By Amina Blackwood Meeks, Contributor
Blackwood Meeks
JAMAICA OWES the greatest debt to those it least regards, respects or rewards.
There is undoubtedly a long line of Jamaicans who qualify for this non-placement, the same line of displaced and dispossessed poor, black people stretching across the centuries of neglect.
They have kept life, limb and spirit together by their ability to make and maintain something worthwhile from anything. Skins of goats and trunks of trees feature prominently among their resources of choice.
In these repositories they have deposited the rhythms and the rituals we refused to surrender to the whip and the noose, the dogs and the bayonets. And in their musical compositions they have created historical documentation of the journey that has taken us from one of the greatest civilisations on earth and deposited us on rock-stones.
They have given us some understanding of how some of us have moved from the rock-stones to skyscrapers and left others dependent on the scrapings that fall to the rocks.
Over the years a few enlightened groups and individuals have been seized with the importance of collating and sharing this vital information from the stage, as both information and entertainment. One such group having evolved through various name changes, is the Carifolk Singers that was established in 1973 by a group of students from Excelsior High School.
They have delighted Jamaican audiences over these 31 years with their unique style of delivery and have shared their repertoire of more than 400 songs with people from hundreds of countries around the world at festivals and concerts in Panama, Cuba, Mexico, the United States of America, Grand Cayman, England and Austria.
They were gold medal winners at the inaugural Choir Olympics in Austria in 2000. Lack of funding prevented their participation in the second staging of the competition in Seoul in 2002.
They have been invited to participate in the opening ceremony of the third staging in July 2004 in Bremen, Germany.
CULTURAL AMBASSADORS
At a recent press conference called by the group, one journalist expressed amazement that groups such as Carifolk are self-funding.
In fact, he said, "I thought they were paid to do this kind of work." This kind of work involves digging into their own pockets for everything from costumes to theatre space to transportation to representing Jamaica to people who might otherwise have never heard the name, some of whom still ask, "Is that off the coast of Africa somewhere?"
What is the value of the promotion of Jamaica by groups such as Carifolk? The ones we sometimes refer to as cultural ambassadors. I have learned to run fast whenever I hear someone approaching with that nomenclature. It usually means they are coming to ask you to do something for free.
Real ambassadors are posted to cushy all-expense overpaid locations, according to the Orane Report and nobaddi nuh recall dem and ask dem to use less crystal and china. Cultural ambassadors are the stuff that PhD dissertations are made of, by persons who sometimes have never seen them perform. Or they become the selling points for Jamaica by real ambassadors who know nothing about them besides their names.
Yet, without these tireless workers who, according to Roy Thomas of Carifolk, "subsidise this advertising machine for Jamaica", where would our tourism industry be?
I have yet to meet a tourist who came to Jamaica for the eloquence of the speeches in Parliament: they talk about the value of reggae music but not about finding the resources to buy the Bob Marley Collection from Steffens or funding the development of a proper reggae museum locally. Value usually means how much did such and such an artiste make last year and how much taxes can we get out of it to pose in our Armani suits and berate Jamaicans for not producing enough.
So we glorify the productive reggae artistes and some of them glorify themselves for "bringing the farin currency pan de island". They have perhaps never been to a Kumina meeting, never seen or heard of Dinkimini, Ettu, Gerreh, Tamboo Bamboo or any of the traditional rhythms which are the foundations of reggae and the wealth which they create, never attended FiWiSinting or any of the festivals that showcase these cultural forms.
In fact, many well-thinking and otherwise well-informed Jamaicans have been well trained to laugh at the mention of these forms to plaster the sceptics grin on these dark forms from an ignorant past. It's like enjoying sugar while laughing at those who chop the sugar cane. All the implications intended.
VALUING TRADITION
Few, if any, hotels, even those who hold the tourist captive to the all-inclusive, exist without a mento band or one-man and his banjo with the ever-present yellow bird. We are not just about music, we are also about the music that gave birth to reggae music. We are about writers and dancers and singers but that's another story. Right now we are talking about the Carifolk Singers making the financial target for getting to Germany for July 3.
At the press conference His Worship The Mayor of Kingston, Senator Desmond McKenzie, pledged his donation of J$50,000 and urged corporate Jamaica to do likewise in recognition of the fact that "it would be an embarrassment for us not to be represented."
In so doing he joined the list of those who understand the value of the work of the group. These include the CHASE Fund and Victoria Mutual Building Society which is managing the accounts into which contributions may be made.
After Germany, we still have to deal with the issue of how we understand the link between traditional cultural forms, artistic creativity and wealth creation. The media has a critical role to play. Too many media houses were unrepresented at the press conference. This was not 'hard news'.
Just people sacrificing their vacation time for our collective well-being and demonstrating how, according to Carifolk member, Winston Cowans, "As individuals we might not be superstars but together we are a formidable force."
