-Carifesta symposium hears
Legislation creating institutions and building systems to develop cultural industries should be seen as a joint public and private sector task.
This was the common view shared by four panellists at one of the Carifesta X symposiums held at the Guyana International Convention Centre, Liliendaal yesterday to discuss the subject, ‘Are we there yet? Refining and redefining our cultural industries.’
Musician Davon Carty of Anguilla, one of the presenters, was of the view that systems must be put in place by governments to ensure that managerial and entrepreneurial skills be developed to market the cultural product so that originating countries of artists/artistes could benefit.
As a matter of fact, he said, “Rihanna is out of Barbados. What does Barbados get out of Rihanna?”
He spoke of the challenges the music industry faces in Anguilla and the Caribbean while noting that Caribbean music, such as soca and reggae among other genres indigenous to the Caribbean, impacts on music in North America but the Caribbean still has issues of intellectual property rights in this regard.
Poet and producer Adrian Augier read excerpts of his work which were favourably received as he depicted in poetry in succinct yet graphic style the life of the Caribbean man/woman in coping with modern day technology against a backdrop of meeting social needs.
“The dilemma of the arts” as in Caribbean culture, without any proper structure, he said was comparable to global warming as portrayed by a polar bear on a drifting, melting block of ice.
Following up from an earlier discussion on concerns of external influences on Caribbean culture, Professor Gladstone Yearwood of the University of the West Indies, Cavehill Campus noted the “preoccupation with cultural imperialism” and asked where are the theatres and other facilities for the artists to develop themselves.
Taking a sample survey of the audience at the symposium by asking how many people were wearing clothing made in the Caribbean and observing that very few hands went up, fashion designer Andrea King of Barbados noted the great economic potential of the fashion industry in the Caribbean, especially with the arrival of some 13 million tourists to the region annually.
However, like the other cultural industries and their challenges, she identified among them inadequate material, lack of skills, and the need for strategic marketing and adequate promotion.
When the discussion reached the floor, it was noted that there was a lack of political will on the part of many of the governments of Caribbean countries and legislation was needed to protect the work of artists since many do not benefit fully or earn a livelihood from their creativity.
Don’t wait for gov’t
One participant, who suggested that too many people want to depend too much on the governments to get them started, and people like Sparrow, Louise Bennett and Dave Martins did not wait on the governments, said, “don’t wait for the government. Start it.”
This provoked a lively debate with another participant from Trinidad and Tobago saying that while an individual might be able to start on his or her own there still needs to be systems which would require governmental intervention, including legislation to protect copyright.
He gave the example of artists in T&T struggling for the past 45 years to ensure that the government provided an enabling environment for them to make a living from their art form.
He said it was always a battle to ensure that certain institutions are in place and even when such an institution is to be constructed the artists are still frozen out of the architectural designs.
Yet another participant said that the struggle between artists and the government as in the case of Jamaica “becomes a battle of class warfare.” Artists are willing to meet with the government to make things happen but must struggle to get their voices heard at the level of the national governments so they could put forward the cases of the artists at the level of the World Trade Organisation and in negotiations such as happened with the still-to-be-signed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and the Cariforum countries.
It was observed that yesterday’s sitting was attended by many writers, musicians and other cultural personnel but no visible national and regional policymaker.
Carifesta outcome
However, even as the discussions on copyright, production, marketing, promotion and other aspects related to the protection and marketing of Caribbean art forms were taking place at the symposium, one of the recurring questions was what was the objective of Carifesta and what was coming out of it.
One Jamaican participant was of the view that Carifesta needed a profile. He said that it was good for Guyana to spend lots of money on the event but contended that it has no profile and artists would not benefit financially from the experience.
“What is happening to Carifesta?” he asked adding that his Jamaican counterparts back home have been complaining that they were not seeing anything coming out of Guyana on Carifesta.
