(ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT)

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Patrick Smikle

BASSETERRE, Nov 26 1996 (IPS) - The government of St. Kitts and Nevis says it is getting serious about developing a policy that will make it a “hot spot” for cultural activity and wants its Caribbean neighbours to follow suit.

“Our little country has become very serious about the importance of culture in development,” said the Minister of Culture, Dwyer Astaphan. The twin-island state of St. Kitts and Nevis, with a population of less than 50,000, has meanwhile announced a 500 percent increase in its budget for culture.

“We want to turn our little country into a hot spot for cultural activity,” Astaphan told a gathering of regional cultural workers earlier this year. “And we want to do this, not as mavericks, but within the framework of our regional commitments.”

He underlined the regional commitment with an offer for St. Kitts to host the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) and to spearhead the much delayed Foundation for Arts and Culture of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

St. Kitts and Nevis also recently attracted specialists in various art forms to the Department of Culture and inaugurated an annual music festival.

According to Astaphan, regional governments should come to understand that culture is much more than song and dance, and more than the performing arts. They should recognise the need for their socio-economic development plans to be sensitive to and driven by local and regional cultural mores.

Astaphan’s opinions and actions have struck a cord with regional cultural workers, though many remain somewhat sceptical.

“It has been the experience of cultural workers in the region that the political leaders say all the right things but do not display the kind of commitment needed to translate those statements into concrete action and achievements,” said Barbados’ Director of Culture, Celia Tappin. But she added cautiously, “I’m actually going to allow myself to hope.”

So far, Astaphan and his Department of Culture have justified her cautious optimism.

When Caricom heads of governments met in Barbados in July, the government of St. Kitts and Nevis submitted a formal proposal to host Carifesta. A feature of this proposal was a recommendation to involve individuals and institutions from other countries in all phases of planning and staging the festival.

And when Caricom Ministers of Culture met in Basseterre two weeks ago — one of more than 30 regional events the government has hosted in its 16 months in office — the proposal was fine- turned and formally accepted.

The opening ceremony of that meeting provided another opportunity for the St. Kitts and Nevis government to underline its commitment to enhancing the regional cultural movement and to undermine the scepticism of those regional cultural workers who feel victimised by earlier promises not kept.

Prime Minister, Denzil Douglas announced that as of next January, St. Kitts and Nevis will abolish work permit requirements for Caribbean performing artistes. “Culture must of necessity be viewed as part and parcel of the overall national development process,” said Douglas, expressing the hope that other Caricom member states would follow his country’s lead.

“We ought, as policy makers, to demonstrate very clearly our seriousness in wanting to advance the arts and other cultural expressions in this region,” he added.

The St. Kitts and Nevis initiatives seem to have set the tone for what was by all reports a very successful meeting. Not only was agreement reached for the country to host Carifesta in 1999, but an offer from Suriname to host the hitherto irregular festival in 2003 was also accepted.

A Carifesta coordinator’s post is to be added to the Culture Department of the Caricom Secretariat.

For the most part, a statement issued by the Caricom Secretariat, could be a summary of the policy position of the St. Kitts and Nevis government, as reflected in Astaphan’s speeches over the past 16 months.

“We want the region to be vibrant in cultural activity, every day, every week, every month, every year. And every four years we all come together in a regional exercise called Carifesta to demonstrate not only to ourselves, but to the world at large, what our culture is all about,” said Astaphan.

The communique out of the St. Kitts/Nevis meeting said the region’s Ministries of Culture were concerned that Carifesta should be seen as more than a festival of the performing arts which took place every four years. They wanted it to be “a continuous process of interaction between Caribbean artists and the larger community, aimed at promoting the region’s arts and culture as a critical social and economic force.”

“We (St. Kitts and Nevis) are hungry for cultural exchanges,” Astaphan said. “Being very firm regionalists, and being aware of the importance of culture in the regional integration process, we wish to vigorously pursue the potential benefits of cultural linkages with friends in the region, such as Cuba.”

“Ministers took note of the potential for the cross- fertilisation of ideas and experiences through collaboration with the Forum of ministers of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the Communique from the Caricom meeting.

Tappin spoke for most of the Caribbean’s cultural workers and artistes when she complained that the region’s governments pay only lip service to culture. She and her Caricom colleagues are hopeful that with the lead taken by tiny St Kitts and Nevis, that situation may be changing.

(ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT)

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Nov 19 1996 (IPS) - Small independent labels are tapping into the enduring popularity of 1970s Jamaican music by re-releasing vintage recordings from that era.
(more…)

(ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT)

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Philip Ngunjiri

NAIROBI, Nov 19 1996 (IPS) - None of the other vendors took it seriously when women descended from the Ngong hills near the capital to hawk ethnic Maasai beadwork.
(more…)