*Throwback* How Calypso Shaped Caribbean History And Carnival with Dr. Meagan A. Sylvester

Okay, so thank you very much, Alexandra.

I really appreciate this opportunity and I want to start off by saying thank you so much for having me on to discuss this topic.

Specifically, I am from the Twin Island economy of Trinidad and I have a passion for music and sociology.

I have been formally trained as a sociologist.

And so I bring to this discussion an understanding of issues related to identity and race and class and culture, colorism and ways in which the society is stratified.

And upon that, I'm adding the whole focus of music.

But because I come from the Twin Island economy of Trinidad and Tobago, the music in focus is going to be calypso, which we consider to be mother music, and by extension, the derivatives that come out of this tree of calypso, the branches, where we would have soca, we would have elements of chutney soca, we would have raga soca, we would have movie soaker and parang soaker, actually, just to add that in because that's part of the Christmas music.

So it becomes important to understand that Calypso music is seen as mother music.

So we're going to start by having this discussion about what is Calypso, where Calypso has come from, and why it is important to the Caribbean and to spaces, in fact, where you would have had that slave experiment, you know, involved with the Europeans, because that is really the genesis of an understanding of what Calypso is.

Because if we start by understanding what is calypso, we start by understanding that it is this music that was a direct response by the slaves in terms of treating with or dealing with the slavery reality.

And so we have different types of calypsos that we see today.

But then when we think about what went into that, we think about the slave masters and the overseas in terms of looking at the ways in which they would have been ruling.

They would have been the directories at the time.

of the plantation and the way in which they would have been ruling the plantation.

The slaves, of course, would have come having a view of life, having a view of management style, because we must understand that slaves are not to be seen as uneducated individuals, all right? Those snatched and grabbed, they were individuals who were quite educated.

And so we need to understand that.

And when we talk about education, we mean for their time.

And then we look at the whole concept of the social commentary.

Where does that come from? Slaves also took the opportunity to make fun of the slave masters and the overseers.

And so we get that social comment.

Also, part of that social commentary within the calypso is about the life and times of the plantation, what was actually taking place.

So slaves are also using this original calypso art form to put fun at other slaves, to speak to that issue of life on the plantation.

We also speak about humor coming out and we know that this is another way in which we see the genesis where there are some slaves who were given to having that type of approach to dealing with the stress and the strain and the tension of being on the plantation.

And so they were the ones who would have had that kind of perspective about how we deal with what's happening.

So you had the concept of people who, you had the concept of individuals who would put fun and use their body, use themselves, use their voice, use their facial expression, their intonation to get that message across.