Dear Editor,
The borrowing is the problem! The lack of contextualization is the problem!
Blaxx is Trini. He will compose for the Trini Carnival crowd. Until the pandemic, that was plenty! J’ouvert mas kicks off the street dancing and ‘stink and dutty’ is early J’ouvert mas. The dancing starts at daybreak and the players are covered in grease, mud, lots of it, and ridiculous outfits from nightgowns to rags. Stink and dutty is the desired look, and pray they do not want to rub up on you!
The ridiculous reigns. I once saw a well-known psychiatrist with a fine long ribbon tied on his very bald head. He was fat, large bellied and barebacked and he kept flicking the ribbon over his shoulders. He explained, to the amusement of all, ‘That is how white people does flick their hair behind!’ He followed this by spread-eagling in the middle of the road while Monday early mas flowed around him, myself included.
Trini mas is the genuine article. What comes out is hugely enjoyable. We do have vast celebrations for example Fantastic Friday but I doubt any Trini fete would be called ‘stink and dutty’. That belongs to Jouvert which is stink and dutty. So, when Guyanese borrow respect the origins of what you borrow.
Develop your own thing! I remember the ‘ Bum bum Sally, the stilt walkers. Develop those! If choreographers work with the dance steps something peculiarly Guyanese can emerge. What about the dance the masqueraders use as they dance around thrown coins. There is a whole dance sequence before the coins are picked up. What about the First Nation dances? Develop their rhythms for synchronized dancing. Any Trini recognizes the distinctive rhythm of the Blue Devils. If you hear the ‘tok tok tok tok tok tok tok they are coming down with old biscuit pans beating their rhythm. The Trini Sailor Dance is a beauty! This is synchronized dance and very skilful. It is a creative display in the mas.
‘Stink and dutty’ is not a Guyana concept. It is bad borrowing!
Much can be done to work upon what is already there. Guyana has gifted dramatists, composers, choreographers. Where are they? You will notice that Trini mas includes all ethnic groups. How else did the Merry Monarch get Chutney Soca?
Nevertheless, take courage! In any Carnival every opportunity for physical display and lewdness may be taken by those who do not realize how demeaning they are to cultural celebrations representative of all the nation. Ignore them. However, cultural celebrations must have so much of what is good and creative that the badly behaved are shamed, perhaps, into respectable public displays of themselves. They lose their prominence! Ultimately, let the law do its work.
Develop a Seawall Shakedown fete! Develop a Mangrove March! Develop a Main Street Move! Develop a River Rhythm. Develop your own thing!
Oil dollars directed at cultural development will never be wasted. Guyana must define itself as a cultural giant. It can be done! Is Guyana understanding its own wealth and what possibilities such wealth holds for cultural expression of perhaps previously silent groups of very creative people? If the truly creative do not take hold of the reins of cultural expression what is cultural will be defined by the money makers. Do they care for the nation? Not sure, at all!
Time to give serious thought to all the components of national identity of which culture is pivotal.
So I say!
Gabriella Rodriguez
