"A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots "
Marcus Garvey
Every year the various territories at the Hugh Wooding Law school host a cultural night where the culture and food of the territory is displayed for our colleagues and lecturers. It's a great opportunity to showcase your culture and earn bragging rights for hosting the best cultural night. I fall into the OECS grouping so last November for OECS night my colleagues and I had to represent Vincentian culture. We wracked our brains trying to thinking of unique aspects of our Vincentian culture to display.
We considered folk singing but being small in numbers and some (like myself) a bit tone deaf that didn't work out. In any case, I discovered to my surprise that the folk songs I knew and thought were indigenous to St Vincent were in fact Jamaican. We didn't know how to do the Garifuna Punta Dance or any Garifuna drumming or anything remotely fascinating or amazing. We drew a lot of blanks and I had a sinking sense of dread that our colleagues coming to view our presentation would surely have surmised that we were a culture-less, talentless bunch. At the last minute we managed to pull it off I performed a dialect poem/monologue, another colleague performed a song tribute to St Vincent and another colleague performed a poem. Not disastrous, but not by any means a satisfactory representation of Vincentian culture. I was blown away by the Barbadian and the Guyanese cultural presentations, granted they are larger in numbers and had more resources to draw on, but all the same I was envious of the portrayal of their culture and their obvious sense of national pride.
Since then I have been obsessed with finding out more about the Vincentian culture and the ways it can be preserved for future generations. I realise I don't know enough about Vincentian culture and I know even less about how to capture and depict it. I am making efforts to correct that and I'm hoping that this blog will eventually reflect this.
Culture is something you live and you learn, it's not static so it evolves and can be made and remade.The issue is that the pervasiveness of foreign media means that it is easier to assimilate foreign culture which can result in a form of cultural imperialism and the eventual erasure of the indigenous culture. Case in point: many West Indian children today know all about Diego and Dora, Peppa Pig and the host of other characters on Nickelodeon but know nothing about Anansi or any of the interesting folklore or the indigenous aspects of our culture. This is worrying. We have to do better than this. Failure to preserve our cultural legacies makes us like the proverbial trees without roots, easily toppled by winds of foreign cultural imperialism. We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be defined externally. Where is our original programming and cultural content? Where are our West Indian animators? Where is the West Indian children's literature? We aren't we creating educational content which is reflective of our history, our traditions and our culture. We need to start telling our stories, it's the most basic way to articulate and preserve our cultural legacies.
I read voraciously as a child but apart from my school assigned reading books I can't remember reading any West Indian Children's literature and I certainly did not see any West Indian cartoons on television. I read about winters and fairies and goblins and a lot of foreign things that stimulated my imagination but they were things I did not identify with. I think that's why for me there is nothing like delving into a well written West Indian book, it evokes a visceral feeling that is comforting in its familiarity and reassuring in its authenticity. You know intrinsically what the author is speaking about, you feel that the characters can easily be your family.
I believe representation matters. It is necessary for us to see our cultural reality reflected in the stories we read and the programs we watch, it anchors us and shapes our identities. I think children who are exposed to indigenous culture and content will inadvertently grow up to be adults with a strong sense of identity and a strong sense of national pride. This is not only important for their personal development but for the development of our countries.
Long live our cultural legacies!
We considered folk singing but being small in numbers and some (like myself) a bit tone deaf that didn't work out. In any case, I discovered to my surprise that the folk songs I knew and thought were indigenous to St Vincent were in fact Jamaican. We didn't know how to do the Garifuna Punta Dance or any Garifuna drumming or anything remotely fascinating or amazing. We drew a lot of blanks and I had a sinking sense of dread that our colleagues coming to view our presentation would surely have surmised that we were a culture-less, talentless bunch. At the last minute we managed to pull it off I performed a dialect poem/monologue, another colleague performed a song tribute to St Vincent and another colleague performed a poem. Not disastrous, but not by any means a satisfactory representation of Vincentian culture. I was blown away by the Barbadian and the Guyanese cultural presentations, granted they are larger in numbers and had more resources to draw on, but all the same I was envious of the portrayal of their culture and their obvious sense of national pride.
Since then I have been obsessed with finding out more about the Vincentian culture and the ways it can be preserved for future generations. I realise I don't know enough about Vincentian culture and I know even less about how to capture and depict it. I am making efforts to correct that and I'm hoping that this blog will eventually reflect this.
Culture is something you live and you learn, it's not static so it evolves and can be made and remade.The issue is that the pervasiveness of foreign media means that it is easier to assimilate foreign culture which can result in a form of cultural imperialism and the eventual erasure of the indigenous culture. Case in point: many West Indian children today know all about Diego and Dora, Peppa Pig and the host of other characters on Nickelodeon but know nothing about Anansi or any of the interesting folklore or the indigenous aspects of our culture. This is worrying. We have to do better than this. Failure to preserve our cultural legacies makes us like the proverbial trees without roots, easily toppled by winds of foreign cultural imperialism. We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be defined externally. Where is our original programming and cultural content? Where are our West Indian animators? Where is the West Indian children's literature? We aren't we creating educational content which is reflective of our history, our traditions and our culture. We need to start telling our stories, it's the most basic way to articulate and preserve our cultural legacies.
I read voraciously as a child but apart from my school assigned reading books I can't remember reading any West Indian Children's literature and I certainly did not see any West Indian cartoons on television. I read about winters and fairies and goblins and a lot of foreign things that stimulated my imagination but they were things I did not identify with. I think that's why for me there is nothing like delving into a well written West Indian book, it evokes a visceral feeling that is comforting in its familiarity and reassuring in its authenticity. You know intrinsically what the author is speaking about, you feel that the characters can easily be your family.
I believe representation matters. It is necessary for us to see our cultural reality reflected in the stories we read and the programs we watch, it anchors us and shapes our identities. I think children who are exposed to indigenous culture and content will inadvertently grow up to be adults with a strong sense of identity and a strong sense of national pride. This is not only important for their personal development but for the development of our countries.
Long live our cultural legacies!
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