Going To Bocas Lit Fest T&T - Apr 28 - May 1, 2011

Scroll down the page for the original "Going to Bocas" by Walter "Gavitt" Ferguson

I learned recently that a Literary Festival is being launched this year in Trinidad and Tobago. From the 28th April to the 1st May, 2011, books, writing, and writers will be celebrated in my country. I was filled with a rush of excitement and joy. To be honest, although I do appreciate most of my country's cultural expressions...ehemm...the positive ones, I have not ever felt this giddy over any existing festival. I sincerely regret that I will not be there and even more, that I am not a part of it in any way. This post is my way of pretending that I am part of that literary Cherry Blossom Time.

According to the Festival's website:

"The Bocas Lit Fest, based in Trinidad and Tobago, is an annual celebration of books, writing, and writers. Launching in April 2011, the Bocas Lit Fest is an exciting new addition to the Caribbean’s literary calendar. The centrepiece of the festival will be the award ceremony for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, a major new award for Caribbean writers of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction." SOURCE

As I read the explanation below for how the Festival organisers had arrived at their choice of Bocas, many thoughts and memories to mind:

"Boca is the Spanish word for mouth — the organ of speech and song and storytelling. And the Bocas del Dragón — the Dragon’s Mouths — are the narrow straits off Trinidad’s northwest peninsula, which connect the sheltered Gulf of Paria to the open Caribbean Sea. For centuries, the Bocas were the gateways connecting Trinidad to the Caribbean and the Atlantic. The Bocas Lit Fest invites readers from around the world to enter through the Dragon’s Mouths and celebrate with us the rich literary heritage of Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean." SOURCE

The Bocas: Where are the writers whose language named the Bocas. I looked at the participants and although it was not specified where the individuals are based, I guessed that they were mainly located in the Caribbean and North America...maybe Europe? Cannot tell. But I don't see participants from the Hispanic Caribbean and wider South American Caribbean. Have we no writers from the Spanish Caribbean diaspora?

It is not just because of my Spanish heritage that I continue to call our attention to the seasonings that they add to our culture. They are too near to be ignored. They are right in our midst, literally [literary-ly] in our blood. Most immediately, the Bocas constitute a water bridge to South America and a huge reminder of our First Nations and Spanish heritage. The traffic and cultural exchange is still going both ways. For some of our ancestors and probably even today, crossing the Bocas to Trinidad and Tobago and vice versa is either a push from trouble in one place or the pull towards the hope for a better life for opportunity seekers.

They are in fact part of our wider Caribbean so I do not agree with Eric Williams, who in 1975 dropped that sarcastic [now amusing] comment meant to scoff at Venezuela's dreaming that it was part of the Caribbean. I don't have the exact quote but it went something like this, "If Venezuela is made part of the Caribbean, I expect next to hear that Tierrra del Fuego is."

Well apart from the geographic FACTS that we are actually part of Venezuela and Venezuela has coastline on the Caribbean Sea and is definitely to be included in Caribbean South America, I tend to want to be warmer towards them. I think of my ancestors from Venezuela, of the Venezuelan diaspora in T&T and the T&T diaspora in Venezuela and all the souls who, for good or for bad, are making legal and illegal crossings every day between the two places, over the same Bocas after which we are naming our Festival.

The song "Going To Bocas" which I included at the start of the post is not the original version. It is an interpretation sung by Manuel Monestel of the Costa Rican band "Cantoamerica." The original song was in fact composed by their countryman, the Costa Rican calypsonian from Cahuita, Walter "Gavitt" Ferguson. I have included Walter Ferguson's original song at the bottom of this post with the lyrics. He sings in the distinctive style of the old school Caribbean calypsonian as recorded on his CD "Dr. Bombodee". I am not sure if Walter's Bocas is our Bocas or the Panamanian but it works as well for the situation which he describes.

Other Memories: "Boca Chimes" and "Legends Of The Bocas"

Many of us know the song based on the poem, "Boca Chimes." It is a beautiful song filled with enchantment and mystery. It is based on the poem written by A.D. Russell, First Puisne Judge, Trinidad and Tobago, and included in his book published in 1922 "Legends of the Bocas" [Available here as pdf file.] I cannot remember if we were ever told who put it to music. My mind inserts Pat Castagne or Marjorie Padmore but I might be wrong. I won't volunteer to record myself singing it here although I have been told that I possess a rather mellifluous voice, but a performance of it may add historical/cultural depth to the proceedings.

Anyway, here are the lyrics that we used to sing:

"In the air there is a chiming, stealing far from out the west,
Where the crimson sun is sinking, o'er the mountains to his rest.
Oft, at eve, I hear that chiming, solemn, silvery, dying fast, dying fast;
'Tis as from some chapel hidden 'mid these Bocas wild and vast.
Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmm [We used to hum here to simulate chiming]
God is Eternity, the world is Time!"

I was only about seven or eight when I was taught this song but that line, "God is Eternity, the world is Time" contained the most awe-inspiring words that had ever been entrusted to my young heart.

The poem "Boca Chimes" continues:

Oft, at eve, I've sought that chiming ; sought it by the lone sea shore,
'Mong the islets and the reaches, where the seabird hovers o'er ;
'Mid the ebb- and 'mid the flow-tide, 'mid the remous' rune-like moan.
Till my heart is sick with longing, and my eyes are weary grown.
Chime, chime, chime! God is Eternity, the world is Time!

Somewhere, somewhere that fair Chapel hidden lies from mortal ken.
In an elder world of wonder, for a race of sinless men;
And they kneel in the old arches, young and old, and evermore
Rises up the rich, undoubting, simple faith of days of yore.
Chime, chime, chime! God is Eternity, the world is Time !

Might I find it, might I enter, kneel within its hallowed shrine,
Lave me at its mossy fountain, it might calm this heart of mine ;
Still the anguish, still the grieving, heal all sorrow, cleanse all sin. .
But the Way is deep in shadow, and the Light is all within.
Chime, chime, chime I God is Eternity, the world is Time!

Anyhoo, all that aside, I am overjoyed that this has finally been started. I think it's a fantastic idea and I congratulate Marina Salandy-Brown for her vision and all the others involved who will help her to make it a reality. See the Programme of Events.

Like Walter Gavitt Ferguson, I seriously studying now to buy a pass, packing up my things and going to Bocas.


GOING TO BOCAS
By Walter "Gavitt" Ferguson [Costa Rica]
Album: Dr. Bombodee

Then the young girl claim that she do not want me no more
Then I notice she start to dash mih things outta door
She say she going to a foreign land, she going to kill the calypsonian
Going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas
I say, I going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas.

Believe me say the young girl declare that she do not want me no more
I discover she start to dash mih things outta door
She say she want me to understand, she will not support a calypsonian
Going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas
I say, I going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas.

Believe me say the young girl claim that she do not want me no more
She tell she friend dem, "Segundo too bloody poor!"
And when she want to get she money, she only live in ah misery
Going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas
I say, I going to buy a pass, packing up my things and going to Bocas.

Believe me say the young girl declare that she do not want me no more
I discover she start to dash mih things outta door
She say she want me to understand, she will not support a calypsonian
Going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas
I say, I going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas
Uhmmm, I going to buy a pass, packing up my things and go to Bocas.

Muchas gracias, Walter "Gavitt" Ferguson!

...........................................................................................
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare