Name something after Eddy Grant!

Sep 16, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One of the huge philosophical differences between the post-colonial world and the developed Western societies is in the way leadership of the West treats culture, history and aesthetics. In the West, maybe because of longevity, there is an almost fanatical obsession with preserving historical relics, threads of tradition and the cultural past. Maybe it has to do with the role nationalism played in the evolution of the European nation-state.
In no other society is the historical power of nationalism more pervasive than in France. French people today remain the most fervent embodiment of the nationalist ethos when compared to the rest of the world. Maybe it is for this reason France is generally regarded as the cultural capital of Europe.
This may be the missing link in the Third World (possibly with the exception of places like India, China and Egypt).
The struggle for independence was not so much a reclamation battle but a contest for sheer power. Someone like Gandhi was more interested in cultural and nationalist repossession rather than power. The same can be said of Ataturk.
In the Third World a generation of middle class intellectuals who led the Independence movement wanted the British out so they could rule. There were no conscious or Freudian yearnings for the reclamation of cultural history.
There were attempts at aesthetic adornment in the British West Indies after Independence but they fell far short of European models. Without any political bias, I think the current PPP regime is completely devoid of the philosophical, cultural and aesthetic foundations of nationalism. It has reached a point where the accusation of philistinism can be backed up by graphic evidence.
With an impoverished budget, the Burnham Government would not have allowed the Botanical Gardens, the national zoo, the Promenade Gardens (even if its jurisdiction fell under the City Council), the National Park, the Non-Aligned Monument among others to go to waste. Contrast the philistine mentality of our rulers with the Jamaican preservation of everything related to Bob Marley including the immaculate Marley Gardens.
All over Georgetown, the State has lands many of which had derelict buildings. If the Government wanted to build a head office for an intelligence agency, it could have easily pinpointed an empty lot.
At the corner of Carmichael and New Market Streets, there is a vacant plot that once housed the Ministry of Housing. But what has the Government done? Erect an ugly concrete carbuncle on the lawns of Castellani House for an intelligence agency. It is a potent reminder of the type of people that govern this country. I say most unambiguously, it takes a bankrupt mind to have committed such a cultural travesty.
If a small, Third World country had produced an international star like Eddy Grant, he would had an avenue named after him at the height of his career. There is a big debate going on in Barbados about creating a “sign post” for Rihanna. I have no objection to a street being named after cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul. But if Chanderpaul why not Eddy Grant?
Grant was putting Guyana on the map long before Chanderpaul was born. I was in Canada studying when Grant’s mega hit, Electric Avenue, came out. It was an international blockbuster.
I fail to see how a Guyanese can argue for a “sign post” for Chanderpaul and not Grant. The sportsman has done immense good for West Indian cricket and deserves his accolades (though I must say he faulted badly when he pandered to the ethnic politics of the Indian Arrival Committee).
Grant has done tremendous good for Caribbean music. Long before he became a mega star, Grant had put the Caribbean on the map when he pioneered a successful British rock group in the late sixties named the Equals.
Let us say that the central government has no interest in honouring Grant, what about the City Council? They say the City Council has no money. It has no brains either. The Guyana Government will not risk the dangerous fall-out if it cancels a dedication to Grant. Plaisance should be a good place to start.
That is where he came from. It would be better to focus on a landscape in the heart of the city where the next generation will be reminded that this country once produced an international singer that achieved world wide fame.
The honouring of Eddy Grant is long, long overdue. I doubt it will ever happen under the present Government but what is the City Council waiting for? Is it money that it wants before it dedicates a street after Grant? I hope not!

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Name something after Eddy Grant!

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