By Barrington Braithwaite
Ideas and Ideals do not always determine realization in the lifetime of they who spend the tortured nights struggling to shape and define the images that will grab our attention and stir our imagination to be likewise inspired and to respond, transcending what we have already accepted as the epitome of our general ideas of self definition, the concept that fired the many creative souls around the Caribbean and from Guyana that nurtured and contributed to the creation of the lofty manifestation of the Caribbean Festival Of Arts [ CARIFESTA ] in 1972, did not want only to create a four year Arts Expo tradition, but to expand into a Caribbean Arts Industry, The Political leaders no doubt believed in it and envisaged a block of cultural products that would eventually earn its own economic independence, what many of them did not understand was that their political guidance and preferences would be the undoing of this splendid idea.
The struggle and confusion of finding a working political identity led to the illusion of becoming absorbed in rather a popular or the popular political identity instead of a relevant movement, we emerged on the horizon in the wake of the winds of change and were swept away in the heroics of the dawn, emotionalism infused by the compelling opposition of the ‘Colonial Jumbie’ haunting every dream, appearing around every bureaucratic turn and familiar in every gesture drove us to clothe ourselves in the alien ideologies of Eastern Europe, and away from ourselves.
Carifesta, is a tremendous idea, it gave us the iconography that shone through the colonial mists, offering us a common geographic language, a light that initiated the gathering of the dispersed tribes at the familiar steps of Nimrod’s ascending Tower, but how do we ascend, now that we recognize a common cultural language?… What are the physical tools within the councils of the secular Chieftains that we have appointed that is proof that they are worthy of the legacy of such a mighty ritual as Carifesta, after thirty six years of conducting a traditional four year gathering can we invoke and sustain.
A viable manifestation of the ‘Carifesta vision’ that would demonstrate the ‘Will’ of those who now hold the mandate as administrative leaders telling us that power for the sake of power is not the limit of ‘the all’ that constitutes their beings, but that they can dream while awake and persevere to the next stage of other dreamers who made their vision a reality in 1972?
The question must be asked If indeed the CARICOM structure has the expertise and the ‘will’ to interact with the creative sons and daughters of the region to cultivate some form of a relationship on a continuous basis so as to merely be on speaking terms, so as to acknowledge each others’ existence. During the period when Carol Lawes was a cultural officer at CARICOM there was an active interaction between local creative persons and the CARICOM institution. In that period 1994 there was a significant workshop for Non Governmental Organi-zations and Financial Administrators; Carol is an artist and actress; though space does not permit an in dept perusal of the explorations conducted in that workshop, it would be safe to say that the contents of the workshop, the discussions could easily have set the framework for further interaction and the separation of the practical from the illusive, grabbing the attention of creative communities functioning in isolation.
Currently, outside of the present nation involvement in the gathering of creative citizens for Carifesta-X there is no known movement from the CARICOM secretariat that impacts on the Arts, at least in Guyana, where the state itself has no understanding of the importance of the creative arts, as a matter of fact I am unsure whether there’s a present cultural officer attached to the Secretariat .
Culture is almost an invisible topic in the context of CARICOM outside of the ritual season of Carifesta, this explains the isolation of our political leaders from their citizens so profoundly expressed by George Lamming, even in matters of a political nature CARICOM leaders are found wanting, the recent petition presented by the PNC-R was disappointingly responded to by the CARICOM leaders, I was one of the thousands that signed that document with good reason, there’s got to be a pause to playing politics, and a focus on the interests of people, Europe learnt that lesson from the dysfunctional ‘League of Nations’ in the 1930’s .
There are important roles a Secretariat of the Arts would serve in the global proliferation of ideas, design and licensing, as a source connection to interested businesses looking for material that we may have or can present on request, with the right operatives a new dimension to the CARIFESTA dream can be realized, with significant meaning as it translates to the many talents in member countries to whom CARICOM is a distant reality. There are several areas where the connections of a regional politi-cal organization like CARICOM can serve the interests of the regions creative folk, because of our small population it may be necessary to develop relationships rather than to attempt to reinvent the wheel. The regional publishing industry has never developed to benefit from forms of distribution, and many publications are self-published and self- distributed, thus the lifespan of many publications are short lived .
With regional music; piracy has done tremendous damage to individual artistes, whether it’s a T-shirt design, a tattoo design or photography, the talent suffers as long as the population is not sensitized to the sanctity of Intellectual Property Rights [IPR], how can the regional body in the spirit of CARIESTA conduct a discourse on the recognition of the Arts, as not just window dressing, this attitude is very common in the context of Guyana , because of our political history, the political participants and the philosophy they have embraced deprived them of the process of experiencing an artistic evolution.
It is easily recognized that the political hierarchy across the region in the majority lack the sophistication of cultural sensitivity. This can only be addressed through a programme of taking the Arts back to the school system, school season should be concluded with the traditional creole concert of skits, poetry, dance and plays, in those days students performed Shakespeare, now we can include local and Caribbean plays, rather than have students conduct Passa, Passa competitions and other popular cultural exploits, the fact is that from the highest levels of influence in our country mainly the political actors, they cannot distinguish the differences between Cultural Acts and Popular culture, this has to do exclusively with exposure and social upbringing, for example. Recently, some months ago there was a show held featuring Jamaican artistes, a popular Cultural Show, nothing was wrong with the show except the name;
The show was billed as ‘The Guyana Song Festival’. The department of culture that I knew would have intercepted this name, no way would such a culturally derogatory act go unattended, the name was wrong, misleading and should have been censored and guidance offered to the promoters, nothing was done as many of us observed speechlessly. The only local music show currently existing in Guyana today is the ‘What’s Hot Guyana Show’ and this show is centered around Guyanese popular music.
Carifesta should serve to awaken the stubborn almost fossilized political thinkers in Guyana and our region that there are important areas in the national physiology would have to develop without the imposition of some clueless political appendage.
In Guyana today we’re at a serious level of cultural decay, purely due to politics and the social deficiencies imposed by the flirtations with the crude and pedestrian players in the drug trade. If there are no structural changes from CARICOM in the post Carifesta months then we might just have witnessed the twilight of this festival, and the collapse of a great idea by visionaries whose political descendants were diluted, decrepit shards of those men of substance.
I wish to close this article with a heartfelt congratulations to the Jamaican Olympic team on their incredible successes at the recent Olympic games, even as I bemoan the state of professional sports in my country.
