By Al Creighton
Guyana’s Arrival Day was commemorated on May 5 with a series of events leading up to the weekend in celebration of Indian Arrival. The national effort to mark this anniversary in 2008 was much more imaginative than the menu of programmes offered in recent memory with a range of creative ideas implemented.
However, those who arrived in the month of May include groups other than the Indians, and it could have been richer and even more interesting if the exhibitions and programmes had also involved the Portuguese. Under normal circumstances they are under-represented in commemoration activities, and their culture and history are less known. Yet, they are not without strong traditions which are important to the history and some of which have contributed to contemporary Guyanese society. For example, they established a very strong tradition in the performing arts and made a number of vibrant contributions to the theatre in Guyana in the nineteenth century, as well as to cultural life in general (see Prof Mary Noel Menezes History of the Portuguese in Guyana).
The 2008 highlights of Indian Arrival had great strength in the displays of the contributions that they made to cultural life, while their own performing arts took centre stage. The Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport, the Indian Arrival Committee and the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sahha mounted several extensive melas in the National Park, the National Stadium at Providence and at various venues across the country.
The Hindu Dharmic Sabha has already built a reputation in the performing arts, including the development of one of the nation’s best dance companies. This year they mounted extensive exhibitions of theatre, the cultural life and the colonial plantation existence of indentured Indians to mark the anniversary. These were built around recreations of estate village life, reconstructing the images, atmosphere, economic activities, domestic environment, food and clothing of the workers as they were in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
It was a very creative idea with audience appeal and great instructive capacity. Communities such as they existed 100 years ago were assimilated in various ways. Logies were reassembled, using the authentic building material and laid out inside as they looked like when inhabited by the estate labourers and families. There were replicas of the Whitby, an ocean vessel that made the first crossing, live animals in a cow pen to assist with the atmosphere, a canefield and simple huts which served as temples.
At the same time there were performances on stage with a focus on music and dance. These were played out against a stage backdrop which reflected the design of traditional architectural structures, a very fitting set on which to stage theatrical forms that evolved out of that historical background. What was attempted in that artistic environment, however, drew attention to something missing from the larger real-life exhibits. These restructurings and displays could well have reflected a bit more of the noted contributions to architectural forms in Guyana made by the Indian immigrants, especially in religious buildings, mandirs, kendras and other buildings influenced by them. The Dharmic Sabha is, of course, Hindu, but mosques and structures influenced by them could have been accommodated even if in other exhibitions.
Performers trod the boards offering performances from a wide range of Guyanese geographic locations, urban and rural temples, which have sustained Indian dance and music, as well as the Hindu religion with which they are very closely integrated. But other forms exist which were not on show, including some that fall outside of Hinduism, like those associated with Kali Mai and other folk religions, which are largely under-rehearsed.
Yet there was a hint of these in some items, like what was seen in the appearance of the groups from Better Hope and Cane Grove. Better Hope presented a recreation of an old performance tradition, while Cane Grove performed what has survived and is still practised by their community. These could have done very well if staged outside in the assimilated village setting outside the perimeter of the stadium put against the backdrop of their original environment.
Bhojpuri
Of great significance to the 177th anniversary of the arrivals was the appearance of the visiting Bhojpuri Folk group of dancers, singers and musicians from India. There is a very strong link and relevance of bhojpuri to Guyanese and Caribbean traditions. Chutney has been widely claimed for Trinidad, but it belongs equally to Guyana although the strong proof of its Guyanese evolution has not been very firmly acknowledged. Any literature which attempts to make the case or present the details is not known, but chutney as it exists today in its highly hybrid cross-cultural state, is an evolutionary development out of bhojpuri.
Bhojpuri is a linguistic variety of the Hindi language, the national language of India. This variety is the first language of millions native to the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar regions of India, homeland of Lord Ram and the country of the Ramayana. Challenging economic factors have pushed the emigration of bhojpuri speaking people from those lands to other parts of the Far East and Africa. It was from there that several voyaged to the Caribbean as indentured labourers taking the language and traditions with them.
These traditions as known in India are performed as rites of passage, rituals practised at births, naming ceremonies, marriages, burials and several other social occasions. In much the same way they became part of nineteenth century village life in Guyana. The music associated with these continued in the new setting, developing in the Guyanese environment. They evolved into songs with English instead of bhojpuri lyrics, using the Guyanese Creole language, local subjects and the original Indian rhythms. Eventually these rhythms were affected by contact with the Caribbean and a chutney musical tradition closer to what is known today evolved. A perfect example of the form still free of the contemporary soca influence may be heard in a longstanding advertisement still used today
Bowjie gyal tell me whey yu cook, na
mutton curry with Indi curry powda
an dhol puri with Champion baking powda
Another is the old song
Dis time na laang time
Dis time na laang time
Dis na like before time.
The Indian Bhojpuri Folk performers gave excellent performances. Their music is versatile and included a variety of offerings but mainly representing an extremely powerful tradition of folk singing, dance and drum rhythms. Theirs was a significant exhibition of the very root of chutney and of some Guyanese forms yet insufficiently researched.
