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February 2, 2007 - Volume 1, No. 5
Race, Class & The Steelband
Movement
On January 19,
2007, the Trinidad Express newspaper’s editorial
(paragraph 4) proclaimed that
“A moment’s objective reflection will show that
all the elements contained in this assessment
are true, leading us to call for a sustained
enquiry into what prevents the steelband
movement from playing a less seasonal and more
central role in the social, civic and economic
life of Trinidad and Tobago, particularly among
those age groups and communities beset with dire
and, indeed, destructive problems.”
It appears that this editorial was in
response to what the newspaper referred to as
‘those who continue to carp at what they
perceive to be a giveaway of State funds.’
What’s to be done
about the Trinbago steelband movement? The
steelband movement started in the 1940s among
the African working classes but to date, it has
never won the complete support and appreciation
of the Trinbago African middle-classes and other
Trinbago middle-classes. Why? Today, the
steelpan is an international instrument but
still has not achieved ‘art’ status in Trinbago.
Why? Pantrinbago (world governing body for the
steelband movement) have organized local shows
like ‘Pan down memory lane’, ‘Pan in the 21st
century’, ‘Music Festival’, ‘Pan Jazz’ and the
‘Borough Day festival’. It is also responsible
for the national Panorama at carnival time. But,
with all that year round steelband activity, the
nation still has not cultivated an artistic
approach to the steelband. Why? Trinbago elites
continue to see the steelpan as a cultural
phenomenon and over the years, they never
granted steelband the same status and respect as
Classical or Jazz music which many of them
consider true art. Why? The answer may lie in
the racial and class divide of Trinbago.
Although Prime
Minister Mr. Patrick Manning declared a few
years ago that the steelpan is the national
instrument, the steelband movement continues to
be plagued by mismanagement, lack of independent
finances (business and separate funding) and a
direction for the 21st century. The
participation of middle-class college ‘boys’,
who played pan or had their own steelbands
(Dixieland, Starlift, Starland and Silver Stars)
has decreased, unlike the 1960s, because most of
the panists today have no real steelband
allegiance. They don’t belong to the band but
play in a steelband for carnival and after
carnival they resort to their foreign musical
tastes. The party scene today is devoid of
steelband music as steelbands no longer rule the
parties as they used to in the 1960s. Today,
some former large steelbands like City
Syncopators, Tripoli, Angel Harps, Harmonites,
Casablanca, Tokyo, Silver Stars, Blue Diamonds
and North Stars, are either defunct or reduced
to medium band status.
Every Panorama,
panjumbies expect the winning Panorama band to
be either, Phase 2, Desperadoes, Renegades,
Exodus or All Stars. The other bands don’t stand
a chance, except if they obtain a top arranger
like the case of Nutones with arranger Master
Clive Bradley when they won the Panorama in
1998. Many steelbands continue to run annual
financial deficits as the costs of bringing a
Panorama steelband continue to outgrow the prize
monies they receive. Steelbands are paying
thousands of dollars to get their bands ready
for Panorama and the Panorama’s prize monies do
not help. Only if you are the winning steelband
and get the first prize can a band hope to break
even. After carnival, steelbands are left with a
narrow membership and return to the crime ridden
areas of Trinbago. Why have the Trinbago
middle-classes abandon the steelband movement?
Why has the local businesses not supported the
national instrument by sponsoring each
steelband? The answer may lie in the class
structure of Trinbago.
Like other
neo-colonial nations, Trinbago does not like to
discuss its class divisions among the Africans
and Indians. It wraps itself up in the ideal
claiming to be a place where ‘every race can
find an equal place’ but the reality is that
many Africans and Indians do not share in that
dream. Today, the steelpan finds itself in the
dysfunctional position of being the nation’s
supreme instrument but not having achieved ‘art’
status. So, in order to answer the above
editorial one has to start with an historical
understanding of the racial and class divisions
that continues to plague Trinbago. Most of the
steelbands ills and its stagnation of the
development of the steelband movement start with
Trinbago’s racial and class divisions.
Trinbago society
is principally divided into two major groups:
the descendants of enslaved Africans and
indentured Indians. The rest of Trinbago is made
up of Chinese and European descendants. The
steelband movement is made up primarily of
Africans with few Indians among the panists. The
leadership of Pantrinbago (the world governing
body of the steelband movement) is primarily of
African descent. The majority of the panists in
the various steelbands are of African descent
with a few Indians participating. This African
presence in the leadership of the steelband
movement does not sit well with the elite of
Trinbago. And, while the nation enjoys the
steelband during the carnival it is the African
working-classes that mainly support the
steelbands. Some Indian leaders never embraced
steelband as their own Trinbagonian culture. The
Hindu leadership has expressed its displeasure
with the steelband movement and views the
steelbands as an African (black) cultural
expression and considers participation in it as
a form of Africanization (creolisation).
The racial and
class distinctions among the steelbands prevent
any true development outside of Panorama which
is the main financial provider for the
steelbands. The absence of the middle-classes,
especially the African middle-classes, in the
leadership of the steelband movement hinders any
proper planning to move the steelband movement
to the next stage. Absent that leadership, many
steelbands continue to focus on winning Panorama
competitions as their
raison d’etre.
All art forms are advanced by the middle
classes. They are better educated, economically
sufficient with disposable income and are better
trained in managerial skills. The steelbands
lack all those facilities. As a result, the call
for reform in the steelband movement falls on
deaf ears as Trinbagonians only see the cultural
aspect of the steelband movement.
The birth of the
steelband movement occurred when the low-class
descendants of former enslaved Africans put
their ingenuity together and created an
instrument (steelpan) that is internationally
claimed to be the only acoustic instrument
invented in the 20th century. And, it
is that occurrence that has shaped the steelband
movement since its inception. The African middle
classes never fully accepted the steelband
movement because they never saw it as art but a
noisy nuisance created by the low-classes. They
looked to Europe for their art. The Trinbago
nationalist movement never tried to harness the
genius of the steelbands because, strange as it
may seem, they were trained to believe that
European music, law, values and morality were
the apex of civilization. Even the local labor
movement never embraced the steelbband movement.
To date, the steelband movement has still not
found its rightful place in Trinbago,
particularly among the middle-classes...
The European myth
that Africa did not produce any civilization
created a dysfunctional state of consciousness
among the African middle-classes. Hence, they
never sought to include themselves in the
development of the steelband movement except as
arbitrators seeking to calm the steelbands from
their internecine rivalry and street fighting.
But, during the 1950s a few of the African
middle-classes like Beryl McBurnie (socialite),
Lennox Pierre (attorney), Carlton Comma
(librarian), Canon Farquhar (priest), Albert
Gomez (politician) sought to give a form of
respectability to the steelband movement by
assisting them to stage music festivals. They
brought foreign adjudicators to judge the
competition. But, the lot of the steelband
membership remained poor and unemployed. Most of
the steelbands were (still is) concentrated in
the urban areas populated by the African working
classes. Today, the high concentrations of
crime, unemployment, drugs and murders in those
areas have made the steelbands a distant
relative in the nation’s main stream. Thus, the
steelband remains a cultural expression as it
struggles to become an art form.
In the 1960s, the
steelband movement started receiving State
subsidy from the PNM government for their
programs like Panorama and the music festivals.
That subsidy continues to this date. This year
the first prize for the Panorama finals is $1
Million Dollars with additional monies for
appearance fees at the preliminaries and
semi-finals. But, such subsidies only strengthen
the government’s control of the steelband
movement. This has led to the steelband
movement’s total dependency on government
funding to host its many steelband festivities,
including the national festival, Panorama. I
don’t know of any business dollars offered to
the steelband movement. Since Pantrinbago became
totally dependent on government funding the end
result led to the creation of an unexpected
achievable agenda (narrow as it may be), namely
collecting more prize monies for the steelbands
for the different steelband competitions.
As a result of
government’s patronage, the steelband movement
became a captive and political tool of the
government leading to the stagnation in the
development of the steelband movement. While
many complain (myself included) about that
stagnation of the steelband movement and wish to
see the steelband movement become independent
with its own source of funding to be able to
lead the movement to greater heights, it is a
sad fact that the steelband movement has reached
its peak in Trinbago. It may be up to other
countries who have adopted the steelpan to carry
the movement into the 21st century.
Since those countries have accepted the steelpan
as an artistic instrument (it is still a
cultural instrument in Trinbago) and have a more
sophisticated method of funding the arts through
government, business and philanthropic
organizations, the prospects of developing the
steelband movement may yet come to pass.
Since 1963, the
home of Panorama was at the savannah. The
savannah provided the steelbands a modicum of
respectability because the spot represented the
symbolism of the past English elite. During the
colonial era it was at the savannah that the
Easter parade was held with horse racing
crowning the event. The British elite built the
grand stand with its box seats to house the
upper classes for the Easter parade. When the
Panorama became a fixture at the savannah in
1963 a new arena called the North stand became
the box seats for the working classes. Thus, the
removal of the Panorama from the savannah
brought an end to an era where the North stand
reigned supreme and there is no guaranty that
the new ‘carnival cultural center’ will have a
North stand.
The steelband
movement was born out of the bowels of African
descendants on the twin islands of Trinidad and
Tobago (Trinbago). Today, it is facing tough
challenges as the instrument takes its rightful
place among the international community of
nations in the 21st century while it
still struggles for middle-class acceptance in
its home land. From the 1940s to the present,
the steelband movement has faced uphill battles
for acceptance in its own society, Trinbago. It
is not uncommon for any cultural expression to
face challenges in its own society. But, what is
unique about the steelband movement is its fifty
(50) year sojourn to gain respectability and
artistic acceptance in its birth place. There
have been many changes in the steelband movement
but the final change is the manner in which it
was dislodged from the savannah in the 2007
carnival festival. In 2006, with no national
discussion with the citizenry and steelbands and
an abrupt warning the government decided to tear
down the grand stand with a promise to build a
cultural carnival center in its place. The
decision by the government to remove the
national festival, Panorama from the Queen’s
Park Savannah (The Savannah) sent shock waves
throughout the steelband movement. To date,
Pantrinbago has not responded to this action by
the government.
Every year there
are complaints that the radio stations seldom
play any steelband music. The government has not
provided a radio station for local music. The
private radio stations play mostly foreign music
as they cater to their listeners who demand
foreign things. The advertisers are reluctant to
sponsor steelband music on the radio because
people turn off and go to other radio stations.
Advertisers demand attention. That is a business
decision. Therefore, if the steelband movement
is to make the next transition then the
government has to subsidize a national radio
station that will feature local music. This will
give steelbands an opportunity to air their
music.
Pantrinbao must
address the absence of a Steelband library.
Pantrinbago must become a depository for
steelband information on its web site. Trinbago
businesses must see the need to get involved in
the steelband movement as there are profits to
be made from this indigenous art industry.
Steelbands have to enter the computer age and
create their own web sites. Some bands like All
Stars, Desperadoes and Renegades have already
started in this direction. The steelbands must
return to the model of Pan Theatres instead of
panyards where steelbands can put on shows. If
the steelband movement is to play a more central
role in the social, civic and economic life of
Trinbago then the middle-classes (professionals,
college graduates, doctors, lawyers and teachers)
must get involved in the management of
steelbands.
Lastly, the
government or any government must translate the
steelband movement as a jobs program where
economic opportunities and training are given to
steelband members, tuners, arrangers and
composers. The government must institute an
after-school steelband program in all the
schools to provide a civic role for students.
Peter Minshall put it best when he said: “Expand
Panorama and impress the world with your
knowledge of yourself.” “I cannot believe the
universe has blessed us with this instrument and
it is still in a yard.” “I do not think it is
beyond the imagination of a great architect to
build a house of steel to house instruments of
steel, a fine concert hall….” Mr. Minshall’s
final call is “I need a concert hall for pan!” A
new form of thinking is absolutely necessary if
any changes are to come to the steelband
movement for the 21st century. The
nation’s schools must begin to teach the history
of the steelband movement as a part of their
curriculum. The students of Trinbago should be
taught about the history and struggles of the
people who fought to give the world its most
recent acoustic instrument, the steelpan.
Hopefully, this will prepare the next generation
of panists with the knowledge and appreciation
of the steelband movement to see the steelpan as
art.
Stay Blogged |
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P.S. For any carnival, steelband or local terms
used here, please go to the
Port of Pan ABC,
or you may contact this writer. Thanks for
reading. |
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