SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin echoes steel­pan pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore’s per­pet­u­al sen­ti­ments on the ben­e­fits of steel­pan to young peo­ple: “Op­por­tu­ni­ties cre­at­ed to de­vel­op dis­ci­pline, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and tol­er­ance, while build­ing con­fi­dence, cre­ativ­i­ty and an ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the coun­try’s cul­tur­al her­itage.”

Chair­man/co-founder of World Steel­pan Thrust of Trinidad and To­ba­go (WSTTT), Bertel Git­tens Jr, has val­i­dat­ed such sen­ti­ments.

His brain­child, the Bertram “Bertie” Mar­shall Na­tion­al Steel­pan Quiz and Spelling Bee Com­pe­ti­tion, cau­tious­ly thrusts young pan­nists to­wards learn­ing steel­pan his­to­ry and cel­e­brat­ing steel­pan icons, where re­search, dis­ci­pline, com­mit­ment and team­work unite.

The com­pe­ti­tion/event ho­n­ours World Steel­pan Day, Au­gust 11, and seeks to ex­pose young peo­ple and adults alike to the great con­tri­bu­tions of past and cur­rent icons to the de­vel­op­ment of the steel­pan and the in­dus­try that en­velops it.

On Au­gust 9, 2026, at Daa­ga Hall at UWI, St Au­gus­tine, Git­tens Jr and his team: di­rec­tor of High­landers Steel Or­ches­tra Robert Her­nan­dez, Ha­dyn Git­tens, Bernadette Her­nan­dez, Ce­cile George, Leslie Bowrin, Bertram De Peaza and Kirk Lang­ton, held the fi­nals.

Four­teen youth teams rep­re­sent­ing sec­ondary schools, youth steel or­ches­tras and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions across Trinidad ex­cit­ed­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed. The mod­er­a­tor was Ce­cile George.

Ques­tions cov­er­ing his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary con­tent were made avail­able ear­li­er in the year via www.world­steel­pan­daytt.org, and both ques­tions and spelling bee words were drawn from five cat­e­gories: Women in Pan, High­landers Steel Or­ches­tra His­to­ry, Pan Tun­ing, Gen­er­al Steel­pan His­to­ry from the 1950s to 1970s, and 400 Ques­tions on Pan (1960s to 1970s), au­thored by Ian Franklyn.

Each team al­so se­lect­ed a na­tion­al steel­pan icon and pre­sent­ed a short syn­op­sis of the icon’s life. Icons in­clud­ed Rudolph Charles, Bri­an “Bean” Grif­fith, Bertie Mar­shall, Leroy Wil­son, Clive Bradley, Lennox “Bob­by” Mo­hammed, Robert “Rob­bie” Greenidge, El­liot “El­lie” Man­nette, Kelvin “Zuzzie” St Rose, Dr Pat Bish­op, Dr Ray Hol­man, Earl Rod­ney, Pe­ter “Ro­ry” Ale­ong and Dr Len “Boogsie” Sharpe.

Spe­cial guests in­clud­ed di­rec­tor of cul­ture Dami­an Richard­son, who ad­dressed the par­tic­i­pants; steel­pan au­thor Ian Franklin; and keynote speak­er Michelle Hug­gis-Wy­att, who urged every­one to em­brace the pos­si­bil­i­ties that the steel­pan of­fers for both per­son­al and so­ci­etal de­vel­op­ment. Al­so present at the prize-giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny, held on Au­gust 11 at High­landers pa­n­yard, was for­mer Pro­fes­sor at MIC In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy Clement “Clem” Im­bert.

De­thron­ing last year’s cham­pi­on was St Fran­cois Girls’ Col­lege: Dan­ni­ka Ben­jamin (cap­tain), Nayeli Roach and Jayzia Roach, whose icon was Pe­ter “Ro­ry” Ale­ong. They amassed 17 points, earned $3,000 and a Cham­pi­on Tro­phy.

Sec­ond, with sev­en points and earn­ing $2,400, was St. George’s Col­lege’s Geor­gian Knights Steel Or­ches­tra: Naeima Williams George (cap­tain), Kenya Jacque and Kni­quan Vil­lafana, whose icon was Earl Rod­ney. Third, with six points and earn­ing $1,500, was Shell In­vaders Youth Steel Or­ches­tra: Le-Shun­da Lopez (cap­tain), Alex­ia Lee and Se­bas­t­ian Lopez, whose icon was Dr El­lie Man­nette.

“The com­pe­ti­tion builds aware­ness and knowl­edge of our na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment’s his­to­ry, icons, tech­no­log­i­cal in­no­va­tions, and its con­tri­bu­tion to world mu­sic,” ap­prised WSTTT. “The event al­so aims to en­sure that both ear­ly and cur­rent con­trib­u­tors to the de­vel­op­ment of the steel­pan move­ment and the in­stru­ment’s achieve­ments re­main with­in the col­lec­tive mem­o­ry of Trin­bag­o­ni­ans.”

The event was in­au­gu­rat­ed in 2024 at High­landers’ pa­n­yard, has since out­grown the space and is evolv­ing in­to a re­gion­al com­pe­ti­tion.

The event was made pos­si­ble by Sco­tia­bank, Pro­man, Eniath’s Print­ing, World Steel­pan Vil­lage, New Earth Or­gan­ic En­ter­pris­es, Pan­land, Pan­Lara, Bermudez, Mer­le’s Hair­dress­ing Sup­plies Lim­it­ed, SUB­WAY, Domi­nos, Caribbean Bot­tlers, Blue Wa­ters, Hen­ry Car­ring­ton, Hol­lis Kam and Franklyn Her­nan­dez.