It has been long in coming, the legislative acknowledgement of the steelpan as the national musical instrument of T&T. Very importantly, the Opposition and Independent senators came together with the Government in Parliament to pass the legislation to give the accord to the steelpan.
While the steelband fraternity of the present and immediate past has worked over a long period for recognition to be made legal, an unpardonable mistake with serious repercussions will be made if we do not here and now recognise and honour the genius of the pioneers.
The entire society and world must be made aware of the resolute refusal of the pioneers of the pan to be daunted by the colonial society of the 1930s-1950s, which did everything possible to damn the steelpan and steelbands as “noisy instruments” and bands of “hooligans” and “criminals” who insisted on playing and experimenting with their drums.
It is a point that must never be missed or mentioned in a low-key voice so as not to disrupt “polite conversation.”
The fact is that the steelpan, the steelband, and the steelbands men and women were outlawed; those who insisted on playing pan and bringing it onto the streets were jailed and categorised in a most derogatory manner.
The police officers, the magistrates, and elements of the middle and upper classes condemned the pans and their players as “hooligans”.
“If yuh sister talk to ah steelband man, she family want to break she hand, put she out, lick out every teeth in she mouth, pass yuh Outcast,” reminded King Sparrow of the times and the social values.
Fortunately, the heroes of the pan movement, “Spree” Simon, Ellie Mannette, Neville Jules, Oscar Pile, flag woman Supreme “Mayfield”, and Jammette Society, and later on the likes of Anthony “Muff Man” Williams and Bertie Marshall were not put off. We must also mark the contribution of “De White Boys, College Boys” from “Cobo Town”, Ernest Ferreira, Curtis Pierre Dixieland, the Pouchet bros, Junior and Edwin (Silver Stars) brought a measure of respectability to the steelband.
George Goddard organised the steelbands into a representative group, the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra, Taspo, which contained the master pan players of the period, and along with Sergeant Joseph Griffith as musical director, took the instrument to the then centre of civilisation, London, England (1951), to demonstrate the value of the steelpan, the steelband, and the pan men.
A piece of advice to the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Randall Mitchell. Along with talking about the steelband as an economic possibility, you must establish a forum and other ventures to recognise and record the efforts of the pan pioneers and their refusal to be bowed by the established society of the times. Many of these pan pioneers took their jail sentences in stride and returned to the streets and the barrack yards and wore well the indignity of being a pan man in those early days; nothing deterred them as they kept experimenting and playing their instruments.
Tribute must also be paid to legislators such as Albert “Bertie” Gomes and, later on, Premier Eric Williams for their support of the steelband movement. In the instance of the “Doctor”, he urged sponsorships for the steelbands. Without gratitude, the “Vengeance of Moko Go fall on we.”