A number of students from the University of Louisville, Kentucky were recently hosted to a three-week study-abroad cultural programme organised by the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts (CCFA). The programme which started on July 17 and ended on August 4 culminated with presentations by the Louisville students on August 2 at the CCFA.

This group, which comprised both undergraduate and postgraduate students, majored in academic disciplines ranging from Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, Arts Education, Music Education/Music Performance, Pan African studies, Communication Studies and Justice Administration.

During their stay here, the students attended lectures on the steelpan by Mr. Satanand Sharma, newly elected Head of the CCFA, and workshops on rapso, Indian dance and mas by Brother Resistance, Ms. Abraham and Mr. Brian Roberts. The students also learnt about Chutney and visited the temple in the sea, in Central Trinidad. Dr. Louis Regis conducted lectures on calypso, carnival and other art forms; and Professor Patricia Mohammed lectured on the women’s movement. In their final week the students participated in the Emancipation Parade in Port of Spain.

The presentations began with movements from Indian dance followed by brief demonstrations of belee, stickfighting and limbo. From the greens, the presentations moved to the pan theatre for a steelpan demonstration by the entire group and a student’s rendition of a rapso tune in honour and gratitude to all their tutors - with everyone else, including the audience, joining in with the chorus, Pick up your cup/Pour libation/This is a revolutionary celebration. After this interactive session, everyone moved over to another room for the talk-back, question-and-answer session.

Students and tutors shared how the trip impacted on them, collectively and individually. The Emancipation Day celebrations proved to be an eye-opener for all involved. The mostly African-American group agreed that it was a “life-changing experience” since they felt that it was the closest they have come to the diaspora outside of reading about it. One student believed that whereas the Liberal Arts were taught in US schools, here it was lived. She felt African-Americans lacked an understanding and appreciation of Africa as there was no cultural sense and heritage whereas in Trinidad and Tobago the culture and tradition were kept going. They were impressed with the sense of pride in the Trinidad and Tobago national flag, unlike what the American and Confederate flags represent for them as African-Americans. Here they saw peoples of colour being empowered. At the parade they did not feel like outsiders and observed the old and young doing things together, the examples of unity and inclusion and the respect for elders. They felt they had no ownership of American culture, but thought they could now question what it is and also define what African-American culture is.

Dr. Regis acknowledged that he always learnt from the students and realized how people in this country took particular things for granted. This was endorsed by Dr. Morgan who said that through their eyes the positives were preserved; they helped us to hold a mirror to ourselves; and Trinidad was a lesson to other nations. Mr. Sharma observed how rhythm was a great organizer, and that all rhythms and accents complemented each other. He summed up the experience as helping him remember who he was and who others were. Among the views expressed by Dr. Rajack-Talley, coordinator of the group, were that the study-abroad experience helped the students to reinforce a commitment and dedication to their own people and culture at home, to realize that the African diaspora was not just about African ethnicity, and to start thinking outside Afro-centrism and the American box. She said that the experience was not just about a tour or about tourism, but an experience that was life-changing, both personally and academically. (GS)