The philosophical concept that the pan invention brought with it the ability to unite the differences created by race, ethnicity, skin color and class is becoming more and more prevalent in the overall modern writings of the history of pan by historians and thinkers.
Gerry Kangalee in his paper on trinbagopan.com wrote as follows
“Out of the pain of slavery, indentureship, colonialism and imperialism and through continuing resistance to the causes of that pain, the working class in a tiny polyglot island in the Southern Caribbean created and shaped a culture central to which is this transcendent phenomenon called Pan - at once an instrument and a movement. The story of Pan, therefore, is a story of a movement of people up from forced labour, through colonialism and the false dawn of petty bourgeois nationalism toward genuine emancipation/human liberation.”
Genuine emancipation and human liberation- the goal, also requires human beings to internally transcend these outer bodily designations on a gradual scale. It requires a type of rethinking that firstly, we are all members of the human race. Secondly, that the human race is made in the image and likeness of the Creator. Thirdly, we receive our image and likeness on account of individual desires. Man proposes and God disposes. Last but not least, that the human body is the outer covering or vehicle in which the soul or spirit may carry out individual desires. Desires can be good ones or bad ones. Both types exist side by side in this material world of good and evil.
We, Trinidadians and Tobagonians came together by a harsh and demoniac process of forced labor through colonialism, where humans oppressed other humans and captured forcefully and sold them to others who wanted to trade in slavery. This was not limited to white bodies or of any particular race of man. Most of the large nations on this planet have engaged in slavery of different sorts at one time or other. This includes both India and Africa. Many nations were born like this in second and third world countries. Slavery still exist in various forms up to today.
These harsh realities were tremendous blows not only to our forefathers’ bodies but to their souls as well as to ours. In reality though, souls or spirits of living beings cannot really be destroyed or consumed, for they belong to the eternal realm of the Creator and are parts and parcels thereof. However, when we desire to separate from the association of our Creator, we are sent to this material world, where we are subjected to material inequalities such as the race of a people, class, color etc. It is the material bodies only, that are unequal coupled with the various qualities of desires. The rich takes advantage of the poor, the strong devours the weak, and one thinks one is better than the other because of having one thing or the other. In this way a whole hosts undesirables ensures on an uneven material keel.
It is described in the most ancient of spiritual literatures in the sound vibrations of God, (in the beginning the WORD was with GOD and the WORD was GOD) the source of both Eastern and Western knowledge and science that “from the highest planet down to the lowest, all are places of miseries wherein repeated birth and death takes place”. It is not that material miseries will completely go away. We will and must devise ways of reducing the hardships of life.
In our particular case, the steelpan musical instrument created a story of a movement of people up, transcending from slavery caused by demoniac men and their demonic desires, and through the pseudo neo colonialism after the emancipation of slavery, and towards genuine nationalism, our time zone and finally human liberation of a place where every creed or race can find an equal place. It is a very demanding goal where it may never be achieved totally, but can be to some extent.
It is also not a simple achievement as well. It takes time; it takes perseverance and all sorts of obstacles in its path. The pan therefore in my humble view has within its sound vibration, a cry of freedom, which penetrates the hearts of human beings knowingly or unknowingly. As people advance in age and experience they become increasingly attractive to the pan. The instrument may not be able to fully eradicate the hardships caused by slavery and indentureship of a people and the everyday rigors of material existence, but offers some help in this direction, so as to lessen the impact. As history of the pan continues, it will record how it changed some of the inequalities due to race, class and various colors of people, bringing together more and more peoples of this world. I cannot imagine what Trinidad would have been like without the existence of the steel pan.
Stephen Stuemple in his book entitled “The Steelband Movement” sites a similar synthesis in Chapter 6 page 221 he writes as follows.
“For many Trinidadians the steelband is an indigenous creation that transcends ethnic heritages. Though it was originally developed by Afro-Trinidadians and was most firmly rooted in Afro Trinidadian folk music, the scope of the music was expended to encompass other cultural traditions, and some members of other ethnic groups eventually participated in the movement. At present pannists do not perceive their music as ethnic and almost never talk about it in ethnic terms. For them steelband are expressions of geographic communities and of the nation as a whole. Perceptions such as these are also fairly common in the society in general. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, conceive of pan as a unique local art and a central symbol of national identity.”
It is my view, that the pan contains a little of all the races, ethnicities, classes and colors of people of Trinidad and Tobago. It is a pure Trinidad and Tobago product, built solely from the vibrations of Trinidad and Tobago. Every country of the world has its particular vibrations. All is not one. There are different vibrations as one goes from country to country. It is as though we have made ourselves in the form of the pan.
Somehow the influence of pan once had on the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago has waned considerably. In the glory days of pan bands it was much more powerful. There are many reasons for this present effect. Some are due to the technology of electronics, social readjustments, peoples’ needs changed, some political, some religious as well. The worst factor in my estimation is the one which deals with race and ethnicity. This proves that these two are the hardest to combat. They therefore require spiritual intervention, and the type which itself transcends religion, race, class or colors of human beings. On the spiritual level one sees the soul or spirit in all people and not only the type of body one has received. These bodies are also changeable even in this life, what to speak of the next. But the soul is unchangeable. In helping to combat the gross platform of race, class and color, which continues to plague the pan in its home of Trinidad and Tobago, my input extends in the use of the introduction of deeper thinking towards seeing everyone with equal souls regardless of race, class or color, and not continuing to see who is African, who is Indian only. This type of seeing is obvious and simple. The inner seeing is much more complicated and advanced. This does not take away the truths of the beginnings of pan, but it can add to the equalization of the races of humans, their classes, their status of life, as having no effect on the pan itself, but how the pan has effect on humans in equalizing them to some extent.
It is my view, pan does come with a spiritual vibration as well but also needs spiritual backup at times to help it continue along its human influence of uniting the races of this world.
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Soon the Taliban would be dancing to some panorama tunes....they are watching you-tube, pan would unite the world....