Latest update April 26th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 22, 2013 Editorial
In 1972 Guyana hosted what was the first Carifesta, a cultural exposition that featured the various aspects of the culture from across the Caribbean. This came about because some regional leaders, foremost among them, Guyana’s Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, decided that the region had its own identity which should be showcased.
These regional leaders were aware of the imposition of foreign culture on the region. Young people in the region were being inundated by the imported music, the dances by way of the movies because there was no television in those days, the way of dress and even some of the slangs these foreigners use. The regional leaders were aware that what was in the region was not being promoted.
It was not all a one-way street because there were people who left the region for the diaspora and they took with them those things with which they had grown up and had become accustomed. In this manner the music of Jamaica soon gained international recognition. But this recognition highlighted the very things that the founders of Carifesta realized. Things from the region had to gain international acceptance before they could gain regional acceptance.
And so it was that the first Carifesta was staged. Not only was it a blessing for the region, it was a development experience for Guyana. An entire community sprang up because Burnham tied in the hosting of the cultural event to a housing drive. The houses used to accommodate the visitors for Carifesta were later sold to Guyanese.
For the first time the region saw up close and personal what was actually happening in countries that were a few miles apart. Guyana saw the Djukas of Suriname and the French creole of Martinique. It saw the power of the steelband and got to appreciate the calypso. These were staples of Trinidad and Tobago.
In the end, the countries of the Caribbean recognized that they were more similar than different. They undertook, each of them, to host Carifesta every four years. Sadly, that is no longer the reality because we now find that many of the countries care less about hosting Carifesta.
From the first hosting in 1972, Guyana once more played host in 2008 after the Bahamas had indicated that it was not able to host the event as it had promised. This happened after Suriname had played host to the event four years earlier.
Now Suriname is hosting the event again, suggesting that other countries of the region have indicated that they have no interest in hosting the event.
When Suriname became a member of the regional organization known internationally as the CARIBBEAN Community and Common Market, the then Secretary General was forced to note that while it was not an English-speaking country, Suriname seemed more committed to regional integration that some of the original members who all had more in common that they had with the Dutch-speaking country.
And so we see that an event that appears to be heading for extinction is being kept alive by Suriname. This is worrying and happens at a time when regional integration should be pursued. This is a time when the world is being divided into economic blocs. There is the European Union which is holding all of Europe together and funding certain countries in that corner of the world that market those things that the Union finds important.
There are the military blocs that police the world and ship weapons to those who are seeking to change the status quo in their corner of the world. In this region where the countries are all primary producers, where they export their raw products and import the finished food there is need for integration. Yet it would seem that the feeblest attempts are being frustrated because the regional leaders appear to be among the most disinterested.
How else can we explain the rush to import from extra regional sources those things that we produce within the region? Carifesta affords a chance to highlight these things but even this event we seem to ignore.
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