By Johnny Coomansingh
The Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) National Panorama 2026 was officially launched at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain on November 09, 2026. At the venue, Pan TrinBago, the world governing body for steelpan presented the Panorama 2026 theme: Legacy: Ours to Love, Ours to Cherish. So far, so good; steelpan families in almost every district will once again come together for the grand competition. By now, I guess steelpan orchestras throughout T&T are engaged night and day in perfecting their renditions. However, during the early emergence of the steelpan these families were not so friendly with one another. Sometimes there would be bacchanal and bloodshed on carnival days.
Here’s what Lilian Sten said in her article, ‘Panman on the move’ in Caribbean Beat (2003):
Steelband music was, from its early days, synonymous with Trinidad Carnival. The “town” (Port of Spain) bands were fiercely territorial; some had grown out of criminal gangs, and they defended their turf with passion. On Carnival Monday and Tuesday, flagmen cleared the road in front of the processing bands, setting limits: here but no further! If two flags claimed the same corner, it was war. When bands met on the city streets, their clashes were notoriously bloody. The Woodbrook bands were less warlike, but for many years, they could not pass the intersection of Park Street and St Vincent Street—Green Corner—to enter downtown Port of Spain during Carnival. In 1957, lives were lost in a steelband clash outside the General Hospital on Charlotte Street.
We sometimes hear that ‘out of evil cometh good.’ The creation of the National Panorama came to the rescue to avert the annual bloodshed and badjohnism. According to Sten, the panorama “offered prize money and prestige, and largely succeeded in pacifying the warriors.” The steelpan ‘one love’ was born, concomitant with certain family values.
Emmy Award winner, Peter Minshall chimed that “All ah we is one family.” Minshall is noted for his world-famous carnival costume creations portrayed in the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Atlanta Olympics, and the Barcelona Olympics. The element of family values is expressed here, and indeed, the pan family exists, especially in the panyard, the meeting place of panmen and women to play pan.
In the early years, there was nothing known as a panyard (pan theatre). What existed was the pan tent. The pan tent was more of a makeshift home for steelpan storage as well as a sanctuary for the village “outcasts.” Many a youth actually received their ‘education’ from the pan tent…the pan tent was created for the pan family; it was home.
To lend support to the idea of the pan tent family, an interview was conducted with Calvin Deepoosingh, the captain of the Magic Notes Steel Orchestra resident in Brasil, Arima. Notice carefully that Deepoosingh is an Indo-Trinidadian name. Deepoosingh stated:
“This makeshift pan tent is like a home for the outcasts and strays in the village. In this humble place we cook food for the hungry. We welcome those who are destitute and unwanted…even though we have to borrow some electricity sometimes from the neighbor next door, we hope one day that the authorities will be kind enough to grant us a better place where we can do more service for the community. Magic Notes Steel Orchestra is about community service.”
The panyard of today is more sophisticated than ever, so far removed from the humble pan tent.
For example, my observations recorded during the 1960s in the town of Sangre Grande, Trinidad, the pan tent was an old Victorian-style barrack-like building with half-rotted floorboards near to the roundabout located between Foster and Ojoe Roads. It was dimly lit, and a musty and smoky ambience pervaded the interior because of the adjacent bakery. Nonetheless, it was in this dark and dank spot, where the steel orchestra for the town was housed. Decent ‘church going’ young people of ‘good pedigree’ was counseled to avoid such ‘evil’ venues. During that era, the steelpan was regarded as a devilish, evil dancehall instrument.
There were many a youth who wanted to play the steelpan but never had the chance. I did not learn to play the steelpan because I was a good church-going boy. [See the verses below from my poem: Why ah Never Lun tuh Beat Pan (2017)]. In this run-down and dilapidated structure that we knew as the ‘Chow Lin-On’ Bakery’ lived the steelpan family with their very own values perhaps very much like the family Fagin “fathered” in Oliver Twist. Despite their raucous, roguish and ‘bad john’ behavior there was a kind of ‘one love, a special kind of forbearance, caring, and togetherness among the panmen. They looked out for one another, shared their food, and defended each other whenever the need arose. Indeed the pan tent was a place for the waifs such as Ellie Mannette (deceased), a steelpan pioneer who endured homelessness, harassment and humiliation because of his vision for the steelpan.
“Listen to dis one; as a good Christian boy ah went tuh buy bread,
Inside the bakery ah hearing ah steelpan, but ah cyar turn mih head,
Hear what Mister Popo the old baker say…
“Wuh yuh looking over dey for boy…Yuh put something dey?”
He knew quite well mih mudder; mih clan,
He knew dat I must never see, or even touch ah steelpan,
Read the Bible boy, holy songs yuh must lun and sing,
Always remember dat pan is ah devil ting.
Yes, dey tell mih dat pan eh have no future,
Steelbandman and jamette eh have no culture,
If yuh go in the panyard yuh go lose yuh soul…
Listen tuh the preacher and stay in the fold!
Doh beat no pan because God go geh vex…
Will you be led astray by one ah dem jamettes?
So ah stay in the church with mih Bible in hand,
That is why ah never lun to beat pan; yuh understand?”
In terms of gender relations, the pan tent provided a meeting place for jamettes, (jamette from diametre, living below the level of respectability) and many a fight broke out among panmen over such women. According to a couple researchers, a woman from one steelband may be frenning with a man from another steelband and this type of situation caused fights to ensue. It is probable that this activity still persists today but with more ‘decorum;’ definitely a more decent and sophisticated approach. The males were always dominant in the pan tent but the present scenario incorporates many women. The door of freedom was opened for women to play pan but not without some initial ridicule by the panmen. Colloquial derogatory nicknames given to certain women in the early years carried an onomatopoeic ring such as “bubulups” indicative of size and/or gait. The name “Big Bee” was sometimes used to describe extremely buxom and obese women. However, it is not like that in today’s world of steelpan.
Women are now given the respect and admiration that is due to them, and are now playing a vital role as steelpan players and committee executives in the development of the art form in Trinidad and Tobago. In fact, the president of Pan Trinbago, is a woman. Interestingly, it is reported that there are 130 steelpan orchestras in Switzerland. In these orchestras seventy percent of the pannists are women. However, in Trinidad, steelpan culture is still dominated by the men. Despite the apparent oneness among those involved in steelpan culture, there have been some unsettling overtones with regard to the full acceptance of the instrument by certain groups, thus giving rise to some interracial ‘warfare; little family tiffs.
The steelpan emerged in Trinidad and Tobago as the only percussion instrument invented in the 21st century. The instrument began with the lowly vagabond, the badjohn, the jamettes, and the panmakers, who were literally living “behind the bridge,” or for the want of a more appropriate definition, ‘the other side of the tracks.’ The steelpan is now opening the doors of the corporate offices of New York, Hollywood, recording studios around the world, the laboratories of physicists, and the halls of learning. Despite the inroads made with regard to the instrument’s development and commodification, many conflicts are still extant on the landscape. The ‘little’ family war in Trinidad and Tobago is just one of the bigger conflicts.
“All ah we is one family” is not quite correct, so sorry. I wish that we in T&T could own this as a self-evident truth. In T&T there is a covert racial divide. Professor Selwyn Ryan in 1972 stated that a conflict situation was generated with the arrival of the South Asians (East Indians) as indentured servants of the British Crown after emancipation of the enslaved Africans in 1834. And although the living conditions of the East Indian servants were not much better than the Africans, the former thought of themselves as elevated above the latter in the social strata because they came of their own volition. On the other hand, the Africans because of their initial exposure to the idiosyncrasies, norms, and folkways of massa, (slave master) they “felt themselves more ‘native’ and civilized than the Hindu/Muslim East Indians whom they regarded as heathen and pagan.”
Indo-Trinidadians are derogatively referred to as coolies and Afro-Trinidadians as nigga. Although there is this façade of unity among races, there is definite tension between African descendants and East Indian descendants, especially in Trinidad. The steelpan is considered to be an Afro-centric creation, and while some Indo-Trinidadians have reached the heights of excellence in playing the steelpan, a sense of belonging to India still exists among the Indian population. As a matter of interest, Thomas Hylland Eriksen advances that “Indians claim that Trinidadian nationalism is a black ideology with which they cannot identify without losing their culture as Indians.” Nevertheless, Jit Samaroo received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies. He is an Indo-Trinidadian from Surrey Village, Arouca, Trinidad, who has made important contributions to the development of the steelpan in Trinidad.
As one of the musical arrangers for the steel orchestra known as Amoco Renegades, now bpRenegades, Jit Samaroo was able to guide the orchestra into three-time consecutive winners of the Panorama Competition. From this account about Jit Samaroo, it is fair to allude that the pan tent is open to people of all races, including poor East Indian boys and girls. Notwithstanding Samaroo’s valiant efforts, James Houk asserted in his 1995 book, Spirits, Blood, and Drums: The Orisha Religion in Trinidad: “Many signs of racial or ethnic prejudice still exist.” In response to a question posed by Yogendra K. Malik, author of the article Socio-political perceptions and attitudes of East Indian elites in Trinidad (1970) about the nature of the Afro-Trinidadian government, an Indo-Trinidadian replied:
“It is a Negro government. Negro is the ruler in this country and Indian is an underdog. The government’s policies are for the betterment of the Negro whereas Indians pay only taxes; no money is spent on the East Indian masses. Earlier Negroes were the victims of discrimination, now the victims of the past have become the aggressors of the present day.”
While the local conflicts in the family between ‘souls’ associated with the instrument runs deep, more threatening to the steelpan culture of T&T is the fact that international companies are now obtaining patents for steelpan manufacturing equipment designs, leaving T&T totally out of the picture. This is highly illustrative of the commodification of the steelpan culture and the steelpan family values. With respect to the apparent theft, exploitation and/or appropriation of cultural heritage, a discourse on the concept of the authenticity of the steelpan becomes vitally important.
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