Theatre and Caribbean Self-Definition

Theatre and Caribbean Self-Definition RAWLE GIBBONS Derek Walcott's Drums and Colours premiered at the opening of the First Federal Parliament of the West Indies on April 23, 1958. The fact that the young poet/playwright had been commissioned by the governments of the region to write this historical drama augured well for the future relationship between the arts and the state in a new sOlf-determining political configuration for the West Indies. As the character Pompey says in the final speech of the play: So you men of every creed and class We know you is brmhers, when you playing mas White dance with black, black with Indian, but long time Was rebellion, No matter what your colour now is steel and drums We dancing together with open anns Look on our stage now, and you going see The happiness of a new countryI This "happiness," however, proved short-lived. Four bitter, strife-tom years later, the union of the islands, succumbing to history, fragmented into·'independence... The challenge that faced newly "independent" territories was one of building a cohesive, self-confident nation. The start was not promising, based as it was on a history of ruthless exploitation, gross inequalities, endemic dependence . The Great Colonial Truth was the ultimate acceptance of white superiority and as a consequence the inferiority of all darker elements. As for the colonial artist, his gaze was ever elsewhere. Sociologist Lloyd Braithwaite in discussing colonial Trinidad says: The position of the artist reflected the position of the whole society. In so far as the Modern Drama, 38 (1995) 52 Theatre and Caribbean Self-Definition 53 original cultural heritage of their ancestors (mainly African) was lost, in so far there was an easy incorporation into and participation in the life of the metropolitan area. This rendered educational and consequently political advance easier perhaps, but it shifted as a consequence the centre of gravity of the community so to speak to a position outside itself. This was the price that had to be paid.2 Theatre, as a colonial institution, was itself part of the problem. The colonial vision would recognise only its own reflection as legitimate. During World War II, Trinidadians had already shown what they thought of British cultural elitism by inventing their own musical instrument, the steelpan. At the same time, the colonial theatre in Jamaica became tremendously popularised with the introduction of the Jamaican Pantomime. This paper proposes to look at how the drama/theatre of the Caribbean continued to shape itself in response to the challenges facing a region as newly independent states. It is perhaps hardly necessary in this era of universalism to state that "theatre" in the context of this account, refers to forms of performance organised for communication and not its particular Western expression. Walcott uses Carnival as the vehicle for his West Indian epic and symbol of Caribbean unity because of its special significance for the West Indian. African people throughout the region have used this European fete and other plantation festivities for the resuscitation of their own masquerade traditions as well as adapting these traditions to the necessities of survival. After slavery these old and hybrid masquerades took to the streets and were an annual affront to British colonial authority. Serious riots occurred during the Jonkonnu celebrations in Jamaica in 1841.3In Trinidad in t88 t, when police attempted to enforce restrictions on the pre-dawn carnival of ex-slaves called "Canboulay," stick-fighting bands rallied together and battled the police for hours. In I 884, East Indians in Trinidad had their tum when police again opened fire on the Hosein (Muharram) procession, killing twelve and injuring one hundred and four.4 The point is that the street theatres of the Caribbean in general and Carnival in particular represent territory fought for and won. Their performances contain messages of resistance and victory over their particular circumstances. Despite the subsequent legislation against these processions, despite their changes in fonn over the past century, they remain vehicles of or icons to a people's politics and aesthetic. In Trinidad, there was always political appreciation of this fact. Popular culture found in Albert Gomes, who led Trinidad after the...