The secret to real unity

Dara E Healy

This is Trinidad and Tobago, yuh better know

This is we island and we will fight to keep its soul

Out of the darkness and the violence come with me

Hand in hand together, come leh we wake up sweet T&T.

– Neval Chatelal, Vibration

IN 1991, SuperBlue strutted onto the Savannah stage. He took his time, confident in his blue and red tracksuit and blue head tie. In a perfect display of musical foreplay, he teased and moved towards the popular refrain, “Get something and wave!” The crowd sang and cheered; light bulbs flashed. The song that would become Road March was more than an anthem of freedom and release after the failed 1990 coup – it was a song of unity.

What a month we are having. A new Prime Minister installed in the midst of commemorations of Phagwa, Lent and Ramadan, at the tail end of Carnival, while looking forward to Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day.

Undoubtedly, Carnival 2025 embodied strength through diversity as artists intentionally infused a spirit of love and national pride into the festival.

For instance, in the Chutney Soca Monarch competition Neval Chatelal welcomed artists like Marge Blackman, Egbe Omo Oni Isese Traditional African Association, pannist Johann Chuckaree, Prema Shakti Dancers, and the Signal Hill Alumni Choir.

The heightened focus on pan has helped move us closer to better visibility for our national instrument. Increasingly, artists are including pan on stage as part of their live performances or in their backing tracks.

This year, young people practically took over the pan competition, taking another step towards Lloyd Best’s vision for the panyard as a transformative space. How do we ensure they fully understand what they are claiming? How can we ensure that this interest and connection extend beyond Carnival?

We can often connect an increase in patriotic music to traumatic events on a national or global scale. In 1984, calypsonian Merchant sang, almost pleaded, for citizens to co-operate in his powerful Let Us Build a Nation Together: “Now the election bacchanal die away/In short, this is what I have to say/Let us forget spites and grudges and concentrate/Come, let us sit and try to relate/Because now, more than ever/We must show Discipline, Tolerance and Production/To build a strong and better nation/I say that is the main foundation.”

In many ways, 1984 was a tumultuous year. TT sent a contingent to the Olympics in Los Angeles which was boycotted by Russia. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher dominated the political news, while Ethiopians endured famine. Michael Jackson was shaking the world with his creative genius. Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated. And in South Africa, non-whites struggled under apartheid, an oppressive legal system of racial segregation and discrimination.

At the same time, the Caribbean was still dealing with the pain of the murder of Maurice Bishop in 1983 and subsequent invasion of Grenada by the US. At home, in the calypso Make Them Alright, Black Stalin made a plea for more respect for heroes and heroines of our country who may have fallen on difficult times.

The 1960s was another period of intense action for civil and human rights. As countries began to agitate for independence from Britain, TT emerged as a prominent contributor to the vibrant anti-colonial movement.

Led by our first prime minister, Dr Eric Williams, thousands marched to Chaguaramas to demand that the US return land that had been given to them by the British without consultation with the people. Calypsonian Randolph "Nap" Hepburn sang, “Listen Uncle Sam/Bail out and go, give we back we land/…Soon we will be a great nation/We are going to be prosperous/So we want back Chaguaramas.”

Our understanding of national unity is intertwined with ideas of collective responsibility, accountability and equitable distribution of resources. Since independence, I find it difficult to highlight a period when all citizens felt they had access to the wealth of this country. I have reflected previously that my grandmother’s generation certainly did not feel that way. Still, although the struggle against elitist privilege was always present, life was less complicated. People were more kind.

Perhaps achieving our desire for unity is about recognising that all we want is to live comfortably, feel safe and be happy. Over the decades artists have been clear that this is our land. Let us fight to save it. Let us fight – together.

Dara E Healy is a performing artist and founder of the Idakeda Group, a cultural organisation dedicated to empowering communities through the arts