When she was growing up, a radio was the only form of media in Shamkoe Pilé’s home but, nonetheless, she developed an interest in television, which she still explores and enjoys to this very day.
“I was always interested in the media, but growing up we didn’t have a TV; my mother didn’t want us to have a television. She didn’t think that it was a good, positive influence in a child’s life, so we only had a radio and I was so fascinated with the voices in the radio,” Pilé, who is in her late 20s, said.
She explained that she would re-enact what she heard on the radio by interviewing her family and friends. However, as she got older she became more interested in television.
“As I got older I realized that I liked television more and I gravitated towards that, I got some experience with a company called The Film Group and while I was there we produced two short films, one called Village Ram and one called La Diablesse, and working with them is what pushed me to do that. I really started to like capturing things on video.”
As a result of this interest, Pilé, who currently works at the Government Information Service (GIS) as an information officer, pursued a degree in mass communications at the Barbados Community College (BCC), where she won an exhibition amidst some personal struggles.
“That particular year for some reason the students had to fight for it, but in the end I got it and it was a good feeling because the last year of school I was pregnant with my daughter and when BCC finished I gave birth to her, so it was a good feeling to know that the hard work paid off.”
Although she had recently given birth, Pilé decided that she wanted to further her education at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and she did just that.
Her parents were not happy with her decision to go to Jamaica, but she was determined to pursue her studies in media.
“I [carried] my daughter with me to Jamaica – I did some research and found a nursery school over there and she went school when I was going school . . . . It was not the easiest thing. Now looking back, I ask myself what I was thinking or how I got it done.”
Pilé explained that although she wasn’t sure if the experience negatively impacted her daughter, it brought them closer together.
“As a little girl I would tell her she has to tell me the truth at all times because we are in a totally different country, so I needed to build that trust, and for those years we had that very strong, open relationship.”
While studying in Jamaica, she interned at a production house, an experience she said gave her a “competitive edge”.
“I really liked Digicel Rising Stars, and I always read the credits and I noticed who the producer was and I watched a few of her shows really liked them, so I went on Hi5 and introduced myself and said, ‘I would like you to come to our class and tell us about your profession and at the same time I would like to do an internship’, and so said so done . . . . It helped give me a competitive edge when I came back to Barbados because I didn’t just have a piece of paper saying I have a degree – I had experience along with my qualifications.”
When she returned to Barbados, she produced the popular entertainment TV show Roaming.
“I was the producer for Roaming for about a year and a half and it gave me a lot of experience . . . . I really like the arts and entertainment and I got the chance to meet [a lot of entertainers], talk with them, and sometimes I did the interviews. I also travelled the region and covered big events like when we went to Trinidad and covered Trinidad Carnival.”
Pilé also offered her services in video editing, producing and journalism for several years before she conceived Skai Multimedia, a communications and video production company, with her relative and also business partner.
“A friend of mine introduced me to an entrepreneurship course at UWI called SEED (Student Entrepreneurial Empowerment Development) where I learned about business and then they asked for a business plan . . . . I was the first winner ever for the competition and I got money to start the business, so with that I tried to invest in equipment and that kind of thing.”
She went on to the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme.
”I further learned about managing an entrepreneurship business, because although I did SEED I still wanted a better understanding of running a business and how to market it.”
She said a relative essentially runs the business but she goes in from time to time to do “the creative stuff” or to edit or produce. Skai Multimedia produced the recent popular television show Honey Jam Barbados as well as documentaries and shows that are broadcast across the region, and at the moment she is writing a script with her business partner surrounding the life and biracial marriage of her parents.
“I’m writing a script based on my parents – how they met, the early part of their life . . . because as a child, you may not see certain things, or you may not be given the same treatment, but my parents probably felt that side of racism or discrimination and they felt the stares more than we did.”
Pilé’s mother was born in Luxembourg and because her grandfather was a diplomat her mother travelled extensively throughout Europe as a child and spent most of her childhood growing up in Paris.
She explained that she first travelled to Europe at the tender age of three and spent several summers abroad until the age of 11 – an experience she viewed as normal because “some summers were spent here and some over there”. But, she said, her growing up in a mixed-marriage household was normal and she felt she was more defined by hair than skin colour.
“I don’t think I saw myself any different from other people besides the fact that we were Rastas, so that’s what made me feel different since I always grew up with locks but for me I never felt different based on skin colour. I felt different more because I had locks and I was vegetarian and stuff like that.”
However, although she never saw colour, Pilé explained that her nine-year-old daughter realized it and inquired.
“Unlike me, she sees colour . . . . I remember when she was younger – I think because we were in Jamaica where they tend to look a lot at colour – she started to notice . . . . She would look at my skin and say I am very yellow, compared to herself who she described as more orange or brown.”
She noted: “I don’t think [Barbados is] as racist as other countries. I think we are pretty forward-thinking and open-minded, and because we have so many shades of black we tend to accept more readily than other countries.”
However, although skin colour was never an issue for her as a child, she said, people did say negative things about Rastas, but the society has become more tolerant.
“My parents would always push us to be a part of the solution, never be a part of the problem, so for us it was always about excelling, and always pushing the concept that we needed to stand out for good and not for the ills that society places on some people. So now it’s interesting to see [that] locks have become a real fashion statement.”
Pilé, who has had dreadlocks from childhood, explained that her father was a Rasta and introduced the lifestyle to her mother. Although she has cut her locks, she said she doesn’t intend to get rid of them.
“It’s a part of me, a part of who I am and it’s defined who I was growing up and as a child I think it made me different. You could always tell who I was and pick me out, so it defines me and who I am as a person because when I describe myself to persons I say that I am a mixed-race person and I think my hair embraces that concept because it has the curly thing going on and it still has the very dread-like look.”
When asked about her future plans, she said: “I see myself at some point in the next decade being a full-time business owner of a successful business, and I don’t necessarily plan to just stay here. I want to spread my wings and take my daughter to Europe so she can also experience what I did as a child, and hopefully she’ll get more chances – because Barbados is so small”.
