By Errol Brewster
Errol Ross Brewster is a Caribbean artist from Guyana who lived in Barbados and currently lives in the United States. He was educated at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada and served as Director of Studies at the ER Burrowes School of Art in Guyana. With more than four decades of a Caribbean-wide multimedia imaging practice, he has participated in numerous CARIFESTAs; EU Cariforo Centro Cultural, “Between the Lines”, traveling exhibition, 2000; First International Triennial of Caribbean Art, 2010; and the Inter-American Development Bank installation “Sidewalks of America”, 2018. His most recent exhibition was Evolution of the Arc, at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, 2021
CARIFESTA is fun for the participating artists, but also for the attendees. Despite the many organizational hurdles, it’s always a great time. However, there are deeply serious concerns about the festival that need to be addressed. But who is taking this seriously? Not the artist, not the public, definitely not CARICOM, and not the governments – there used to be an eleven-year gap between editions of this supposedly biennial festival.
Our great fear was that the rain would come and throw off the proceedings. Instead, the halls were packed – standing room only and repeat shows on the agenda. It didn’t rain, but confusion reigned in all subsequent editions.
At the 1st CARIFESTA, we saw each other’s artistic expressions comprehensively for the first time. The need we had then in the region seems not to be the need we have now. The objectives reached at the Regional Artists and Writers Conference in Georgetown in 1970 must be addressed. These are discussed in Andrew Salkey’s Georgetown Journal. In short, they are the empowerment and actualization of the creative potential of the Caribbean people and the promotion of excellence in the region’s pursuit of its dream of a self-determined nation, as aptly symbolized in the first logo, which must be restored.
Multiple benefits can come from staging CARIFESTA over time, but there are associated costs. Although many millions of dollars have already been spent and a historical legacy is evident in the host countries, much waste and corruption have also followed the festival, and at the expense of its developmental thrust. Planning workshops that lead to collaborations between creatives during gap years could result in opportunities to generate income, but these are non-existent. The prevailing attitudes about the administration of culture, at the regional level, have resulted in the festival taking on a construct of mediocrity. The source of this mediocrity lies in the lethargic administration of the culture that is making a mockery of County Independence.
The following revealing words are from the major players:-
Then the Secretary General of CARICOM, Edwin Carrington, in his speech at the closing ceremony of CARIFESTA IX, T&T, 2006 said: “From here on, we will see a new CARIFESTA, a new model in CARIFESTA 2008 of scheduled in the Bahamas. .”
Billed as news, it wasn’t. This new model was actually proposed, discussed, approved and announced at the previous CARIFESTA in 2003 in Suriname, but, again, this announcement did not materialize. The Bahamas were rejected!
On the occasion of Carrington’s announcement, Ismene Krishnadath, team leader for Suriname, asked the Caricom Program Manager for Culture this question:
“A CARIFESTA was held in Suriname, and we had the discussion and the new model was presented, and I don’t think anything of what was proposed there has been implemented. Maybe the CARICOM people can explain why there is no progress. What happened?
“The main point of CARIFESTA is that your program must be ready on time. Must be decided one year in advance. Instead, we come here and the program is changing all the time. We are here with five artists. Their skills are so-so, can you plan them? It is very difficult to plan them. Our artists perform and there is no audience. There are only poets in reading poetry.”
And this was Petamber Persaud from Guyana, talking about his experience at the 9th edition of the festival: “Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, all these days went to waste. It was only on Sunday at noon that I was told where I would be exhibiting. The big publishers are here, but we only had a handful of visitors.”
In 1972, it was artists of great stature who were in charge of the organization and one of the recommendations of the 1970 conference was the creation of an Arts Secretariat. This idea was transferred to a desk job in CARICOM – “Program Manager for Culture”. The person who occupied that pedestal at this time had the courage to say the following:
“No artist was involved in the planning of CARIFESTA (laughs). We had to decide, (more laughter) to figure out who (more laughter) to include. We’re always at a loss whenever we want artists to be involved in anything, committees and so on.”
Trinidadian artist LeRoy Clarke offered this perspective, during an interview recorded at CARIFESTA VIII 2003 in Suriname: “I sit in front of my work and I cry and I ask why – why am I crying? I’m crying because there’s something inside me that’s being ignored, denied.”
This new CARIFESTA model, apparently conceived without the involvement of artists, reportedly provided for the appointment of a permanent artistic director and for the organizational aspects of the festival to be handed over to business interests. Then General Secretary Carrington’s aspiration, however, was for CARIFESTA to no longer be a drain on governments’ finances, but to be able to “fill the national purse instead of emptying it!” Really?
The profits are expected to accrue to the government with a bureaucrat who always dominates the push of all editions of the festival in whatever territory it is being held, and with neither that director nor Caricom itself directly engaged in the cultivated organizational work? This has always struck me as a haven for expectations that have nothing to do with any serious contribution. It shows a clear lack of awareness of the original objectives of CARIFESTA and of the role of culture. Here really lies the construct of mediocrity that has stifled life outside the festival.
It is widespread at high levels of cultural administration throughout the District.
Sydney Bartlett, Director of Culture, Jamaica, said unabashedly at a CARIFESTA IX symposium in Trinidad & Tobago: “I am not one of those people who can praise and tell you anything about the events of CARIFESTA I in 1972. You may vaguely remember 1976 in Jamaica.”
It was this level of detachment that prompted a delegate to the 1970 conference, who thirty-six years later was the Artistic Director of the Trinidad & Tobago, IX edition of the festival, to ask: – “Are we still playing the doll’s house business? “… all these CARIFESTAS, how many grants have been given to someone to produce a film, to write a book, to do things that are also necessary within the Region?” …what have we asked from the cultural departments?” At the CARIFESTA IX symposium, Trinidadian writer Earl Lovelace noted that “…it’s not a question of whether governments want it or not. The people of the Region need to start asking their governments for what they want. What has business done for the arts?” “…and why aren’t we asking them and asking them and asking them and showing them why they should invest in the region? The region has been too comfortable with its privileged sector, which has emerged as not even related to Caribbean culture.”…[W]Have we been demanding from the institutions we have here”. “…art is valuable, art is valuable…people need support, bram…bram…bram!”
This stated assertion of Dr. Bramly. Lovelace was basically what the 1970 conference he attended in Georgetown demanded!
On the other hand, Mr. Sydney Bartlet asked: “How much of what we get at CARIFESTA actually reflects a manifestation, or standard of excellence, that in any way, perhaps, if you look back, you would have seen?”
This sounds to me like Bartlet’s setup to lay that blame at the feet of the artists in attendance. But is it where it belongs? The bond in which artists are caught in the region is determined by the kinds of attitudes reflected in the Secretary General’s strong praise of the regional staff for doing a great job, laughing and all, in his assertion that “Many regions in this world would envy the position the Caribbean is in now!”
Favoritism, nepotism and any ism other than exclusion are the determinants for participation in CARIFESTA now. This, in addition to the last minute normalization, duh guh do agreements have not been the way to meet CARIFESTA objectives, much less to wait to fill the national purse. Effective stakeholder consultation, infrastructure development and good planning izzz. Can we now understand that a desk job at Caricom cannot replace the proposed arts secretariat?
The local entrepreneur Mr. we were gently thrown into the realization of the daunting task of organizing a festival, despite the weather, which contrived to spoil all our plans. We must not be vultures in search of culture, in self-conscious search for a Caribbean identity. It was there all along. What we needed is an awareness – and from that awareness will come pride, dignity and unity. History will prove that CARIFESTA was the first step towards true unity in the Caribbean. And we’re going to be proud of the fact that it started right here.”
Tragically, so far it appears that governments in the region are determined to ignore the 50th anniversary of Carifesta, including Guyana, which was home to the inaugural edition, supported at the time by both the ruling and opposition parties. However, it is never too late, as the great Reggae singer says, to “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery” and embrace the great strength that our diversity offers us and that is the still unfulfilled promise of CARIFESTA.
For a slide show broadcast on the first edition of CARIFESTA, see ERB GIHR CARIFESTA 1 Slide Show
