Dear Editor,
So we have finally reached the stage where calypso has become samizdat? And the democratic government of the PPP NCN bans all calypsos in the state-sponsored national calypso competition from the state-owned NCN because of a song which contains the lyrics, and I quote:
“Under dis party like de skullduggery will never end
Under dis party like it just becoming a daily trend
Under dis party we only hearing dem side pun NCN”.
If it is that Freedom House is rattled by that, how would they have reacted to the following:
Not I With This Torn Shirt
Martin Carter
They call here,
-Magnificent Province!
Province of Mud!
Province of flood!
Who are the magnificent here?
Not I with this torn shirt
but they, in their white mansions
by the trench of blood!
I tell you
this is no magnificent province
no El Dorado for me
no streets paved with gold
but a bruising and battering for self preservation
in the white dust and grey mud.
I tell you and I tell no secret –
now is the long past time for worship
long past time for kneeling
with clasped hands at altars of poverty
How are the mighty slain?
by this hammer of my hand!
by this anger in my life!
by this new science of men alive
everywhere in this province!
thus – are the mighty slain!
What would have been their reaction to the man who wrote those words if they held power when those words were written?
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
