Reading Time 3 minsThe People’s Calypsonian Takes His Final Bow: A Tribute to Brother Valentino — Caldwell Taylor, Martin Felix, Nzinga Taylor Less than a week after the burial of the Mighty Sparrow, the Caribbean is mourning another giant of calypso. Brother Valentino, the Grenada-born Trinidadian calypsonian known to many as “Valie” and to all as “The People’s Calypsonian,” has passed away at the age of 85. Sparrow and Valentino shared more than a homeland. Both sons of Grenada, they were born just two days apart in July, and for years they marked their birthdays together on one stage. The… Read More »The People’s Calypsonian Takes His Final Bow: A Tribute to Brother Valentino — Caldwell Taylor et al

Reading Time 7 mins Hello everyone! For anyone who may not be familiar with me, my name is Raafeke, and I am cultural writer highly interested in the traditions and practices found throughout the African diaspora. I have been writing for as long as I can remember, as I have aged, my interest in the traditions of today, as well as those of the past, have continued to fuel my work. I was in Brooklyn and raised between Bedstuy and the suburbs of Atlanta. Despite my prolonged period of time in the South, I was reared by the thick culture… Read More »A Review Of Lorin Peters Alexis’ Book, “Carriacou: The Power of the Drums” — Raafeke

Reading Time 4 mins GOUYAVE’S MELROSE HOUSE By Caldwell Taylor “Imbued with the message from the past, the historic monuments of generations of people remain to the present day as living witnesses of their age-old traditions.” — From a statement adopted by ICOMOS in 1965. ICOMOS is the International Council on Monuments and Sites. A Living Witness to Gouyave’s History Melrose House is an architectural and aesthetic landmark, a “living witness” to the encounters and exchanges, collusions and collisions that are the true hallmarks of Grenadian and Caribbean history. The iconic building is an unmistakable repository of Gouyaveniss. Indeed, this… Read More »GOUYAVE’S MELROSE HOUSE — Caldwell Taylor

Reading Time 3 minsKAMLA SAYS – Name the Grand Stand after Sparrow – What it needs next COMMENTARY Julian Rogers – Monday, October 19th, 2026 Mia Mottley’s call for “Slave” to join the CXC syllabus drew the headlines from Sparrow’s farewell. But the Prime Minister who spoke after her, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, said two things that matter just as much, and she deserves the same careful reading. She began with a joke she shares with Mottley, that neither of them could ever have made a career as a singer, and then settled into a tribute better organised than most eulogies. Sparrow,… Read More »Name the Grand Stand after Sparrow: What it needs next — Julian Rogers

Reading Time 4 mins  The September 27, 2026 transition of Slinger Francisco, better known to the world as the Mighty Sparrow, marks the passing of one of the most consequential cultural figures to emerge from the Caribbean in the twentieth century. A kaiso vocalist, songwriter and guitarist, Sparrow was born in Grand Roi, Grenada, on July 9, 1935. He would become an institution in the kaiso tradition and an unmistakable voice in the cultural and political life of the Caribbean. His death at the age of 91 invites reflection not only on the man and his music, but also on… Read More »The Mighty Sparrow: Our Caribbean Giant Whose Voice Will Not Be Silenced — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 11 mins July 9, 2025 Happy Birthday, Slinger Francisco, aka Mighty Sparrow! Today, his 89th birthday, Big Drum Nation is proud to republish a slightly edited 2020 article by founding editor Caldwell Taylor–A Birthday Tribute in recognition of the bard’s 66th year on the stage.  – BDN Editors “Calypso is a product of Caribbean people’s struggle to articulate an identity in response to numerous attempts at fragmentation.” – Carole Boyce-Davis Long after most of us are forgotten, certain calypsoes will survive as the only reminders to some later generation of how we lived, loved, laboured and sinned. –… Read More »THE SPARROW REVOLUTION: MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS IN THE BUSINESS AND STILL GOING STRONG –Caldwell Taylor

Reading Time 4 minsFrom gazing at the stars Newton and Galileo were inspired to launch a scientific revolution, whose material universe was telescopically visible (although Newton’s gravity, like his God, wasn’t). Of course they got a leg up from the Muslims, particularly their mathematics and their observation-based astronomy and optics, but it was Galileo’s radical idea to restrict natural philosophy – wisdom about nature – to physical phenomena that could be observed and quantified, such as speed, weight, volume, length, force, angle, direction. From that he concluded, “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.” (He should have… Read More »THE TREACHERY OF IMAGES — Kim Johnson

Reading Time 9 minsFebruary 21, 2025 Should members of a privileged enslaving family assume the moral authority to arbitrate restorative justice and the reparations cost remitted to the sons and daughters of enslaved Grenadians? The African American scholar John Henrik Clarke warned that one should be careful of the practice of begging at the doors of the very people who made you beggars in the first place. The logical extension is that one should be aware of one’s worth and accept nothing less. I reflected on this maxim as the news emerged recently that the aristocratic British Trevelyan family acknowledged… Read More »How Britons Underdeveloped Grenada — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 5 minsWhen President Donald Trump posted a meme of himself planting a U.S. flag on Greenland, captioned “U.S. Territory Est. 2026,” the reaction was immediate. This action followed what was described as the “Trump Corollary,” an ideological revival and extension of the Monroe Doctrine, a doctrine long used to justify U.S. intervention across Latin America and the Caribbean. From a decolonial perspective, the Monroe Doctrine was never simply about excluding European empires, despite that being one of its stated objectives. It positioned the United States as the hemisphere’s dominant imperial actor. These actions sparked widespread responses, including concerns… Read More »“Lovely Pieces of Real Estates” — Martin Felix

Reading Time 8 minsJuly 26, 2025 Cartoon by Gary Larson Some people like knock-knock jokes. My younger daughter’s mother likes elephant jokes and other people like cat videos. I like duck jokes, although I don’t know many, perhaps because I don’t play cricket. In fact, I only know one duck joke, which has to do with a ten-inch pianist, a genie hard of hearing and a million ducks – too long and convoluted to tell here. Also too corny. However, I think I can say that Gary Larson shares my taste for duck humour. One of his cartoons that I still recall… Read More »DUCK! WAYS OF TROPICAL BEING — Kim Johnson

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Reading Time 3 minsMarch 2, 2025 On February 18, 2025, Grenada lost a remarkable man, one whose legacy transcends politics, business, and public life. Lyden Ramdhanny, a former cabinet minister, businessman, and philanthropist, passed away, leaving an indelible mark on his country, his family, and all who had the privilege of knowing him. His life was defined by his love for Grenada, his unwavering commitment to justice, and his compassion for the people around him. Born on April 6, 1952, in the parish of St. Andrew,  Lyden was shaped by the revolutionary period that marked a defining chapter in Grenada’s… Read More »Remembering Lyden Ramdhanny — Caldwell Taylor [Edited by Martin Felix and Nzinga Taylor]

Reading Time 4 mins The members of The National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF) and their sincere efforts seized a historical moment to address the inconsistencies of this deathbed Independence. It was all hollow and meaningless. Williams Independence was ladened with neo colonial institutions and a modus operandi that was often worst than what preceded Independence.  The Colonial institutions especially the police had to maintain that law and order of the Colonial era by any means necessary.  Andrea’s portrayal about Mr Randy Burroughs and his embracing the dramatic games of a US movie crime fighter tells it all. This carried an… Read More »Andrea’s Continuing Journey — Rex Lassalle

Reading Time 1 minsDecember 15, 2024 Caribbean literary tradition features a fusion of African, European, and indigenous folkloric influences, much like Greek mythology’s absorption of other cultural influences. The formal Caribbean education system is a common experience that privileges Western literary traditions over our local culture, including Caribbean folklore. Our schools hardly teach Caribbean mythology; few writers incorporate it into their stories or characters. Although Greek and other Western myths share striking similarities with our indigenous Caribbean myths, more attempts are needed to draw parallels or demonstrate the shared human experiences and storytelling motifs across European and Caribbean civilizations and… Read More »[Intro] Retelling of the Greek Myth of Eros and Psyche: parts I and II

Reading Time 12 mins[INTRODUCTION] PART  I of II November 24, 2024   In the night of the forest, under the pouring rain, Mama Agouti and her offspring huddle together in a hollow of the trunk of the pomerac tree as the light flashes and the angry sky bellows. Do not fret; she tells her shivering children; no harm can befall us as Papa Bois watches over us. He protects all creatures of the forests and swamp lands, and he will make the storm pass and the twinkles of the night blanket come out again like always. But the sky is so angry,… Read More »A CARIBBEAN Retelling of the Greek Myth of Eros and Psyche [pt. 1 of 2] — Amy Baksh

Reading Time 14 mins[INTRODUCTION] [PART I OF II] December 15, 2024 PART II OF II  When she awoke, the sun was high in the sky, and its rays shot through the trees like javelins of warmth. She scrambled to her feet, bleary-eyed, for the herd of quenks was nowhere to be seen. In a panic, she ran across to the area where they had been, and as her feet hit the grass, they landed suddenly on something solid, and she fell to the forest floor. She cried out and cradled her leg, and through the plants, she saw a metallic… Read More »Retelling of the Greek Myth of Eros and Psyche [pt. 2 of 2] — Amy Baksh

Reading Time 1 minsNovember 4, 2024 Without a doubt, tomorrow’s presidential election is one of the most significant in the last 20-plus years as the immigrant community faces a choice between Fascism and Freedom. Never before have swords been more sharply drawn in American society.  In Which Side Are You On?   Martin P. Felix outlines the stark choices facing the electorate. While in V.P. Walz’s “Fomenting Activism Among Students,” Winthrop R. Holder assesses yesterday’s students’ prophetic wisdom in anticipating and trying to influence future attacks by the enemies of progress–those willing to retard education and improvements in other areas of… Read More »DECISION TIME! ASSESSING OUR OPTIONS IN TUESDAY’S ELECTION/BDN COLLECTIVE

Reading Time 3 minsNovember 3, 2024 As the 2024 U.S. election season intensifies, anxieties are running high amid economic uncertainty and growing geopolitical shifts. Once the world’s undisputed economic leader, the United States now faces new global challenges, fueling nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiments across the political spectrum. This election cycle has seen a sharp rise in anti-immigrant and anti-Black rhetoric, echoing the grim historical precedents of the Great Depression and other times of national economic stress, when marginalized groups were often scapegoated. For many in immigrant communities, this rhetoric is triggering, stirring up painful memories of violence and exclusion —… Read More »WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 2 mins October 17, 2024 With its well-intentioned curricula of the Theory and Practice of the many aspects of its rudimentary ‘Mas Course,’ all being well, Caribbean Yard Campus would succeed in unearthing what goes on here and thereabouts in the region. Without embarking on the need to solidify the life-bleeding sustenance of the Culture Complex that greed has derailed from its trek along the communal path towards socially rounded development and consequently detoured Carnival unto the limitless highway of money making, let’s reflect on my growing up days in cosmopolitan Belmont from 1938 through adolescence. From Sir… Read More »ALL HAIL CARIBBEAN YARD CAMPUS — Duff Mitchell

Reading Time 2 minsOctober 14, 2024   ‘As a young man, I faced the world bravely and confidently because of my education on the street.’   Two points in the discourse on The Campus Yard Interview resonated deeply. Gibbons’ portrayal of the ‘lime’ as a form of theatre instantly transported me to a vibrant era in Success Village, Laventille, a time and space when our community thrived. Liming was a pastime and a catalyst for flourishing sports and cultural activities: the numerous football and cricket teams; the iconic steel bands like Highlanders and Savoys, the festive Carnival and Christmas bands;… Read More »A Reflection on Rawle Gibbons’ Caribbean Campus Yard Interview – Monty Guy

Reading Time 7 mins November 5, 2024 “The optics from Tim Walz is still an old white male… I think this country does not want to see old white males right at the forefront right now… The language of politics is dead.” — Charlemagne, The God*   Today might be the most significant election in my lifetime. I am an immigrant and a former high school Social Studies teacher. When I look in the mirror, I see that I am no longer retired but must enlist in an army of teachers, former students, and other people of conscience to save our… Read More »V. P. WALZ, FOMENTING STUDENT ACTIVISM/Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 1 mins October 14, 2024   As we commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the U.S.A. today, The Big Drum Nation Collective is delighted to highlight Caribbean Yard Campus, an innovative educational enterprise designed to network traditional knowledge systems in the Caribbean. The great cultural diversity of the Caribbean has bequeathed its people’s ways of being, seeing, knowing, and doing, which are informed by places of origin, historical conditions of arrival in the Caribbean, and encounters with other cultures in this space.  This body of knowledge and lived experiences, know-how, wisdom, and values constitutes traditional and indigenous knowledge that continues to shape… Read More »Caribbean Yard Campus

Reading Time 4 mins September 16, 2024 Lately, I’ve contemplated national mottos, those of North and South America and the Caribbean. I thought that forging a collective identity was a significant component of nation-building in these parts. To my mind, all of these countries in the New World were populated by some combination of indigenous natives and immigrants from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and just about anywhere else. They were smashed together by European colonialism and its genocide, slavery, racial oppression, and immigration. As such, I expected all, or most, would have had a motto addressing the central… Read More »FORGING A COLLECTIVE IDENTITY: TOGETHER WE ASPIRE — KIM JOHNSON

Reading Time 1 minsJuly 27, 2024 “This is my land, that’s why I am fighting for it,” Abu Bakr “We are still depending on demonstrations, placards, and the ballot box to get people out of office,” Black Stalin Given the historical nature of Attack With Full Forec, Ancil Antoine’s reflections on 1990–of which he was a central actor–Anthony Pantaleon takes another look, suggesting that “the most important aspect of this book is… Yasin Abu Bakr’s miscalculation that because there was political and economic discontent in T & T, all societal actors, including the security forces, would embrace… his ragtag band… Read More »“ATTACK WITH FULL FORCE,” REVIEWED/BDN INTRODUCTION

Reading Time 2 minsJuly 27, 2024 ‘Curiously, the author did not consider Bernadette James’s death as the trigger that inspired the Jamaat to attempt to overthrow the Government of T & T.’ Ancil Antoine, the author of Attack With Force, was one of the military leaders involved in suppressing the insurrection undertaken by the Jamat Al Muslimeen, led by Imam Yasin Abubakr. Antoine aimed to document the T&T Regiment’s role in “detonating” the attempted Coup. He outlined the political and economic context and provided an excellent overview of the regiment’s history. However, it would have been more informative to discuss… Read More »‘ATTACK WITH FULL FORCE’, by Ancil Wayne Antoine/Anthony Pantaleon

Reading Time 2 mins July 24, 2024 Mystic Prowler – Below The Surface ( Kaiso ) For the past eight years, the name Donald Trump has been a constant presence, for better or worse, impacting the globe and residing on everyone’s lips daily. This makes it all too easy for a slip of the tongue, like when Joe Biden said he selected Trump as Vice President because he knew SHE was qualified to be the President. Where are the experts who can analyze how easy it is to slip up with the name Trump, especially when there’s misguided pressure to… Read More »PEEPING BELOW THE SURFACE OF BIDEN’SDECISION/DUFF MITCHELL

Reading Time 3 minsMay 20, 2024 Yvon van der Pijl & Francio Guadeloupe (eds.), Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean: Ways of Being Non/Sovereign. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2022. x + 202 pp. (Paper US$34.95) [A chapter] discusses the 1969 Trinta di Mei labor uprising in Curaçao influenced by the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and immigrant Caribbean residents as part of a broader pan-Caribbean struggle for equaliberty. Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean is a thoughtful and innovative anthology that contributes to the scholarly literature on Dutch Caribbean nonsovereignty from a “bottom-up” and mostly ethnographic approach. Yvon van der Pijl… Read More »[Book Review] Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean: Ways of Being Non/Sovereign — Michael Orlando Sharpe

Reading Time 2 minsApril 7, 2024 Today, April 7, 2024, marks the 25th anniversary of the transition of Dom Basil Matthews (1911-1999), the Trinidadian-born Benedictine monk and founder of St. Benevcicts College. Although most would remember Dr. Matthews as a monk, author, priest, educator, football pioneer, and debater, he was much more. Little wonder that his vision is deftly captured in “Can You Hear Me Now?” a stirring tribute to the Dom produced by Gil Figaro and Charles Dougherty. By excavating and sampling the Dom’s work, the CD not only provokes memory anchored in the conviction of citizens’ “right to… Read More »“Can You Hear Me Now?”: Remembering Dom Basil Matthews, the Revolutionary Priest

Reading Time 1 minsJanuary 30, 2024 As Big Drum Nation joins the region in bidding farewell to the charismatic yet enigmatic 5th Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Basdeo Panday (1933-2024), we are reminded of [recall] his profound impact.  The Golden Fox was known for his dynamic leadership in workers’ advocacy, party politics, and national unity with a characteristic of unwavering determination, leaving deep footprints on the nation and the region. As such, we present three reflections on our recently transitioned firebrand:  in “Panday’s Legacy“, Duff Mitchell interviews Trinidad and Tobago fellow trade union leader and political… Read More »The Basdeo Panday Legacy/BDN Intro

Reading Time 10 minsJanuary 24, 2024 ‘[Panday] said I was the only man who tried to overthrow the government and the opposition and failed in both.’ On this day, a few days after the final rights ceremonies for Trinidad and Tobago’s beloved ex-Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, I got to talk with Mr. Rafique Shah. From the commencement of the interview, I knew it would be candid when I asked him, “What are your reflections on the sojourn of Basdeo Panday in the life of the people of Trinidad and Tobago?”. In a soft-spoken voice, Shah replied, “When I heard that… Read More »Reflections on the Basdeo Panday Legacy: Duff Mitchell’s Virtual Sit Down With Rafique Shah

Reading Time 1 minsDecember 22, 2023 Fueled by nationalist passion, the Guyana – Venezuela conflict is currently one of the gravest threats to peace in the Caribbean and Latin American region. In “Guyana and Venezuela Playing a Dangerous Zero-Sum Game,” Clyde Weatherhead unpacks the danger of brinkmanship, a game in which Guyana’s ‘gain’ is equivalent to Venezuela’s. So, the net change in wealth or benefit is a moot, only mutual destruction. In “The Caribbean: A Zone of Peace, not a Battlefield for Imperialist Ambitions,” Martin P. Felix explores how the region can avoid this trajectory and emerge as a symbol… Read More »The Caribbean: A Zone of Peace!

Reading Time 4 minsDecember 22, 2023 ‘The OAS and other military pacts are multilateral. The escalating presence of the US military, its Southern Command, military exercises, etc, is only the other side of the coin of Venezuela’s military build-up. Both engage in dangerous saber-rattling and push toward military conflict rather than a win-win negotiated resolution. The US must not be allowed to push this region into the kind of savage war that is going on in the Middle East right now.’ The goal of conflict resolution is to arrive at a resolution that is beneficial to all the parties. This… Read More »Guyana and Venezuela Playing a Dangerous Zero-Sum Game — Clyde Weatherhead

Reading Time 10 minsDecember 21, 2023 ‘Perhaps the most extensive injustice is that the indigenous people of the region, who have experienced genocide and have otherwise been historically marginalized, have not been considered in these decisions. Neither are the issues of exploitation and rape of the indigenous people of the Essequibo region, cross-border crime, migration issues, and the environmental threat to an area that is regarded as one of the best-preserved parts of the Amazon biome.’   In his infamous Star Wars speech on March 10, 1983, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan declared in no uncertain terms that his administration… Read More »The Caribbean: A Zone of Peace, Not a Battlefield for Imperial Ambitions — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 2 minsOctober 28, 2023   Persophone DaCosta Winner Brooklyn’s 2022 Citywide Flag Award For Teaching Excellence.   “My body starts to move[in the pool]. Any stress, anxiety, sadness, or illness… dissipate. Flags … waving in the air, waistlines rotating… It is more than exercise, more than a workout. This is how I Self-Care and Care for My Community Of Sisters.” Join award-winning Batingua Arts Artistic Director Persephone DaCosta in an in-person Community Caribbean Fitness Session at Mierlyin Dance Studio, Valley Stream, NY, today at 9:30 a.m. and Virtually next week, November 4, 2023, at the same time. Last… Read More »Dancing & Drumming Through the Fall: The Healing and Empowering Powers of Afro-Caribbean Music With Persophone DaCosta/BDN EDITORS

Reading Time 5 mins August 31, 2023 “David is the only person in the Caribbean who has ever been imprisoned for writing a letter.”   What a mind, David’s capacity to overcome obstacles and keep his focus. I sense that he has been doing that since early childhood. For sure, this was very present in his accomplishments at Sandhurst. In that racist institution, he was awarded the stick for being the top Overseas Cadet of his intake. You can read Overseas to mean black, brown, and yellow skin color officer cadets. On his return to Trinidad, there was no acknowledgment… Read More »Lieutenant David Brizan, That Stoic, Elusive Warrior – Rex Lassalle

Reading Time 2 mins                               August 31, 2023 Commemorating Emancipation provides apt opportunities to recognize the spiritual and intellectual forces that have kept us going during enslavement and our ongoing quest for self-determination and reparatory justice. Our African-retentive Kaiso music originated in our struggle for emancipation and permeates our essence. Yet, our indigenous arts have been slighted, not given fair credit in scholarships compared to the established icons of social and political sciences and art flowing from ‘our’ European ‘heritage.’ August 1 marked 189 years since… Read More »Freedom’s Continuous Journey: August Emancipation Month Roundup

Reading Time 3 mins August 31, 2023 Gods of Bruising, the debut novel of Dara Wilkinson Bobb, is a family tragedy centered on nineteen-year-old fraternal twins Dominic and Diallo. It opens with the accidental death of their parents. It examines how this tragedy upends lives while painting a picture of a community of colorful characters living together in a neighborhood that Dominic describes as “gone from middle class to lower middle class to having some elements of a rough block” or as the middle-class policeman derisively calls it “rats teeth poor people.”  This engaging and short but easy-to-read novel is… Read More »READING Dara Wilkinson Bobb’s ‘Gods Of Bruising’ Through An EMANCIPATORY LENS

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Reading Time 5 mins     A Review of ‘ATTACK WITH FULL FORCE…’ — CLYDE WEATHERHEAD* “A small band of heroic fighters, no matter how courageous, without the leadership of a strong political force armed with the necessary ideological outlook and linked to the masses of the people and mobilizing them ideologically and organisationally to take the insurrection to the conclusion of capturing the political power of the state by the people and in their interest will not achieve a decisive victory for the People’s Cause and the advance of the society. “ History, it has been said, is written by… Read More »A Review of ‘Attack With Full Force…’ — CLYDE WEATHERHEAD

Reading Time 4 mins“life hadn’t caught up with art, but play had to ceased to be play.” V.S. Naipaul. By Winthrop R. Holder LIFE may have caught up with art when armed rebels seized hostages while looters rampaged the city, sowing fields of fire in their wake. Expressed love for country was the avowed reason behind the action, steeped in the conviction that even Allah – who knows all – and the oppressed populace were bound to support the overthrowing of the government. Everywhere, the events were being described as an attempted coup, but those familiar with their literature would have… Read More »Naipaul and The Rebels Without Conscience* — Winthrop R. Holder

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Reading Time 5 minsJune 30, 2023 When I was five or six years old, my father brought home a portable record player for our home with several LPs. There were two or three by the Kingston Trio and one album by the Limelighters. They were both “folk” groups. These purchases reflected an intense and transitory popularity for a certain lusty, harmonized, guitar-driven music from 1958 to 1963. The Kingston Trio is, for me, an historically interesting group. They were started by Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. Shane and Guard grew up in Hawaii, attending the same prep school… Read More »GROWING UP IN THE USA WITH CALYPSO!/Jeff McNish

Reading Time 8 minsMay 30, 2023 “My activism always existed. My art gave me the platform to do something about the activism.”–Harry Belafonte.  Harry was so many things but never enough, for he set his standard much higher than stardom. His legacy illuminates and inspires us in his afterlife. From music to film, Harry broke records and became the industry standard–becoming the first recording artist to go platinum with his monster album Calypso, which caused a stir in Trinidad as it was labeled “The King of Calypso.” Harry is an EGOT (Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tony) recipient, a rarity even… Read More »Harry Belafonte! If Not The King Of Calypso, Then The King of Woke?/Kanene A. Holder

Reading Time 7 minsJuneteenth: A Special Case for Reparations Ain’t no stoppin’ us nowWe’re on the moveAin’t no stoppin’ us nowWe’ve got the groove There’s been so many things that’s held us downBut now it looks like things are finally comin’ aroundI know we’ve got, a long long way to goAnd where we’ll end up, I don’t know “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.” (1979) Song by McFadden & Whitehead  The past is not past. And slavery is not just the past. African American communities are still enslaved today because many still suffer from the long-term social–economic effects of slavery, directly and… Read More »Juneteenth: A Special Case for Reparations — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 6 mins June 30, 2023 ‘We went through a repertoire of Elvis, Beatles, and Rolling Stone songs-none of which they recognized. The first tune that caught their interest was when we did Harry’s classic, Jamaica Farewell. They knew it enough to join the chorus with their halting English, encouraging other tables to harmonize.‘ My first introduction to Harry was with his Live at Carnegie Hall album, which somehow came into my hands in the late 1950s. It wasn’t inevitable. I was weaned by the next-generation music of Alan Freed’s Rock and Roll shows, which was anathema to the… Read More »HARRY BELAFONTE: THE GREAT EMISSARY!/ KEN MURRAY*

Reading Time 1 minsMay 30, 2023 Happy Indian Arrival Day! Throughout May and early June, Caribbean nations celebrate Indian Arrival Day (IAD) as a day of deep reflection on the strides made by Indo-Caribbean people since their Arrival in 1838 to the region’s plantations as replacements for the newly-emancipated Africans. Beginning on May 1 in Grenada, the celebrations culminate on June 1 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and June 5 in Suriname.  Today, May 30, IAD is celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago with rousing ceremonies throughout the nation, as is done to varying degrees throughout the Caribbean on particular… Read More »Happy Indian Arrival Day, 2023!

Reading Time 3 minsMay 30, 2023 It sits innocently in the Undergraduate Humanities Programmes list, alphabetically bookended by Theatre Arts and Visual Arts. Yet the University of the West Indies (UWI) Bachelor of Arts BA Theology degree is a jarring testament to the religious and ethnic discrimination that still exists in our nation’s highest education institution, paying lip service to diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values. Taught every year at St Augustine (Trinidad) campus by members of the Seminary of St John Vianney and the Ugandan Martyrs since 1970, UWI’s Theology degree is unapologetically Christian and Catholic in content. The… Read More »UWI Discrimination: Why no Hindu or Islamic BA Theology Degree?/ Dr. Kumar Mahabir

Reading Time 8 minsMay 4, 2023 Joint Statement by First Nations, Indigenous Peoples, and Advocacy Groups of 12 Countries with the British Monarch as Head of State, on the occasion of the Coronation of King Charles III, May 6 th 2023 Apology, Reparation, and Repatriation of Artefacts and Remains We, the undersigned, call on the British Monarch, King Charles III, on the date of his coronation being May 6, 2023, to acknowledge the horrific impacts on and legacy of genocide and colonisation of the indigenous and enslaved peoples of Antigua and Barbuda, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada,… Read More »Joint Statement by First Nations, Indigenous Peoples, and Advocacy Groups of 12 Countries with the British Monarch as Head of State, on the occasion of the Coronation of King Charles III, May 6 th 2023

Reading Time 3 minsApril 30, 2023   After a long hiatus, New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC) is pleased to announce a return to our co-production relationship with BANANA BOAT PRODUCTIONS with a revival of MAMMA DECEMBA by noted Jamaican-British author NIGEL D. MOFFAT for a limited run May 4 – 13, 2023. Winner of the SAMUEL BECKETT AWARD in 1985 (sponsored by the Royal Court Theatre and Channel 4), Mamma Decemba is a bitter-sweet play about an older Jamaican woman living in England who finds herself widowed, jobless, and deserted by her children. Her attempts to cope involve hauntingly honest, sometimes humorous, and often painful… Read More »CARIBBEAN THEATRE RETURNS TO MANHATTAN WITH A LIMITED RUN OF “MAMMA DECEMBA!” (May 4-13)

Reading Time 8 mins April 4, 2023 “I later realized that [Dr. Williams’s] political interest was not in relieving the victims of capitalism and slavery but in quelling all threats to his authority and the State.” As an officer in training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst (RMAS), in Camberley, England, from 1965 to 1967, I wrote love songs to Lorna and poetry to Claudette in the middle of the harshest winter during mock battles on the Salisbury plains. The rapid bursts of machine gun fire were music to my poetic mind. A guava flower out of season a poet trained… Read More »FROM LAVENTILLE THROUGH SANDHURST TO STAR DUST: Beyond The 1970 Mutiny*–David Brizan

Reading Time 13 minsApril 4, 2023 “Agriculture will become the People’s Army’s primary role in peacetime. The Army’s barrack room becomes the nation’s countryside.”   Mr. President and Members, after having heard about the dehumanization, suffering, and oppression that led to the Regiment’s collapse, I am going to talk about a People’s Army. What I mean by it, and why all Third World armies will inevitably become People’s Armies. Immediately upon speaking about a People’s Army, some will jump and say I am proposing a Mao Tse Tung type of Army. I am not; I am suggesting an army relevant to… Read More »1970 Court-Martial Speech: “Here I Stand!”*–Ex Lieutenant Rex Lassalle

Reading Time 4 mins  April 4, 2023 “…For [East] Indian Trinis, it meant no longer being ashamed of carrying ‘roti in paper bag’ for lunch!” –From a February 2023 conversation with a distinguished East Indian about the impact of 1970 on our lives. In a sense, this thought sums up the moral and cultural meaning and impact of the 1970 Uprising in T&T on the people of T&T and their identity.    From an aerial view, 1970 was about which path and direction Trinidad & Tobago should proceed. It was a conversation that had enveloped the thinking population for over two decades… Read More »Part 2: Reintroducing Ex-Lieutenant Rex Lassalle–Roger Toussaint

Reading Time 8 mins The Alphabet Ones By Rex Lassalle They project history and April 70 narratives Based on dumb, idiotic soldiers Just there to be given orders They then follow Never was in a barrack room. Never knew Teteron barrack rooms. Where Fanon & Debray were discussed Giap & Ho Chi Minh were heroes Never knew they knew Dien Bien Phu As was Lumumba and his fate These things were known Plus, many relatives suffered racism abroad. Read Soul On Ice Read The Wretched of the Earth Read Black Skin White Mask Read Che Guevara Those dumb soldiers will… Read More »Indigenous Uprising—Rex Lassalle

Reading Time 11 mins February 26, 2023 I. Prologue: ‘A Source of Authenticity’ “I think every poet of any modesty hopes to make just a small contribution to the sound of the world’s hum.”–Derek Walcott “Ah fraid he jail me like he jail Rex Lassalle.” –Chalkdust, “Ah ‘Fraid Karl“ “The Commonwealth Court Martial was my 3rd Court Martial… I never accepted the Colonial narrative that was its dominant feature and openly challenged it when… BS came up.” –Rex Lassalle, February 6, 2023 Who,  then, is this man Rex Lassalle? And from which source springs his hope? Though he says that he only started writing… Read More »In Conversation With Rex Lassalle On 1970 And Beyond*–Winthrop (troppy) Holder

Reading Time 5 minsFebruary 26, 2023 Last year, in the lead-up to the 60th Anniversary of TT’s Independence, many media discussions and promotions focused on the significance and achievements of the occasion and history and assessing the Independence and nation-building experience. Inevitably, the 1970 Revolution came up. Different views assessing significant development varied from describing it as a dark period to a negative in the Independence journey. Some even equated it with the July 27, 1990, attempted coup. One host, however, said that 1970 must be seen as a positive experience for our young independent country because it brought about several positive changes,… Read More »BEYOND 60 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE: 1970 IN PERSPECTIVE–Clyde Weatherhead

Reading Time 4 mins February 26, 2023 “[I]t was the soldering officers led by Rex Lassalle and Raffique Shah who impressed me the most and a source from which I later drew the courage to take on the powers that be in the fight for progress, justice, and equality.” The explosion of mass protests in T&T in Feb 1970 was precipitated by the violent arrest and expulsion of West Indians at Sir George Williams University in Canada, the Walter Rodney riots in Jamaica, the anti-colonial liberation struggles raging across Africa, Indo-China and Latin America, the Civil Rights Movement in the… Read More »Reintroducing Former Lieutenant Rex Lasalle–Roger Toussaint

Reading Time 3 minsFebruary 28, 2023   “A Trini have a funny, funny way of forgetting, Their History to them like don’t mean nothing.” –Brother Valentino, “The Roaring 70s. Fifty-three years after the February 1970 Revolution, it is still under contention, as it should be. Was it merely a change in consciousness that shook the pillars of society, or was it a fluttering shadow snuffed out by the government of the day, never to rise? Was it a transformative event that lit a flame in our continuing quest to be truly free? Can the trigger be reduced to a singular… Read More »Special Issue Marking The 53rd Anniversary Of The 1970 February Revolution in Trinidad & Tobago–BDN Editors

Reading Time 1 minsFebruary 21, 2023 From the launch of BIG DRUM NATION as a free-access Caribbean creative journal in 2005, we have also been reparation activists. In a book Symposium on Reparations last August 23, we called for a “country-specific focus on British plunder in the region.” In this issue, Martin P. Felix answers the call with “How Britons Underdeveloped Grenada,” which challenges the effrontery of a British aristocratic family’s determination to dictate the terms on which reparations should be accepted. Felix asks, in which jurisprudence is the criminal allowed to be judge, jury, and dispenser of the terms of… Read More »BRITONS ON TRIAL! GRENADA, Part Two–BDN Editors

Reading Time 2 minsFebruary 7, 2023 While we need gas, is it that that gas must be accessed by playing into a hegemonic power’s strategic and tactical geopolitical moves in its contest for global domination with the Russian and Chinese superpowers? Trinidad and Tobago has established a long and respected record of standing on the principles of respect for the sovereignty of other nations and their right to self-determination and against interference in their internal affairs by big powers. Are we now to squander that exemplary record for the sake of gas at any cost and objectively join with the US-NATO… Read More »GAS BY ANY MEANS – A DANGEROUS ROAD TO TRAVEL/Clyde Weatherhead

Reading Time 1 minsFebruary 7, 2023 “Some talk of legality  Constitutionality But only to export their hypocrisy. If you examine The state of affairs in their land You will find human rights violations, Total disregard for the constitution. Complex political persecution, And a wave of sanctioned violence With the blessing of legislative criminals.” King Short Shirt, “Viva Grenada.“   Anticipating continuity rather than discontinuity with President Biden simply following the saber-rattling characteristic of the Trump presidency regarding Cuba, Venezuela, and any nation which stood on principle against America’s impulse to dominate, we wondered if, based on a few positive signs… Read More »Same Old Story: Biden Consolidates Trump’s Legacy In Latin America & The Caribbean?/BDN Editorial

Reading Time 1 minsFebruary 2, 2023   “[T]he dead only die when they are forgotten by the living.” –Gordon Rohlehr, Pathfinder: Black Awakening In The Arrivants of Edward Kamau Brathwaite Today we remember and celebrate the life and outsized contribution of a Caribbean Colossus and thought shaper who transitioned on January 29, 2023. Dr. Gordon Rohlehr’s illuminating and relaxed disposition shines a light that brightens our presence and futures. His work was both timely and timeless, making it sing through time as his praises will echo through the ages. Caribbean Civilization influenced Dr. Rohlehr as much as he transformed it by… Read More »CULTURAL AMBASSADORS’ SERIES: REMEMBERING Dr. GORDON ROHLEHR/BDN EDITORS

Reading Time 4 minsFebruary 2, 2023 “Throughout his life, Gordon Rohlehr has been overflowing with creativity… that flowed from his soul, mind, and pen as majestically and powerfully as the waters of Kaieteur Falls and as beautifully and far-reaching as the Ortoire River.” The path of verbal virtuosity traveled by Gordon Rohlehr during his lifetime was never before traversed. Footsteps that followed a cosmic calling and creative compass guided by a mix of parental influences and fueled by passionate perseverance. His father was the superintendent of a boys’ reform school, and his mother was the principal of an Anglican primary school. Though she won… Read More »GORDON ROHLEHR: THE GUYA-DADIAN GIANT!/JOSH TYSON-FERMIN

Reading Time 5 minsJanuary 31, 2023 “[A] conversation with him… was a learning experience… on which he would bring to bear his perceptive literary skills [and] his vast range of interests in many things: cricket, calypso, politics, carnival, art, and international affairs would somehow become interrelated in a conversation that might have begun with a question or comment about the merits of crab and callaloo as a symbol of [our region]”. There will be many tributes to Gordon Rohlehr, from those far more competent than I, those who knew him in his professional life and/or personal life and are far… Read More »AVE ET VALE: GORDON ROHLEHR, 1942—2023/KEN JAIKARANSINGH

Reading Time 1 minsWishing For Wings Big Drum Nation invites readers in the New York metropolitan area and beyond to attend the premiere of Kim Johnson’s Wishing For Wings (W4W) at the Festival of Cinema NYC on August 11 at 12.30 pm. The screening is at Regal UA Midway Theatre, 108-22 Queens Blvd, Forest Hills, NY. Click HERE for tickets to the August 11 (Thursday) screening. The film is a moving documentary on the young convicts in the juvenile prison in Trinidad known as the Youth Training Centre (YTC). The film shows the violence these boys have endured and visited on others and their… Read More »Wishing For Wings

Reading Time 6 minsJanuary 23, 2023 “It is a country full of printable names: Paramin, Fyzabad, Couva, where the trees rhyme.” Bemoaning calypsonians’ facility in using language to conjure imagery, the Mighty Conqueror, in one of his classics, heckled those calypsonians [who] can only sing about a mango if they have the seed to show the audience. In Morning, Paramin, where art emotes and serves as the springboard for poems, Derek Walcott turns Conqueror’s banter on its head. In this offering, he constructs verse after canto that does not merely mimic but extends and reimages Peter Doig’s paintings as rhyme and… Read More »Reflections on Morning, Paramin*/Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 6 minsJanuary 23, 2023      “Our culture needs both preservation and resurgence; our cries need an epiphany, a spiritual definition, and an art can emerge from our poverty, creating its own elation.”  As we celebrate Sir Derek Walcott’s birthdate, his play ‘Ti Jean and His Brothers‘ reminds us how Walcott’s work is revered and grounded in the Caribbean experience. Little wonder he called this play one of his most Caribbean plays. It is representative of a theatre of the people; as he noted, they “present to others a deceptive simplicity that they may dismiss as provincial, primitive,… Read More »THE RADICAL INNOCENCE OF CARIBBEAN THEATRE: A REVIEW OF “PLAYS FOR TODAY”/LENNEL A. GEORGE

Reading Time 1 minsJanuary 23, 2023 Happy New Year to our Readers! Continuing with our Cultural Ambassadors Series launched on February 23 last year, today, Sir Derek Walcott’s birth date, we celebrate this titan of Caribbean life and art.  We honor him as a true regionalist and unforgettable thought shaper who used his gift to narrow the distance between the region as he elevated us by celebrating the Caribbean landscape and our being. We begin with Lennel George’s  “The Radical Innocence Of Caribbean Theatre: A Review of  Ken Jaikaransingh’s ‘Plays For Today,” which salutes and gets to the essence of Caribbean… Read More »CULTURAL AMBASSADORS’ SERIES: REMEMBERING SIR DEREK WALCOTT — BDN EDITORS

Reading Time 26 minsJanuary 7, 2023 (First published in Trinidad and Tobago Review, October 6, 2008). A Wide-Ranging Appreciation Of Black Stalin’s ‘Hard Wuk’ (PART TWO) “It’s important to see us through our language…. When I say our language, I mean our Resistance English. [Our] music is for the world but, again, through our eyes.” – Black Stalin, 2001 Commenting on Spice islander talkshop–which approximates a public university where everyone is both student and professor–Bigdrumnation asserts, “Stalin conferred on Brother Valentino the title of ‘People’s Calypsonian’ [and] Stalin lavished tributes (in song)… on panist Winston ‘Spree’ Simon, and chutney singer Sundar Popo.” Just… Read More »A Kaiso Doctor(Black Stalin): Give Praise and Thanks! (Part II)/Winthrop R. Holder*

Reading Time 3 minsDecember 30, 2022 Big Drum Nation pays tribute to the legendary Kaisonian Black Stalin, our organic intellectual whose grounding in indigenous knowledge and eloquent immersion in resistance dialect–nation language in Kamau Brathwaite’s terms–provided a treasure trove of progressive and sustainable ideas that would continually refresh and animate our vision. Indeed, his subversive lyrics, conscious-raising music, and activism have left an indelible mark on the Caribbean and beyond in the Diaspora. Few calypsonians captured the spirit and sensibilities of our times like Black Stalin. As a result, his work has a pervasive timelessness. Born Leroy Calliste in 1941 on… Read More »‘STAY GIVING PRAISES!’: THE IMMORTAL MESSAGE OF DR. LEROY CALLISTE (BLACK STALIN)

Reading Time 11 minsDecember 30, 2022 (First published in Trinidad and Tobago Review, October 6, 2008). AN APPRECIATION “You cannot see a light if it is put in a place of brightness, so it was necessary that [European colonists] create darkness so that their light would shine.” Earl Lovelace, Trinidad and Tobago Review, June 1998 “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Proust Debate, rather a celebration, broke out on Spiceislandertalkshop.com, an open Grenadian forum on the Internet, when word leaked, from the ivory showers of the University of the West Indies,… Read More »A Kaiso Doctor(Black Stalin): Give Praise and Thanks!/Winthrop R. Holder*

Reading Time 10 minsDecember 23, 2022 Link to English Version E desafionan aktual manera kambio di klima (global warming), e aftershocknan persistente di pandemia Covid-19, e gera na Ukraina, e aumento di fasismo outoritario I desaparishon di demokrasia, ta menasanan grave pa pas mundial. Sin embargo, media prinsipal I plataformanan di retnan sosial ta konsentrando I guiyando nan audiensa nan atenshon na potensial narativonan apocalyptico, tin un grupo  lubida di pueblonan  I nashonan ku no a avansa mas aya di residualnan di e prinsipal holokaustonan di historia, e trafifikashon di esklavonan Afrikano I segundo Guera Mundial E artikulo aki lo… Read More »KASO DI BONAIRE — James Finies

Reading Time 2 minsDecember 22, 2022 “This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance… Read More »THE DUTCH ON TRIAL: REPARATIONS NOW!

Reading Time 21 minsNovember 3, 2022 It took nearly one hundred years after the passing of King Leopold of Belgium for the atrocities committed by the Belgian King to come to the mainstream of European history.  The book King Leopold’s Ghost, a Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, documented the brutal killing of more than 10 million Congolese and the crimes of the Belgian monarch and the Belgian state. Yet, the Belgians were novices as managers of the historical narrative compared to the British. With their feudal monarchy as the anchor for power, exploitation, and violence, the British practiced… Read More »Queen Elizabeth II and the Weight of History-Dr. Horace G. Campbell*

Reading Time 2 minsNovember 3, 2022 I am only suggesting. I am not dictating To the Congress. And I hope that the nation would support me In my protest. We have our anthem, You will agree. But tell me, what the  Hell, the queen face doing On my money.  This is our home. This is our land. We are one family. All for one and one for all. We must build a foundation For the young generation, Free from complex and poverty. We will buy a mint. We will make our money. We will print to the nation’s glory. I… Read More »The Eyes of The Nation: Melody’s Glimpse–Duff Mitchell

Reading Time 2 minsNovember 3, 2022 “The Queen is dead. Long live the King!” a phrase last declared in 1901 upon the passing of Queen Victoria, has been reverberating again in September 2022 as another Charles succeeds Queen Elizabeth II. Weeks after the Queen’s death, debate continues on the British Monarchy’s relevance to the region.  While some voices are shouting, “The monarchy should be dead!” others are maintaining their “Long Live the monarchy!” mantra. And this tension is amplified by the selection of the first person of color as a British Prime Minister, which, despite its significance, may well be… Read More »“LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN!”: CAN THE MONARCHY SURVIVE?

Reading Time 7 minsNovember 3, 2022 “European colonialization had at its rationalization, ‘The Bringing of the Light of Civilization’ to the backward natives. You cannot see the light if it is put in a place of  brightness, so it was necessary that they create darkness so that their light would shine… but there was cultural resistance, and music was and continues to be a large part of that resistance.”                                        Earl Lovelace, Novelist, T&T Review, June 1998 “[T]he creative imagination must have… Read More »dat woman, elizabeth: Governance as Absurdity?*–Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 4 minsNovember 3, 2022 “…. she was the symbol of an empire built on genocide, slavery, violence, extraction, and brutality, the legacies of which continue in our present day.” Arabindan-Kesson, professor, Princeton University The Queen is dead. Is the long living façade of a kind and gentle monarchy also dead? Probably. Will the “sins” of the mother be visited upon her eldest child, King Charles III? Probably. Queen Elizabeth II reigned from February 1952 until her death in September 2022 for 70 years and 214 days—the longest of any British monarch. Fifteen British prime ministers served under her,… Read More »Queen Elizabeth II: Hiding in a Fairytale*–Carlyle G. Leach

Reading Time 6 minsNovember 3, 2022   “Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.” Queen Elizabeth II. “And teifing columbus have a golden plan Dem make a wrong turn and end up in the Caribbean One rass genocide kill nuff Indians Lord fi turn paradise in a plantation And bring cross one ship load a African No hear comes the teifing queen from en gland No she carmwell and envy mother Century pon top a century full a sufferation And after four hundred year mi say no referation And now dem wah… Read More »The Queen and The George Floyd Racial Reckoning!*-Kanene A. Holder

Reading Time 2 minsSeptember 3, 2022 As an aspirational vision for the future, few anthems lay down the pathway to progress as these words from Trinidad and Tobago’s National Anthem, “Where every creed and race find an equal place.” Yet, after sixty years, the debate continues whether or not we’ve made significant strides towards actualizing this lofty ideal. While people’s movements aren’t the primary concern here, this sense informs the contributions to our August Issue. Indeed, August may be the most significant month in Caribbean History, beginning with Emancipation Day on August 1 and demands for Reparations that arose almost… Read More »NOTES ON ‘PROJECT INDEPENDENCE’: WE ‘YOUNG AND MOVING ON’!– BDN INTRODUCTION

Reading Time 6 minsAugust 31, 2022 Set alongside other Third World nations, including those possessing great mineral wealth, Trinidad & Tobago remains exemplary. Eric Williams established a democratic state, which has survived several regime changes and one attempted armed coup. The main bugbear of politics in the 1950s and 1960s was the ethnic divide between Afro-, Euro- and Indo-Trinidadians. In that period, politics were attended by intimidation and patronage. Since then, much of the former has dissipated. Having lived next door to one another and attended school together since the 1970s, Indians, Euro- and Afro-Creoles are considerably more comfortable with… Read More »INDEPENDENCE NOTES: BEYOND A CULTURAL RENAISSANCE–KIM JOHNSON

Reading Time 5 minsAugust 31, 2022 For those of us who were there in those days, whether young or old, involved in the major events of the time or just touched by their atmosphere or influence, there was no escaping the engulfing mood of expectancy and hope that pervaded the entire society. As on other moments of historical importance, once you were alive on August 31, 1962, you remember where you were at one minute past midnight that night of August 30, past the ringing of the midnight bell at the Anglican Cathedral just across the road from the Red… Read More »Celebrating Independence–CLYDE WEATHERHEAD

Reading Time 5 mins August 31, 2022 Trinidad and Tobago became an independent nation on 8/31/1962; I was eight years old.  As I look at some of the cultural changes that have happened and are happening in the region, I am fascinated by the idea that pre-1962 T&T artistic expressions, statements, and development showed more of an independent outlook than some of the current manifestations of “our culture.”   Several amazing things happened when T&T was a British colony and after.  Pre-Independence Calypso came about primarily as a way for the masses, especially those of African descent, to voice their protest… Read More »REFLECTIONS ON OUR CULTURAL INDEPENDENCE–ULRIC DONAWA

Reading Time 7 mins August 23, 2022 BOOK SYMPOSIUM: Hilary McD. Beckles, How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Poverty: Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2021, 292 pages: ISBN 9789766408695 (Paperback) “Dr. Beckles has written a book rich with emancipatory promise… [a] worthy addition to the compendium of development studies, and West Indian economic and political history, [which] must be read by all those seeking an engaged understanding of the historical circumstances that have profoundly influenced our contemporary Caribbean.”  The contemporary Caribbean presents an interesting duality. Once the site of intense… Read More »A POWERFUL MORAL CALL TO ACTION — LESTER ADAMS

Reading Time 2 minsAugust 23, 2022 BOOK SYMPOSIUM: Hilary McD. Beckles, How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Poverty: Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2021, 292 pages: ISBN 9789766408695 (Paperback) “The emotions, feelings, thoughts of the ‘underclass’ — … are not recounted in books. But their history lives on in the memories of their grandchildren.” Edna Brodber, quoted in David Scott(1). Designated by UNESCO, today,  August 23, is commemorated as The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.  It is a day celebrated each year to memorialize… Read More »BRITAIN ON TRIAL: SYMPOSIUM ON “HOW BRITAIN UNDERDEVELOPED THE CARIBBEAN: A REPARATIONS RESPONSE TO EUROPE’S LEGACY OF PLUNDER AND POVERTY.”

Reading Time 6 minsAugust 23, 2022 BOOK SYMPOSIUM: Hilary McD. Beckles, How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Poverty: Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2021, 292 pages: ISBN 9789766408695 (Paperback) The first person I heard speak of seeking reparatory justice for descendants of enslaved Africans was Randall Robinson, the founder of TransAfrica. Established in the 1970s, his organization sought to address myriad issues impacting the lives of continental Africans and their descendants in the Diaspora. He was a strident advocate of the global anti-apartheid movement and for dismantling apartheid. Years later, his book The Debt: What… Read More »Britain on Trial–Margaret Prescod-Cisse

Reading Time 6 minsAugust 23, 2022 BOOK SYMPOSIUM: Hilary McD. Beckles, How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Poverty: Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2021, 292 pages: ISBN 9789766408695 (Paperback) One of the many striking features of this work is the clarifying critique of the 1833 Emancipation Act. According to the author, the British Government made clear that the Africans, our ancestors, were property for the first time. By implementing this act, the Government was taking away ‘property’ from its owners and fully compensating them for their property loss. The imperial… Read More »In the Tradition of Our Best Truth-Tellers–Kamau Odinga

Reading Time 7 minsAugust 23, 2022 BOOK SYMPOSIUM: Hilary McD. Beckles, How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean: A Reparation Response to Europe’s Legacy of Plunder and Poverty: Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2021, 292 pages: ISBN 9789766408695 (Paperback)   “It is the British who by their action in past centuries are responsible for the presence in these islands of the majority of their inhabitants, whose ancestors as slaves contributed millions to the wealth of Great Britain, a debt which the British have yet to repay.” Sir Arthur Lewis All four of my grandparents, like others throughout the Caribbean, took… Read More »GREAT EXPECTATIONS: GOING FOR THE WIN – CARLYLE G. LEACH

Reading Time 1 minsAugust 6, 2022 All Herb McKinley, Don Quarrie, Merlene Ottley, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Usain Bolt, etc., and cultural artists and others ever wanted in life to succeed was a fair chance and to have a good start. Yet, in 1962 on the eve of Independence, Britain denied Jamaica any compensation for the three hundred-plus years of what Hilary Beckles refers to as ‘extractive colonization.’ The case laid out by Sir Alex Bustamante and the Jamaican people at the London Independence talks was clear and compelling: Britain bore responsibility for Jamaica’s underdevelopment and for raping the country and walking… Read More »Jamaica @ 60 — BDN Celebrates Jamaican Independence

Reading Time 3 minsAugust 6, 2022 Today marks 60 years of Jamaica’s ‘flag’ independence from colonial Britain. This event follows Emancipation Day, which was celebrated on August 1. Undoubtedly and understandably so, there was much celebration for the former, and August 6 will follow likewise. After all the celebration and hype have died down and as life returns to normal, what is the objective reality of Jamaica’s 60-year ‘independence’? Jamaica’s success and failure in stock-taking are imperative for a critical and judicious examination of the meaning of the independence of Jamaica and its sovereignty. This question further begs two others of… Read More »Jamaica At 60 – Have The Sacrifices of The National Heroes Been Honored? — Richard Dunn

Reading Time 1 mins July 9, 2022 Big Drum Nation joins others worldwide in recognizing ‘Sparrow Day,’ Slinger Francisco’s 87th birthday. In Grenada, Sparrow will be honored by the state today, July 9, 2022, for the first time, with “The Mighty Sparrow Day.” Grenada’s Sparrow Day adds to his many recognitions worldwide, including Nigerian Chieftaincy, a “Rey del Calypso” received from the Venezuelan government during the Chavez era, and an Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC). In 2014 Sparrow also received Trinidad and Tobago’s highest award, The Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. To acknowledge the Mighty Sparrow’s 87th… Read More »CELEBRATING THE MIGHTY SPARROW ON HIS 87th BIRTHDAY!

Reading Time 5 minsOriginally published June 19, 2021 Also known as Liberation Day, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, “Juneteenth”[1] is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. The celebration marks the events of June 19 (“Juneteenth”), 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger read the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas (General Order #3), effectively freeing over a quarter million enslaved Blacks in the state. The problem was that the Proclamation was two and a half years old by then. (While there are varying theories explaining the deferment of freedom, it is believed that this delay… Read More »Juneteenth is our Emancipation Day too — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 3 minsMay 25, 2022   “Continued use of similar mobilization moments is necessary because the task is not yet accomplished. As revolutionary thinkers, we will not engage in stifling the creative thrust of the people as they modify and sharpen their mobilization tools.” Some ask, Is African Liberation Day meaningful in this day and time? Has it outlived its usefulness? Well, for revolutionary Pan Africanists, African Liberation Day has always been a mobilization moment, a day, a weekend, a week, when Africans pause to reflect on their liberation journey, assert their identity, strengthen their resolve, to support their… Read More »AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY 2022–KAMAU ODINGA

Reading Time 6 minsApril 30, 2022 ‘I love New York. The confluence of cultures and parades, from St. Patrick’s Day to the West Indian Day Carnival on de Parkway means there’s never a dull moment.’   I am a native New Yorker. I was born in Brooklyn in 1979 (to Trinibagonian and Jamaican parents), and except for a brief stint in Washington D.C. to attend Howard University, I now reside in Harlem. Lately, there have been fierce social media debates about who a New Yorker is or when a transplant (someone not from New York) can claim they are. Five… Read More »New York City’s Subway Shooter: Savage Inequities In a Post-Covid World?–Kanene Holder

Reading Time 3 mins April 24, 2022 ‘With thoughtful lyrics, arresting melodies, and gorgeous harmonies, [Kitch] became a pulse of the people, the voice of carnival, bending phrase after phrase.’ April 18th, 2022, marked Aldwyn “Kitchener” Roberts’ birth centennial. The Grandmaster in the art of calypso, Kitchener’s music provides unique insights into Trinidad and Tobago’s culture. He was a griot, singing colorful tales about a colorful and complex society. Born in Arima, Trinidad, Aldwyn learned to play the guitar at an early age, becoming a local sensation. Soon after, he started performing in calypso tents in Port of Spain and… Read More »Kitchener – King of de Road–Garvin Blake

Reading Time 11 minsApril 15, 2022 An English cricket team was in the West Indies recently to play a 3-Test series. The West Indies prevailed, winning the final Test match in Grenada to the embarrassment of the visitors. This tour went by without significant unpleasantry. But a previous 1953-54 tour by an English team, then called the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club)1 when on overseas tours, was called ‘the most unpleasant and unfortunate experience in cricket since the visit of DR Jardine’s team to Australia in 1932/33’. EW Swanton would write that ‘as the tour spent its length…incident and misunderstanding followed… Read More »‘A most unpleasant and unfortunate experience ‘-Kenneth Jaikaransingh

Reading Time 3 minsApril 12, 2022 In 2019, I had the pleasure of witnessing the Big Drum Dance firsthand. It was my first time in Carriacou, the land of my grandparents, and I was eager to see an African religious tradition for the very first time, one that I considered myself to be a part of being of  Kayak1 descent. I was shocked, however, to find that many Kayaks I had spoken with, including my own family members,  did not consider the Big Drum Dance (abbreviated BDD) to be a formal religion like Christianity. There was no name for those… Read More »African Religious Retention in Carriacou — Raafeke

Reading Time 3 mins  April 8, 2022 ‘Anthony was at home with African philosophers such as Cabral and Nkrumah, equally adept with European theoreticians like Cornforth and Regis Debray… but he brought that knowledge down to the streets of Brooklyn and served everyday people.’ Some people are respected, others are loved, and a few are honored. Rarely, however, does one individual hit the high mark on all three counts, the recipient of all three attributes. To be loved, respected, and honored. Well, tonight, we are celebrating the life of such a person; Anthony Munroe, Gundy, Brother Anthony. When Paul Robeson died,… Read More »Anthony Munroe*, A Radical Humanist: In Service to the People — Kamau Odinga (Remarks of February 3, 2022)

Reading Time 5 mins April 8, 2022 GENDER EQUALITY TODAY FOR A SUSTAINABLE TOMORROW  I am deeply honoured to be participating in this virtual event amongst my African sisters during the month of “Her-Story,” just five days after the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery under the theme “Stories of Courage: Resistance to Slavery and Unity against Racism.” One such story is that of Nanny of the Maroons. Nanny was born c. 1686 in Ghana into the Ashanti ethnic group. Along with several relatives, she was enslaved and sent to Jamaica. Nanny, along with her brothers escaped… Read More »Presentation by Ambassador Thelma Phillip-Browne at the Spouses of African Ambassadors Association Function, March 30, 2022.

Reading Time 15 minsPresentation by former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar, featured Speaker on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the Grenada Revolution, Saturday, March 13, 2022. March 30, 2022 I would first of all thank the organizers for inviting me to share some of my views with you on this important 43 anniversary of the most profound Revolution that occurred in the English-speaking Caribbean. Allow me to greet all of you on this significant occasion. For me, the Grenada Revolution was a continuation of the movement for real change in this Region by many revolutionaries and movements in… Read More »Presentation by former President Mr. Donald Ramotar on the 43rd Anniversary of the Grenadian Revolution

Reading Time 2 mins April 7, 2022 A while back, someone posted online that to his chagrin, he realized that the singer Frankie Beverly wasn’t known throughout the United States and was merely relegated to superstar status in the Black community. People in the comments section took umbrage at this slight. Many drew similarities to unseasoned food and no knowledge of ‘the (cocoa and shea) butters. However, folks rallied, seemingly bereft of the millions who were denied decades of the artist’s music. In my mind, this was another example of the uniqueness of Black culture, where at cookouts and parties “Before I Let… Read More »If You Don’t Know Beres Hammond, Your Life Is Poorer For It! – Margaret Prescod

Reading Time 3 minsMarch 4, 2022 We celebrated Black History Month against the backdrop of a trail of tears: bomb threats to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the constant litany of school district boards in Kentucky, Florida, and other states banning books by authors of color. And some states even enacted legislation against the teaching and discussion of institutional racism and the 1619 Project in schools.  Interestingly, the enemies of social justice and progress are acting on deep-seated prejudice as part of an eternal desire to further marginalize our contribution as part of the American mosaic and erase our presence,… Read More »Reflections on Ghana On My Mind: Journeying To The Motherland–Lennel George

Reading Time 5 minsFebruary 8, 2022 Insofar as a philosopher questions our everyday assumptions about life, Bomber was a philosopher … He was pure calypso, in the vintage sense that Pretender was. He won the Trinidad and Tobago Calypso Monarch in 1964 with the most incontrovertible double entendre composition. His smooth, melodic delivery glossed over the covert/overt sexuality of the story and enchanted us in a lyrically poetic gem of storytelling. “James and Joan” was a composition of marvelous, metaphoric manipulation, a gem of lyrical navigation. It was a composition extraordinaire. Like the Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco), the Bomber came… Read More »REMEMBERING CLIFTON RYAN, THE MIGHTY BOMBER — Dr. David Brizan

Reading Time 7 minsJanuary 17, 2022  “I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 1964. “They shot him!” On April 4, 1968, unruly crowds interrupted our Friday evening Black Power debate with a chaotic announcement of Dr. King’s assassination. It was as if the earth had stopped rotating. We… Read More »Long Live The King!-Dr. David Brizan*

Reading Time 6 minsJanuary 11, 2022 (First published January 30, 2012) (Celebrating Bomber’s 84th birthday anniversary;  Bomber [Clifton Ryan] was  born on January 30, 1928)  Ah go make the damn immigration Send you back you blasted Grenadian Me ent goin no way wid you, Mister Ah come down to stay by me sister So do way you want to, But Ah know you is ah Grenadian too –From a 1961 Bomber calypso Bomber had secured two important wins and he was in the hunt for a third -the Boboloops one! By the way, it’s well worth pointing out that Bomber’s winners… Read More »AH BLASTED GRENADIAN TOO! – Caldwell Taylor

Reading Time 7 minsJanuary 6, 2022 (First published January 18, 2021) “Oh, how we danced to the beat of this lovely lie… Until a man opened a door and showed us our other side.”  “Hossay” – David Rudder “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world… The best lack all conviction, while the worst. Are full of passionate intensity.” “The Second Coming” – William B. Yeats In 1964 the acting Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago was forced to resign for what many civilians viewed as a minor infraction. The testimony of a police corporal… Read More »“This Place Too Damn Democratic”?–Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 11 minsNovember 25, 2021 Introduction “Surely the symbolism implicit in having a native Barbadian as Head of State will convey a subliminal message to the youth that they can also aspire to reach the highest office in the land.” The event that is to take place in Barbados on 30 November 2021 will be an event of historic necessity.  Barbados will become a republic within the Commonwealth.  Her Excellency, Dame Sandra Mason, the present native Governor-General, will replace Queen Elizabeth, the monarch of the United Kingdom, as the Head of State of Barbados and the island’s first President. … Read More »BARBADOS BECOMING A REPUBLIC IS AN HISTORIC NECESSITY-Sir David Simmons

Reading Time 3 mins November 19, 2021   While individuals and entire groups out there deny either the COVID-19 virus itself outright or its deadly impact, NYC Transit workers have no such luxury. Over 160 MTA employees/mostly transit workers, have died, many friends and colleagues. While such deniers belong to another conversation, their logic needs to be noted. They invariably rest their case on denying science and any information or facts that do not comport with their worldview. That world consists of endless rabbit holes of mostly senseless, circular arguments. But we should also admit that many individuals and groups… Read More »My Two Cents, Part I: Labor & the Covid Vaccine Mandate–Roger Toussaint

Reading Time 1 mins Sisters, Brothers, Today is October 19th, 2021. Life and death and life day. The shock waves of the losses from COVID-19 and with it the passing of stalwarts such as Peter Bain, and the passing too of young people such as Giovanni de Gannes are tremours only,  compared to the seismic shift of October 19, 1983. Still, our hearts are aching, our souls are draining.  Today is a day of deep grief — and even deeper prayers and rising hope. We are not re-living the horror, just remembering not to do evil! Indeed, let us always remember… Read More »October 19, 2021

Reading Time 6 minsSeptember 24, 2021 As replicas of the Trinidad and Tobago red, white, and black national flag fly ceremoniously, I wonder what independence and republican status mean for our twin-island Republic. Once again, it’s that season of folly and frolic when decorative colors of postponement adorn the steel and concrete avenues of poorly maintained structures and now signal the abandonment of patience. Unlike Sparrow’s sentiment that “We Like it So,” we may not have yet found a satisfactory way of extricating ourselves from our self-made dilemma.  Can we catch ourselves in this fall? We are tired, no doubt, frustrated… Read More »Re-Educating Ourselves in the Matter of Independence and the State of the Republic(T&T)–Dr. David Brizan

Reading Time 4 minsAugust 31, 2021 It was perhaps fortuitous that the Prime Minister chose the occasion of the sod-turning ceremony for a construction project for the building of a Panyard for the Desperados Steel Orchestra to remark on the issue of diversification.  Projecting that this space had the potential to become a steelpan entertainment centre to provide tourists with the experience of the steelpan culture of Trinidad and Tobago, the diversification question seemed fitting.  This occasion coming just days before the celebration of the 59th anniversary of Independence must have made the topic even more compelling for the leader… Read More »WE CYAR STAND UP ON ONE FOOT-Clyde Weatherhead

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Reading Time 9 minsJune 16, 2021 BDN is pleased to share Dr. Laurie Lambert’s talk, “Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution,” which she presented at the 2021 virtual African Liberation Day Celebrations hosted by the Grenada African Liberation Day Organizing Committee (GALDOC), May 25, 2021. The presentation was primarily excerpted from her acclaimed book of the same name.  Read the post and join the conversation. BDN Editors Thank you to the organizers for the invitation to present. I am going to read a section from my book, Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution. It’s a book of literary… Read More »Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution–Dr. Laurie R. Lambert

Reading Time 6 minsJune is here again. Mid-year. National Caribbean American Heritage Month gives the Caribbean its deserved center stage in the nation’s consciousness! So it is in geography as it is in history and current affairs; the Caribbean is middle America. As it is annually, June 1 began month-long activities officially designated as National Caribbean American Heritage Month by Presidential Proclamation in the United States of America since 2006. The proclamation was enacted under the George Bush administration in recognition of the extraordinary contributions Caribbean Americans have historically made to the development of the United States. Millions of people… Read More »Caribbean American Heritage Month: Recognizing a Key Ingredient of the American Mosiac – Martin P. Felix

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Reading Time 4 minsMarch 31, 2021 Raising Malcolm X: Louise Langdon Norton, Malcolm’s Grenadian Mom (Part I)* Malcolm X’s contributions to American civil and political rights and pan-African causes are well-known. What is not sufficiently highlighted in the many narratives about Malcolm X is the role of his parents, particularly his very educated activist Grenadian mother who nurtured him and imbued in him a lifelong political and ethical skill set, the basis of a political education that would inform his future direction. In 1917, Louisa Langdon Norton, a young Grenadian girl, migrated to Canada to live with her uncle in… Read More »Raising Malcolm X: Louise Langdon Norton, Malcolm’s Grenadian Mom (part I) – Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 2 minsFirst published, March 8, 2021. Republished March 8, 2022 “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” While March is celebrated as Women’s History Month in the United States since 2016, March 8 is a special day in this most special month. It is celebrated globally as International Women’s Day (IWD). Originally organized by the Socialist Party of America, the celebrations first took place in February 1909 and were called International Working Women’s Day.  What began as a suggestion in 1910 following an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, grew into an international celebration… Read More »Happy International Women’s Day 2022

Reading Time 12 minsNovember 1, 2020 Overture “This is my place, every West Indian place/Regardless to class, creed, or race. Listen, Uncle Sam, we want back we land…We want back Chaguaramas.” Nap Hepburn, “We Want Back Chaguaramas,” 1959 “I’m Trini to the bone and Caribbean to the core.” Sunity Maharaj “Now Grenada being my birthplace/ Trinidad being the land I know My obligation is to Trinidad/But I owe Grenada also.” Valentino, “Namesake” At a time when Donald Trump, the would-be medieval king, is hell-bent on compromising the sovereignty of Caribbean nations, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on how the… Read More »Kaiso vs. The Trumpets! — Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 4 minsFirst published, April 20, 2020. Republished March 8, 2022 “Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 I am stumped! There is no way to escape my meditation practice. No classes to teach on campus, no visits to the doctor for another month, no meetings with friends and acquaintances at my book group site, and no… Read More »Pandemic Meditation by Dr. Joanne Dowdy

Reading Time 9 mins[I of V] Big Drum Nation’s Introduction August 23, 2019 “The Caribbean may well have produced [a Socrates, Descartes or Spinoza], but I am not aware of any records of their thought.” – St Hope Earl McKenzie, The Loneliness of a Caribbean Philosopher. “I come from the land of the giants…/The land where these giants walk/Despite the stings and the arrows/When them boys walk, they cast a long shadow.” –3Canal, “Giants” “This is our symbol–Beauty famous in the slum/The hungry boy who/Tomorrow shall become/The country’s hero.” – Eric Roach, “The Flowering Rock.” I. Shadow and ‘Self-Acquired Knowledge.’  “You… Read More »The Allegory of the Dungeon: Not Black Socrates, But Shadow (Winston Bailey) Learning Under An Oak Tree – Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 1 minsDavid Mitchell “Play One” for Black Stalin First published September 24, 2015. Long before I was able to analyze the lyrics of Stalin, no Black Stalin, I had to deal with the image of the man. I had to see myself in him and not Michael Jackson. Long before I was strong enough to deal with the individuals in his stories, I had to deal with the blazing intellect inherent in the themes of the Kaiso. Born to two pan lovers on “Lavantie Hill”, I probably met Winston Spree Simon but was too young to understand his… Read More »David Mitchell “Play(s) One” for Black Stalin