Category Archives: Culture

Culture, General T&T

Pan and T&T’s coat of arms

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 18, 2024

PART II

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeIn 1962 when Trinidad and Tobago went into business as a nation, it formed a committee “to select the symbols that would be representative of the people of Trinidad and Tobago”. It produced our coat of arms.

Those representative symbols consisted of a palm tree at the top that was taken from Tobago’s coat of arms (Tobago was annexed to Trinidad in 1889), three gold ships that Columbus is reputed to have used when he visited (or saw the island in 1498), two hummingbirds (Trinidad was sometimes referred to as the “Land of the Hummingbird”), and its motto, “Together we aspire, Together we achieve.”
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Culture, General T&T

Pan and the coat of arms: the imaginary

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
September 11, 2024

PART I

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI am always amazed at the presumptions that we, African people, make about the cultures of others and why we feel that they should adopt them as their own.

The Leader of our Grief says that pan, our national instrument, should be placed on our coat of arms because it’s T&T’s cultural gift to the world. Without consulting anyone, he goes to a PNM convention and declares that by Republic Day (September 24) the measure would be brought to the Legislative Council and it would be a done deal.
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Culture, General T&T

Hear ye; hair ye: listen and be enlightened

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
August 21, 2024

Part IV

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeSlavery ended offi­cially in 1834 while apprenticeship ended slavery in practice in 1838.

The 5,000 people who took part in the Revolt of October 1, 1849, were ex-slaves. The women were at the forefront in this battle. While the attempt to cut their hair ignited the revolt, there were other causes that led to their revolutionary activities.
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Culture, General T&T

Hear ye; hair ye: listen and be enlightened

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
July 31, 2024

Part II

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeThe Council meeting began shortly after noon on October 1, 1849. Charles Warner, the attorney general, moved that the Board go into committee to give further consideration to the Gaol Regulations. He also informed the Council members that Governor Harris had received a delegation of citizens prior to the meeting and he assured them that he would alter the offending clause to which they objected.
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Carnival, Culture, General T&T

When music ignites passion

By Raffique Shah
February 13, 2024

Raffique ShahI can see it clearly today as I did back then 70-odd years ago. My brain at eight years young focused on the sweet melody that came from the one steelband that passed through Freeport Junction. By 6 a.m. when the junction came alive with about 800 people of varying races, colours and cultures, swaying, jumping and shouting loudly to the sounds of Lord Blakie’s “Steelband Clash”, I stood there in awe of what I was witnessing.
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Carnival, Carnival, Culture, General T&T

There is hope yet for pan

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By Raffique Shah
February 13, 2023

Raffique ShahEvery year, ritually, come Carnival, steel pans and drums rescued from the paws of scrap-metal hustlers hunting for a few dollars, or rust that’s threatening to render them useless, join hundreds of cellos, bass and retired hubcaps from derelict motor vehicles, coming together to treat music lovers with the most scintillating sounds and songs that could allow the “mad blood” in all of us to enjoy “we music”.
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Culture, General T&T

Celebrating Our Bards

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By Raffique Shah
January 09, 2023

Raffique ShahUpon rereading my column last Sunday, I thought I did grave injustice to Leroy Calliste, the Black Stalin, by attempting to evaluate his immense contribution to calypso, the art form, and culture as a whole in Trinidad and Tobago, or indeed in the Carribbean, by summarizing his works in a few paragraphs. My apologies to the late bard who passed on and was given one of the most impressive funerals I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.
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Carnival, Culture, General T&T

Black Stalin: calypsonian, crusader

By Raffique Shah
January 02, 2023

Raffique ShahBy a strange coincidence, last Tuesday, the fourth day of a very long Christmas weekend, I set up my music system around two in the afternoon, inserted a USB “stick” on which I have, over many years, collected hundreds of tracks from CDs I had bought or recorded music that was freely available for download from several sites on the Internet, and prepared for a treat I had not enjoyed for quite some time.
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Culture, General T&T, Media, Politics

Escalante’s escalating falsehoods

By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 15, 2022

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI do not know Jean Claude Escalante but I am glad Prof Bridget Brereton pointed out his falsehoods with regard to Dr Theodore Lewis and his allegations that Trinidadians do not respect Fr Anthony de Verteuil’s work.

Brereton noted that over the past five years she “reviewed books by Fr de Verteuil and consistently and constantly called him a national treasure” (Express, March 10.)
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Culture, Education, General T&T, Politics

Education for those who want it

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By Raffique Shah
September 13, 2021

Raffique ShahFor the second time in as many months I ask a question that is pertinent to this country’s future path, one that we need to answer because it is critical to everything else we do as we forge a road to recovery in the aftermath of the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and the near-collapse of the national economy. It is this: are we satisfied with our education system which, give or take a tweak here, a turn there, has remained a hugely expensive relic of colonialism that refuses to die 60 years after independence.
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