T&T: Racial politics and the attempt to rewrite T&T history

In the Express of February 5, Dr Kumar Mahabir made a very illogical and absurd claim about the "undoubted influence of the Hosay Tassa drum in the making of the steel drum" and continued with an addendum by "scholars versed in the phenomenon of cultural cross fertilisation" hinting at some homologies.

If Dr Mahabir's reference to JD Elder's support for his claims are correct, then Dr Elder's error is due to the fact that growing up in Tobago, he would not have had first hand experience of the birth of steelpan like I had, growing up opposite Tamarind Square, in east Port of Spain.

The epicentre of the steelband development is Duke and Nelson Streets in east Port of Spain. ... Not in central or south Trinidad! Whereas some measure of cultural and other miscegenation is inevitable as seen in chutney and soca, it was not part of the process of the invention of the steelpan in the 40s and 50s.

In 1946, there was a small family steelband on Nelson Street, opposite Christopher's Recording Studio and next door to Swanee River Steel Orchestra (later to become St Joseph Road Fascinators) made up of Madras Indians who tried to play East Indian music on Western-tuned steelpans, borrowed from Swanee River. Sadly, they failed. The crossover that they attempted to pioneer was to happen much later, as seen today in the performances of East Indian melodies by the Samaroos, Skiffle Bunch and others.

While African Creoles, urbanised in Port of Spain barrackyards, were still recovering from their recent painful, dehumanising history, East Indians by and large were still "ruralised" and isolated in the countryside. What happened was self pollination, not cultural cross-fertilisation.

Phillips asks "[w]hy is Mahabir trying to take away steelband from the Afro-Trinis?". The answer may be simply that Kumar Mahabir, like many others in the West and elsewhere, is a proponent of the theory that nothing good can come out of Africa unless another and better people and culture shows Africa the way; thus, any accomplishment of Africa's children in the the New World is subject to question and examination for its other-cultural roots. According to this theory of the inherent inferiority of Africans and those of African descent, a radically new and innovative instrument like pan cannot have been created by Afro-Trinis without external influence by another wiser and better culture. For Kumar Mahabir, this wiser and better culture is Indian because, as a then-minister of government, an Indian woman, once said, all Indians white, and that must make Indians better. Therefore, Mahabir, in claiming an Indian influence in the development of pan, is actually staking out ground claiming the superiority of Indo- over Afro-T&T people and culture. Since Mahabir has made these same claims previously, his ridiculous theory ought to be vigorously attacked with the facts of the history of pan to prevent his absurd claims from being received as truth. Unless Afro-Trinidadians are willing to do the research and the writing, then history will record Kumar Mahabir's absurdities as factual, for he will support them by reference to the flawed historical record of a well-respected Afro-T&T scholar, J.D. Elder.

Phillips continues:

Hill Sixty, Destination Tokyo, Crusaders of the East, Swanee River, Casablanca, Cross of Lorraine, Syncopators, Rising Sun, Invaders, Crossfire, Sputnik, Kintups, Dem Boys, Dem Fortunate, Rising Sun, Merry Makers, Funland, Sunland-all of these bands could not match the music of a south band-Southern All Stars playing "Anna" (1950)-the theme song of an Italian film.

At that time, who had time for tassa drums in greater Port of Spain and Laventille? Pan was already in its earliest stages, attempting the European classics, learning its structure and expanding its scope. Tassa although it has its place, is by and large simpler and too monotonous. African drumming is more energetic, more exciting, more dynamic, is contrapuntal -filled with call and response passages.

Dr Mahabir is misguided and mischievous in his statements about the relationship of the tassa drums to steelband development. This is not the first time he has alluded to such a theory and maybe not the last. Afro-creoles seem to consider this claim to be so ludicrous and preposterous that they just do not take him on. However, clearly there is the need to nip such errant statements in the bud.
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Many of the early innovators who have not passed on, went away and now reside far afield in Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, London, California, New York, Toronto and have lost the kind of contact to reply to Dr Kumar Mahabir's insults

What can he gain by making this claim when there is so much evidence which can clearly refute it? Is he trying to rewrite the history of Africans here or belittle the contributions of Africans in Trinidad? It is past time for him to stop making this claim.

Here Phillips hits the nail dead on. This is precisely what Kumar Mahabir may well be attempting to do. A lie, once told often enough, is often received as "truth."