During Mashramani this year, my friend Vibert Cambridge and his New York-based Guyana Cultural Association (GCA) organised a Masquerade Band competition on a Saturday morning in Victoria. Hundreds of folks came out, following the groups through the village and ending up watching the “Dance Off” in an area near the seawall. The entertainers competed for best flouncer, best flautist, best band, best kettle drummer, best costume and best toaster. The thing was a bomb. The crowds came, the music roared, spirits soared, and long-time was back in action. The momentum was powerful and I heard several comments that masquerade should be on display year-round in Guyana, not just at Christmas; that this piece of our culture should not be allowed to die out.
Well, lovely idea in principle, but stick a pin: cultural expressions fade away or disappear as a culture evolves (the reasons are complex) and while they can be maintained somewhat by die-hard aficionados the substantial retention is achieved only by the form being folded into some kind of commercial thrust.
Aficionados can try to sustain the form, by fund-raising or personal donations, but that kind of push is spasmodic and almost always peters out as we’re seeing with our masquerade bands here.
The hard reality is that if an art form is fading from a culture, we cannot, with the best of intentions, keep it alive unless it becomes part of some regular commercial activity. Here are two prime examples:
Stilt-walking in Trinidad, Barbados, Antigua, etc, would traditionally appear only at Carnival time and be rarely seen for the other 11 months. With the need for tourism diversions in Barbados, however, the art began appearing there some years ago in hotel entertainment and at music shows, and there are now several young men in that island making a good living doing stilt-walking professionally in these tourism shows at home and abroad throughout the year. I engaged three of them several times to perform during Pirates Week in Cayman where they were a big hit.
Of course, nowadays the dancers use fibreglass stilts and foam rubber footings and Velcro straps but the technique is the same, and the wider point is that the revival has not cost Barbados one cent; it has come from entrepreneurial use of the culture. It could be argued that the revival is aimed at one market, but if your intention is cultural retention what does it matter? It’s still there for all.
In the Cayman Islands, the spinning of gigs (what Guyanese call “tops”) was a thing of the past – virtually unknown to the young generation.
But about six years ago, one of the senior gents with the skill began showing up informally at local gatherings, spinning his tops, just for the joy of it, and next time you knew the Tourism Department had him lined up to take part in the cultural events they put on for tourists during the year.
Now the young people still aren’t flocking to the tops (it’s too boring for them) but again, an old Caymanian tradition, once dead and buried, is alive because there is commercial demand (from the tourists, mind you) for it. It’s a classic case of the cultural economy.
And with regard to the “it’s-the-same-old-thing-all -the-time” complaint we hear about these traditional forms, remember that they are brand new to the visitor and fascinating.
It should be emphasized, however, that when you shift from freeness to something people pay for, in other words, a professional product, the presentation has to become professional, as well.
If a masquerade band wants to be hired for pay year-round, they will have to pay more attention to costume; they will need to have some variety in their music, instead of the one-phrase jamming, and in their choreography, as well. Presentation can also be greatly improved by more use of the “toaster” or commentator, and the “money pickup” moves of the dancers should be given greater emphasis for their engaging entertainment value, and as cash flow for the dancers.
Similarly, calypsonians in Guyana, now truly performing only at Mashramani, can also find an outlet for their talents if they tailor their presentations to offer traditional humorous calypsoes such as “Cat Brain”, “Lazy Man”, “Ugly Woman”, “Bed Bug”, etc, which persons from any culture can understand. I know without asking that there is some year-round business for a promoter organizing such entertainment for the various conventions, annual meetings, tourism trips, etc, taking place in Guyana.
It is often the case that, apart from dance, we lack such short, snappy pieces of entertainment that can serve to brighten up gatherings of all sorts here, and although calypso has passed its popular-music peak, it works very well in focused entertainment doses, drawing on that clever calypso humour that leaves people, young and old, foreign and local, in stitches.
Of course, the professionalism has to come in here, as well, for the calypsonians so that attention to punctuality, costume, equipment, vocal ability, etc, would be essential, but all the laggards in that regard will be quickly eliminated by the promoter as detrimental to his/her business. There will be writers and performers who are interested in calypso for its traditional role as social commentary, and who would consequently prefer to stay with that kind of expression, as in Mash, focusing on national concerns – in effect, the “tent calypso”.
Also, the writer/performer may not be particularly keen to build a performance around songs written by someone else, and only on comedic topics. That is certainly their choice. They are free to make it.
But they make it with the understanding that there is a limited arena for such fare because calypso is no longer the popular music of the day.
The constantly expressed point of the value of the cultural economy is valid, but the key is to recognise that these forms will maintain themselves only if they are operating in a sound business context where both product and market are the prime criteria. Just wishing to see them live on because they are part of our culture is a lovely thought that will remain both lovely and just a thought.
Anything that benefits the cultural economy must inevitably also be a business. So, as any successful promoter will tell you, it go.
