Burna Boy – the joyful, beautiful politics of it all

May 04, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – Though I have said it time and again, it is still worth saying one more time: there is none better at putting on a propaganda party than the People’s Progressive Party.  This goes beyond recognition and admiration.  I am filled with awe.  For a long trail of supporting evidence,I point to the Burna Boy caravan that came to these sunny shores and put on an electrifying show.  Upon reconsideration, it would be better to make that rain-soaked shores, for the time being.  What a show it was!  A jolly good time for those who were leaned upon to go and see, as well as for those who went to make sure that they were seen.

My first reaction was who the hell is this entertainer and show stopper, Mr. Burna Boy.  When I heard that he came from not Jamaica but was recruited all the way from Nigeria, I wondered what Black people in America thought about that, since to call a man ‘boy’ in Brooklyn is considered a gross insult.  Anyhow, my recent musical senses have been largely stirred by artistes from the region and the good ole USA.  Did anybody say Snoop Dog or MC Hammer.  See what I mean!  Ancients!  Grumpy old men in the fastmoving world of musical taste.  But Burna Boy, it was, and brought here not by PPP regulars, but an Indian entrepreneur with long, deep, and storied political roots.  PPP roots, not PNC ones, bruddahs and sistaz.  For there was the man from the ballooning E-Networks conglomerate, Mr. Vishok himself leading the initiative by plucking an African performer of superior standing from the heart of Mother Africa and planting him down in Guyana.  What a move, and for a man who knows how to get in the groove.  I was going along with the program and thinking that this was all in the interests of pure entertainment, with a fat little business bounty as a bonus for all the effort, only to find out how wrong I was.  It was only then that it dawned that this was more than partying, this was politics dressed up in the usual PPP colors.

The first clue was the presence of Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo and the man who has something to do with the nation’s money, Dr. Ashni Singh.  If a pardon is due, I am giving it in advance.  For if those two lovely fellows ever listened to a song, heard a song, danced to a song, or hummed the notes to a song, then I am the man from Mars and my name is Mohamed Rafi or Bob Marley.  These guys know nothing about music, and the only song they know have a certain lyric and tune to it.  Try listening to one of Jagdeo’s finished symphonies, and they have a language and tone of their own.  They are a thing of beauty.  So, when I absorbed the fact of these two great Guyanese song and dance lovers in attendance, all thoughts about partying fled and politics took over.

The second giveaway was all those enraptured Indian presence at the Nigerian’s festival, and all having a grand time.  They never used to come out in the street for their own Mashramani jamming because it was a Burnham ting, but there they were at this Burna Boy concert, and looking deliciously lost.  Take it from this concert goer, if yuh caan sing a line and get up and shake a leg, then it is better to stay home and avoid making a fool of oneself.  Guyanese who duz suck de teeth wen deh hear Marcel or Ziggy or Buju tun up in droves for Burna.  Imagine that lustrous change of heart.  With more than a few from the non-African side of the Guyanese demographic, I slowly realized that the fix was in, and that the PPP propaganda machine was swinging and gyrating and wining and getting down.  And, touching back on Vishok, it is enlightening that the PPP propaganda master craftsmen were wise enough not to use their own favorite Guyanese promoters of a certain color.  Of course, I get it, I aint no dunce.  Dem fellas busy trying fuh finish off de school.

All this got me to thinking Black promoters separated from a lucrative opportunity from a Black performer.  A carefully engaged Indian entrepreneur-actor, plus Indian guests, plus members of the Cabinet, plus Bharry and Ashni.  Was Alistair there?  What was that all about?  It is to show to the world the mixing of Indians and Africans in Guyana at a showcase event starring a Black Nigerian showman.  Racial division?  Feelings of discrimination?  Postures about pauperizing economic conditions?  Only a dirty and devilish entity like the PNC could nurture such negatives.  It is said that a picture is worth a million words.  Well, the Burna Boy Show was good for more than a hundred million.  That is what is being beamed by PPP seniors, sharpies, satellites, and surrogates all over the world.  There is no problem here.  Come to Guyana and invest money here, for there is big money to be made here.  When I see the PPP propaganda machine in action, I know I stand on good grounds when I say that the PPP can take the heat.  And the PPP has the beat.

Now bring on some more Burna Boys.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• beautiful, BETTER, Burna Boy, GHK Lall, Politics

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