The move by the Ministry of Education’s Allied Arts Unit to disqualify a primary school student from this year’s Children’s Mashramani Calypso Competition is an attack on the heart of African culture and resistance.
It also sends a clear message to Guyanese, protected by the law, that they cannot express themselves on issues they face in the country.
Political commentator Dr David Hinds said Wednesday, there can be no African resistance in the Caribbean and the world without music, including calypso.
“The calypso is a weapon of struggle and these people in power mean to cut us at the level of our culture and we have to say it loud and clear. We now know what they don’t want to hear,” he shared on his live online programme Politics 101 with Dr David Hinds.
The song belted out by the young singer at the annual competition last Thursday, spoke of the rising cost of living in Guyana, and the meager 6.5 per cent salary increase imposed on public servants by the government, even with a whopping $1.146 trillion national budget for this year, and the country’s rapid economic expansion.
The song was also sung during the heat of an ongoing countrywide industrial action by teachers seeking out better wages and allowances through collective bargaining.
Dr Hinds said calypso, like any art form, is open to any category of participants.
“She goes up there and sings a conscious song. Here in Guyana you are disqualifying a child for singing conscious lyrics in public. Black children cannot sing conscious lyrics in public. Something has been wrong with our country for a long time,” he lamented.
He continued “what the Ministry of Education is telling us is that children cannot sing certain things . Children cannot sing about the 6.5 per cent increase. Children cannot sing about high cost of living. If that is not censorship, I don’t know what is.”
He said all Guyanese , whether children or adults, have equal protection under the law, and have the right to free speech.
Imposition of censorship
Joining Dr Hinds on his programme was community and cultural activist and Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive member Deon Abrams. He said the government has trampled on the culture of African Guyanese because it does not understand the true meaning of calypso.
“Calypso itself represents music of struggle. It came out of that period when Africans were in bondage, when traditional calypso had boasting and insults. But a lot of the messages were hidden in that period.”
He said African Guyanese now see themselves as a more liberated people without fear and “what we have to express we are not hiding it anymore and that is what they can’t deal with because the message is clear, not only to us but to the world.”
According to Abrams, there is a direct imposition of censorship in culture, and every facet of life by the PPP Government. He pointed out that artistes have been up in arms with the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport over the use of the Cultural Centre and the clamping down on content in plays and drama.
Abrams, who hosts a weekly programme on HBTV Channel 9, said each week his programme is censored by the government’s media monitoring unit operating out of the Department of Public Information, located in the NCN building.
“ So every facet of the media in terms of criticisms, whether it is in drama, in song, whether it’s in commentary, this government is imposing itself on the will of the people.
Expression now is not free anymore. It is part of the ongoing process of entrenching themselves in the dictatorial nature they have created for Guyanese.”
Sing your reality
Meanwhile, community activist, Apostle Nigel London, also a guest on the programme, said every Guyanese, including young children should sing their reality.
He said the young calypsonian has been singing about a reality because her song speaks to the economic hardships faced by all Guyanese.
“Sing your reality. If any child is listening to me tonight, sing your reality. I hope also that those who have media platforms will invite that child to sing her reality. They cannot ban her from my page. We will sing our reality. I hope also that when we stand in front of the ministry of culture youth and sport, that that child is brought out to sing,”
He said the decision to remove the child from the competition is typical of a dictatorial, narcissistic government that believes that messages must be sent to even little children that certain lines “you dare not cross.” He said the government believes that anyone who seeks to go beyond that confine will be met with the strength and tenacity of a hard core dictatorship.
