Calypso and World Politics Converged in British Guiana, 1962
By Geoffrey Dunn
Behold the photograph: Three legendary calypsonians from Trinidad and Tobago—the Grandmaster Lord Kitchener, with his stand-up bass; the bare-chested, nearly defiant Lord Superior; the always effervescent Lord Melody—are holed up in a spare hotel room, rehearsing for the night’s performance. It is a rare photographic jewel in the historical archive of Caribbean calypso.
When my filmmaking partner, Michael Horne, and I came across the slightly rumpled black-and-white image in a box of memorabilia at Lord Superior’s home outside of Port-of-Spain six years ago, in February of 2002, we were absolutely delighted. It had previously been unpublished—giving to it the joy and spontaneity of discovery—but moreover we knew instantly that it would work perfectly into the film we were producing, Calypso Dreams, specifically as an illustration for a point in the film when Superior (aka Supie) describes Kitch playing a stand-up bass. And we would also use a close-up of the photo to illustrate the elusive Lord Melody when the Mighty Sparrow was discussing Melody’s charisma.
I jotted down the written notes on the margins of the photograph. It was not taken in Port-of-Spain or London or New York, all likely venues for the photo shoot, but in British Guiana, in 1962, a prophetic year in Caribbean politics—the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis—but little did I know of the significance of that year in respect to the history of Guyana and of the role the United States played in that history.
Replies