Cultural fusions.

The humanities are a group of academic subjects united by a commitment to studying aspects of the human condition and include subjects such as the classics, languages, literature, music, philosophy, the performing and visual arts, and religion. People watching is great fun, but does not qualify for a degree in humanities. We are making a good tour of these subjects and have already had a good diet of local and international artistic offerings. Therese is really in charge of this, and the weekend "proposals" are usually good.

Over the past few days we took in some lectures at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus concerning aspects of slave emancipation in the English-speaking Caribbean, which were part of a humanities festival. One fascinating presentation was about slave emancipation in the British army, which preceded abolition more generally, and was based around a project to renovate a fort in Dominica, which had been the site of the mutiny which precipitated emancipation in the army. We also attended a day at UWI celebrating French language and arts, which included drumming and dancing by an artiste from Martinique, whose explanations in French were sometime amusingly nuanced by the translator (one of the faculty)to protect the sensibilities of the girls in the audience. For that session, the audience was mainly school students (and one pre-schooler). The drumming and chanting was very evocative of music from Guinea. The story of the origins of drumming and dancing in Martinique was a useful variation on the slavery story, which had a different course in French-speaking Caribbean

Unfortunately, the audience (perhaps inhibited by school uniforms and the need to catch the bus back) did not respond to urgings that they get up and dance.


We also saw how some of Barbados' talented youths are developing their musical skills and using their abundant energy as we listened to the National Youth Orchestra and the National Steel Pan Orchestra playing for the final event at Holders. Although the rain tried persistently to delay and disrupt the performances, the youngters' energy prevailed and the steel pan players in particular showed a passion that was truly infectious. It's a pity there was not some fusion of the two orchestras for at least one piece. Unfortunate also that I could not find a way to record and add here some of the music from both orchestras. Imagine, if you can, the swaying movements of the pan players, which was like bobbing palm trees. Fantastic show!