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  • 5 months ago
The Yoruba drum echoed through Piccadilly Street in Port of Spain during a festival celebrating heritage and history. More than music, it's a symbol of community and ancestral pride.

Juhel Browne reports.
Transcript
00:00The songs of the Aruba drums filled the air at the Emancipation Support Committee's Aruba
00:10Village Square on Piccadilly Street in Port of Spain during a festival meant to celebrate the
00:16musical instrument. The committee's executive chair, Zakia Uzoma-Wadada, gave a brief history
00:22lesson. The Aruba peoples would have settled right here in Trinidad and Tobago and in Port
00:28of Spain. When people talk about East Port of Spain with a little tone, what they don't
00:31understand is that they're talking about powerful descendants, people who own and work with and
00:40have a particular power on their head. Yes? So let us give the community a round of applause.
00:49In acknowledging the children who performed on stage at the Yoruba Drum Festival, the executive
00:55chair mentioned what she said is an old African proverb at a time when there is a renewed focus
01:01on dealing with indiscipline in the nation's schools. The child that is not welcomed by its
01:08village will burn it down to feel its warmth. We're not doing enough to welcome our children.
01:17We're talking about putting police in schools, but I wouldn't go there.
01:22Port of Spain South MP Keith Scotland referred to a comment made by the executive chair.
01:29We were speaking about drums in the school. Nothing happens before its time. And if it took
01:34a hundred years for pan to reach in the school, where pan reach, drum will reach. That's all I have
01:40to say on that. MP Scotland had more to say about the reason for the festival.
01:45The Yoruba Drum is far more than a musical instrument. It is a sacred vessel of memory. In Yoruba culture,
02:00it represented the heartbeat of the Yoruba people. It is a living archive in Trinidad and Tobago of our
02:10ancestral heritage and our ancestral inheritance. In acknowledging the presence of the committee's
02:18director of regional and pan-African affairs, Kafra Kambon, senior counsel Scotland gave an
02:24anecdote about his wife's advice to him that pride goes before the fall. When I want the matter the
02:30next day in court, I call her. I say, but pride on a good foundation is not a bad thing. So that is
02:37just my little addition. And as a people, we must not be overly proud, but we must have our pride.
02:47Because if you do not have our pride, persons will try to take it from us.
02:52Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alain spoke about the importance of the event in the nation's capital.
02:59This forms part of our celebration for City Month, forms part of our celebration for the anniversary
03:07of the restoration of civic and municipal rights to the people of Port of Spain. This year,
03:13we celebrate 111 years. It's a long time. I think the city of Port of Spain deserves a round of applause.
03:18Among the audience were members of the diplomatic corps from Ghana, Nigeria, Canada, Venezuela and Jamaica
03:29witnessing a community reconnecting with its roots one beat at a time. Julie Brown, TV6 News.
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