They say it is a topical oriented music style that boasts, calls names,
indicts, strikes metaphors, employs double-voiced interpretations
to tell the history.
It is rooted in traditions developed by West African
slaves brought to the Caribbean. Kaiso was executed by a griot
or chantwell, a local bard who told stories in song, offering social
commentary through praise, satire or lament. What is this genre called?
You are right, Calypso. Calypso is thought to have originated from the West
African Kaiso and Canboulay music sung by African slaves while sweating
it out on plantations in the 17th Century. Enslaved Africans were barred
from communicating with each other, thus, early Calypso existed
as a form of communication, and to mock their slave masters.
This Afro-Caribbean music genre was birthed in the nation
of Trinidad and Tobago and spread throughout the West Indies.
Calypso grew as a genre and played an integral role in diverse subjects
and ideas like upbringing, cooking tips, life lessons, maternal advice, and
moral values. For instance, writing for The Center for Folklife & Cultural
Heritage, Kimberley Watson, in an article titled “Calypso Is We!” Life Lessons
in the Music of Trinidad and Tobago— “Yuh goin’ an get ah lil noise later!”,
discusses how her next-door neighbor made a common announcement,
if not a “bold warning” that he was going to play music loudly past 10
p.m. out there in D’Abadie—about fifteen miles east of Port of Spain
on the island of Trinidad. That neighbor played through records, tapes,
and CDs of calypso and steelpan. “His tastes took him as far back
as the early calypsonians like Atilla the Hun and Roaring
Lion to Kitchener, Sparrow, and Calypso Rose”.
She describes richly how Sparrow’s lyrics floated through the air
and caught the attention of her six-year-old mind, and how
calypso can counsel and remind young women about predators
in their various forms, and from adolescence to the present day,
through wise words like “What Sandra say? Let them keep dey
money, you go keep your honey, and die with yuh dignity.”
However, this piece will not focus on Sparrow’s music.
It will focus on the life of one superstar who was born
on 18 April 1922. He contributed vastly to the calypso
music scene and its tradition of socio-political commentary.
As a tireless teenager, he swore that his permanent stutter
was not going to be a mountain too high to climb or a deterrent
to his singing ambition. True to his word, he would soon lord over it.
His enthralled multitudes of fans awarded him that title, Lord… something.
He became noble in his own way. That is how smart and resolute he was.
Born in Arima, he was a well-dressed, striking, brave, humorous,
hearty Pan-Africanist and musician who exhibited his solidarity
with a colonized Africa through songs like “My Home”(1957),
plus “Yankee Sufferers”, (1945).
In fact, like inspired and renowned Eddy Grant’s “Gimme Hope”
(1988) which was banned by South Africa’s apartheid government in spite
of hitting the UK top 10 in January 1988, “Yankee Sufferers” suffered
the same fate as it was also barred by the British colonial powers that be.
Eddy Grant, who has not only produced music for one who was
better known purely as “Kitch”, has also created compositions
for the who’s who in Calypso and Soca arena and is credited with the creation
of RingBang Music— a beat influenced by tuk, soca, calypso, reggae and souk.
The Guyanese-British star performed at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday
concert.
Did Kitch’s stout songs, decisions and actions not bear testimony
to his unyielding yearning to retain links with Trinidad and Africa?
Did that ban devastate, dispirit and disorientate him?
Was he disheartened and defeated?
After breaking into the London nightclub circuit, he opened his own club
in Manchester in 1958. Home is where the heart is, hence he would send
his grippingly sizzling songs back to Trinidad for that island’s annual carnival.
On March 6, 1957, the Gold Coast Colony attained political independence
from Britain and became Ghana, the first West African nation to break
from European colonial rule. That creative calypso musician recorded
a powerful song titled “Birth of Ghana” to celebrate independence.
This day will never be forgotten
The sixth of March Nineteen Fifty Seven
When the Gold Coast successfully
Get their independence officially
Ghana!
Ghana is the name
Ghana!
We wish to proclaim
Doctor Nkrumah went on his way
To make the Gold Coast what it is today
He endeavored continually to bring us freedom and liberty
The national flag is a lovely scene
With beautiful colors Red, Gold, and Green
And a Black star in the center representing the freedom of Africa
Congratulation from Haile Selassie
Was proudly received by everybody
He particularly comment on the doctor’s move to self-government
Guess what? That track swiftly became a huge and happy hit in Ghana
and all over West Africa. It was a befitting tribute to the Ghanaian citizens.
Suffice to say calypso music had already made
vigorous and visible inroads into that market.
Ghana’s ascension to political freedom captivated the Black world,
no less perceptible in the US where a civil rights movement was growing.
Ghana had ruptured the shackles of colonialism as the British West
Indies were seeking to group together as a confederation and give
birth to a regional flag of political independence.
A number of Caribbean inhabitants, especially the supporters
of Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) were pleased and inspired to see Mosiah’s
black star at the centre of Ghana’s national flag.
Formal independence ceremonies
and informal street parties across Ghana’s capital city of Accra saw animated
residents sway and sing to his beautiful and beguiling song, and showering
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with passionate and patriotic praises in the process.
What was convincing, catchy and weighty about the lyrics of the song?
The gem and its lyrics signified a dignified acknowledgement and affirmation
of the transcontinental and the Pan-Africanist nature, tact, reputation,
charisma and influence of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Ghana’s independence.
In fact, he had been “taking advice” from two trailblazing Caribbean sons,
both hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, namely George Padmore (1902-1959),
once a Moscow-based communist official; and C.L.R James (1901-1989).
L. R. James was a Trinidadian writer and political activist.
Ghana’s independence ceremony was graced by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and his wife Coretta Scott King. King’s trip to West Africa was emblematic
of a rising global alliance of oppressed peoples and an attempt to widen
the scope of the civil rights struggle. The Vice President of the US,
Richard Nixon was in attendance, including anti-apartheid activist
and Anglican priest Michael Scott, peace activist Homer Jack,
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and Louis “Satchmo” Amstrong.
Louis “Satchmo” Amstrong crooned “Black and Blue” at a government
reception presided by none other than Nkrumah. “Nkrumah’s favorite song”.
By the same token,
Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, was esteemed as a figure
and force of African resistance to European colonialism. The song “Birth
of Ghana” echoed and amplified the transnational import and impact
of Ghanaian independence. It spearheaded for the liberation
of the rest of Africa from colonial rule and the establishment of a socialist
African unity under Nkrumah’s leadership, but also rekindled optimism,
courage, self-love and pride in the persons of African descent in the diaspora.
The annals of it are still preserved and prized as momentous mementos
in Ghana up to this very day.
That performer was influential in the evolution and popularity of Trinidadian
music. Was he not the Master of Trinidadian music? Who was that maestro?
He who led the pitch invasion at Lords following the West Indies cricket
team’s triumph over England in 1951. Something cinematic to behold.
Was he not one of Trinidad’s pioneering musicians and calypsonians?
He arrived on the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought postwar West
Indian immigrants to Britain. The majority on that vessel were Jamaican.
He was not only a storyteller of the Caribbean experience in Britain,
but then musically he wrote about ” London Is The Place For Me”
and ” I Can’t Stand The Cold In Winter”.
Wasn’t Calypso fashioned in Trinidad as a fusion of African
and Latin American rhythms?
Wasn’t it a witty way, a telling tool, a vivacious vehicle
for social and political discussions and debates?
They crowned him “Road March King of the World”. However, he proclaimed
himself the ” Grandmaster of Calypso”. A good dancer knows when to leave
the dance floor, and similarly after winning the annual calypso
monarch contest in 1975, he retired from the occasion
to give other competitors an opportunity to enter and shine.
He groomed other musicians as well. Talk of nobility.
He has been described as one of the greatest calypsonians of the post-war age.
The hitmaker of a timeless calypso masterwork “Sugar Bum Bum”
about Audrey whose pleasantness made him feel like ten foot tall!
Darling, I don’t want to lose you
Honey, like you give me voodoo
Give way me land, give way me car
But let no man touch my sugar
So goes the calypso classic that was said to be inspired by West African
highlife, a successful product of the experimental period of that time.
He serenaded the hearts and ears of the Caribbean diaspora and beyond.
His songs caught the attention of Princess Margaret. She supposedly bought
several charming copies of them too. That is how infectious he was.
A revered figure in Trinidad, his face appeared on a postage stamp and a statue
of him stands prominently outside Port of Spain. Do you know that legend?
As we put a curtain over this piece, please help me give a standing ovation
to the memory of none other than Aldywn Roberts ‘Lord Kitchener’,
whose legacy is preserved in film.
He transitioned at the age of 77, on 11 February 2000.
