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Local writer calls for massive investment in arts and culture
“It will make money for Guyana; it will help to define Guyana, but it needs participation from the Government, but the government must have guidance from the arts community and not from political appointees.” -Barrington Braithwaite
Writer, artist and folklorist Barrington Braithwaite is calling on Government to make massive investments in Guyana’s underdeveloped but potentially rich cultural industry.
Braithwaite, who is also a founder member of the African Cultural Development Association (ACDA), believes that an investment of this nature would not only bring international recognition and preserve the country’s cultural identity, but will also bring huge financial rewards, as it has done for countries like Jamaica.
“It (a vibrant cultural industry) will make money for Guyana, it will help to define Guyana, but it needs participation from the Government, like any other industry, but the government must have guidance from the arts community and not from political appointees.
Barrington Braithwaite
“The traditional economic industries cannot sustain the country, that’s why we have to rely on other industries, including our cultural industry. Every country in the Caribbean is investing in its culture except Guyana. The cultural industry is a vibrant industry, as revealed in Jamaica and Trinidad. We are bombarded by America’s cultural industry… the Hong Kong industry produced the martial arts films…if Greece received five percent of the profits from every non-Greek movie studio and every book featuring Greek mythology, that would take Greece out of its economic hardship.
“The first time that many people heard of a place called British Guiana was in the movie To Sir With Love with Sidney Poitier; he came here, but was not even embraced by the Government officials.”
He added that the Jamaican culture is internationally recognized “because a Jamaican Prime Minister devoted a large part of his budget to Jamaica music in the fifties and sixties. “It was when Bob Marley’s estate came up for sale that many of us regonised the value of the cultural industry.”
Braithwaite, the creator of the graphic magazine series ‘The Jaguar’, which was the genesis of a play by the famed Norman Beaton, represented ACDA a few months ago during a meeting with Government officials, including President Donald Ramotar and Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh.
He also recently gave Government officials and members of the Opposition a document entitled ‘Resolutions on Workshop on Culture and Cultural Industries’.
While he said that Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh was receptive to his suggestions, he believes that the present administration must take much of the blame for the stagnation of arts and culture.
“From the time that the PPP came into power, there was a de-emphasising and distancing itself from the arts. … the arts was the first thing to receive the short end of the stick.
“I was an illustrator who did a comic strip in the Guyana Chronicle. We were talking with Trinidad and Jamaica about setting up a Caribbean pullout magazine that could be syndicated throughout the Caribbean. They (Govt. officials) kicked it aside after 1992. Sharief Khan (Chronicle’s Editor- in-Chief) even ordered (Sunday Editor) Claudette Earle to drop ‘Shadow of the Jaguar’ from the Chronicle. Shadow of the Jaguar was a graphic magazine and became a play that was written by celebrated UK-based Guyanese actor Norman Beaton. Braithwaite also used his prodigious knowledge of folklore to produce the magazine ‘The Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree.’ That became the basis of a play that was featured during CARIFESTA XI.
One of the things that Braithwaite wants is for the Department of Culture to become a separate entity from the Departments of Youth and Sports. The other is a formation of a Council on Cultural Arts that is managed by those with experience in the Arts.
A scene from ‘Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree’
“We need a Council that has extensive experience in the Arts. We need people who have participated, who have written plays, who have written short stories, who are active now in the arts, to work towards production of things (cultural) that can go on the market almost immediately.
“Culture (in Guyana) has become populated by people who know nothing about Culture and that is how the arts in Guyana have faltered.
“We succeeded at CARIFESTA XI because Dr. Paloma Mohamed (a Guyana Prize winner) was in charge and was able to gather her peers to produce a Guyanese CARIFESTA. What happened at CARIFESTA XI was an ad hoc thing that relied on the talents that were here.”
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