Growin' Up As Ah Lil Impse in Trinidad........

not knowing anything, I used to hear tings that used to make me dream in a big way..tings dat sounded real sweet, and so far away they were the ends of the universe...and full of mystery..the names of places with that ring of forever...

Kashmir in India was one such name..Manila and Philippines were two more..Morocco and Aden. no English name caught my spirit, nor European name..or if one, two or more did, I don't remember at this point. but the African names in particular did..not that I knew they were African names of cities... and nations and places in them.

they would all tune in to the English news on the raydio and I would hear about these places and the trouble there. and I would hear the names., names, names...sweet, captivating....Monrovia, Dar Es Salaam, Cairo, Marrakech, Kinshasa, Harare', Maputo, Antananarivo, Madagascar, Kampala, Addis Ababa, Lusaka....

oh boy! I used to dream and dream about those places, exotic places,magnificent places, brilliant places of light and color, jewels and great men and women, people, splendid people who were better than us, taller, powerful: And so far away you could not come back if you went there..it would take too long
:cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

https://geology.com/world/africa-satellite-image.shtml

I thought Guyana was the WORLD !

and wondered why we had so many different color faces.

De Chinese, Portugese, Native Amerindian, East Indian, African and de left over White people!

a Land of SIX races was my conclusion

Quote:Me too! trinidad was the world. and of course we had the same faces..as many as 6 and more too :lol: :lol: :lol:

we had a way or making more faces, adding faces in the west indies by the constant work of of the truly skillful 'saga boys' and 'sweet men' who were truly good at their work..no woman was 'safe' :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

the douglas, cheegroes and other new forms would flow out of the national wood works and background as if mandated by god..but it was largely from the work of dem guys and dem..relentless dudes with tongues of silk and all the right moves

I came to see more of the world as I came to make some sense of the news on the raydio..enuff so the places and faces became far, far far away, exotic and glorious..and colorful, brilliantly so..color I came to associate with carnival, the historical bands. I remember up to now one band portrayed the Etruscan Civilization one carniva.. colors so thrilling I have never forgotten.

that is what I imagined the world so far away was like

later on as I could go into 'town' by myself fuh carnival I became aware of the steelbands. my big sister and her husband literally lived next door to the 'Despers' panyards. I spent some carnivals there.

then there were Casablanca and Tripoli..steel bands that used to raise the hair on your back with fear..especially Tripoli. but man could they beat sweet..all of them...and each had their religious followings, large crowds of loyal supporters who would go to war for their band

Later on I came to know Casablanca and Tripoli as cities full of trouble and 'really bad, gladiatorial' people..Muslims! which is why the bands took those names in the first place and wore their 'bad aura' with pride

Casablanca is of course a city in Morocco ..and Tripoli is one in Libya - both in Africa

Folks,
Something went AWRY : with Billy Shatine !
WE all need to send him back to REFLECT ~

lol, two pages of beautiful writing ...and then he ends it all with his usual racism.

Trinidaddy,
Something went AWRY : gotta be those white man Blogs on Internet !