Nass­er Khan

For the past month writer Nass­er Khan has been us­ing ca­lyp­so, the tra­di­tion­al medi­um of T&T's so­cial com­men­tary to high­light sig­nif­i­cant events in the coun­try's his­to­ry. To­day Khan con­tin­ues the se­ries His­to­ry through Ca­lyp­so with ca­lyp­sos that stemmed from Fed­er­a­tion.

At­tempts at fed­er­a­tion and Caribbean uni­ty and in­te­gra­tion have been an elu­sive dream, so to speak, of our arch­i­pel­ago of is­lands which stretch all the way from Ja­maica in the north to T&T in the south as well as the main­land south Amer­i­can Eng­lish-speak­ing coun­try of Guyana (for­mer­ly British Guiana).

Even though a fed­er­a­tion was es­tab­lished in 1958 by the British Caribbean Fed­er­a­tion Act of 1956 with the aim of es­tab­lish­ing a po­lit­i­cal union among its mem­bers, it was not long be­fore bick­er­ing and pow­er strug­gles en­tered the fray that it all col­lapsed (in 1962), and to­day we are no where clos­er to a tru­ly in­te­grat­ed re­gion. The Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al was Lord Hailes of Britain, the

Prime Min­is­ter Sir Grant­ley Adams of Bar­ba­dos and the Fed­er­al cap­i­tal lo­cat­ed in T&T.

Gor­don Roehler's A Scuf­fling of Is­lands: The Dream and Re­al­i­ty of Caribbean Uni­ty in Po­et­ry and Song is a riv­et­ing must-read as it de­tails the tri­als and tribu­la­tions of fed­er­a­tion in ca­lyp­so and po­et­ry.

Even though no­ble in prin­ci­ple and con­cept, the Fed­er­a­tion faced sev­er­al prob­lems, among them the gov­er­nance and ad­min­is­tra­tive struc­tures im­posed by the British, eco­nom­ic dis­agree­ments among the ter­ri­to­ries over poli­cies, an un­will­ing­ness on the part of most to give up pow­er to the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment and the lo­ca­tion of the Fed­er­al cap­i­tal.

Dr Er­ic Williams, the then Pre­mier of T&T, stat­ed at the time "one from ten leaves nought," re­fer­ring to the with­draw­al of Ja­maica, sig­ni­fy­ing and jus­ti­fy­ing his de­ci­sion to with­draw T&T from the Fed­er­al arrange­ment.

In spite of the The Mighty Spar­row's be­moan­ing Ja­maica's de­ci­sion to with­draw from the Fed­er­a­tion in his clas­sic ca­lyp­so Fed­er­a­tion (see lyrics at right), it was in lat­er years that he and the late Ja­maican By­ron Lee lat­er formed a very suc­cess­ful mu­si­cal part­ner­ship which showed on a dif­fer­ent lev­el what the ben­e­fits and syn­er­gies of true in­te­gra­tion be.

The top­i­cal rel­e­vance of West In­di­an in­te­gra­tion and fed­er­a­tion have been the sub­ject of many ca­lyp­sos be­fore, dur­ing and since the ac­tu­al Fed­er­a­tion which last­ed from 1958-1962:

Atil­la the Hun's Ex­pe­dite Fed­er­a­tion (1933); The Growl­ing Tiger's Ad­vice to West In­di­ans (1939); Atil­la the Hun's Mon­tego Bay Con­fer­ence (1947/8); in the 1950's: Lord Be­gin­ner's Fed­er­a­tion; The Roar­ing Li­on's Fed­er­a­tion; King Fight­er's Fed­er­a­tion; Small Is­land Pride's What's Fed­er­a­tion; Atil­la the Hun's Trinidad Have Fed­er­a­tion Al­ready; Kitch­en­er's Fed­er­a­tion; Spar­row's We All Is One or Fed­er­a­tion; Bomber's Fed­er­at­ed Is­lands; Lord Laro's Ref­er­en­dum (1961/62); Young Killer's Cry of the West In­dies (1968); Ex­plain­er's Caribbean In­te­gra­tion (1977); Stal­in's Caribbean Uni­ty (1979); David Rud­der's One Caribbean (1994); Mer­chant in Caribbean Con­nec­tion (1988) us­es the metaphor of a fete to bring about uni­ty when all else has failed.

Fed­er­a­tion

By Slinger Fran­cis­co,

The Mighty Spar­row

Sing along via You Tube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoZyt_jWkpU

Peo­ple want to know why Ja­maica run from the Fed­er­a­tion

Well, they want to know why Ja­maica run away from the Fed­er­a­tion

Ja­maica have a right to speak she mind, that is my opin­ion

And if you be­lieve in democ­ra­cy, you'll agree with me.

Cho­rus

But if they know they didn't want

Fed­er­a­tion (Fed­er­a­tion)

And they know they don't want to unite as one

In­de­pen­dence was at the door, why didn't they speak be­fore?

This is no time to say you eh fed­er­at­ing no more.

When they didn't get the cap­i­tal site, that near­ly cause big fight

When Sir Grant­ley Adams took up his post, that even made things worse

They bawl­ing, "We ent want no Ba­jan pre­mier!

Trinidad can't be cap­i­tal for here!"

So the grum­bling went on and on to a big ref­er­en­dum.

But if they know they didn't want Fed­er­a­tion (Fed­er­a­tion)

And they know they don't want to unite as one and on­ly one

I say to tell the Doc­tor you not in favour, don't be­have like a blast­ed trai­tor

How the dev­il you mean you eh fed­er­at­ing no more?

Sor­ry, but no Fed­er­a­tion again, I think it's a big shame

Af­ter so much ef­forts and en­er­gy-Good­bye every­body!

Right now it's on­ly a mem­o­ry, we fail mis­er­ably

Some may say we shouldn't help part it, but is Ja­maica wey start it.

If they know they didn't want Fed­er­a­tion (Fed­er­a­tion)

And they know they don't want to unite as one

Just tell the Doc­tor you not in favour, don't be­have like a blast­ed trai­tor

This is no time to say you eh fed­er­at­ing no more?

Fed­er­a­tion boil down to sim­ply this-is dog eat dog and sur­vival of the fittest

Every­body fight­ing for In­de­pen­dence sin­gu­lar­ly, Trinidad for in­stance

We go­ing get it too, so don't both­er, but I find we should we all be to­geth­er

Not sep­a­rat­ed as we are be­cause of Ja­maica.

If they know they didn't want Fed­er­a­tion [Fed­er­a­tion)

And they know they don't want to unite as one... Tell the Doc­tor!

Tell the Doc­tor you not in favour, don't be­have like a blast­ed trai­tor

How the dev­il you mean you eh fed­er­at­ing no more?... Out­side, man!