BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - "I always feel that the neglect of culture causes lack of love. When they don't have that relationship in the culture, they will slowly lose the whole cultural instinct."
So said Cultural Doctor and Preservationist Winston 'Zack' Nisbett, who, in an exclusive interview at the opening of his annual Summer Instruments Workshop, stated that the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis is slowly losing its culture.
Nisbett told this publication that the Federation's art form is a native one and should therefore be held on to so as to not lose it, adding that that is what is being done because persons are not dedicated to keeping it alive but are focussing on the American culture.
"It is indigenous to our art form. We are slowly losing it, we are straying from that and that is because of migration...many persons have gone away. It depends on money! People are not as dedicated and they don't have the sort of inspiration and commitment as before. The big house and the big cars and that sort of thing take over. They are losing the initiative of the cultural heritage...
"We are slowly losing our culture because most of the persons who were involved are not as committed anymore. They are committed more to the Americanised culture! They are more concerned with money and people are not concerned with this sort of thing (old time musical instruments).
Nisbett explained that with his annual Summer Instruments Workshop, he is trying to preserve that culture by teaching the children who attend about and how to play the Guitar, Quatro, Fife, the Tenor Banjo and the Ukulele Banjo.
He went on to explain that not only are the children learning, but those who are chosen to join his band usually take home a large amount of funds from their 'gigs', which is mostly put towards the purchasing of school supplies for the upcoming academic year.
"By doing so it helps them to help themselves and their parents, because they will be able to make a penny. So they would be glad for their kids' input, because when they go out there they are obligated to their parents and to help them in some way or the other. They are going back to school and they need to have their own monies so as to ease the financial strain off of their parents, which has been done in the past."
When asked how the Federation is losing its culture, Nisbett recalled: "Once ago, we use to have a lot of string bands. We had string bands competition, we big drum competition, the bands don't even have a fifer now...and the fife is important because you have the kettle drum and the bass drum. And when you have a good fifer it causes the kettle drum to go more...and the bass man could play with a little more enthusiasm. And so the sweeter the music the more exotic the rhythm is and the more it makes you roll.
"You don't have that sort of inspiration now with the music. When they are playing the music now nobody even dancing as such. Once ago, when Rupert Samuel and Arnish Rawlins out of Nevis, when you see those guys on that kettle you don't want to move. When you have the bull playing with the Arthur Davis and the Sweetie and the Oak and the David and Goliath - these are the things. So when visitors come here to our shores they ain’t come here to hear what they have been hearing all the time, they come here to see what we have to offer. That is indigenous to the art form."
He went on to explain that there is nothing like that happening today, which shows that the culture of the nation is draining.
The Cultural Doctor added: "Music is a universal custom, it is like language, it transcends messages. When you play music and you play it good, it soothes your mind, it gets you in the mood, it makes you feel happy. It's a whole continuity of art."
Reflected on Christmas/Carnival season when he was younger, Nisbett recalled people filling the streets and 'jamming' to the string band along with the other old time bands, which he said are not plentiful anymore because of the dying culture.
Nisbett also spoke of his goal to pump the old time music back into the Federation’s culture.
He said that having the annual Instruments Workshop is just a start, as he has a vision of instilling the old time music in the youths with the aim of having the culture pumped back into society before it is completely gone.
"[I want to] Give them the inspiration...as long as they get the feeling and they feel happy and they make others happy. In fact, when we go serenading you can see the people yearning for them; they open their doors to them. They did a lot of that last year and they will be doing a lot of that this year," he said.
When asked if the Federation should abandon modern music and just focus on the old, Nisbett replied in the negative, stating that the two should instead be fused but "let the bass be our music...which is important to our cultural heritage and restore that pride and joy once again”.
Nisbett is of the view that if one were to have the youths trained to play the old time instruments, in time, culture would be restored to St. Kitts and Nevis.
"Man, we will have a repertoire of musicians down the road, we will have hundreds of musicians and that is what we want to see. We don't want the art to die at all. This is arwe ting and we need to preserve it, we need to keep it alive."
