Cultural resistance and the arts

Eintou Pearl Springer, playwright of the piece ran on stage to calm the crowd and remind them that it was simply a theatrical performance.

It was the 1970s and anti-establishment feeling was at a high, against the backdrop of the Black Power movement in TT and Civil Rights activism in the United States. Burroughs, who functioned in this position from 1978-1987, attained notoriety for his crime fighting methods. One writer is quoted as describing his tactics in this way – “Criminals were cut down like ninepins.

Many innocent people also fell victims to that ‘death squad’, and many more were ‘framed’ and charged and went on to serve time in jail for crimes they knew nothing about”.

But theatre is not really that simple. Recently, on Emancipation morning, people in the crowd cursed at the performers portraying soldiers keeping order before the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1834. This year the Governor was booed.

Theatre and the arts have the ability to move people from a place of apathy or disinterest, to a desire to take action.

This then was the ideology behind “Black Traditions in Art” coming out of the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) in the 1970s, creatively directed by Eintou Springer. At the time, although enslavement, indentureship and colonialism were no longer part of the political landscape, socio-cultural divisions remained.

It is instructive that this fledgling political organisation took the arts seriously enough to view them as a catalyst for social change and eventual economic transformation. Some time after its formation in 1969, the NJAC organised its first “Festival of Black Traditions in Art” and the party ran it throughout the 1970s “to encourage the participation of not only the young and the old, but, importantly also women, before merging such events with yearly national calypso competitions.” The new platform provided a vehicle for the ancient role of the griot to emerge in the form of biting social commentary through calypso. Lyrics from artistes like Black Stalin, Brother Valentino, Shadow, Chalkdust, Ras Shorty I and Duke hit out at perceived inequalities, while urging a new paradigm of identity for people of African heritage.

The Black Traditions in Art programme also encouraged poets like Lasana Kwesi to inspire with his words, and would have fostered the growth of the Rapso movement still symbolised by Brother Resistance. The new aesthetic filtered into other African forms of expression, such as spirituality.

The use of the Baptist bell in popular music is an example of the changes that happened, with Baptist rhythms making their way into the repertoires of musicians like Andre Tanker, Super Blue, David Rudder and eventually into modern Soca.

The iconic Astor Johnson was key to this new way of thinking in the arena of dance; he passionately believed that dance must reflect the soul of the people, it must inspire and move through the truth it portrays. In Jamaica, Rex Nettleford was moving in a similar direction with his choreography for the National Dance Theatre, while across the region the understanding of arts as cultural resistance was taking hold.

At the core was Makandal Daaga, founder of NJAC, and its charismatic leader through difficult and dangerous times. Claudia Jones, the Belmont girl who co-founded the Nottinghill Carnival in London, stated that “a people’s culture is the ultimate expression of their desire to be free”.

Daaga understood this. His legacy has not only withstood time, but continues to enrich the lives of all citizens.

May he rest in peace.

D a r a Healy is a perform a n c e artist and f o u n d - er of the N G O , the Indigenous Creative Arts