Allow me to join all of Saint Lucia in congratulating you on being crowned as the Calypso Monarch 2022. I must tell you, that your win is buttressed with democratic legitimacy, as it was predicted long before Saturday night by calypso pundits across the lengths and breadths of our tents, and that because of your mastery of language coupled with your vocal dexterity, that your legacy would have been created on Saturday night, in your first calypso final.
However, your win must not cause us to escape a moment to reflect on your mammoth undertaking and your advocacy, which because of your humility have caused you to believe your undertaking is small. It is not. Your win is significant, King, because you’ve brought to the fore the well-timed issue of the need for political parties and other public institutions to ensure that their systems include organic mechanisms for succession planning as an indispensable component of sustainable governance if they are to remain relevant, futuristic and not relegated to the doldrums of history.
Moreover, that there should be a constant replenishing and restimulation process with young people as the centre of such a developmental ethos or as you’ve articulated ‘Our Iyanola nation is changing generations, so we need a seamless plan, as the older ones are going, the younger ones must flow in too, this we all must understand.”
What was even more significant about your win King, was your clarion call for an interrogation of the extent to which our visionary leadership is guilty of not creating sustainable succession plans for the future, shaped not in their methodological approaches, but in maintaining the ideological pursuits of our public institutions. ‘Yes, their Legacy, to protect their legacy, as leaders of this land, must understand that they must make a succession plan.’ You confronted the complexity of our history and public institutions which seems to continue to revolve around personalities and not sustainability, but equally seems to allow death to rob us of reflecting upon the significant legacies of leaders.
Your win was also momentous King: you were the only one who put the vexing issue of St. Jude’s on the platform, by pleading for us to stop the partisan rhetoric through your appeal for transcendental and divine intervention to deal with our earthly shame. Your call for a movement of Saints should provide the awakening of our souls to ensure that we deliver a hospital to our peoples.
But your win was significant for much more than your lyrical acumen. It also represented a sharp defiance and divergence from a view of which continues to populate the airwaves. The view seems to proffer that the veterans need to give way to the younger ones in our calypso and other competitions. However, your win stands in sharp contrast, as it demonstrated the uncommon but preferrable view, that if one wants to be the best, then they need to compete against the best and beat the best. Through winning, you’ve actualized the above and shown that you need no separate competition to demonstrate your skills as you can remain in the mainstream competition and compete on an equal playing field and emerge victorious. You have shown that all young people need is equal opportunities to demonstrate that they too can rise to the occasion and defy the odds.
Your win has continued to confirm that young people in this country are significantly talented and require exposure and opportunities to improve the quality of their lives. Further, it is not that they require a competition at that level by virtue of their age, strictly for themselves which alienates the veterans. Their only requirements are that the competition is meritocratic and that they are treated fairly and equitably by the fraternity. While they deserve a seat at the table, that table must be inclusive and ensure that there is proper mentorship as a by-product of suitable succession planning. Moreover, there needs to be an urgent recommencing of our primary and secondary school competitions to ensure that we continue to churn out talent in our country.
In fact, your win may have very well caused the veterans to self-retire after they threw some picong after you, which you didn’t play at because it was not affecting your stumps. But, more seriously, your inclusion caused a conversation where it is time that we consider a post-retirement plan for our artists who have made significant contributions to the art form as they are indispensable personalities in our historical journey.
Your win confirms in my mind King, that we as young people must be advocating not through the narrow lens of individualism, but for an incubator across the country which ensures that talent identification occurs and is channelled to the proper systems which are ready to translate our musical skills to improve our lot. The talent seen in the competition you won among young people is boundless King, but it is inspiring because it is premised upon ensuring calypso remains the expression of our social conscious and where we can have unfiltered discussions about the conditions in the society, not for points as TC Brown has noted, and not for self-aggrandisement as Mighty Sizzler mentioned. Instead, young people continue to distinguish themselves in this season as beacons of hope to our generation, that when given the opportunity they are ready to take the wheel and earn the respect of everyone. They’ve shown that they can chill with the big boys and girls.
During your reign King, I want you to continue punctuating our airwaves with your social commentary which is indispensable to the development of our country. Ensure that your call for young people to be invested in and to be provided with opportunities because of the positive benefits which can accrue as was seen in your case is heard and listened to. It is my hope that young people across the lengths and breadths of this country see your win as an inspiration for themselves, as I have, as it demonstrates that if you work hard organically, and the opportunities are present, one must take them as the rewards are bountiful. That, they should not be intimidated by the unknown and those who seem to be goliaths, as they must always be ready to take the wheel.
As I said in another piece, albeit on a separate topic, young people should live in harmony with the spirit of Machel Montano’s “Too Young to Soca,” wherein the singer noted: when they start with critical comments and laugh with utter amusement, and say you’re a little boy and too young to sing, they should concentrate on winning the junior crown, should wait a few more years, and that you too young to Soca, and playing with fire, and come here too early, but you may be too small but not too young at all.
