Trinidad is the birthplace of the Limbo Dance, and it is the Limbo Capital of the world.
It’s claimed that the Limbo is rooted in the African Legba Dance.
In its early years, the Limbo was performed at wakes, with the bar set at the lowest possible height, to symbolize mankind’s lowest state: death. Then it would be gradually raised, to symbolize the emergence from death to the afterlife.
Later on, when the Limbo was popularized, the process was reversed, with the bar starting at very comfortable heights, then lowered gradually. And other new features were added, such as setting the bar on fire.
Roman Catholic theology speaks to a state called ‘Limbo’ which is sometimes described as “the edge of hell”. And with Trinidad being so heavily influenced by Catholicism, some people believe that the Limbo Dance also represents the passage through, and out of, the edge of hell, with the flame on the bar symbolizing hell’s fire.
Clearly, there’s significant commonality with regard to the explanation of the Limbo Dance.
But whatever its origins, it has become little more than a source of fun and entertainment, and its cultural significance has been lost on most people, as seems to be the case in so many other spheres of human activity in the Caribbean. Sad!
But not so with a special Trinidadian friend of mine, who remains keenly focused on the region’s culture. And its politics.
She contacted me recently to express her deep concern about the situation in our Federation.
And in true Trini fashion, using pun and wit, here’s what she said: “Boy, every day here in Trinidad it’s only one bad thing after another we’re hearing from up your way. Your country has gone down real, real low. All you are doing the Limbo, and you’ve reached so low that it looks like St. Kitts & Nevis has now taken over from Trinidad as the new Limbo Capital.
“Your country has been thrown to the edge of hell, and it will take something new and radical to get you past this.”
She said that while nowhere, including her own homeland, was perfect, and that while some countries in the region were less developed than St. Kitts & Nevis, comparisons with other countries were meaningless, because we Kittitians and Nevisians must live here and face our own realities.
She said that she had been watching us fall, quickly and tragically, to this low level of financial, fiscal, economic and social degradation. And that it pained her deeply.
When I asked her what, in her opinion, had caused us to become, as she said, the Limbo Capital, she answered: “Brutishness and bobol”.
She continued: “Your little country is under the control of brutes. And when brutes rule, it’s horrors for the people.
“And when it comes to bobol, you all make Trinidad look like Sunday school.
“The bar is at its lowest and the fire is raging on. St. Kitts & Nevis is now truly the Limbo Capital. Will you all squeeze through under the bar and escape the fire, or will you perish?”
My Trini friend’s words made me feel embarrassed, ashamed and angry. They stung me. Because they were true.
We are indeed governed by brutishness.
No respect for the Constitution, the Parliament, the rule of law, the Courts, or democracy. No respect for the sacredness of a vote. No respect for the people, their history, their aspirations, their culture or their humanity.
Just arrogant, power-hungry, greedy, disrespectful, deceitful and opportunistic brutishness.
And bobol is indeed the order of the day, as we see case after case of insider trading, unjust enrichment, sweetheart deals, kick-backs, and other misuses and abuses of public resources and of the public trust.
And it has now reached the point where the bobolists are cannibalizing each other.
We’re now the Limbo Capital of the world.
Yet another ‘distinction’ for us under the rule of Denzil Douglas, to add to him being : the first St. Kitts & Nevis Prime Minister to run up a debt of $3 billion; the first to put the country under IMF reconstruction program; the first to yield up nearly 8 square miles of the island of St. Kitts as security for that debt; the first against whom a No Confidence Motion was filed; the first under whom there is a parliament with no Deputy Speaker; the first who to have accumulated so much wealth while in office; and the first to have reversed the process of empowerment of the poor that had been started by leaders of the Workers’ League back in the 1930s.
He has dragged this country down: we’re the new Limbo Capital.
It’s time for the people to revive and restore, and to send him to his political Limbo.
Although, it may not be “the edge of hell” that’s in his cards.
