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Extracts From transcript of Interviews with Rex
Nettleford
LOCATION: University
of the West Indies
DATE: 1989
EXTRACTS
TC 2.20 - Carnival
I think carnival has to be seen as a variant of what is universal
to all human kind on the planet - Festivals. A means of periodic
re-affirmation, self-assertion, even a kind of religious means of re-uniting
with spiritual forces.
TC 4.42 - Johnkunnu
Johnkunnu has virtually died out in Jamaica but not
all together. The thing about masking which is central to it and in fact to
other parts of the Caribbean where it is very much alive as I said in the
Bahamas and Leeward Islands at Christmas time. When slaves got time off to make
fun of their masters - social comment, like calypso in Trinidad.
The form of Johnkunnu relies on
traditional characters very similar to those of Trinidad carnival, House Johnkunnu, Pitchy Patchy like forest spirits very much as
in West African festivals.
TC 6.30 - festivals (1)
discusses secular and religious festivals.
TC 8.00 - dance derived from festivals
We drew on traditional lore and the Johnkunnu
is central for providing material but the processional is common to all
festivals. People have noticed that the work of the company can be
characterised by the use of the processional in choreographic designs. And the
use of crowds in counterpoint one against the other.
The festival as performing art is very much a collective
enterprise and the dance uses this. Also characters which have come out, Pitchy
Patchy, Horse Head - just as in the old Little Carib Theatre of Beryl Mcburnie which also drew on carnival characters.
TC 9.36 - Hosay in Jamaica
There is no distinction between Muslim and Hindu. The interesting
thing is that the Tassa drums are beaten by people of African ancestry and I
understand the same thing happens in Trinidad as well. The Hosay festival has
been a very important instrument of creolisation and cross-fertilisation
between the blacks and there is very little hostility - and indeed none -
between the estate indian and the poorer blacks. One
person who is interested in cross-fertilisation insists that the Africans and
Indians find each other through shared metaphysical expressions and
orientations and Hosay provides a vehicle for much of that.
TC 11.44 - Role of festivals
The re-affirmation of collective identity even if they separate
after three days. A sharing of common experiences and a celebration of life, of
life together. For a people who were uprooted, whether we talk of Europeans who
came as indentured labourers, Africans who came as slaves or Chinese and Indians
who came as indentured labourers at the other end of the process, there is need
for re-affirmation and you know all this took place over 500 years and half a millennium
is a long time but not so long in human memory or human history and these
things take on important dimensions. So that although some of the ancestral
things have been lost, in contemporary life the challenge of independence which
is saying 'you’re autonomous and now are the creators of your own destiny
forces us to look at the way people kept alive and survived and kept together.
TC 13.30 - children’s games
Naturally I am interested in the choreography so I naturally look
at the way children move. They are unfettered by education or learning. Pure
movement. Hop scotch, balancing a stone on one's foot, hand clapping, making
sounds.
The nonsense rhymes in competition. It is interesting to see how
this has come out as D.J. and dance hall in Jamaica
and rapping in USA. The use of alliteration, tongue twisters, freedom of
movement give us wonderful ideas in the National Dance Theatre.
TC 14.52 - significance of children’s games
The ring games are interesting and would have been brought from
Europe and Africa. I'm not sure what the Indian ones are. Many of us who have
written about the social psychology of race ... the Brown Girl in the Ring Tralalalala - I'm not so sure this has not perpetuated a
particular Caribbean aesthetic that beauty resides in brownness. these things
transmit values by osmosis...The child is the adult writ small.
TC 16.52 - dance & games
One of the interesting things we did was Games at Arms though we
were parodying the cold war we were utilising children’s ring games for that.
TC 17.54 - Caribbean music
One of the greatest things about the Caribbean is the tremendous
influence it has had on world pop music since the turn of the century. With
Cuban Son, Mambo, Rhumba, Cha Cha Cha,
the meringue from Haiti and Dominican Republic. Afro rhythms have filtered
through to Hollywood through the Caribbean. The influence is underestimated. So
too that of calypso, Rum and Coca Cola brought new kinds of rhythms to American
pop music which in turn went to the rest of the world.
It is only through reggae music we've been able to make the
impact. So that Bob Marley has definitely emerged as an international figure in
the world of pop music. This is a result of technology.
Calypso itself has become a generic term for an area of music.
Zouk, Cadance are making their own kind
of influence. Soca is very popular in Jamaica and a major soca band is Byron
Lee. Sparrow and Kitchener are well known. Cricket Lovely Cricket became a
Caribbean thing because it was tied to an occasion.
Reggae because it is tied to a world view is very popular among
the young all over the world. It is interesting that the originator of Soca is
a Rastafarian.
Caribbean music's influence is something that ought to be
celebrated, we ought to be proud of it. It is very important.
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