Calypso queen Makeda Darius: Protecting and serving the artform

Competing at the National Calypso Monarch final on the "big" (Queen's Park Savannah) stage is one of the goals Makeda Darius has set for herself. And after winning the National Women's Action Committee’s (NWAC) National Calypso Queen crown on February 2, she believes she is one step closer to achieving that goal.

“The ultimate dream of any calypsonian is to grace the Dimanche Gras stage. I won’t get ahead of myself, but I see that for myself and I’m hoping this year this can happen,” she told WMN. Traditionally the competition final was held during the grand Carnival Sunday show, Dimanche Gras, at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain. Last year, however, the final was held on Carnival Thursday and will be done so again this year.

Darius is confident that her winning song, Not Martin, and her second song, Talk Done, will take her there. Both songs were written by prolific local songwriter Christophe Grant.

This week, Darius (and other title hopefuls) will know if she made the cut for the semifinal, lovingly known as Calypso Fiesta, which, owing to renovations being done to the traditional Skinner Park, San Fernando venue, will be held at Guaracara Park (also in San Fernando), on February 15.

The 36-year-old Darius, a police officer attached to the Port of Spain CID, said she liked Not Martin the first time she heard it, but did not see its potential.

“I knew it was a good song, but I didn’t see what everyone else was seeing.”

The song is her response to Prof Selwyn Cudjoe’s claim that the late Sat Maharaj, the oftentimes controversial head of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, reminded him of US civil rights activist Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Darius said she and Grant discussed the topic, but he was a bit hesitant to write about it because he felt it was too controversial.

“He said, ‘Remember, Sat Maharaj is dead. It may not come over too good because you can’t badtalk a dead man.’ But I told him, ‘You can write it. You can turn it into an acceptable song.’”

Her mother, Angela, deemed it a winner from the get-go, as did fellow calypsonian Michael “Sugar Aloes” Osouna, manager of the Kalypso Revue tent, on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, where Darius has been performing since 2015.

“I believed more that it was a winner when I saw Aloes directing the musicians on the night I was going to perform it for the first time at the tent, but I still left room for disappointment.”

It was only when the audience kept calling her back on stage until she ran out of verses that she understood how powerful Not Martin was.

“When I went on the stage for the (NWAC) competition I was confident, but not cocky confident. I knew what I had to do. From the reception I got after the first verse, it was so easy to do. The whole audience was in the song with me and I started to put the mic to them. It was a really nice experience.”

A modest Darius, though, said she couldn’t have done it without her “very good team of supporters” behind her. In addition to Grant and her family she credits her boyfriend Shaquille Gabriel with getting her into character for the stage, and her stylist Julie Carrington for helping to bring that character to life.

Darius, however, is no stranger to the stage, and competition as she has gone through the ranks at a number of National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) calypso competitions. This is the first Queen title she has won.

“I’ve been through NJAC Jewels, Junior Pathfinders, Stars of Tomorrow and Queens,” she outlined the various levels of calypso competitions hosted by the committee. In the Queens category she entered for six consecutive years, from 2013 to 2018.

“I didn’t enter in 2019 because late in 2018 I was sick and went abroad for treatment.”

But even before NJAC-related competitions her voice has been out there. Her very first competition and win goes back to when she was a four-year-old first-year student at the Brighton Anglican primary school in La Brea.

“My sister Tamika and I started singing in Juenes Agape Choir under the directorship of Lois Lewis. There was a library competition and the schools from the area sent representatives. I went to represent my school and I won,” and her love affair with the stage began.

“My mother always pushed my sister and me to enter because she believed in our talent. After winning all the competitions in area she said, ‘it’s time for you all to go to town.’”

“In junior monarch time she was writer, wardrobe, everything. She was the one with the dream. We always had the talent, but she always believed.”

Her mother, however, wasn’t always her only motivation to push for what she wanted in life. Circumstances forced her to learn how to do it even when she didn’t want to. Having her first two children when she was still a teenager, the mother of three boys said it was tough, but she chose to move on rather than give up.

“It was very trying because I was a teenage mother. But it taught me a lot. It taught me to be responsible from young. After I had my first son at 15, I had to leave school, but I returned. I had my second son at 16 but I didn’t allow it to stop me. I learnt from it and didn’t let it break me. I was able to go back to school and do what I had to do,” with the support of the children’s father, his family and her family.

And just like her mother, Darius searches for the talents in her own children and encourages them to develop and make good use of their natural gifts.

“I used to teach music at North West Laventille Cultural Movement. From 2012 to 2017. My last son is seven and he is a drummer with the movement. He can sing, he knows music, and I hear some arranging talent there, so from next year he will be entering competitions.” But not without her first teaching him about the climate of competition.

“I’ve had some experiences as a junior calypsonian that cost me friendships and it really, really bothered me. It was so bitter that I started to hate competition.

“I stopped for a while, but when I started back to compete I had a different mentality. No malice, no bitterness, just love all the time. But when I get on the stage I go to compete. I go to give my 100.”

Her other two sons, now in their 20s, have found their own passions and are on their own paths. Her job as a police officer, she explained, played a pivotal role in their development during their teenage years.

“Being a police officer gives you a kind of respect in your community and among friends. In that way I was able to relate to my older sons and their friends.

“I have very good boys and when they were teenagers I used to call them and all their friends together and read the Sexual Offences Act to them,” she recalled with a chuckle. She also lectured them on why they should stay away from gangs and drugs.

“My sons and their friends always give me that respect. And now, when I see any of the boys in La Brea going down the wrong path, I call them and talk to them. Some parents even call me and ask me to talk to their children.”

She believes her job as an officer of the law is as important as any, and even when she sheds her work clothes for her performance garb, she is still on duty to protect and serve.

The NWAC National Calypso Queen has just about a week before she may be among those vying for a chance make it to the big stage. She is confident she has what it takes to make it there and to pick up another crown come Carnival Thursday.