Black Journal; 52; A Trinidad Folk Tale: Ti-Jean and His Brothers

That is my biggest idea of eating. Uh-huh. Nail. Can't really feel anything. So the answer reads, or is this bad? Ha-ha! Ha-ha! And it's definitely kicking on your D think. Don't be a pain. It's going to be a lot of good with it. The following program is from N E T. The second largest island in the West Indies is a country whose population of one million is comprised of a variety of racial groups. Famous for steel bands, Calypso, and the annual carnival.

Trinidadians also display their rich cultural heritage through folklore and folk music. Folklore is more than just stories and songs. It includes what the people believe, their fears, their customs, their legends, their heroes and villains, and the way they celebrate birth, love and death. Derek Walcott, West Indian Port and Playwright, who has written in the folk form, is also director of the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. One of Derek Walcott's best known works is a folk tale about a young black boy struggle with the devil. An excerpt of this tale provides us with an opportunity to sample a slice of West Indian culture and to check out some of the artists in the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. See, we want to look out now as a scene from Tijian and his brothers, in which Tijian, who is the third brother, leaves home after his two brothers, have been eaten by the devil. In the play, the frog serves as a narrator to the action, as a kind of chorus accompanied by other insects.

This is this story, that comfy crapple, the frog. Still crooks on rainy nights to the lantern of the firefly. The music of the cricket, the flute of the bird, of Tijian and his brothers, and their fight with the devil. Tijian actually is a play that I have the most affection for, and I think in a sense that on stage it is perhaps our best achievement in terms of the coherence of the music, because I'm re-tank as music in the play. You know, really does a tremendous amount, you know, give it some swing, you know, and some drive and so on. The music in Tijian and his brothers is made up of folk songs composed by myself. Also, traditional songs that the writer, Derek Wolcott, has contributed to the show.

These are things that I have who is a young boy from my grandparents, and Derek probably came from the same source. What we try to do is to get the traditional things and the original things to blend into one continuous flow of a Westernian music. I think we came pretty close to succeeding, really. One time it had a mother, that mother lose two songs. This stupidest and biggest, his arm was hard as I am, but he was very stupid. There's a time for everyone to leave a mother and father, to leave a brother and sister, to leave everybody in awe, and march to the grave.

There's a time for everyone to leave a mother and sister, to leave everybody in awe, and march to the grave. Now, the second song she lose, they were calling him Mijian. In size, the second biggest, so only half, was stupid. Now he was a fisherman, but he always studied in book.

And when he go in on fish, forever forget in debate. So between debate and debate, look man who was us. If I was a white man, I was very rich. I'll leave this country, quick, quick, quick. I'll leave this country, quick, quick, quick. I'll leave this country, quick, quick, quick, quick.

If you leave me my son, his empty hands I have left, I have kept you to my breasts as the last of my chickens. Not to feed the blind jaws of the carnivorous grave. Must you leave me, Tijia, and go the way of your brothers? Before me, Mama, the sun is in the leaves. I must go, Mama. Mama, your hands are cold.

They will be cold when you return. Yes, I small, Mama, I small, and I weak. I not strong like gusa, and I never learn from book. But like the boy, David, like the small boy, David. I go, bring down, bring down, bring down, bring down, bring down below. I'll leave it, Mama, I have one mission, bring down below. You come to me by your decision.

Bring down below. Bring down below, bring down below. Bring down below, bring down below. Bring down below, bring down below. Bring down below, bring down below. Bring down the room, bring down the room. Bring down the room, bring down the room. Bring down the room, bring down the room. What do you think about that?

A front. What I think about this? Listen, boy. You're small, you're black, you're poor, you're going out in the world to face the devil and the wickedness of men and in all this, in all this, remember, don't laugh, listen, sit down. Come live with me, let's try, come live with me, good choice, we all can be. Come live with me, come live with me, good choice, we all can be.

Come live with me, some child, come live with me, good choice, come live with me. Good choice, we all can be. Tijia, beware of an old man called Papa Boa, father of the forest with a foot-glove-laka

call. Listen, be called man, Papa Boa, you know how it is, boy. Good morning, youngster, it's a tough, wonderful walk through the forest, isn't it? And only the cheap of a bird to warm one. It makes all bones creep. What was your Papa? I find you world pleasant in the only light, eh, what's that? I'm deaf, come here, come here, and shelter, eh, good.

I was a woodsman once, but look now, I burn wood into ashes. Tell me, boy, is your father living or your mother perhaps? You look as friend as an orphan, I think nothing dies. My brothers are dead, but they live in the memory of my mother. But you are very young boy to be talking so subtly. So you lost two brothers, eh? I said I had brothers, I never said how many. May I see that foot fine a while, boy, in a while. So there were two, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, well, none can escape the evil that man called us. Whatever God made, we must consider blessed.

Like the death of your mother. Like the death of my mother. Like the kindness of the frog. Like the vileness of the frog. Like the froth of the constrictor. Like the proven cause foot. On the old man's curse, eh? What did you hope to find, boy? But on old man's very foot, eh? You're a forward little fool. Look, old man, I'm in a great hurry. Oh, I've been here with you. If evil exists, let it come forward. Human or beast, I want to see a plane. You want to see the devil, eh? Very well done. Look. One's teacher confronts the devil

and gets over his terror and he recognizes evil. He operates from his rebelliousness that refuses. And in this, I think he may embody the current generation, the third generation of colonians, of young people who are not, whose rebellion is simply a question of instinct, not of saying that this is wrong, all right. But they operate from their belief that the old orders, because the system itself, they don't have to work within the system itself. I think that this elation in the play is not the same kind of rebellion as you would get in the metropolitan situation.

It is a kind of a reverse thing in which the elation, the rebellion is based on roots, on knowing nature, of relating to a sense that what you are fighting for, or what you're refusing to let be spoiled, is what belongs to you. And this joyousness that I hope exists in the character of Tijna is something that I think we have tried to go after in the workshop of trying to feel that the style of acting and the plays that we do and the music that we try to use is so closely allied to a feeling of relationship to nature. The figure of Papa Waffe for instance in the play is a mythological figure, but he is a figure that appears in all mythologies because he is the old man of the forest. He may be pan in Greek mythology and so on. In Trinidad, he is a forest figure. He's a hunter who has a horn and a cloven foot and so on. He's a figure more of authority rather than terror

because he relates to the animals a lot. For us who live in what people call simplistic societies or underdeveloped countries, I think it's good because I think one returns to the joy as a writer or as an actor of narrating a story and the pleasure of enacting a story which is very straightforward and appears to be very simple. I think it's something that has been lost in some of the other theaters in what they call the developed countries. Trinidad theory workshop has been an existence now for about 13 years and we have worked in the conditions that have been very grueling. We don't have a permanent theater, we don't have a subsidy. But I still think that in a sense the very fact that we lack those things as well as help to make the company spiritually united in its purpose and that purpose I think remains the same and it's very simple

to do as well as we can to represent as beautifully and as powerfully as we can. The people we live among and for whom we hope to be the artists and the voice. On February 8th, Black Journal presented a live 90-minute phone in special with 11 National Black Spokesman, including Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Imamu Baraka, Dr. James Cheek, Reverend Albert Klag, Congressman Charles Diggs, Dick Gregory, Miss Dorothy Hite, Roy Ennis, Vernon Jordan, Dr. John Moresell, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad via telephone from his home.

Since that historic gathering responds from our viewers has been overwhelming. Here is a representative sample of our letters. Sister Pamela Douglas of New Haven, Connecticut wrote, thanks for once again, pointing the way to a use of the media that can bring it closer to the needs of the people. The February 8th show demonstrated that two-way communications on television between Black people and Black leaders of various persuasions is possible, needed, and useful. Writing in Howard University's student publication, the Hilltop, Larry Coleman made note of the conduct of two panelists, Reverend Klag and Roy Ennis. Quote, many of the points that these brothers made I found no problems with. What turned me off about them was their blind dogmatism and immature behavior. He continued, Imamu Baraka and President James Cheek made the best showing of anyone on the whole show. As far as separatist and integration is getting together, if we are to exist, they will have to.

That meeting on nationwide television did them more good than one might think. Wait and see. From Miss Claudia Johnson of Newark, New Jersey, quote, I never thought the time would come when I would be writing a critical letter to Black journal. But after watching that comedy last night, I just had to write. Please keep in mind that I wrote two letters previously praising the show. So I do not just write to present my negative views. I thought that Reverend Klag behaved in a rude, immature manner, toward the other members of the panel. Too much time was given to Elijah Muhammad to repeat himself about how respectful a white man treated him. What little the viewer heard from the other guests, the only ones that seem to have some concrete directions for black people, were Imamu Baraka, Dick Gregory and the gentleman from the NAACP. An opposite viewpoint from Brother Andre McLaughlin at the University of Massachusetts, quote, As a black graduate student attempting to deal with the critical issues that confront black people,

your program was anxiously awaited. Unfortunately, Reverend Klag was the only brother candidly, not operating as collaborator with white interests. His statements were burning with truth, and the black public should not allow the passion in his replies to cloud the legitimacy of the issues he presented. Mrs. Regina Scott of San Francisco, called, is a too late, quote, The best black program I ever saw. All views were eloquently stated from the dedicated brothers. Sister Scott asked that we plan a similar type program, eliminating representatives of the NAACP, Urban League, and the National Council of Negro Women. From Long Island, New York, Sister Ruth Lake commented on some of the panelists, quote, At Ohio University in Athens, Brother Eric Moore wrote to us saying, A different point of view was expressed by Brother Theodore Williams of Detroit.

He wrote that the program was superb, in spite of the panelists' ideological differences, and said, quote, I hope blood journal has a program that will allow the participants to argue their points of view throughout the entirety of the show. Brother Monroe Phil writes from the London Ohio Penitentiary, quote, I agree with most of the panelists that we must collectively come together. But how are we going to do this when our self-established leaders can't agree among themselves? In Washington, D.C., John Christopher Wright simply, thank you for the show.

Hopefully, this letter will do its share in promoting another and another. Cordell Thompson writing in jet magazine said, black journals bold differ to use television as a true communicative instrument, fell short of its intended goal. On the other hand, he wrote, if black journal was successful, it was because it showed how far black people are from any real unity. This letter from Washington, D.C., directed to me personally, quote, I am sorry to say that I was disappointed in the questions which you selected. The program did not reflect your usual expertly demonstrated skills. I guess we expect too much of those we draft as models, signed for the Truth and Blackness, Sister Ernestine Thomas. From the Bronx, New York, Sister Arlene Welch commended the program for, quote, awakening minds to the fact that survival is our immediate problem. Keep the info coming, since reality is the best source of awakening us to strive for survival. And maybe it won't be too late. A different point of view from 16-year-old Carolyn Gray of Fort Worth, Texas,

quote, I dug the show, but I was disappointed with the leaders, because they could not seem to answer the questions directly, but instead argued among themselves. She signed it, keep on keeping on, don't ever stop. This comment from Detroit. Is it too late was brilliant? I feel, however, the two ideologies, presented by the integrationists and the nationalists, will merge. They will have to. Sister Pamela Lucas of New York New Jersey, cold-out broadcast, quote, the most influential program I have seen in a long time. She continued, many people mainly older ones who shun away from people such as Brother Imam Ubaraka and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for their black nationalist and separatist ideas have the opportunity to hear and relate to their programs. It is, in a time when black minds are being flooded with white propaganda, black people should turn to forms of communication like yours to keep their minds together. Please continue to send us your thoughts on future programs.

The Howard chapter of the National Black Communication Society and the Howard University School of Communications will host the first annual black communicators conference involving students, future black communicators, and the present professional black communicators in Washington, D.C., Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4, the weekend preceding the congressional black caucus's hearings on racism and the media. And to those who took the time to write, we dedicate the black national anthem. And every part of us will see, see you'll run by forever. Let our rejoicing rise.

Hurry up on me. You stand, and let it reach us. Let us go. Let us see, let us see. Let us see, let us see. Let us see, let us see. Let us see, let us see.

Let us see, let us see. Let us see, let us see.