The Value of Pan

Offered the rare (and flattering) pleasure of addressing one session of a cross faculty co-curricular programme hosted by birdsong at UWI last week on what I consider to be “the value of pan”, it challenged me to summarise and sharpen some of my longstanding views on the steelpan phenomenon in T&T.

What inspired the invitation, I was told, was a comment I had made in a recent column that successive national budgets were failing to mention the value of the instrument in all its manifest dimensions, even as its autonomy as a national asset requires greater recognition.

I have contended that pan’s designation as the National Musical Instrument should not serve as a cue for continued or even deeper reliance on state largesse – as is currently being asserted – since its value should never be compromised by official whim.

Though there is sometimes both useful and harshly critical feedback on some of the things I have asserted over the years (as an observer and not an established, regularly cited “expert” on the subject) I have never considered my views representative of anything but the result of an enduring concern about the long-term future of my country and the potential role of the steelpan.

So, it was relatively easy for me last week to discuss “the value of pan” against the backdrop of broader national developmental goals and the “values” required to achieve them.

The presentation provided an opportunity to play with the terms “value” and “value systems” – that interplay between a notion of “wealth” and the corresponding achievement of goals employing such assets, together with a clear pecking order based on what is deemed important and indispensable.

So, I started with “historical value” and the degree to which pan is rooted in the collective defiance of an oppressed group. The way colonial authorities were defied at the very start of this journey when it came to drums. How official disapproval rallied people and stimulated emotions the way only music can achieve.

Faced with a ban in the late 1800s, people appeared to be saying: “Nope. No way.” Then through tamboo-bamboo to the percussive powers of discarded metals to what we have now, there birthed and grew the steelpan. Out of defiant protest.

There are several texts that more competently trace this development, and I consider Kim Johnson’s storytelling on such matters among the best.

Then, last week, I focused on “musical value” (keyword “resilience”) and the ways in which this instrument has been able to deliver on its core indigenous musical assignments, while capturing and embracing a wide variety of genres through innovations and expertise that have expanded the instrument’s (and its players’) musical significance and scope.

There was no way I was going to attempt to get more into that in the presence of musicologist, Derrianne Dyett, beyond citing the observations of other notable experts.

Then comes “socio-cultural” value (key word “unity”) – the degree to which the steelband has been able to grow into a working model for social organisation and development and the collective harnessing of human potential.

There must be academics looking closely at this point, since there are lessons to be learned from the panyard experience that are not readily evident elsewhere – including the traditional school classroom and other centres of learning.

Rigid social hierarchies are also overturned and reassembled at the panyard and, as in the early years, there is defiance of the dictates of social norms. It is thus, arguably, the most revolutionary of public spaces.

Then comes “economic value” – the monetising of pan’s assets. The key term here is “indigenous innovation” with an abundance of untapped intellectual property value, adding to direct earnings through a multiplicity of existing avenues.

Yes, a geographical indication as recently awarded is useful, but barely scratches the surface of immense potential in this area of hugely untapped wealth – innovations that often pass unnoticed.

I then closed the UWI session by noting the overall “developmental value” of the steelpan which spans the full range of steelpan resources – both realised and unrealised. This would be the sum of the constituent parts of historical, musical, socio-cultural, and economic values with the main characteristics being defiance, resilience, unity, and indigenous innovation.

Again, I recall a mid-1980s conversation with the late great Keith Smith when I stopped and turned to him as we walked along Independence Square: “You know that oil and gas will someday be gone. What else but pan would we have left?”

I cannot recall Keith’s response. But you tell me. What else will we have left?