Columbus dead, Prime Minister
If Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is not careful with every word that “cometh” out of his mouth between now and whenever the general election is held (in 2025, he says), he could become part of the list of political leaders who have thrown away significant advantages they held before general elections.
Indeed, the advantages he and his colleagues have fought hard to establish and maintain after nearly a decade in power in Trinidad and Tobago could vanish in the putrid elections environment by him uttering inappropriate words and policy statements.
Allow me to explain why I think Dr Rowley is making some unwise statements. There can be no question over the zeal with which he has grabbed the pan and taken it into mainstream music, pursuing its validation as a musical instrument created by Trinidadian talent.
In pan circles, our PM is a long-time supporter. One of the occasions on which he and I met and spoke for about an hour was at the semifinals of Panorama ten-plus years ago. That evening-into-night we would have discussed pan music among other national issues.
Although I don’t recall details, he must have had interesting things to say, given that I spent so much time with him. We would meet occasionally afterwards, he as minister of agriculture at one time, and I as a farmers leader who had a passion for local food production.
Once he assumed the office of Prime Minister, I never took our familiarity for granted, nor did I take the liberty to telephone him on his private line, which I had. So Dr Rowley and I are not friends, but I have always held him in high regard, a bright man who cared about his country. Where others saw arrogance and rough edges, I saw patriotism and a black man who had something to prove in this very colour-conscious country.
But, I digress. I have followed this mini storm that he seems to have deliberately stirred up in his quest to make the pan central to cultural developments. There’s nothing wrong; in fact, there is everything right about Dr Rowley’s bid to make history as the PM who promoted pan.
As a “pan peong” myself, I have long felt, spoken and written about the value of pan music and the instruments this little country has given to the world. The pan can and must be made to add to the national economy, whether it be by the manufacturing and exportation of the instruments or the promotion of its music in the theatres across the globe.
I think if the Government makes the correct decisions—I do not promote myself as any expert in marketing or music or pan—there are people who are highly qualified and experienced who can make these advances possible but… this is where I think Dr Rowley and his colleagues must be very careful with what they say and do.
They must never be seen as being partial towards pan, at the risk of excluding other cultural art forms, especially given the fractures in this multi-racial, multi-cultural society.
When he spoke last week and created the “Columbus storm”, his proposal being that we remove Columbus’ three ships from the coat of arms and replace them with the pan, it stirred race talk and tensions in sections of the society that are so prone anyway.
I got the impression that he and members of his Cabinet will have discussed the issue of booting Columbus out of the national emblem even as they were aware that Columbus had been kicked out of the history of slavery, colonialism and like topics.
In fact, 99% of the people in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean don’t know who the hell Columbus was, nor do they care. Columbus is dead, and he died deep in debt owed to the slaves and indigenous tribes.
Any bid to rekindle that ancient war will be so irrelevant to our colonial history that it would probably hurt Dr Rowley and his party, causing them more harm than it did Columbus.
The PM needs to understand that the blackest thing in slavery was not the white man. He had long taken his spoils, enriched his dominions using our natural wealth and enslaved labour.
What the black man must understand, and Dr Rowley must tell his people, is that those among them who climbed the ladders of success have invariably done so by absorbing European values and using them as measurements of success and failure.
Until a few years ago those same people found it alien to wear African clothing and listen to African music. And, how many of them today take the time to be educated by commentators such as Dr David Muhammad, whose programme runs weekly on television? I shall return to this topic on another occasion.
—Raffique Shah