Hopetown on the West Coast Berbice, the home of the annual pre-Emancipation Day soiree for over 50 years, on Wednesday night presented less than the genuine article the village is renowned for, after financing for the event was only provided the day before.
The soiree can be described as being part of the heritage of Hopetown residents and the cultural extravaganza that is Carifesta X provided an opportunity for them to display this unique art form that can be traced back to Africans celebrating freedom through dancing, singing and social commentary.
Instead, on Wednesday night, there was a mixture of reggae, calypso, dancehall and African dancing along with, soiree songs and drumming.
Organisers were nevertheless satisfied that they were able to accomplish the task of hosting the only Carifesta X event scheduled for Hopetown.
“Yes, I am satisfied given the time that we had to make that preparation,” organiser Lionel Young, from the Hopetown Sports Committee said. “On Monday, I told them that it is impossible,” he said, given that the event was billed for Wednesday and the requested funds were not yet received.
A budget was submitted for the soiree in early August after Carifesta X officials indicated that they would like to have one during Carifesta.
A cheque for $689,500, less than half of the $2 million plus budget submitted was uplifted from the Bank of Guyana on Tuesday at noon. This allowed the organisers to pay for costumes, transportation, a marching band, decorations, programmes, music and lighting, among other things. In addition to the cheque, the Carifesta X officials provided the stage, extra lighting and food stalls (these had been budgeted for by the Hopetown organisers), as well as weeded the Hopetown Community Centre ball field, which is said to be one of the largest of the Caribbean, but is poorly maintained. Some $75,000 had been budgeted for sand to level the field for the night’s event as well as monies to upgrade the plumbing at the community centre, but this was denied, this newspaper understands.
Young told Stabroek News that the soiree organising team had planned to have Cumfa dancing, a Queh Queh, an African wedding and a libation, which is the spiritual aspect of the soiree, but had to shelve these in the light of the time constraints.
“We didn’t have the material,” he said, speaking of programme items for the soiree.
Young said that if the funds had been disbursed at least a week and an half before the event, the organisers could have made it more cultural. However, although not all of the activities of the annual July 31 soiree were showcased, he believed visitors leaving the night’s proceedings, “… would have said that they saw what happens on soiree.”
‘Swinging yuh tail’
The soiree was set to begin at 5 pm, but it never got under way until after 9 pm, at which time Carol Joseph, one of the organizers, reminded everyone that Carifesta ‘72 activities had been held in Hopetown, so it was home again.
Region Five Chairman Harrinarine Baldeo also made some brief remarks before the Yoruba Singers opened the programme with folk music and drumming, with bandleader and founder Eze Rockcliffe calling Hopetown the “bowel of culture”. Following this were performances of the Carifesta theme song and reggae songs by Czerina Ali, a soca song by Melo Gittens and African dancing by the Hopetown Silver Lining Dance and Drama Troupe. Hopetown’s Roots and Culture Band began to move the crowd with drumming and some Queh Queh songs such as “Motion Ah Weh Ya Motion”, “Sancho”, “Janey Gal” and “Lily Gal”. Then there was some more soca by the Mighty Duke and by this time Joseph who was the chair for the evening called on the largely unresponsive crowd to “wake up, y’ all sleeping.”
Even if they had not heeded Joseph’s call, a spicy number, “I am crazy” from Beverly Smith certainly had some effect, as she succeeded in getting the crowd to sing the chorus and dance to the song, following her lead of intense gyration on stage. But Smith’s second song had the opposite effect with one woman saying, “da one nah got no taste”.
Popular soiree band the King James Version string band came on stage and had the well-versed soiree crowd singing along and those on the ground dancing in soiree style holding their skirts and pants in what is referred to as “swinging yuh tail”.
But this soon ended as some other performers took to the stage including Charmaine Blackman and the Yoruba Singers then returned for another set. Around midnight, the King James Version band went on stage again along with the Roots and Culture Band and they wrapped up at 12.35 am.
The Hopetown music set Merciless then entertained the largely young crowd that remained, to some Jamaican dancehall music and soca sounds. The soiree had been scheduled to end at 3 am, but it ended long before that.
Sixteen-year-old Tonya Freeman thought the show was “ok [and], nice,” but felt it was different from the July 31 soirees, which would draw more people from across the country.
It was also “ok” for Julia Williams, who said that the Yoruba Singers had not visited Hopetown for some time and she was glad to see them. She also enjoyed the soca songs performed by the females.
On Thursday morning, Joseph told this newspaper, “we need to de-commercialise soiree”. She admitted that the entire show had commercialised the event. Nevertheless, she said, “I am satisfied… taking into consideration the short space of time… although we would have liked to have had a pure African show.”
She said the village faced the threat of having soiree become extinct, unless its young people were taught the art of the soiree.
The Hopetown organisers had been told beforehand that a few of the programme items for the soiree would be provided by the Carifesta secretariat.