Heritage goes foreign

GUEST COLUMN

DR YVONNE BOBB-SMITH

THE NEWS that one of the world’s greatest collections of calypso vinyl records of TT music was donated to a foreign institution comes as a blow to the dignity of our society.

Its owner, George Maharaj, born here, a southerner currently resident of Canada, has collected our music from sources worldwide to provide a significant part of our musical cultural history. Over several years his offer to us for sale has not materialised. The collection consists of calypso, soca, gospelypso, chutney, parang, big band, rapso, pan, folk song and more in standard forms, as well as memorabilia.

I recall chatting with his deceased father some years ago, who proudly indicated his understanding of George’s passion for calypso. His attempts to part with privately maintaining the collection include his desire to make it a national heritage possession.

I believe our country’s consciousness of conservation, preservation, protection, posterity of cultural heritage is minimal. The institutions and organisations engaged in consequent activities are largely muted. Political rhetoric does not include these concepts as much as it is repetitive with energy, oil, and gas.

The public has not grown to know the effectiveness of preserving our cultural heritage. While our music produces diversity in linkages and fusions, the public has not been educated to acknowledge the historic sources of the roots of our music. Many of our minds are still at the level where preservation means things are hidden, shut away and inaccessible. Many who have heritage collections are unaware what could be done with them if there is a change in their life status.

Museums today, particularly those in countries once colonised, are trying to enable their societies to validate national identities. They are engaged in an anthropological approach to give voice to people whose lives resonate in select tangible and intangible cultural effects. Preservation of heritage means a decolonisation of a society, for example as seen in Africa, Europe, Latin America.

Museo do Reggae Maranhão in São Luís, Brazil, a city of a million people, established a Bob Marley Museum because of their love for reggae. On the whole, museums are intent in refurbishing their collective image to open their walls and become malls, as they attempt to constitute the principles which make culture human and affirm a national identity.

Two years ago, I had the vision of the establishment of a museum to contain all our music of ethnic and genre origin. It was prompted by the marvellous funeral tribute for the Mighty Shadow, Winston M Bailey, in the Queen’s Park Savannah, where familial feelings were generated. My thought arose from the joyful mixes, merges of people and sounds, and rested on his lyrics in Dingolay (Everybody).

Another prompt was a call from George that he was considering selling his collection to a foreign country. I was flabbergasted and sought to do something.

Fixed on the idea that community participation is the answer, I welcomed a small group of people who agreed with turning the idea into a project. We believe the need is imminent for establishment of a national musical museum which has a role with a difference to unify communities and promote ideals of democracy.

We are using advocacy as the first leg of the journey. We see it as bringing connectedness, and giving opportunity to reboot knowledge of museum effectiveness. Our group advocates the idea of a national museum to contain all musical heritage in our country.

We seek opportunities to deliver the message, which enables public option to either endorse/modify ongoing strategies and methods or embrace sustainable solutions which can provide tools to vitalise community collaboration and sustenance, and to generate economic effects.

We have lost an amazing collection that should have been our national birthright and the birthright of the young people of this nation. The artists of today, the creatives, the intellectuals, the activists…every citizen should have an understanding of their roots, their culture.

There are other collections which exist on the brink of precarity, possibly destined to leave our shores or degrade into dust or even be thrown away. This cannot happen ever again.

In closing I welcome, with these words, the help of people who wish to assist TT retain our dignity. I thank you.

Dr Yvonne Bobb-Smith is a librarian and educator