Beyond undeniable proficiency and the delivery of quality music, Akua Leith believes the future of the steelpan will depend on something far more fundamental than the availability of metal, drums, or even markets.
It will, according to the cultural entrepreneur and steelpan advocate, depend on people - and on whether the country can create the conditions to make steelpan manufacturing a viable career for a new generation.
Leith, who was recently installed as Chairman of the T&T Steelpan Geographical Indication Board sees the recently secured geographical indication (GI) for the instrument as a potentially transformative development.
The board’s principal function is to certify authentic, locally made steelpans, and to safeguard local craftsmanship worldwide
The country obtained its GI certification for the steelpan on August 8, 2024. Leith says the next major task is preparing local manufacturers to meet the standards required for certification by the T&T Bureau of Standards.
Support is expected from institutions such as the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), the University of the West Indies (UWI), and the steelband movement.
But the managing director of Musical Instruments of Trinidad and Tobago (MITTCO), is emphatic that the GI should not be regarded merely as a marketing device. Its real value, he argues, will be in establishing and protecting quality standards.
“The GI stamp should tell international consumers that an instrument bearing the mark has passed rigorous quality checks and represents the best of Trinidad and Tobago’s steelpan manufacturing tradition,” he says.
Unlike a patent, which eventually expires, Leith points out that a geographical indication is intended to provide enduring identity and protection.
That ambition, however, confronts an industry still characterised by a “cottage-industry culture.”
Leith believes the country has adequate access to the raw materials required for pan production. “Manufacturers can source drums and other materials internationally, and, because they know the specifications they require, geopolitical disruption does not necessarily pose an existential threat,” he argues.
“The more serious challenge,” he however says, “is human capital.”
Steelpan manufacturing encompasses builders, movers, tuners and others with specialised skills. “The problem is not necessarily a shortage of people, but a shortage of people sufficiently interested in entering the industry,” Leith says.
“Young people must be shown that pan manufacturing can provide a respectable and rewarding career.”
For Leith, that means transforming manufacturing spaces into centres of learning. MITTCO’s Diego Martin complex, for example, was deliberately conceived as such a space.
In his eyes, the country needs professional, orderly environments where young people can see skilled practitioners at work and become inspired to become a part of the industry.
“Apprenticeship and direct exposure, particularly in tuning, are essential because the craft cannot simply be learned from a textbook,” he says.
Leith, who has played, arranged, lectured, and mentored, also sees encouraging signs that the once-guarded culture surrounding technical knowledge is changing.
Younger tuners are increasingly training others, while greater musical literacy is helping to narrow the learning curve.
Discussions, he discloses, are also underway to link university programmes directly to manufacturing facilities, allowing students to learn in an actual industrial environment.
Leith is equally optimistic about steelpan’s ability to attract younger audiences. He dismissed concerns that the instrument has faced decline because its traditional audience was ageing.
But programmes combining pan with reggae, dancehall, R&B and other contemporary genres have been producing sold-out performances and attracting large numbers of young people. World Steelpan Day activities on August 11 are cited by Leith as an example.
Ultimately, Leith believes the steelpan must be treated not simply as a musical instrument but as an industry and a national economic asset.
“That will require accreditation, capital, stronger business structures and, critically, government support for the industry as a whole,” he asserts. Manufacturers, he says, cannot individually shoulder the enormous cost of building the infrastructure required to exploit global markets.
“We need that liberal stimulus coming from the government spaces,” Leith argues - not simply for individual manufacturers, but for the steelpan industry itself.
For Leith, the GI is therefore only the beginning. The larger challenge is ensuring that the knowledge, skills, enterprise and imagination that created the steelpan are renewed - generation after generation.
