Caribbean Dynamic

Cultural Identity and Consciousness

Rawle Gibbons is a writer and dramatist who gave an engaging and interesting lecture of
the Caribbean Dynamic focusing on the cultural identity and consciousness. His Calypso Trilogy
of plays was a landmark in the exploration of calypso, history and politics on stage. He was the
first head of the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts at the University of the West Indies - St.
Augustine, a post he held for 20 years according to his bio from PanCaribbeans website.
Recently retired he runs a bookshop -The Blue Edition - with his wife Patricia and continues his
research into Calypso, Orisha and the festival arts in the Caribbean with an eye to their dramatic
components.
His abiding passion is education through drama and the folk and popular art forms. Mr.
Gibbons has a concern that certain historic event should be marked due to the historical and
educational value. He spoke of the importance of calypso and other essential facets of Caribbean
history. In reclaiming the Caribbean he spoke to three important points. The issue of blackness in
Africa, how we as Caribbean people deal with Africa the idea of a absentee Planter and the
absentee father in Caribbean diaspora and the oneness of spirit and humanity . He explained the
very poor attempts we as a people have employed to preserve our own history and the history of
of our island. He implored us to see the value of this history and preserving these memories for
the future generation. He referred to examples of BREXIT and the president elect Donald Trump
and how the current generation will have to explain to their children how this happens.
He asked us to consider how do we navigate and make up these spaces within history.
And explains to us how through the arts we are best placed to help others understand and learn
about the culture. He used the example of how he and his team created a play based a culture of

people in Trinidad but they only wrote half the play. They then asked the people to assist them in
finishing the play thus showing them how the people themselves saw their culture. He also made
reference to Carsle/ Tsuare where people were driven to jump off cliffs, a place of beginning and
end, the future and death. I particularly found this analogy to be very interesting.
Mr. Gibbons further explained to us how our worlds, our cultures, are shaped by the Western
influence we are exposed to and the influences of the interactions of Europeans and Africans in
our horrible pasts with mention to the effects they have on us today.