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ANALYSIS OF PAN'S HISTORY: NO CAUSE TO JUMP AND WAVE.
By
Philip A. John
I read with great interest Collins Jackman's interesting discussion of
the forgotten or ignored history which became the crucible for the
evolution of the steelband in Trinidad. He also correctly pointed out
that analytical depth is missing from even some of the better studies to
have been produced on the subject.
My review of the available literature indicates a main direction. Much
time and resources have been devoted to the investigation of who
invented the instrument. (See, for example, George Goddard's 'Forty Years
In The Steelbands:1939 to 1979'). Was it Carlton Forde of Alexander
Ragtime Band in 1935, Victor Wilson in or about 1936, Fred Corbin in
1937, or Winston 'Spree' Simon in 1939 or 1940? What is quite obvious
from these queries is the bias which centers the origins of pan in
northern Trinidad. This is done to the exclusion of others involved in
experimentation, such as the Orisha drummer Andrew Beddoe, Randolph
Wiltshire and Snatcher Guy in Tacarigua; Milton Lyons in Marabella, in
the shadows of the Texaco oil refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre; and other
pioneers in Point Fortin, the location of the Shell oil refinery, and La
Brea, the site of the pitch lake. The implications are clear. By
narrowly focusing on the search for "the creator," attention is
distracted from the "social, political and economic circumstances," to
quote Collins Jackman, under which pan evolved, and, more precisely, the
role of the PEOPLE of Trinidad in the struggle which became the midwife
of pan. The Trinidad Guardian columnist, Bukka Rennie, accurately stated
in an article of November 12, 2000, that "steelband development took
place over the length and breadth of the entire country."
In an interview on March 22, 1983 the late Calypsonian, the Roaring
Lion, reflected the class essence of the mass involvement in this
movement as follows: "No one person or even a number of persons can
truly say that they were deliberately responsible for the origin of the
steelband. The steelband was not the dream of anyone nor was it the
result of any mishap....Between the years 1934 and 1940, the tamboo
bamboo was in demand but the oil pan was gaining momentum in its stride
to eclipse the tamboo bamboo....These panmen became so absorbed in this
style of music (pan) that they no longer adhered to the traditional
custom of the annual beating of the pan but instead they started to play
their music all through the day and up to late at night....The result
was frequent clashes between the police and members of the steelbands."
Our history is replete with the brutal designs of the British colonial
authority to to suppress the emergence of this unique, indigenous
cultural expression Trinidadians today take for granted. The intense
class struggle during slavery, seen in acts of resistance and rebellion,
gave way under capitalism to other more "refined" demonstrations of
protest and defiance. The historical records provide evidence that the
British had, during the period of slavery, declared drumming to be a
means of subversive communication and a base religious ritual capable of
inducing the oppressed to return to heathenism. In 1877, infamous chief
of police , Capt. Baker, used armed officers to raid the meeting places
of musical bands and confiscate their instruments. From 1942 until 1946,
that is, from the outbreak to the end of World War II, all carnival
celebrations were banned under the ridiculous pretense that a parade in
the streets of Trinidad would have disrupted British war efforts against
Hitler's Germany. The colonial animus toward our indigenous culture was
further expressed in the Anti-noise Ordinance of 1945 which, in reality,
outlawed freedom of speech and assembly and drove the steelband--the
movement of the masses--underground.
The heroism, courage and bravery of our compatriots in facing the brute
might of the colonial state apparatus, can be seen in such examples as
the 1891 riots in Arouca, where the police were attacked and beaten by
stick fighters; the open defiance of the 1942 wartime ban on carnival,
resulting in stiff jail sentences form the courts of the British
overlords and countless other concerted acts which broke the
colonialist's will and made the birth and development of our national
instrument an irreversible fact of history. Neither British weapons nor
their vicious propaganda--which for a time stigmatized the steelband as
the quest of hooligans--could prevail in this aspect of our struggle for
a distinct identity as a people.
Another interesting fact is that there must have been objective and
subjective circumstances peculiar to Trinidad which resulted in the
evolution of steel as our main musical medium. I am able to make this
argument for several reasons. First, if one contends that our drumming
tradition inherited from Africa can explain pan's origin, then one must
explain why no simultaneous developments took place in other colonial
enclaves such as Jamaica, Grenada, Barbados, etc. If pan was, as some
commentators have suggested, a musical means of articulating opposition
to colonial oppression, then one must again explain why this
manifestation was unique to Trinidad. Guyana's historical experience
under slavery and later indentured servitude, which led to the
introduction of both Chinese and East Indians into that society, bear
striking similarity to Trinidad's. Yet, the steelband did not originate
in Guyana. Thus, our research has, so far, failed to bring us any closer
to being enlightened as to the specific material conditions and
historical circumstances that planted the seed and made pan flourish on
Trinidad soil, but nowhere else in the colonized Caribbean region.
Scientific, objectively sound research into the origins of the steelband
is sadly lacking because of the failure to adopt a proper conceptual or
theoretical framework which would lay the foundation for proper
investigation and aid in the analysis of the data. Furthermore, unless
there is the recognition that class struggle in capitalist society
infects, and is in turn infected by, the spheres of art and culture,
there will continue to be the type of obsessive immersion in
superficiality which has pervaded our approach to this important
subject.
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