Beyond the ‘jamming still’

On the other hand, the late Sr Diane Jagdeo OP, replied to Dr Boodoo in a moving paper a few years later when she contended that the context, while forced, did not preclude creativity and advancement.

Women in particular were agents of possibilities as they made possible for their children a future to hope in, by their faith and courage while men capitulated to all the impacts of a wounded manhood. We need to keep both insights in healthy tension.

The roots of Carnival remind us of this history of hope and despair, fatalism and creativity. Carnival began in slavery times when the context couldn’t be more “forced” yet the slaves found time to dance and mimic their slave masters allowing them freedom, creativity and laughter, albeit small, in harsh and tragic times. It serves to remind us that in every age “a light shines in the dark; a light the darkness could not overpower”.

That the darkness is sometimes overpowering can be gleaned from a popular soca hit that seems destined for Road March victory: Full Extreme, more popularly known as We Jammin Still.

MX Prime has his fingers on the right buttons.

He is sensing something - the budding despair of our present society as we capitulate to fatalism: the rising tide of violence, not only gendered violence, but violence towards children; the failure of our institutions - “the city could burn down”; the collapse of the economy - “the treasury could burn down’, the implosion of family life - “promote a fete and you go see”. The indifference and chaos reaches its climax - “we doh business”.

Beneath MX Prime’s lyrics lies the question: how do we generate a new hope for our people? One way is for people to keep doing the good they are doing in the hope that persistence will bear fruit - those organising small, unreported carnivals in rural areas; green groups working to preserve the environment; persons constructing special liturgies for children with disabilities; businessmen rehabilitating ex-prisoners and migrants; groups working to re-educate school drop-outs etc. This requires a single-mindedness as implied in today’s Gospel: “No one can be the slave of two masters” (Mt 6:24). It demands conviction and martyrdom, a willingness to die for one’s conviction.

This cultural renewal is also an interreligious adventure.

It will not be the work of any one religion, though one may lead the way. It requires the slaughter of the ego and self-interest, the seed of our insatiable desire for money and power and, by extension, corruption. It invites us to walk in the desert of the present times in the hope that the desert will bloom.