes and we feel that celebrating the great persons in our past and present will offer a point of reference,” she noted. She identified the unparalleled contribution of Dr Eric Williams, ANR Robinson, CLR James, Rudolph Charles, Boscoe Holder, Len Boogsie Sharpe, Giselle La Ronde, Janelle Commissiong, Hasley Crawford and a host of others prominent Afro-Trinidadians. She also made mention of the distinctly Afro-centric faiths that make up the twin island’s religious mosaic, and the contribution of the community to the unique island cuisine.

Her address was followed by a historical presentation by Mobutu Sekou, and a performance by Ifa priest, Mahaba Olufemi, whose rivetting poetry reading, against the backdrop of light drumming, set the tone for an explosive cultural fanfare. The event also featured dancer Lichelle Joseph, and a compelling drumming exhibition by Earl Noel and friends. The evening event was well attended and attracted leaders of the Indo-Trinidadian community, including Imam Ahmed Ali, Gopaul Lall of the East Indian Musical Academy, and Deepak Raman of the Arya Spiritual Centre. Black History Month which began in 1976, celebrates the accomplishments of the African Diaspora and is popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Consul General Nan Rudrawatee pledged its yearly observance at the Consulate. “We only tested the waters,” she said, referring to the inaugural event, “but by the look of things, we may have to get a bigger venue next year.”

For the original report: T&T celebrates Black History Month in NY | The Trinidad Guardian Newspaper.

Categories
Culture diaspora

Caribbean Diasporas: New Book Published

The Caribbean is a fertile environment that fosters complex identities created through the fusion of cultures brought to the islands, identities that Caribbean peoples then take with them as they leave their nations and settle into new homes. The traditions transmitted within these communities are continually subject to loss, gain and reinterpretation. Communication practices play a role in this process as they help to maintain, express, transfer, and challenge the diasporic identities of Caribbean.

“Re-Constructing Place and Space: Media, Culture, Discourse and the Constitution of a Caribbean Diaspora” examines the role of cultural performances and mediated expressions in the construction and maintenance of Caribbean diasporic identities. The objectives for the book are two-fold. The general objective is to contribute to discourse on diasporic identity and performativity. The more specific aim of the book is to highlight the diversity and complexity of Caribbean people’s production of and engagement with cultural forms.

Though much work has been done to debunk the exoticized images of Caribbean nations, people from these countries are often perceived as an essentialized, undifferentiated category, and as technologically and intellectually backward, incapable of sophisticated cultural production, interaction and interpretation. “Re-Constructing Place and Space: Media, Culture, Discourse And the Constitution of a Caribbean Diaspora” seeks to present a more complex representation of people in the Caribbean diaspora, one that highlights their complicated and dynamic relationship to mediated material.

The volume emerged from the 2009 New Media and the Global Diaspora Symposium: Exploring Media in Caribbean Diasporas held at Roger Williams University. The event sought to encourage academic discourse focused on Caribbean migratory populations, foregrounding the role of communicative practices in transmitting and sustaining their traditions. It was also designed as an interdisciplinary forum for Caribbean researchers who study the nature, significance and consequence of Caribbean migration.

In keeping with the spirit of the symposium then, this volume applies a transdisciplinary lens to understanding the diversity and complexity of peoples from the Caribbean region and their diasporic communities.

About the Author
KAMILLE GENTLES-PEART (PH.D.) is Assistant Professor of Global Communication at Roger Williams University. She received a B.A. in Mass Communication, with a focus on multicultural journalism, from Lehman College of the City University of New York, and holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her general research interests include the relationship between diasporic identity construction, particularly of West Indian women in the U.S., and media engagement.

MAURICE L. HALL (PH.D.) is Chair and Associate Professor in the Communication Department at Villanova University, Pennsylvania where he teaches courses on communication in organizations, research methods, and organizational research and consulting. Dr. Hall has also worked as a consultant with a variety of organizations over the past ten years. He specializes in facilitating strategic planning sessions for non-profit organizations, and working with organizations on issues ranging from diversity training and strategic diversity management to conflict management, team building, and organizational communication management.

Categories
Culture Music

Afro-Cuban Music: A Bibliographic Guide By John Gray

“John Gray, master bibliographer of the Afro-Atlantic world has done it again. His powerful new work, Afro-Cuban Music: A Bibliographic Guide, covers the subject in all its facets, all its glory. I wandered happily through this wondrous text, learning, learning, learning. Gray makes you aware of what an amazing cultural machine black Cuba is, from the habanera to orisha rap and back again. A landmark publication in Black Studies.
-Robert Farris Thompson, Yale University, author of Aesthetic of the Cool: Afro-Atlantic Art and Music

Despite its relatively small size Cuba has had an inordinately large musical influence both inside the Caribbean and abroad. From the “rhumba” craze of the 1920s and ’30s to mambo and cha-cha-cha in the 1950s and ’60s and the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon of the late ’90s, Cuba has been central to popular music developments in Latin America, Europe, and the United States.

Unfortunately, no one has ever attempted to survey the extensive literature on the island’s music, in particular the vernacular contributions of its Afro-Cuban population. This unprecedented bibliographic guide, the third in ADP’s critically acclaimed Black Music Reference Series, attempts to do just that. Ranging from the 19th century to early 2009 Afro-Cuban Music offers almost 5000 annotated entries on the island’s various festival and Carnival traditions as well as each of its main musical families-Cancion Cubana, Danzon, Jazz, Son, Rumba, and Sacred Musics (Santeria, Palo, Abakua, and Arara)-along with more recent developments such as timba, rap and regueton. It also provides sections on Afro-Cuban musical instruments, the music’s influence abroad, and a biographical and critical component covering the lives and careers of some 800 individual artists and ensembles. Spanish-language sources are covered comprehensively, in particular dozens of locally published journals, along with a sizable cross-section of the international literature in English, French, German, and other European languages.

The work concludes with an extensive reference section offering lists of Sources Consulted, a guide to relevant Libraries and Archives, an appendix listing artists and individuals by idiom/occupation, and separate Author and Subject indexes.

An essential tool for students, scholars and librarians seeking a window into Afro-Cuban expressive culture-its music and dance, religion, language, literature, aesthetics, and more-both on the island and abroad.

The author is veteran bibliographer John Gray whose previous works include Blacks in Classical Music, African Music, Fire Music: a bibliography of the New Jazz, 1959-1990, From Vodou to Zouk, and, Jamaican Popular Music.

To order please visit the ADP website: www.african-diaspora-press.com<http://www.african-diaspora-press.com/>. The book is also available through most library wholesalers.

Reviews

Afro-Cuban Music: A Bibliographic Guide is an impressive accomplishment that  will prove an invaluable resource for researchers. It is well-organized and offers comprehensive coverage of the available literature, particularly periodical sources which would otherwise be very difficult to find. Users will also appreciate the many annotations included for the details they provide on each work’s contents.
-Robin Moore, University of Texas at Austin, author of Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Cuba, 1920-1940

Praise for the author’s previous works

-From Vodou to Zouk:  “…will prove an indispensable, in-hand reference to current French Caribbean music scholarship”-Library Journal

“…represents a major update of available bibliographical guides…exceedingly pleasurable to recommend…”-Notes (Music Library Association)

-African Music:  “…a truly outstanding achievement…likely to become the standard reference tool on African music for the next decade or so. Supersedes all previously available bibliographies in scope, the clear organization of its data, and of course, in its up-to-dateness”
-Folk Music Journal

Also Available

From Vodou to Zouk: a bibliographic guide to music of the French-speaking Caribbean and its diaspora (vol. 1)

Jamaican Popular Music, from Mento to Dancehall Reggae: a bibliographic guide (vol. 2)

Forthcoming (Fall 2012): Baila! A bibliographic guide to Afro-Latin dance musics, from Mambo to Salsa (Black Music Reference Series; vol. 4)

For original post: African-Diaspora Press/Afro-Cuban Music

Categories
Culture Music

JaJah plays his last tune

Master drummer and instrument maker JaJah Onilu has passed away. Jah Jah, together with the Mau Mau drummers, came to prominence in the wake of the 1970 Black Power upheaval in Trinidad.

Master percussionist JaJah Oga Onilu died Friday at age 57. His family wishes to keep the cause of his death private. Onilu died at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, at 8.15 pm. In an interview yesterday, his youngest son Modupe, 25, said although his father’s health was “not 100 per cent,” his passing came as a shock. Onilu leaves to mourn his three children—Baba, Modupe and Oshun—as well as his wife and his 87-year-old mother, who lives abroad.

JaJah is featured in the following youtube video of a Jewels of Nature performance.

Modupe said: “His death came as a shock because we spent Old Year’s night into New Year’s Day, laughing and talking about plans for the new year.” He said his father’s last major performance was in Tobago last year where he played with Ella Andal at the Baba Maal concert. Onilu formed the band Jewels of Nature and was known for his organic music and musical instruments. Funeral arrangements have not been finalised. Modupe said there would be a commemoration of Onilu’s life at the Little Carib Theatre on a date to be announced.

For original post: JaJah plays his last tune | The Trinidad Guardian.

Categories
Culture History Music

When steelband took London by storm

In the following articles, published in the Caribbean Beat Magazine (issue 113), Dr. Kim Johnson discusses the reception of TASPO, the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra and the importance of its 1951 tour to London, England.

Taspo gives its first performance at the South Bank Exhibition in 1951, under Lt Griffith. Photo: George Konig/Keystone Features/Getty Images

On July 26, 1951, some black men unloaded a pile of rusty steel drums in Southbank, London. It looked like junk. Garbage cans. The pedestrians milling around weren’t even curious. The men with the rusty cans sat with them on their laps and at a gesture swung into “Mambo Jambo”. By one newspaper account, “jaws dropped and eyes widened”.

This was the first modern steelband, and its impact still reverberates in Britain. As for its significance back home in Trinidad, nothing would ever be the same after the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (Taspo), neither musically nor even politically. Yet, a mere six years previously, the Legislative Council had prohibited the playing of “noisy instruments”, ie steelpans, in public.

“Fancy you having a musical evening and inviting these gentlemen of the steel band to provide the music for you!” Sir Courtney Hannays, KC, postulated to the council. “Fancy at any exhibition of the fine arts Trinidad represented by people who beat the steel drums!”

Generally, however, attitudes shifted in the opposite direction. Steelbands blossomed in intelligence and beauty, seducing more and more Trinidadians, until in 1951, six years after Hannays derided the idea, the colony was represented at the Festival of Britain in London by Taspo.

Generally, however, attitudes shifted in the opposite direction. Steelbands blossomed in intelligence and beauty, seducing more and more Trinidadians, until in 1951, six years after Hannays derided the idea, the colony was represented at the Festival of Britain in London by Taspo.

It was the first band whose pans were all made from oil drums, and thus had a more consistent timbre. More important, all were tuned on the chromatic scale at concert pitch, which allowed them to harmonise with other conventional instruments. Taspo also introduced the idea of multiple drums, which allowed the three-bass and two-cello pans to play full scales in the bass range.

Yet the inspiration for Taspo didn’t come from Trinidad. On January 21, 1951, before the thought struck anyone here, the Guardian reported that: “Hell’s Gate Steel Band of Antigua is likely to represent the West Indian steel bands at the Festival of Britain which will be opened in London on May 3.”

By March the Trinidad & Tobago Steel Bands Association had decided to send a representative steelband to the festival. The government refused their request for $6,000, so the association decided to raise the money, and a team of the most gifted panmen was chosen.

This was at the height of the fighting years, when respectable society recoiled from the steelband movement in fear and loathing. “You think they would ever send a steelband to England with them set of hooligans in it?” sceptics told Tony Williams. “Boy, you’re only wasting your time.” But committees were established. Fundraising began. And the steelband movement, riven by warfare between bands, closed ranks. Bands held benefit performances all over the island: Fantasia and Mutineers in Princes Town, for instance, and La Lune in Moruga.

The musical director of the band was Lt Joseph Nathaniel Griffith, the steelband movement’s greatest unsung hero. Born 1906 in Barbados, he joined the police band at 14. He left Barbados in 1932 to play clarinet and sax with an American jazz band, but was soon in Martinique arranging for the Municipal Orchestra. In 1935 he took over the St Vincent Government Band and founded the St Vincent Philharmonic Orchestra. Then he led the Grenada Harmony Kings, before joining the Trinidad Police Band in 1938. He taught at the Tacarigua Orphanage and led its band, and conducted the Royal Victoria Institute’s orchestra.

In 1947 he was appointed bandmaster of the St Lucia Police Band, and there he was when he was asked to lead Taspo. “If I going to England with you, you can’t play any sort of wrong thing,” he warned the panmen. “You have to play real music.”

And he set about teaching them. He put numbers on the notes and wrote scores. He taught them a repertoire that included a waltz, a rhumba, a samba, light classics, a foxtrot, a bolero, calypsoes, mambos. He made them tune an alto (second) pan with 14 notes. He also insisted the bass have at least 14 notes. When told that they couldn’t fit, he replied, to everyone’s surprise, “Then use three drums.”

Griffith’s tutelage leavened the genius of men like Williams and Ellie Mannette, and they produced better pans than they ever had before. Williams invented the oil drum two-cello, and discovered the technique of tuning two tones in one note.

“‘Come down an afternoon when we practising,’ Ellie told us,” recalled Maifan Drayton, then in Invaders. “When we went we were shocked to see one man playing two pans. Boots was on bass, Sterling Betancourt was on guitar and Tony Williams on cello. We were mystified.”

The public was even more dazzled. After a concert at Globe cinema, the audience emptied its pockets into the pans. Now that Trinidad realised what a steelband could accomplish, even the elite and big businessmen supported them. Bermudez donated drums, Fitz Blackman offered uniforms, the Himalaya Club, the Little Carib Theatre and the Jaycees held fundraising dances. The tourist board and Sir Gerald Wight each offered $500. Governor Sir Hubert Rance’s aide-de-camp organised an auction: Winfield Scott bought a case of whisky and returned it to the auctioneer, who promptly sold it again.

Hindu leader Bhadase Maraj donated generously. Edwin Lee Lum, a non-smoker, bought 2,000 cigarettes. Thus Taspo, and by extension the steelband movement, forged the multi-class alliance which was for the first time nationalist in scope.

Taspo’s first engagement was at the BBC, after which they performed at the Colonial Office, and at the festival. “A revolution in music reached London today, and experts predict it will sweep the country in a new craze,” reported an English paper. “Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra sat outside the Festival Concert Hall and tapped sweet, swingy music out of rusty pans still with steamer labels stuck to them after their trans-Atlantic voyage.

“Londoners, hearing a steelband for the first time, passed the verdict: ‘The music is sweet and liquid similar to the xylophone but not so harsh’.”

They rehearsed in the basement flat of musician, actor and singer Edric Connor. They got a two-week contract with the Savoy, after which they toured Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester. They performed with calypsonian Lord Kitchener, with Connor and with Boscoe Holder’s dance troupe. (Holder had actually been playing pan in London since the previous year.)

In late November Taspo returned to Paris for a two-week circus engagement and to catch the boat home. Betancourt, Bonaparte, Davidson, Haynes and Williams had plans to stay in England, but homesickness, an oncoming winter, and a fight between Bonaparte and Davidson changed that. Only Betancourt, with tears rolling down, returned to cold London, having found an Irishwoman there to keep him warm.Fifteen years later, Betancourt and two other panmen would transform the small, private Notting Hill garden party into what is now the largest public street festival in Europe. By then Trinidad & Tobago was an independent nation, able to boast of having created the century’s most important acoustic instrument.

TASPO members

Theo “Black James” Stephens, 17, Free French
Orman “Patsy” Haynes, 21, Casablanca
Winston “Spree” Simon, 24, Fascinators
Ellie Mannette, 22, Invaders
Belgrave Bonaparte, 19, Southern Symphony
Philmore “Boots” Davidson, 22, City Syncopaters
Sterling Betancourt, 21, Crossfire
Andrew “Pan” de la Bastide, 23, Hill 60
Dudley Smith, 24, Rising Sun
Anthony “Muffman” Williams, 20, North Stars
Granville Sealey, 24, Tripoli

(Sealey was later replaced by Carlton “Sonny” Roach from Sun Valley)

For the original post: When steelband took London by storm | Caribbean Beat Magazine.

Categories
Culture

A non-Creole Jamaica is a false concept

It is time to give our minority language an official status

The following article was written by Dr Sondré Colly-Durand, Observer writer (below) and published on the website JamaicaObserver.com on Monday, December 12, 2011

Paris, France — We are often defined by a number of important cultural and linguistic attributes. Jamaicans, what is our race? What is our ethnicity? And our language…?

Who am I?

Indeed our language is not only a technical instrument of communication, it is the vessel which holds our heritage and identity and as such is worthy of respect and recognition. However, Jamaican Creole is not an official language even though it is the main form of communication in many homes and social spheres in the country. If Creole is not an “official” language then what message are we transmitting to its speakers? That they are somehow lesser citizens than speakers of English? Besides, this lack of status for our lingua franca is in fact a vestige of Jacobinism.

Babylon System is a Vampire

Unfortunately, many Jamaicans continue to believe that because English is an international language it should dethrone the Jamaican Creole. While it is clear to all that Jamaica needs to shed insularism and that in this respect English is an invaluable tool, we shouldn’t envision an either/or solution.

Indeed, monolingualism is actively encouraged by globalisation and therefore whatever indicator for language competence you use, it is true that we tend to assume rigid positions on language teaching/learning based on those underlying socio-political and economic realities. The fact, however, is that we received English as a part of our slavery and colonial heritage, it was imposed.

I want to break free…Free your minds

Jamaican Creole on the other hand is a 100 per cent local product. Its birth being a result of the unique mix of English and West African languages such as Fante, Igbo, Wolof, Yoruba and Twi, many of which are no longer spoken in their original forms. All the more reason for the Creole to be valued and preserved. In this effort, there should be unity among all Jamaicans about the safeguarding of our lingua franca, because a non-Creole Jamaica is a false concept which would devalue the core identity of the island. In order to achieve that consensus though, it seems to me that a change in mentality is a necessary prerequisite.

Cacophony or symphony in Europe?

The European Union which represents 450 million people now has 21 official languages. Although that reality costs a fortune in interpreting and translation services, the Union wants to remain faithful to its motto which is ‘United in diversity’. Old European languages like Lithuanian (2.96 million native speakers in Lithuania) or Luxembourgish (320,000 speakers and it is not one of the 21 official languages of the Union) are preserved and protected within the context of this European linguistic diversity. Indeed, in Barcelona in 2002 EU leaders committed to a ‘Mother tongue plus two’ principle which ensures that the children here learn at least two foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue during the course of their schooling. This explains in part why tiny nations like Finland, Corsica, the Netherlands and Sweden maintain, support and teach their local languages in schools and still manage to produce students who, for the most part are fluent in at least one other European language.

Voulez-vous parler au monde? Do you want to talk to the World? Yuh waan fi chat to di worl ?

I did not learn to write the Jamaican Creole in school. This is a pity because a comparative analysis of Creole and English structures would help to prevent unfortunate illusions typified by the now infamous outburst of a Jamaican woman who exclaimed some variant of the following: “A wa unoo a sey? Unoo no see sey a Henglish mi a chat!” Indeed if we are really concerned about the nefarious impact of globalisation and the role that language deficiencies may play in our marginalisation then, instead of trying to eliminate Creole, we should promote active, structured bilingual or even trilingual education in our schools.

To this end, Dr Hubert Devonish spearheaded the very ambitious and proactive Bilingual Education Project which aims to provide answers for a new framework strategy for the official use of both languages in our primary schools. The results of this pilot project are very promising. Indeed, teaching our children both Creole and English at school will valorise their first language (for many, Creole is indeed their first language), while providing scaffolding which will make the acquisition and mastery of English that much more attainable. In this way they will be able to enjoy the social, economic and cultural rewards of English without shedding their identities in the process. Our education stakeholders should therefore pursue the recommendations set out in this project in order to produce students who are truly bilingual and at peace with their local language.

Two Languages… One Love

Even though I readily admit that the co-existence of both Jamaican Creole and English in the same geographical space can be challenging, we should accept that culturally and linguistically all languages are equal. Accepting this fundamental truth should prevent us from fighting the wrong battles. Creole should have pride of place in our society and should unite us; it should not be the object of divisions and discord. Our language policy therefore should enshrine the principle of the cultural, historical, human elements of our two languages.

The original post can be read at: A non-Creole Jamaica is a false concept – News – JamaicaObserver.com.

The following youtube video is an excerpt from a monologue by Jamaican cultural icon Louise Bennett that addresses the issues raised in the preceding article.