BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - KEITH ‘KING DIS N DAT’ SCARBOROUGH is voicing that in order to save the dying art form of Calypso, politicians need to cease their involvement in the art form, the competitions and the decision making on who wins and who represents the islands in overseas competitions.
Scarborough, who is also the 2012 Nevis Culturama Calypso King, was hit with a roadblock when he was denied the opportunity to represent Nevis in the recently concluded Leeward Islands Calypso Competition.
According to Scarborough, he was denied that opportunity because one line in his song 'De Legal System' did not sit well with the government of St. Kitts and Nevis.
"The only reason I was not sent to Anguilla was clear and simple - it was a political decision.
"The issue was not even the song, it was one line in the song – “the Prime Minister of this nation was heard on this radio station, saying ‘it ah work’, and the Premier of my island stay clapping like a dumb dumb, oh what a muck”.
"They are saying that I called the Premier a dumb dumb which I did not but that is just an excuse for them. It was clearly just an excuse not to send me. It was purely political, some words were hard hitting, very popular and falls against them and they just didn't like it. It is as simple as that.
"The song spoke about the Registration Officer and the Supervisor of Elections, what went on in Court and how they handled the matter."
Scarborough said that it is decisions such as this that is killing Calypso in the Federation, noting that calypsonians represent the people and sing out on their behalf.
"It is unfortunate here in St. Kitts and Nevis that the politicians have injected themselves into the actual judging of competitions. But Calypso is not about that, it is an art form which speaks to the social ills of anyone but mostly for the poor man, not because they don't have the ability to do it themselves but we the Calypsonians do it for them. So when we sing songs like that, it is for the Politicians to listen because it is basically the voice of the people that you are hearing."
He stated that St. Kitts has seen an injection of politicians into Calypso over the past 15 years while Nevis has seen the same over the past six years.
The nine-time Culturama King further stated that this action has gotten worse on Nevis where the Politicians would want to dictate, even after someone has won a competition, who gets to represent Nevis.
"That is how bad it has gotten and that is bad for Calypso throughout. You cannot inject yourself into a Calypso competition like that. Support who you want, back who you want, watch the competition but you are not entitled to decide who should win, who should not win as a matter of politics and decision making," he expressed.
The Culturama King voiced that in previous years issues such as these never arose, as calypsonians were free to sing whatever they wanted to, be it against the government or not without fear or favour "but for some reason these set of politicians here have decided they would dictate who wins and who loses, who represents and who does not represent".
He enunciated that this is why the art form is dying.
"This is the kind of behaviour that is driving the calypsonians away from the competitions. And that is why Nevis has gone from 25 calypsonians in the elimination down to seven, eight and nine because the females do not want to participate. Unless you sing what these politicians want you to sing, you’re doomed before you even start.
"This will kill the calypso! It will kill Calypso as we know it, because what we will get on competition night is all eight persons singing praises to the government, whoever the government is and that is not Calypso," he explained.
Scarborough voiced that Calypso is about singing on the topic of one’s choice and it should not be based on wanting to please the government.
He predicted that Calypso would be dead in the coming years if these issues are not dealt with.
"Calypso would be dead in 20 years time, I don't even think that it would reach five years, calypsonians would just start dropping down totally - no competition, or the ones who are supporting the government go up and sing praises to them and that is not what you want in a Calypso competition - everyone singing praises to the government.
"They should leave the calypsonians to sing what they want to sing," Scarborough complained.
