THE annual Crop Over controversies confuse only those who do not understand the dialectic of Caribbean culture as a struggle between an imposed European formalism and an instinctive Caribbean resistance to alien institutions.
Rex Nettleford described it best as a “battle for space”, in which culture has become the principal site of resistance, in which persons who are powerless in other spheres of existence reclaim their humanity only in the liberated regions of their creative imagination.
Thus creole dialect carves a space for freedom against the imposed formal English in the same way that “wuk-up” and bashment music push back against European ballroom dancing and classical music, the rudiments of so-called “high culture”. It is a testimony to the universal nature of the Caribbean personality that he moves between the contending cultural forms with the greatest ease.
It is because culture is a site of resistance that Crop Over has become an annual domestic dispute. Caribbean people do not feel any sense of ownership in our parliaments, law courts and central banks, so the life-shattering decisions which emanate from these centres evoke little reaction from a numb and disempowered public.
The rulers have a free hand and a field day. However, let the calypso judges and the cricket umpires rule foolishly, and the popular masses respond with indignation. It is no accident that riot gear is as much a feature of the season’s attire as the scanty costume.
For the same reason too, those who know without understanding due to their inability to abandon Europe, make it their annual duty to decry local cultural expression. Lucille Baird complains that “Crop Over has become a degrading wuk-up culture where we’ll see revellers half naked, women in skimpy costumes, sandwiched between two hot, sweaty males”.
When we begin to crack the mystery of Europe’s long-standing need to control human sexuality, and the role of religion in that enterprise, we would have taken an important step on the long walk to human freedom.
When we understand why the highest priority has been placed on controlling black sexuality, then the journey would be nearing completion.
However, whilst culture is a site of resistance, as in any struggle, it is marked by possibilities of reversal, wrong turns, forks in the road, and false consciousness. Not only is Caribbean culture marked by contestation between European and non-European forms, but it exhibits ongoing tensions between West Indian and island forms. Hence the annual debates about Machel Montano and the “infiltration” of non-Barbadian artistes and the need to “keep it local”.
Until we resolve the contradictions “between this Africa and the English tongue I love”, as Derek Walcott puts it, and close the gap between island state and Caribbean nation, then the full revolutionary potential of our culture will remain hopelessly unfulfilled.
Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus specializing in analysis of regional affairs. Email [email protected]
