Fruit Baskets and Floral Arrangements

When I look into the Caribbean, and anywhere where the African resides, I see beauty and I am reminded of floral arrangements and fruit baskets :D. A plethora of people, ideas, ideals, philosophies and hues. I know people usually go to the rainbow as a metaphor for broad spectrum beauty, and it does fit my purpose, but the rainbow lacks the depth of diversity I'm trying to portray, and a fruit basket , with its grapes and oranges and plums and apples and mangoes, or the floral arrangement with the roses, and orchids, and oleanders just does it much better. But the fruit basket and the floral arrangement do all share the feature I'm going to highlight, they are all cut off from their roots, and as such their beauty is fleeting, if anything it represents a facade of something already dead, and at best dying.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey said that a people without knowledge of their history are like a tree without its roots, and I look around in this fruit basket and floral arrangement (yes I'm in it) and see no roots. I look beneath it at the foundation and see wicker lined with decorative tissue and cut stems in water and that green thing - no roots. A rooted mahogany tree does not ask whether or not it is a mahogany tree, it knows it. A polished mahoganhy chair may, however, need to be reminded every now and again of it mahogany heritage. Comedian Kat Williams did a joke about tigers in a zoo, wherein the tigers begin to question whether or not they are tigers or "vicious ass koala bears." Until a break in the zoo routine occurs, the tigers are a shell of themselves and in limbo where their self image is concerned.
Hello Black people!! We are the tigers. We are the beautiful, rootless fruits and flowers, we are dead to ourselves and unsure of our heritage. Honestly, unlike the self questioning tigers, most of us do not know it or accept it.

I did not want to talk about it, I was really trying to avoid the entire debate and maybe blog about music again, or something else, but I am here at 4 in the AM writing about it; bleaching!
I was in a few online debates about it and well Sade's "Another Rasta Rant", pretty much hit it up already, but then I was here vibsing in my magical FB music group and listening to Tarrus Riley's "Shaka Zulu Pickney" and felt the need to write.
Bleaching is once again being highlighted in the popular media here in the Caribbean thanks to the new stylings of Vybz Kartel and his unashamed attitude about the entire thing. Bleaching has, for years, been a matter highlighted time and time again the the Jamaican media, with newspaper articles, television news segments and television specials, each time portrayed as something affecting the poorest of the population. (The middle and upper middle classes have other, more discreet ways of skin lightening - marriage/breeding for example. The underlying mentality or rationale, however, is the same.)

There is a running train of thought in society that, the fairer the skin, or the closer to white that one is the more success you will have or at least the more avenues/oppurtunities are available to you. Given the historical context that society is built upon this maybe an ugly notion or thought to some, but a quiet real one, that is it a real perception that people have. The lighter skinned blacks are the ones that dominate the popular media, dem and dem good, pretty hair. As the girl in the video said, no one can tell her anything at night in the club because she is white. So I know there are many out there that think that we live in a "post-racial" era, lol, or in a "colour blind society - not yet folks. Take a look at these videos here below and see why the society, and note that when I say the society I mean the global society, is not yet post racial or colour blind.

Video one is British based. The creams are illegal in Europe, but only to sell regionally, but can be made and exported. If they are too dangerous for Europeans why would they not be too dangerous for the rest of the world? Note that in the video the seized shipment being smuggled back into Europe is coming from Africa.

 

Video 2 is not so much about bleaching, but the girl Jenna does highlight and manifest within herself, the mentality of society taken to the confused extremes that lead to bleaching.

 

Video 3 is the first part of Tyra's episode about bleaching and also highlights that it is a fairly long standing African American subculture as well. (notice that these women's faces appear more matted than actually lightened and this is what I meant about Bajan women's faces looking over washed)

Notice that this is not a Caribbean phenomenon but exists in the "post-racial" American society and Britain, and from what we can gather from the first video shown, the continent, Africa, as well. This is a problem present in all post-colonial and former slave societies. Interestingly enough, the places with highest cited usage are poorest of the countries on that list.
Until recently bleaching was unheard of, or at least not spoken about in the popular and news media and seemed to evade the public sphere here in Barbados. Honestly, I always used to wonder sometimes about some women I used to see with faces that did not seem to match the rest of their heads, not to mention their bodies, and I said to myself these resemble the bleachers I see in the Jamaican and other international media. I, however, also said to myself that I never heard about bleaching in Barbados and dismissed them as women inept at applying makeup properly or persons who over washed their faces (yuh know what I mean too, dem girls dat does be washing dem face every chance them get at school, especially right before they leave to go to town on evenings after school). Apparently, I was wrong because they were most likely bleaching, and it has been happening here for a long time, but as a girl told me, "nuhbody din studying nuffin so back den, is only now dat Kartel start up pun it dat people talking." It really should not be surprising though, considering the reasons for bleaching are: poor self image and a belief in the concept that lighter is better, that it would have a subculture presence in Barbados and be overlooked by the media and society.

Well niggas (omg he called us niggas), guess what?!?!          wait for it, wait for it...     it is time to wake up and stop this shit.
I know it is not as simple as "wake up and stop it". It most definately is not as simple as, "when Kartel moves on, so too will this trend," because by and large this is not merely a trend, there is nothing trendy about it. It is a serious psychological problem deeply entrenched in the psyche of a diaspora longtold that they are second, third and fourth class citizens, not of any particular country but of the world. This psychological problem is socially and culturally maintained as the result of the colonial and neo-colonial world paradigm.
The world cannot get to a post-racial or colour blind state when the past is yet to be overcome. James Brown's song cannot do it, Bob Marley cannot do it, Michael Jackson cannot do it, H.I.M. Haile Selassie I in his speech to the United Nations cannot do it, Barack Obama cannot do it, and the month of February sure as hell will do it. It is a problem historically rooted and the first thing that must happen is that that history has to be properly and fully understood. This means not leaving out the bad parts or misleading people with omittances, like some historians traditionally do, neither does it mean romanticising and skewing the oppressed side as some other historians do. From there you work on changing the social elements used, overtly and discreetly, to create and maintain the existing psyche and attempt to neutralise and reverse them. This can only be done once the contemporary situation is understood through its historical context, so remember that it is history first before attempting to correct.
One has to see that the mindset and rationale behind bleaching is not exclusive to bleaching, and that it is deeply institutionalised. It is so entrenched in fact that some parts of it are seen almost as natural features of modern, contemporary society. I do not have to list or highlight any examples, you know them. (if you are from Mars, or live the delusion of a colour blind world, just listen to some of the rationalising given in the videos. The girl Jenna from the first Tyra clip manifests some of those things)


As I said we are pretty and diverse like the fruit baskets and floral arrangements, and just as rootless and slowly moving to a wilting stage. It is time to be more like orchards and gardens; lastingly beautiful and firmly rooted. This is not just for my African/Black people, but all humanity, just love yourself and respect others. Big up yourself without belittling others, that is pretty much the answer really.

I just like live music, especially live reggae, ain't nothing like a stageshow. <3

Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?

"Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" -Adrian Green*

Honestly, at first I could not fathom the potential energy that is stored in words. The poet, in whatever incarnation, is a wealth of potential and their words are like fully charged batteries.

I always had a leaning towards English and the subjects generally referred to as the arts in school, so History caught my attention more so than Geography, and I preferred English to Mathematics. I was writing poetry from the age of 6/7 and talking foolishness, a skill in its own right, for as long as I can remember. Still this did not leave me immune to the trappings of adolescence and the tricky teenage years, so a lot of the things I did or liked were directly and indirectly influenced by peer pressure and the expectations of my peers and the general teenage consensus. In simpler terms, consciously and subconsciously my movements were dictated by one simple thing, coolness. I wrote poetry, lots of it actually, but never really did much with it, and I sure as hell was not going to listen to poetry albums, much less buy them, and especially not the rootsy, culture filled ones like AJA's, "Doing it Saf" - jokes!
However, as I said I did like History, and I was writing and reading poetry, though not as often as I wish I did now, so when I got to around 5th form and I began to mature(even if my actions did not reflect the intellectual growth) my perceptions started to change, my attention to "cool" started to change. This was as I was preparing my History SBA (School Based  Assessment) which was based on the work of Dr. Ivan van Sertima, and more specifically, his book, "They Came Before Columbus". The work of van Sertima opened my mind's eye and shifted my existing historical paradigm and set me on a course to find out about Africa, in a pre-European era. As I began to connect with this history and this culture of "enlightenment" I began to lose some of the romantic notions I had early on when I first read van Sertima, and I began to see that everything in this subculture was not pristine and perfect. There were lazy people in "the struggle", there were out and out frauds, looking to capitalise on the hopefulness of others, but those eye openers aside, there was work to be done and not much people knew exactly how to set about this work.  This annoyed me a bit, probably because I was, as are most teens, anxious and a bit impatient and expected that the elders would at least know what they were doing. This led to me writing a poem called "Rant" and it was, as the title suggests, me ranting about some of the inadequacies in the "Black Power/Pan African" movement.
All of this was not said to initiate any talk about the movement and its glories or its short comings and misgivings, but was a convoluted way of getting you to understand the mindset I was in when I wrote the poem linked above.

"Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" I did not. My mother had AJA's album and I listened to it, under the rule of coolness, with the intention of getting some laughs at the "funny talking dashiki wearing rastaman", and I did get some laughs. The last laugh, however, was to be AJA's, because even though I was mocking the works at first, the words from some of the pieces became imprinted in my mind and remained there. Fast forward a few years and my mother, knowing I write poetry and do the NIFCA thing from time to time, brought home this book by a young Bajan poet who worked as the tech guy in her office, a little known guy with a sweet Riddim and Flo' going by the name DJ Simmons. I read the book, and at first the poems did not move me much, because at the time my poetry was in standard English with traditional structure and arrangement, so this dialect work was not so much my thing, it was nice, but just not my thing. Fast forward a little bit in time and I found myself at a show put on by "two roaring lions" and for the first time the question is posed to me, " Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?", and it was as if the poet had known that I was unsure, and he would have had to have been pretty damn intuitive because at the time I myself was not aware that I was unsure. He then told me what would happen if I understood the power of the words, he said," If you understood the power of the word you would understand and that you have the power to bring down the house..with a word", " because the power of life and death is on the tongue, but you know this, you feel it when certain songs are sung..when certain passages are read." In this moment I began to truly understand the power of the words and could answer the question that I had not known I was even to be asking with a quiet but certain; Yes!

As with my discovery of African greatness through the work of Dr. van Sertima, my fascination with the power of words was initially deeply romantic and a bit one sided. I had been fascinated with the potentially positive, almost magical, power of words and wordsmiths, but soon I would sober up from the romantic hangover and realise that with with all this potential that words had, there was no guarantee that once released their power would be used for good. Some of the most powerful words that can be uttered are "In the name of the Lord", and the evils committed under these words were/are unpleasant at best. Hitler and his Nazi regime were propelled largely by word power; manifested by means of his propaganda machinery, and his speeches.

"Djs and artists must know what their part is..."*, because "far too many of us are speaking poison."* Maybe the question that was posed to me should now be posed to them, or should be one of the questions posed during the interview when they apply to work at radio stations, "Do you understand the power of the words that are coming out of my mouth?" They might be just like me and not aware that they are unsure, or that there is even something to be unsure about.

The poet is right, far too many of us are speaking poison, and it is time for the positive potential in the words to be released. Released in the form of Positive Energy...RAH!*

Sample DJ Simmons' album or Buy it here.
Sample Adrian Green's album or Buy it here.
Buy AJA's album here.

*Blog title from Adrian Green's poem "Word Power". track 14 on his "Random Acts of Consciousness" album.
*quotes come from Adrian Green's poem  "Djs and Artists", track 6 on his "Random Acts of Conscience" album.
*DJ Simmons' track "Energy", track 6 on his "Riddim & Flo" album. Check out track 18 for the remix with Adrian Green, its wickedly nice.

You waan soun like me...

Can you hear me now? Good!

Once more we are back on music, and this time exploring non-indigenous genres in the local music industry. Local here of course refers to Barbados, but can easily apply to any music industry anywhere.

By now it should be no secret to anyone,living in Barbados, that Barbados has musical acts practising and representing a plethora of musical genres. From the internationally known soca acts like Krosfyah, Allison Hinds and Lil Rick to the amazing rock alternative stylings of Kite, Barbados goes hard. Standing Penance, Psilos, Threads of Scarlet, The Highgrade Band, The Fully Loaded Band, Nexcyx, Teff, Cover Drive, Daveny Ellis, Sunrok, Rhy Minister, Dundeal, Billy Kincaid(where you at son?) Red Star Lion, LRG, Ayana John, Betty Rose, and this list could and would go on. This list represents rock, reggae, r&b, pop, hip hop, indie and more, and is 100% Bajan. Anyone remember DJ Carlos and his Friday night techno-dance-trance sessions on Mix 96.9FM?

Click on any of the selected artists below to check out their websites, facebook pages or myspace pages:
Standing Penance        Psilos             Cover Drive       
Buggy - Just a Man      Ayana John     Kite
Teff                            Nexcyx           Red Star Lion
AzMan ( I suggest taking a listen to Dreams)

I claim this list as 100% Bajan and I stand by it, but they are some who would beg to differ, and for valid reasons, very valid reasons in fact. The arguments cited, in opposition of the 100% Bajan tag vary. There is the argument that Barbadians should stick to Bajan music and not get caught up in trying to do other peoples things, amd by other peoples things they usually mean pop, rap and hip hop, rock/alternative and reggae. The persons presenting this argument would prefer for Bajans to stick to soca and revitalise spouge, and stop all the banja. There is of course the slight issue in that soca is no more bajan than hip hop is, and a lot of people either do not know this, forgot this, or would love to pretend that it is. "Yuh hear lie, dat is lie." This argument is perpetuated by some narrow minded, but not ill-intentioned, people, who are gladly starting to fade from existance thanks mainly to the signing of a few young Bajans (Livvi Franc, Vita Chambers, Hal Linton, Shontelle and of course RiRi) to international labels, none practising any "indigenous" genres.
This next argument holds ground on this, its supporters and agitators have nothing against a diverse musical industry and in fact welcome the diversity, their peeve is that the artists are imitating the international and regional artists from which ever country their selected genre is from. Simplified, the rappers are rapping and phrasing like Americans, and rockers are singing like Americans, the reggae artists are chanting and singing and phrasing and speaking like Jamaicans, the Calypsonians and Soca artists are "phrasing like Trini".
This argument claims that the Barbadian self image, or perception of self, is in crisis since its artist are choosing to imitate, not emulate, the image and voices of others and not highlight their own, or create one that is uniquely and distinctly Bajan.  It is a fairly valid point, and no doubt a serious one, no nation should let its national self image be weak enough to be erased by external influences, but is it really that bad, is the Barbadian self image so malleable? I'm not convinced, at least not from a musical stand point, that it is. If as a musician I lean towards rock, and choose that rock is the genre I wish to perform, then I would naturally seek to emulate other rock artist, especially the ones that I like and that influence me. It should come as no surprise to anyone that listens to me perform that I would have a similar sound to my influences, even in my original pieces. So when I go and listen to Adrian Green perform, I do not say, this is 75% Bajan, because I can hear the influence of Heru in him, neither do I ask whether Billy Kincaid has dual American/Bajan citizenship because he uses Bajan metaphors and analogies with some traces of an American accent and phrasing when rapping. Sunrok is hot in either dialect or the American flow, and 100% Bajan in both.

"Because when man luv ah ooman and ah ooman luv ah man ah jah jah bless eet" said the white Italian Rasta, and no one cares. Who remembers Snow from the 90's, the skinny white Canadian reggae artist, who on the radio sounded just like the skinny black boys from Kingston.

The genres these artists love and perform are not Bajan in origin, and while I can agree that some Barbadian influences coming through in the music would be nice (and it does happen, hell of a lot too) we really should not be disappointed when they sound like people from the respective lands of origin of whatever genre they perform, it is only natural. Listen to the junglist selections coming out of England, ever heard Mighty Crown or Black Chiney in a clash? Simon Pipe sounds like a Bay Area kid? So what? If these walls could talk they would tell you hush and just listen to the music.

These Bajan artist are some of the proudest Bajans we have, and they rep the country to the fullest when the chance arises. One of the guys from Kite had a customised guitar painted like the Barbados flag, unfortunately it was stolen. RiRi always has a trident somewhere in her videos. Buggy and the Fully Loaded Band always remixing songs and incorporating Barbadian things in their covers, "take a look down Baxters Road, do you see anything to smile bout?", "I got a hundred weight of collie weed coming from St. John..", and they had this crazy crazy spouge rendition of Culture's "A Song to Make the Whole World Sing" ..the engineer would tell you I love that version bad bad bad. The Highgrade Band started to incorporate some Bajan familiarities into their cover sets too. Do you know what I do when I hear Nexcyx perform? The same thing I do when Taio Cruz comes on, I get On The Floor and throw my hands in the air sometimes, it just feels a lot better when its to Nexcyx.

We have spouge(dead as it is) and Fling, and I hope that if fling ever gets regional and international followers that when I am overseas I can hear some Americans phrasing in Bajan and flinging it down like Azman. They will be no less American, just like The Bajan musicians are no less Bajan; Real Ting!