The steel pan is all of us

Here, many people have been involved in the arts of rhythm, percussion, instrumentation, fine-tuning, organisation and performance, before, during and after the steel pan creation.

They were a diverse maze of Christians and non-Christians, of unmixed and mixed races, varying in talents and purposes, as British subjects, from “behind and in front the bridge” and all over the place at once. The same can be said for the first steel pan association in 1949.

In other words steel pan was made by people most having nothing from Orisha. The steel pan cannot be the claim of any one group or religion and we have not treated it that way. The majority do not.

What we know with the steel pan as nationals, subjectively, is its joy and power, arising because pan is from here, something allround, sound of the land and stirrings of countrymen, bonds of happy appreciation and natural camaraderie heavily tinged with unique, sweet, subtle, melodious tones in energised, disciplined, race-less, common steel.

Objectively, we declare, the steel pan was not brought in with immigrants. That it is a remarkable and major innovation of the 20th century. It is the product of combined musical imaginations, simplicity, wanderings and togetherness of all. It is the dedicated labour of multiple locals in definition and flowering. It is the enduring artistry of fellow countrymen liberally shared and given away without boasts.

We will not be surprised if it ends up fully disseminated like the guitar, violin, piano or flute.

But it will always be ours in these experiences and we will always know it so. It is culturally distinctive just like you and me.

E GALY via email