Makantali money done in de country
Makantali money done oh
(Traditional)
These words are taken from a Guyanese folk song which is based on legend. Although details of the song’s origins and specific historical reference are veiled by a pall of vagueness and fiction, it fables the well-known tragedy of generations of Guyanese porknockers and of one particular folk hero known as Makantali. It is part of the eternal chase for a mythical El Dorado found as much in local oral poetry as in wider national literature. This particular folk song was the inspiration for drama.
Out of it the play Makantali was created by playwright Harold Bascom, and it won the Guyana Prize for Literature for Best Drama in 1996. As a Guyana Prize winner, it was specially performed at the National Cultural Centre on April 28 as part of the continuing staging of plays that have won the Guyana Prize. This is an initiative of Minister of Culture Charles Ramson Jnr, who determined that the ministry would provide the funding and facilitate these productions. The performances themselves, however, are the full responsibility of the theatre groups that produce them and the income from ticket sales goes to the groups.
