Michelle Loubon

Vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian Win­ston Scar­bor­ough, pop­u­lar­ly known as De Orig­i­nal De­Fos­to, likened Trinidad and To­ba­go to a woman telling her sto­ry on her 50th an­niver­sary. Hav­ing heard her tri­als and tri­umphs, he penned a com­po­si­tion about them: In Trib­ute to Dr (Er­ic Eu­stace) Williams: An Oath To Her (T&T). The song earned him a spot in the semis of the Lord Bryn­ner Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion which took place at Palms Club, San Fer­nan­do, yes­ter­day. He is a top con­tender for the top ten places in the fi­nals on Au­gust 25 at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain. In­ter­viewed on Wednes­day, Scar­bor­ough said: "The song is about Moth­er Trin­ba­go speak­ing to me about the good and the bad she has en­dured. This is a woman cry­ing out in joy and sor­row. She is shar­ing her sto­ry with me. She is 50. She is re­flect­ing on her ex­pe­ri­ences...her mile­stones. I am doc­u­ment­ing it in song." As Moth­er Trin­ba­go's nar­ra­tive un­folds, she re­flects up­on the con­tri­bu­tion of her oth­er four prime min­is­ters: the late George Cham­bers, ANR Robin­son, Patrick Man­ning and Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. She was wound­ed by the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup and gov­ern­ments mor­ph­ing in­to klep­toc­ra­cies. On the flip side, she cel­e­brates icons like Olympic medal­list Hase­ly Craw­ford, the So­ca War­riors foot­ball team and in­dige­nous cul­tur­al ex­pres­sions like ca­lyp­so, pan and tas­sa.

As ex­pect­ed, Williams, who was la­belled the "Fa­ther of the Na­tion" for lead­ing it to In­de­pen­dence sta­tus on Au­gust 31, 1962, dom­i­nates the sto­ry­telling. Quizzed on his in­spi­ra­tion, Scar­bor­ough said: "I am a pa­tri­ot. I be­lieve in T&T. That was the greater in­cen­tive. It is a trib­ute to Moth­er Trin­ba­go. It is a trib­ute to Dr Williams and Dr Capildeo. They led us to in­de­pen­dent sta­tus." Pat­ting him­self on the back, Scar­bor­ough list­ed sev­er­al of his oth­er na­tion-build­ing songs in­clud­ing Could We Rise Again, Palace State of Mind, Trin­ba­go Hold On and Re­flec­tions of the late Prime Min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams. He said: "I al­ways sing trib­utes. I like to write na­tion-build­ing songs. I won na­tion-build­ing com­pe­ti­tions in the 80s. This song is a lagniappe. It re­flects the coun­try for 50 years. It is a land­mark in the na­tion's his­to­ry."

About Win­ston Scar­bor­ough

The Mor­vant res­i­dent was raised at the St Mary's Chil­dren's Home, in Tacarigua. There he honed his skills as a trom­bone play­er and mu­si­cian. His best plac­ings were sec­ond at the Di­manche Gras fi­nals in 2000 with Pan For­ev­er More and One More Kitch One More. In 2007, he sang Po­lice Mon­ey. He has worked close­ly with Mt Lam­bert-based arranger Le­ston Paul. The late Lord Kitch­en­er (Ald­wyn Roberts) is his favourite men­tor. Yet a ma­jor na­tion­al ti­tle re­mains elu­sive. He said: "I could nev­er emerge the vic­tor. I am not count­ing my chick­ens be­fore they are hatched but I'm giv­ing it my best shot. I am look­ing for­ward to the fi­nals."

An ex­cerpt from LYRICS FOR

An Oath to Her

They took an oath to pro­tect this na­tion at all cost

Since 62 hear me

They took an oath to see her be­come a mighty force grow grace­ful­ly

It was Dr Williams and Dr Capildeo

She mar­ry

Cho­rus:

Now to­day she turn 50

Telling me about her sto­ry

She say she had five men

In charge of her beau­ty

Dey say Cham­bers was too dun­cy

Just say they kick put poor Rob­bie

and Pan­day used to tell she

Ask your moth­er young la­dy

She said Man­ning had a hold on she and twice he let her go

Now on her 50th an­niver­sary is a woman run­ning the show