I LOVE CALYPSO MUSIC

Patricia Liverpool © April 23-2019

I LOVE CALYPSO MUSIC

Calypso was developed on the island of Trinidad by enslaved Africans who were taken from mostly Central Africa and West Africa to work on plantations owned by Europeans. The enslaved Africans were forbidden to speak their languages or practice their culture. A creole culture developed, combining elements of several African ethnic groups and their enslavers. The Spanish originally occupied the island in 1532, bringing Africans they had kidnapped and enslaved. In 1783, the French began to immigrate in large numbers due to a Spanish rule encouraging Roman Catholics to relocate to the Caribbean islands. The British ruled from 1802 when they gained the island under the Treaty of Amiens which temporarily ended hostilities between France and the Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars. On October 20-1898, the British Government made Tobago a ward of Trinidad.

Calypso music as the iconic calypsonian “The Mighty Sparrow” acknowledges in “Slave”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RqIiF2Sx1Q)  was born from the protests of enslaved Africans.

“We had to chant and sing to express our feelings

To dat wicked and cruel man

That was the only medicine to make him listen

And is so calypso began.”

Calypsonians are griots like their West African ancestors. Their political and social commentary are legendary. The lyrics of skilled calypsonians like “The Mighty Sparrow,” “Lord Kitchener” and “Mighty Chalkdust” archives the collective memories of the community. The lyrics, for instance, of “The Mighty Sparrow” singing his famous “If dey know dey didn’t want Federation, if dey know dey didn’t want to unite as one, tell de Doctah yuh not in fayvah, don’t behave like a blasted traytah!!” about the controversial “West Indian Federation” is a history lesson in song. Listening to some of the calypsoes is like going back in time to revisit political, economic and social issues from the time the calypsoes were composed/released. The political and social commentary of calypso are invaluable because of the accessibility of the language used in calypso. “The Mighty Sparrow” sang about the Russian satellite “Sputnik” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZOLAoOskk) garnering the interest of the “ordinary man in the street” of the Caribbean who otherwise may not have paid any attention to the shenanigans of the Russians.

Calypso is a genre that has travelled internationally from Trinidad and Tobago. The celebrated author and poet Maya Angelou, the granddaughter of a Trinidadian (her mother’s father) sang calypso (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2lALEmcUl4)  before she was a famous author. 

Patricia Liverpool © April 23-2019