Golden legacy

DARA HEALY

“Molly was our Rex Nettleford. She was a pioneer in every sense of the word. She promoted religious and secular dance; first dancer to obtain a PhD in dance; first dancer to author a book that is used extensively by students at both the secondary and tertiary levels; pioneer in becoming an Iyalorisa ...”

Emelda Lynch-Griffith, president, National Dance Association of TT

THIS IS A celebration of Molly Ahye, Aunty Molly as I knew her. But it is also a lament; a continuation of my personal campaign for us to institute a structured, mainstream approach to honouring and giving respect to our cultural icons.

As I sat in her transition ceremony, I pondered the curious fact that it was taking place in a chapel, although she was a proud, practising member of the Ifa/Orisa belief system. Indeed, she was no recent inductee to this form of worship. She travelled to Haiti and Brazil amongst other countries to learn.

“In 1979, she committed to the faith after she was introduced to Dr Marta Morena Vega, founder of the Caribbean Cultural Centre in New York, which led her to reconnect with the Orisa and Voodun faiths as practised in the diaspora.”

Aunty Molly will also be remembered as being part of the group that initiated an international conference on the Orisa faith. According to one speaker, the first conference took place on the African continent. The group subsequently organised another one in New York. As Lynch-Griffith said, “Molly became an Iyalorisa, at a time when many of us feared the Orisas. She dared to be different.”

In addition, her work has impacted our Carnival space. It is said she was one of the first to recognise the connection between our festival and traditional African spirituality.

As I sat listening to the speeches, I pondered too the fact that there was no dance. I assumed I had missed the performances because I arrived late. No performances, schoolchildren or senior State representatives. No large contingent of artistes, no tantana, no grandeur. No dance?

“From 1952-1965, Ahye was a principal dancer with the Little Carib Company which was founded by Beryl McBurnie.” In 1980, she was awarded the Hummingbird Gold national award for dance. Her book, Golden Heritage: The Dance in Trinidad and Tobago, is described as “a commentary on dance as a communicative medium.”

In the audience sat two other icons who would have travelled a similar path as Aunty Molly – Sat Balkaransingh and Torrance Mohammed. As Lynch-Griffith read the names of the people who founded the National Dance Association of TT with Aunty Molly, my skin tingled with the understanding that we are privileged to be blessed by these visionaries. I knew that I would have to call their names again:

Jean Coggins-Simmons (deceased), Torrance Mohammed, Cyril St Lewis (deceased), Eugene Joseph, Joyce Kirton, Rajkumar Krishna Persad, Satnarine Balkaransingh, Astor Johnson (deceased), Andre Etienne (deceased), Eric Butler, Patricia Roe, Carlton Francis (deceased), Franchot Thomas, Indira Mahatoo, Gene Toney, Julia Edwards-Pelletier (deceased).

Rex Nettleford, dance scholar from Jamaica, also used his artistic genius to make statements about identity, culture and determining our Caribbean sense of self in a post-colonial setting. As one reviewer put it, his book Inward Stretch Outward continued to make the case for culture “as the principle means of constructing a cohesive national and regional identity and also the prime vehicle for economic development.”

This is what Molly Ahye, Astor Johnson and other dance pioneers were seeking to achieve.

Yet, in 2018, striving for a post-colonial identity is still a very real battle. Rawle Gibbons, acclaimed playwright and dramatist, wrote recently, “We were more alarmed when we discovered that students in the arts at St Augustine had never heard about a man called Rex Nettleford. The name meant nothing, not as artist, scholar or university administrator ...” Similarly, Aunty Molly has gone, her passing a ripple rather than the tsunami it should have been.

It is said that near the end, she became disillusioned by the many cultural practitioners who labour, yet leave this realm feeling unfulfilled, under-appreciated. I understand her sadness; I see it reflected in the eyes and bodies of the icons who survive her.

It is said that her work is now done, but if we are to achieve post-colonial aspirations of cultural identity, it is to her legacy and the work of other icons that we must turn. Ululate, call her name, and please – remember our Aunty Molly, remember them all.

Dara Healy is a performance artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN