The Sankofa Pan African Concert, held on August 30, was an entertaining highlight on the slate of activities at the Lidj-Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village at the Queen's Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain.Subtitled "Learning from the past to move forward," the concert played on the idea of the past providing a foundation for the future. The iconic Sankofa bird, a creature of West African mythology, flies forward while carrying its egg and looking backward.As such, the performers were grouped in pairs, representing mentor and student.
The show started late, but got going when poet and cultural activist, Eintou Pearl Springer, saluted the ancestors and invoked their blessings for the evening. She introduced the emcee for the evening, extempo specialist Black Sage.Sage brought on Lord Superior on his guitar, accompanied by drummer Jah Lion. Superior sang a rhythmic rendition of his classic (I Don't Care Where You're From) You're Still African, calling on black people to embrace their ethnic heritage.
The kaiso elder then brought out and embraced one of T&T's youngest kaiso stars, Timel Rivas, the 2011 Junior Emancipation Calypso monarch. Rivas sang No Mama Never Forget, giving his usual animated, energetic performance.Kizzy Ruiz returned to her gospel music roots to perform One Day at a Time, followed by her 2011 calypso, Aide Haiti.
Her "mentor" Marvelous Marva sang Holding On to T&T. She apologised for her voice, which she said was overly stressed by a series of Emancipation performances. But there was still lots of power in her vocal cords. She continued with Salvation, a cry for the redemption of a generation of young men being lost to crime and violence.Black Sage performed a few extempo verses and introduced a group of young drummers and dancers based at Pamberi panyard in San Juan, Wasa Foli.
The dancers did a really entertaining series of choreographed numbers, with vibrant moves, great energy and original and traditional themes. There were portrayals of village life, courting, family, magical ritual, capoeira fighting, etc. The dancers showed amazing stamina keeping up their energetic movements for about an hour onstage, despite a couple of "wardrobe malfunctions." Unfortunately, their stamina outlasted that of the audience. By the time they had finished, at the half-time interval, much of the crowd decided to head home.Still the show went on, with big names in the business in store.
The young Nefta Kojo sang I am an African Queen, followed by her mentor, Brother Resistance. He came out, bell in hand, and had the audience shaking up in their seats to his rapso classic, Ring de Bell. He made a dramatic exit, coming down off the stage to ring his bell in the stands.Black Sage informed audience members that a box would be passed around for contributions, giving light to the fact that the show must have been held under significant financial strain.Sage sang: "We want you to contribute generouslySo next year we won't have to beg Gypsy for money."
He introduced "the People's Calypsonian", Bro Valentino, who was warmly greeted by the crowd. Valentino sang three songs, Ethiopia Will Rise Again, Birds That Fly High and Stay Up Zimbabwe, as the audience sang along.He then introduced his junior, Brian London, saying he was "a brilliant performer" who had "what it takes".London flexed his powerful voice on We Free Indeed and a new, never-before-performed song, Somebody. He promised the crowd he would write a new Emancipation calypso every year.
Then London announced a "Sunday School" session, telling his listeners they would be doing the singing. He then led them through popular spiritual numbers like A Little More Oil In My Lamp, Fire Fall on Me, Down By the Riverside and Never Get Weary Yet.The Codrington Pan Family closed the show, sharing their talent on the national instrument.
