The Mighty Gabby Embodying Resistance in the Creative Process
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The Mighty Gabby: Embodying Resistance in the Creative Process ANALYSIS OF TEXT AND PERFORMANCE – JACK, CULTURE AND WUK UP (1981-2000) IAN W. WALCOTT-SKINNER, PRESENTED AT CULTURAL STUDIES AT 10 SYMPOSIUM, UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, CAVE HILL CAMPUS, BARBADOS APRIL 11, 2014
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Anthony Gabby Carter (1948 - ) is a living Barbadian cultural icon best known for his artistry through the lens of folk music and calypso. A thorough examination of Gabby’s oeuvre will fit him squarely into the movement of resistance art. This presentation seeks to delve into the creative process to interrogate what were the sparks that ignited some of Gabby’s masterpieces, especially, the hits Jack, Culture and the iconic Wuk-up. Scientists across the globe are now examining what happens in the brain during this so-called creative process and we are beginning to gain some interesting insights from the likes of Professor Charles Limb. Dr. John Hunte, the current cultural officer for dance at the National Cultural Foundation of Barbados, in his own work, has been interrogating and advancing the issues surrounding the dance form wuk-up in Barbadian culture. As such, this paper posits that Gabby is the embodiment of the ‘total’ performer who does not separate his voice, his pen and his dance all in an effort to reclaim and tell the story of his Africanity. The three become one in his completeness of performance, space and messaging. Through Gabby’s work, we see the emergence and/or re-presentation of wuk-up as a critical movement in the cultural and social resistance of a post-independent Barbados.
Transcript of The Mighty Gabby Embodying Resistance in the Creative Process
The Mighty Gabby: Embodying
Resistance in the Creative ProcessANALYSIS OF TEXT AND PERFORMANCE –
JACK, CULTURE AND WUK UP (1981-2000)
IAN W. WALCOTT-SKINNER,
PRESENTED AT CULTURAL STUDIES AT 10 SYMPOSIUM, UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, CAVE
HILL CAMPUS, BARBADOS
APRIL 11, 2014
Who is the Mighty Gabby?
Anthony Carter, known as Mighty Gabby (Mar 30, 1948 - )
• Barbadian calypsonian
• Cultural activist
• Folksinger
• Actor
• Cultural Ambassador for Barbados - 2003
• Politician - 1994
• Hon Doctorate, UWI - 2012
DEATH OF PM ADAMS
MARCH 11. GABBY WINS
CROWN WITH “WEST INDIAN POLITICIAN”
AND “CULTURE”
20001984 1985 1986 1991 1994 19991981 1982 1983
THE GRENADA INVASION
END OF FIRST DECADE SINCE CARIFESTA 81. EARLY SIGNS OF DECAY OF
THE CULTURAL PLANT.
GABBY WINS CROWN
AGAIN SINCE HIS 1985 WIN
GABBY WINS THE CROWN AGAIN WITH “WUK UP”
THE BLP RETURNS TO POWER UNDER OWEN ARTHUR. GABBY LOSES TO BILLIE MILLER ON A
DLP TICKET
ERROL BARROW
RETURNS TO POWER
GABBY’S PENS THE CONTROVERSIAL
SONG “JACK”
GABBY PENS “BOOTS”
CARIFESTA IN BARBADOS –
CULTURAL WATERSHED
FROM JACK TO WUK UP - 20 YEARS OF SONGS OF RESISTANCE
Charting the creative process
Conception“The Creative
Design”PROCESS
Expression“The Creative
Product/Performance”OUTPUT
Perception“The Creative
Spark”INPUT
Who or what is Gabby resisting?The Dominant Power Structures
Who has the power?Gabby responds to those who influence through position and policy.
THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF ENGLAND
BARBADOS TOURISM AUTHORITY
NATIONAL CULTURAL FOUNDATION
What are his instruments of resistance?
Force of Resistan
ce
His Pen
His Voice
His Dance
The pen as the sword
1.TEXT2.SUB-TEXT3.MEANING
1.The Song2.The Melody3.The Rhythm
Articulation
Movement
UnspokenStatement
Wuk-up
Freedom
Pièce de résistance
The I and I
Wine
“Rebolation”
The Creative Sparks - Jack
1. Controversy over statement by Jack Dear – then Chairman of Barbados Tourist Board
2. Fear of “new apartheid” where Black majority would not have the right to the beaches
3. Gabby was very anti the BLP government led by Tom Adams
The Creative Sparks – Culture
1. Despite strides made since 1981 there were persistent opinions that Barbados had no culture of its own
2. Gabby felt need to prove that we had a culture
3. There was little defense by public intellectuals of a Barbadian culture
4. Gabby took up the mantle in song
The Creative Sparks – Wuk Up
1. Ongoing debate on vulgarity of wukking up
2. Public statements against the art form by Church leaders
3. The Church’s double standards
4. Persistent devaluing of African retentions of our culture
What is Gabby resisting? Jack 1982
Jack - 1982
Culture - 1985
Wuk Up - 2000
The reaction was to the Chairman of the Barbados Tourist Board – Jack DearHere Gabby attacks the Establishment1.Tourism policy and policymakers
that alienate locals from the processTourism vital, I can’t denyBut can’t mean more than I and IMy navel string buried right hereBut a tourist one could be anywhere.
What is Gabby resisting? Jack 1982
Jack - 1982
Culture - 1985
Wuk Up - 2000
2. It also represents a broader critique against the State during a period when it was thought that there was a rapid militarization of Barbados by creating a Defense Force especially in the wake of the Grenada invasionCause Jack don’t want me to bathe on my beachJack tell them to keep me out of reachJack tell them I will never make the gradeStrength and security, build barricadeBut that can’t happen here in this countryI want Jack to know that the beach belong to weThat can’t happen here over my dead bodyTell Jack that I say that the beach belong to we.
What is Gabby resisting? Culture 1985
Jack - 1982
Culture - 1985
Wuk Up - 2000
By 1985 Gabby had become frustrated with the direction of Barbadian and West Indian culture and speaks out vehemently against North American cultural penetration, especially through mass communication media1. Again he targets the policymakers
All o’ this talk ‘bout cultureDriving me madI taking it hardAll ‘f this talk ‘bout cultureIt driving me madI taking it hardHow them expect To have culture planFor Caribbean manFrom North American?We got to start here at home,Then we will no longer roam.
2. He privileges: local cuisine, aspects of the local life, Caribbean literature and our choice of sports.
What is Gabby resisting? Wuk Up 2000
Jack - 1982
Culture - 1985
Wuk Up - 2000
By 2000 Gabby is perhaps is dismayed that there are still naysayers to what represents Barbadian culture and his frustration turns to anger. This is one of the most defiant pieces in his entire oeuvre.
I am angry, I am madI goin’ in the street and wuk up real badThe priests can talk what the hell they likeI wukking up me body day and nightThey want to take the African out of the pictureBut Africa is buried in meSo we jooking, yea we jammingOn the streets Kadooment morningFor all of the church to see.
What is Gabby resisting? Wuk Up 2000
Jack - 1982
Culture - 1985
Wuk Up - 2000
1.Gabby lashes out against the Church (priests) whom he sees as an embodiment of European and Western oppression of Africans and Africanity
2.Once more, the Police, the symbol of the State comes under attack for their complicit behavior. Tell the priest for meThis is me [sic] my bodyI wining up bad on the highwayThem [sic] they could call policeI going like a beastI don’t give a damn what they sayI’m African Not from BabylonThe highway belong to we
Gabby’s Embrace of Elements of Rastafarianism as Resistance
Wuk up – “I’m African, not from Babylon” Babylon refers to Marley’s “the Babylon system is a vampire”
Babylon represents the West and Roman-Greco system of political governance
Jack – “Tourism vital, I can’t deny, But can’t mean more than I and I” The central dominant “I” becomes the focus of Rastafarian and Black resistance
During the 1970s, it was common to hear the term ‘I and I’, this emphasis on a new self of resistance
Forms of Wuk-Up From The African Continent throughout the African Diaspora
Gabby’s Use of Wuk Up in Performance Jack
A youthful Gabby took off all his clothes in this performanceWuk up was used in his on-stage performance to symbolize
1. Resistance against the system
2. Defiance against Jack himself
3. Freedom
4. His negritude
5. His culture
Gabby’s Use of Wuk Up in PerformanceWuk up
An older Gabby (with full grown locks) was more ‘graceful’ in his movements in spite of the more angry lyrics
Here wuk up in his performance represented6. An ode to the dance as an art form (note the dance is better
choreographed than in the free form used in Jack)
7. His declared Africanity
8. His defiance against the “Babylon system”
9. His “I and I’ – I the African, I who will not yield, I who will not succumb to Western cultural penetration and hegemonic dominance embodied by the Europeanized church
Conclusion – Gabby’s Art of Resistance
• Defiant
Jack: Policymakers, The State
• Frustrated
Culture: North American Cultural Penetration
• Angry
Wuk Up: The Church (mainly Church of England)
Gabby’s Art• Draws a pictorial of
local culture• Stands up to
schizophrenic creolized policymakers
• Defies and rebels against the status quo
• Call to action• Call for pride in our
Black selves as peoples of African descent
Gabby receives honorary doctorate from UWI 2012
