by Jessica Joseph
TheHuffingtonPost.com
"The devil's music!"
That was the European, Christian take on the pagan, pulsating, infectious beat of the African drum. Its primal edge scared the living daylights out of them. It unleashed sensuality, social revolt and spirituality of another kind, something forgotten, primordial, Mother Earthly and definitely anathema to colonial values.
"Surrendering to this music is essentially a communion." -- Thierry Teston, director, PAN! A Modern Odyseey
The shock to the system Europeans experienced when they heard this lower chakra vibration is not difficult to comprehend. Their primal connection to the drum had been violently severed more than a thousand years ago, when their ancestors were colonized by a Roman Empire that would soon become a Christian empire. The iron-fisted Church banned all displays of sensual, passionate self-expression tied to their pagan religious rites. Their Celtic, Norse, Gothic drums had long faded into the background, becoming one uniform, metronomic, marching beat for the new military empire. String and wind instruments took the spotlight. It was beautiful music that stirred the soul, but only from the waist up. As custodians of the imperial status quo, they would resist the influence of the African drum (among other indigenous tribal rhythms) in every territory they claimed for crown and church.
The demonization of "negro" music in the Americas would extend to blues, jazz, samba, calypso and rock 'n' roll, which met a wall of censorship and condemnation. From the censoring of Elvis' illicit hips on Ed Sullivan, to the mounting fear as white children began doing the Watusi and eventually wanting to integrate the concert halls and dance floors, to the fear of hip-hop's revolutionary edge, many commercially successful movies and documentaries hearken or hint at the establishment's fight against Afro-influenced music.
The soon to be released docu-drama PAN! A Modern Odyssey does more than hint at it. It tackles it head on with a heavy spiritual message of universality. It tells the story of the notoriously ingenious, multicultural people of Trinidad and Tobago, who fought to hold on to their African drum and in the process created the steel-pan, the only new instrument to be invented in the 20th century.
Replies