Cultural policy in Jamaica; Studies and documents on...

I / Cultural policy T a

A study prepared by the Institute of Jamaica

Studies and documents on cultural policies

In this series:

Cultural policy: a prelim mry s t d y Cultural policy in the United States, by Charles C. Mark Cultural rights as h u m n rights Cultural policy in Japan, by Nobuya Shikaumi Some aspects of French cultural poIicy, by the Studies and Research Department of

Cultural poiicy in Tunisia, by Rafik Saïd Cultural policy in Great Britain, by Michael Green and Michael Wilding,

in consultation with Richard Hoggart Cultural policy in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by A. A. Zvorykin

with the assistance of N. I. Golubtsova and E. I. Rabinovitch Cultural policy in Czechoslwakia, by Miroslav Marek with the assistance of Milan

Hromádka and Josef Chroust Cultural policy in Italy, a survey prepared under the auspices of the Italian National

Commission for Unesco Cultural policy in Yugoslavia, by Stevan MajstoroviE Cultural policy in Bulgaria, by Kostadine Popov Same aspects of cu1t;uraI policies in India, by Kapila Malik Vatsyayan Cultural policy in Cuba, by Lisandro Otero with the assistance of Francisco Martínez

Cultural policy in Egypt, by Magdi Wahba Cultural policy in Finland, a study prepared under the auspices of the Finnish

Cultural policy in Sri Lmnkiz, by H. H. Bandara Cultural policy in Nigeria, by T. A. Fasuyi Cultural policy in I r m , by Djamchid Behnam Cultural policy in Poland, by Stanislaw Witold Balicki, Jerzy Kossak and Miroslaw

The role oj culture in l e h e time in New Zealand, by Bernard W. Smyth Cultural policy in Israel, by Jozeph Michman Cultural policy in Senega4 by Mamadou Seyni MBengue Cultural policy in the Federal Republic oj Germany, a study prepared under the

auspices of the German Commission for Unesco Cultural policy in Indonesia, a study prepared by the staff of the Directorate-General

of Culture, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia Cultural policy in the Philippines, a study prepared under the auspices of the Unesco

National Commission of the Philippines Cultural policy in Liberia, by Kenneth Y. Best Cultural palicy in Hungary, a survey prepared under the auspices of the Hungarian

The cultural policy of the Uni& Republic of Tanzania, by L. A. Mbughuni Cultural policy in Kemyq by Kivuto Ndeti Cultural pdicy w1. Roimia, by Ion Dodu Balan with the co-operation of the

Directorates of the Council of Socialist Culture and Education Cultural policy in the G e r m Democratic Republic, by Hans Koch Cultural policy in Afghanistan, by Chafie Rahe1 Cultural plicy in the United Republic of Cameroon, by J. C. Bahoken and Engelbert

Same aspects aj cultural policy in Togo, by K. M . Aithnard Cultural policy in the Republic oj Zaire, a study prepared under the direction of

Cultural policy in Chana, a study prepared by the Cultural Division of the Ministry

Culturd policy in the Republic of Korea, by Kim Yersu Cultural policy in Costa Rica, by Samuel Rovinski Cultural policy in Jamaim, a study prepared by the Institute of Jamaica

the French Ministry of Culture

Hinojosa

National Commission for Unesco

Zulawski

National Commission for Unesco

Atangana

Dr Bokonga Ekanga Botombele

of Education and Culture, Accra

The serial numbering of titles in this series, the presentation of which has been modified, was discontinued with the volume Cultural policy in I d y .

Published in 1977 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris Printed by Artes Gráficas Benza1 - Virtudes, 7 Madrid-3

ISBN 92-3-101521-4

@ Unesco 1977 Printed in Spain

Preface

The purpose of this series is to show h o w cultural policies are planned and implemented in various Member States.

As cultures differ, so does the approach to them; it is for each M e m - ber State to determine its cultural policy and methods according to its own conception of culture, its socio-economic system, political ideology and technological development. However, the methods of cultural policy (like those of general development policy) have certain c o m m o n prob- lems ; these are largely institutional, administrative and financial in nature, and the need has increasingly been stressed for exchanging experiences and information about them. This series, each issue of which follows as far as possible a similar pattern so as to make comparison easier, is mainly concerned with these technical aspects of cultural policy.

In general, the studies deal with the principles and methods of cultural policy, the evaluation of cultural needs, administrative structures and management, planning and financing, the organization of resources, legislation, budgeting, public and private institutions, cultural content in education, cultural autonomy and decentralization, the training of personnel, institutional infrastructures for meeting specific cultural needs, the safeguarding of the cultural heritage, institutions for the dissemination of the arts, international cultural co-operation and other related subjects.

The studies, which cover countries belonging to differing social and economic systems, geographical areas and levels of development, present therefore a wide variety of approaches and methods in cultural policy. Taken as a whole, they can provide guidelines to countries which have yet

I to establish cultural policies, while all countries, especially those seeking new formulations of such policies, can profit by the experience already I gained.

This study wae prepared for Unesco by the Institute of Jamaica. The opinions expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of Unesco.

Contents

9 Background

13 Colonial cultural policy

19 Independence and national forms

26 Cultural decolonization

36 Policy implementation

Background

Spanish colonization

The island of Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea was first discovered by Europeans on 4 M a y 1494, during Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the Americas.

Columbus’s first view of the island (an area of 4,411.21 square miles, with a population, in 1977, of about 2 million) was that of a green mountainous landscape with primeval forests broken only by the occasional clearings of the Arawak Indians, the first inhabitants. Columbus discovered an island on which 60,000 - 70,000 people of the polished Stone- Age period lived peacefully, practising developed arts and crafts as evidenced by archaeological finds of shell necklaces and ceramic fragments.

The Arawak population was exterminated during the period of Spanish rule, but it is possible that some of their number may have been absorbed into the groups of African slaves w h o escaped from the Span- iards into the mountains and came to be known as Maroons.

The colonization of Jamaica began in 1509 with the appointment of Juan de Esquivel as Governor and continued for 146 years, but little cultural evidence of Spanish rule remains, except for place-names and a few decaying buildings.

English conquest

In 1655, an English expedition under Admiral Penn and General Venables was sent out by Oliver Cromwell to capture the island of Hispaniola. Failing in their objective, they sailed to Jamaica, landed at Passage Fort on 10 M a y and met very little resistance, the Spaniards moving their women and children to the north side of the island and from there to Cuba, ninety miles away. However, some Spaniards, and many of their

9

Cultural policy in Jamaica

African slaves, operating from the mountainous interior, carried on a guerrilla war against the English. Finally in 1658 the English captured the whole island and began a process of colonization which lasted un- broken until the granting of independence in 1962.

T h e peoples of Jamaica

Many of the earliest English colonizers came to Jamaica from Barbados and the Leeward Islands, and they were joined by indentured servants from London and the west of England, reprieved criminals (usually felons), political prisoners from England and a few independent planters and merchant adventurers from England and North America. They brought with them the cultural homogeneity of a common language and had the dominant status of masters of a slavery system.

The biggest group of ‘migrants’ to Jamaica consisted of the African slaves brought on the Middle Passage’ in a triangular trade, as merchan- dise (with the same status as ivory, gold, dye woods and wax) to be exchanged for rum, sugar and spices. They were destined to be treated as part of the goods and chattels of the sugar plantations.

Through a deliberate policy of disorientation, Africans of the same families or ethnic groups were separated on arrival and, by a process of erosion, lost the ability to speak their native languages which were the main sources of their cultures. The cruellest aspect of the African’s life in the Americas (beside which all other barbarities pale) was that he was dispossessed through slavery of his natural means of comprehending reality and forced (in order to survive) to try to grasp a new reality, by means of a linguistically unrelated language. Jamaica’s present cultural policy recognizes the importance of the African’s struggle for linguistic survival as one of the fundamental facts of slavery.

B y 1673, black and coloured persons (white concubinage with African women was common) constituted over half of the 17,200 people in Ja- maica. B y 1696, black and coloured people accounted for more than 80 per cent of a population of nearly 50,000. B y 1844, shortly after ‘emancipation’, Jamaicans of African origin and descent represented 95.8 per cent of the island’s population.

It might almost be said that ‘the people of Jamaica’ were imported from Africa. But this would not be reflected, at any time, in the cultural situation. British (specifically English) cultural forms predominated in music, dance, metalwork, stonework and cookery but interaction was inevitable. The tenacity of the African character ensured the partial

1. The Middle Passage is the traditional name g i m to the heavy movement of ships carrying slaves across the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Caribbean during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

10

Background

survival of African (mainly West African) forms in music, song, dance, food, wood-carving, ceramics and craftwork among the majority of the population.

It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that British cultural forms predominated in Jamaica because of their inherent superiority over African forms. Clearly they were dominant as a consequence of the physical and economic subjugation of the African. There is little evidence that there was a highly sophisticated culture among the overlords. Indeed, Lady Maria Nugent, wife of General Sir George Nugent, Governor of Ja- maica from 1801 to 1805, an acute observer of the manners and mores

‘they really eat like cormorants and drink like porpoises’.’ It is a fact of cardinal importance to contemporary cultural policy in

Jamaica that the word ‘Jamaican’ was never used to designate a black person during slavery. The slave was either an ‘African’ or a ‘Negro’; the word a ‘Jamaican’ invariably indicated a white person. Jamaican cultural policy in the 1970s takes into account particularly the centuries of purely racial identity (in contradistinction to national identity) of the majority of the population.

In the early days of the English conquest, Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal were encouraged to settle in Jamaica. They established themselves as a numerically small element in the population but with growing financial importance in trade. It is of significance that they maintained (and still maintain) their language, customs and religion and did not intermarry with the Africans.

East Indians were brought to Jamaica as indentured labourers to work on the sugar plantations between 1845 and 1917. They intermarried with the Africans but maintained their language and other cultural forms, including their religion. By 1960, East Indians formed 1.7 per cent of the population.

In the 1890s, the Chinese arrived in Jamaica as free persons. B y 1943, they owned a considerable percentage of the grocery business and by 1975, most of the supermarkets. T h e Chinese intermarried with the blacks so that the Afro-Chinese population (about 0.6 per cent of the total population) is as large as the pure Chinese population. In spite of this, the pure Chinese have maintained a separate cultural identity, isolated from the main stream. Although generally fluent in Jamaican Creole (a necessary adjunct to successful trading with the majority of the population), many of them, including children, are still fluent in Chinese.

l of the masters of the slave-owning system, remarked of the planters that

1. Lady Maria Nugent, Journal, p. El.

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Cultural amalgamation

The amalgamation of cultures in Jamaica has been slow and has taken odd forms. Edna Manley, the renowned Jamaican sculptor, writing in 1956, had this to say about Jamaican children’s art:

Children of hventy-five years ago-owing to some emotional confusion-were unable to paint the people around them. They produced a mixture of observation, and what they were taught should be their observations. As a result we get pictures of [black] market women with yellow hair and blue eyes. I am not really sure why or how this happened-it certainly implied a broad gap between something seen and an ideal which had been built up by some very confusing methods.’

T h e conceptual confusion (if it is only confusion) persists. In Jamaican Creole (a dialect of English) a number of West African words form part of the contemporary vocabulary: for example, nyam (eat greedily) ; unu (you). Jamaican children have been traditionally taught that these African words are ‘bad English.

It is in the more instinctive expression of musical forms that the dialectic of confrontation of the two main cultural streams has produced an identifiably new style. During slavery, the music of ‘emancipation’ was the Christian non-conformist h y m n which was gradually absorbed and distorted by the subtle tonalities of the African voice and the can- descent dynamism of African rhythms. This was the revivalist source of Jamaican music from which have sprung the popular forms of the colonial and post-colonial periods-mento, sku, rock-steady and reggae-the remarkable cry of the dispossessed and underprivileged in the sixties and seventies.

Policies of cultural development in Jamaica in the last quarter of the twentieth century cannot ignore the essentially class origins of the two cultures, English and African, which will, at least in theory and hope, amalgamate in the single identity of One People?

’

1. Edna Manley, Report on Jcnnaicq 1956, p. 46. 2. Jamaica’s official motto is ‘Out of Many, One People’.

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Colonial cultural policy

The Institute of Jamaica

The Institute of Jamaica was constituted during the governorship of Sir Anthony Musgrave by L a w 22 of 1879 which created a Board of Gover- nors consisting of seven members (increased in 1889 to eleven and in 1908 to twelve), their duties being to establish and maintain an institution comprising a library, reading-room and museum, to provide for the reading of papers, the delivery of lectures and the holding of examina- tions on subjects connected with literature, science and art, to award premiums for the application of scientific and artistic methods to local industries and to provide for the holding of exhibitions illustrating the industries of Jamaica.

The special features of the institute in its early days were the library, the museum and the history gallery. In 1930, the General Library contained a total of 22,104 volumes. A teacher’s library was established especially for teachers in elementary schools, with 650 volumes in regular circulation. The West India Reference Library, created by Frank Cundall, the secretary and librarian of the institute, contained a total of 7,241 books and pamphlets, 1,392 original manuscripts and 706 maps and plans. B y 1948, the Reference Library holdings had increased to 14,479 books and pamphlets dealing with the West Indian islands and Central Ameri- ca, and 1,910 original manuscripts.

The museum collections formed an almost complete representation of the fauna and flora of Jamaica as well as of its geology and anthropology. Of particular interest were the objects connected with the Arawaks,

shells, broken pottery and beads. A few relics of slavery were also exhibited, notably an iron cage gibbet in which offenders were hung to die of starvation. Of importance to the projection of colonial culture was the institute’s

I I l

.

including a large series of carefully finished stone implements, perforated

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History Gallery which contained 420 portraits of Jamaican governors and other celebrated persons in the history of the island. The History Gallery also exhibited 245 paintings and engravings, including a series of Ja- maican landscapes in oils by Lady Barkly. One of the most significant works was Pine’s Rodney Aboard the Formidable, a contemporary oil painting of the Battle of the Saints. T w o watercolours by Pocock were also on show and a series of engravings depicting Rodney’s victory over DeGrasse in the Caribbean. Caricature portraits of Toussaint l’ouverture, leader of the Haitian revolution, were also exhibited.

Prior to the establishment of the University of the West Indies (1948) and the Jamaica Library Service (1948), the Institute of Jamaica was the centre of intellectual and artistic life in the country. But it was not a life that was at first open to everyone. Membership was restricted by a carefully controlled three-tier system of honorary members, correspond- ing members and subscribing members. Subscribing members were nominated and elected by the Board of Governors, ordinary members paying an annual subscription of five shillings and life members a single payment of two guineas. It was a matter of much prestige to be elected a member of the Institute of Jamaica and the composition of the Board of Governors with four members nominated by the governors, four m e m - bers elected by the institute’s membership and four members nominated by the elected members of the Legislative Council, reflected a distinctly upper-class slant.

In 1888 the institute struck Musgrave Medals (in bronze, silver and gold) in memory of §ir Anthony Musgrave, to be awarded for excellence and distinguished achievement in literature, science and art. The Mus- grave Medal remains (in 1977) as the highest cultural award given in Jamaica. The rules for the award read

(a) Gold Medals may be awarded for distinguished eminence in literature, science or

(b) Silver Medals m a y be awarded lor distinguished merit in the promotion of litera-

(c) Bronze Medals may be awarded for outstanding merit in literature, science, art

art in connection with the West Indies-especially Jamaica.

ture, science or art in connection with the West Indies-especially Jamaica.

or crafts in connection with the West Indies-especially Jamaica.

It appears that prior to the 1940s, the basic criterion for awarding these medals was excellence in the indigenous imitation of English cultural forms.

The institute did much to foster public interest in arts and crafts by organizing and sponsoring exhibitions which encouraged local artists and craftsmen. In 1940 a modern art gallery was built and the annual Na- tional Exhibition of Paintings was instituted.

The year 1938 was crucial in the cultural development of Jamaica. A working-class rebellion against oppressive colonial economic conditions provided the impetus for a general cultural protest and a remarkable

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Colonial cultural policy

flowering in art and literature. This art movement manifested, in its most sensitive aspects and in the work of its most enlightened personal- ities, a desire for cultural independence from Europe in advance of the purely political movement that was prepared to settle for trade unionism and a two-party political system within the colonial empire.

Against this background, the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts was founded in 1950, for the teaching of painting, drawing, design, pottery and modelling to adults. B y 1960 the school was offering a diploma (four- year course) and intermediate certificates (two-year course) in painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics and graphic art. In an attempt to provide cultural instruction for the majority of the population, the institute set up two Junior Centres in Kingston for children between the ages of 10 and 18. These centres each had a library and organized classes in painting, nature study, needlwork, recorder-playing and storytelling. In 1951, the Junior Centres organized workshops for children in elementary schools. Some 700 children were taught singing, simple musical notation and musical appreciation.

The British Council

The British Council, established by the British Foreign Office in 1934, worked closely with the Institute of Jamaica to help foster among Ja- maicans a better understanding of the British way of life and thought. It was represented in most of the learned and cultural societies of Jamaica and assisted deserving societies with material and, where advisa- ble, financial aid. The British Council inaugurated, subsidized and administered the Secondary Schools’ Drama Festival between 1950 and 1955. The council was very active in assisting in musical activities, providing a gramophone-record lending library, advising schools on the planning of musical appreciation classes and organizing lunch-hour programmes in country areas. The council maintained a collection of reproductions and prints of European art which was lent to schools and other organizations and a small collection of books on fine arts for the use of serious students of art. It provided an annual subsidy to the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts for the purchase of materials.

The British Council awarded scholarships and bursaries for study in the United Kingdom to a carefully selected number of Jamaicans and gave assistance to professional visitors to the United Kingdom to enable them to study or observe the working and administration of institutions and organizations similar to those to which they were attached in Ja- maica. Each year, moreover, the Council invited distinguished British professional persons to visit, lecture or advise in specialist fields.

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Jamaica Library Service

The Jamaica Library Service was set up in 1948 to provide an island- wide free public library service. U p to 1960, the annual grant from government funds was supplemented by a contribution from the British Council, after which the Government of Jamaica assumed full responsibility for the maintenance and development of the service.

Parish councils participated in the scheme by contributing towards local maintenance costs and in 1958 there were 13 parish libraries (9 of them in buildings specially designed for the purpose), 4 branch libraries and 97 book centres. Growth has been rapid in this service. In 1961 there were 6 branch libraries, 138 book centres and 8 bookmobiles, a stock of 366,700 books was available on loan, free of cost, to citizens throughout the island, and the Schools Library Service, administered on behalf of the Ministry of Education, organized the circulation of a further 224,000 books to 737 infant, primary and senior schools. The total number of registered readers increased from 84,738 in 1959 to 156,574 in 1962.

Government information service

The Public Relations Department was established in 1956 to inform the Jamaican public about the government’s plans, policies, projects and day-to-day activities. It also attempted to promote public interest in Jamaica’s history and culture. The Film Unit was particularly active in the production of news-reels and of featurettes on village festivals and parish shows. T h e Government Broadcasting Service operated, through Radio Jamaica and Rediffusion Ltd, a privately owned broadcasting station, using about twelve hours’ air time per week. A percentage of this time was given to transcriptions from the British Broadcasting Corpo- ration, but local programmes, chiefly plays and light and serious music, were also broadcast.

Cultural societies and groups

During the colonial period a number of cultural societies were active. The Poetry League of Jamaica, founded in 1923, described itself as a ‘fellowship of those interested in poetry, either as students or creative artists, and banded together with a view to extending the love and knowledge of all imaginative literature’. Its aims included ‘The creation of an Island literature and a study of its folklore’. The Poetry League had a limited appeal, but wielded some influence through the organization of ‘elocution’ contests and an annual speech festival.

A number of music societies encouraged and fostered competence in

16

Coioniai cuiturai poiicy

the vocal and instrumental performance of European music. Notable among these were the Musical Society of Jamaica, founded in 1926 ‘to provide members with opportunities for hearing good music’; the Dioce- 6an Festival Choir, organized in 1924 to celebrate the 104th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of Jamaica; the Jamaica Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1940 (the only symphony orchestra in Jamaica) for the performance of ‘orchestral works by famous composers and some of the major oratorios’. Affiliated to the British Federation of Music Festivals was the Musical Competition Festival of Jamaica, established in 1929 and held every two years. The classes in this festival included ‘Jamaican folk and digging songs’, which gave a touch of local colour. A distinguished British musician was specially invited from the United Kingdom to be adjudicator.

After the war, a number of theatre and drama groups made their appearance. The Caribbean Thespians Dramatic Society was founded in 1948 and its repertory included West Indian plays, although its outstanding productions are listed as Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest. From this group, a number of talented persons were awarded government travel award scholarships to study drama in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The Little Theatre Movement (founded in 1941) had been, by 1961, responsible for sixty major productions, including the annual pantomimes which brought live theatre to audiences totalling 500,000. Of particular interest was the West Indian Players group formed in 1959, for the exclusive production of West Indian plays: it staged plays by Derek Walcott, Slade Hopkinson, Roderick Walcott and Carey Robinson.

T h e Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC)

In 1959, the government set up the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation to raise the standards of broadcasting and ’to develop a truly Jamaican radio service’. The initial proposals for the radio station were made by the Chairman of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the first general manager was a former executive of the CBC: the first Board of Directors was, however, composed entirely of Jamaicans.

T h e JBC set itself the objective of reflecting a national culture through a wide range of cultural and entertainment programmes presented by local talent. In the initial period, the corporation relied heavily on news programmes and transcriptions from the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Broadcast- ing Foundation of America. Local programmes were mainly in the entertainment field and brought many talented local entertainers to the Jamaican audience in variety shows. Although the Jamaica Broadcasting

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Corporation was entirely government-owned, it sold advertising time and was expected to pay its own way. The result was that, in spite of the popularity of local entertainment shows, culture and cultural programmes remained within the great colonial tradition, the ‘little’ African folk tradition being largely ignored or treated as frivolous by the electronic mass medium.

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Independence and national forms

Jamaica was granted independence by the United Kingdom in 1962. It was not to be expected that there would be the desire for any dramatic change from the cultural process of imitating foreign forms. Jamaica’s independence was a smooth formal transition from colonial status, free from national or liberation struggles, and Jamaica remained firmly and loyally within the British Commonwealth with the Queen as Head of State and symbol of official cultural values. The most elaborate national cultural event ever staged in Jamaica had been the JAMAICA 300 festival mounted on a massive scale in 1955 to celebrate and applaud 300 years of British colonial rule in Jamaica, a magnificent gesture of loyalty. It was an astounding popular salute to the hegemony of British culture in the history and fabric of the island, and Jamaica’s cultural development continues to reverberate with its echoes.

Arts Advisory Council

At the time of independence, the government decided to make a deliberate effort to develop local talent. For this purpose an Arts Advisory Council was established in 1962. T h e council consisted of individuals with a knowledge of, and an active interest in, the fine arts and was required to advise the government on h o w best to develop the following cultural areas: (a) literature; (b) drama, speech and dance; (c) music; and (d) arts and crafts, including painting and sculpture.

The council’s advice resulted in the distribution of government scholarships for study abroad, and awards and grants to individuals and private cultural groups and societies.

In 1963, the council was re-named the Arts Development Council and its terms of reference were significantly widened to include ‘grass roots’ cultural expression. In addition to the conventional subjects, the follow-

19


ing were added: popular singing; folk music; cabaret; cuisine; popular music; home crafts.

Also, the council was required to place emphasis on ‘the uncovering of talent, the judging of such talents and the presentation of exhibitions in the visual and performing arts’.

The Arts Development Council had atrophied by 1965 but it is significant that at least four of its members were appointed to the Explora- tory Committee on the Arts in 1972 (see page 26).

Indigenous cultural material

There had always been academic interest in the beliefs and rituals of the religious cults of Afro-Christian revivalism, Pocomania being the best- known form. Sociologists and anthropologists had studied the theology and theogony of these cults since the last quarter of the nineteenth century, paying particular attention to the unique blending of non- conformist Christian evangelism and African notions of magic and salva- tion which characterize the practices of Pocomania (Pukkumina) , Zion and other groups. It was n o w recognized that the music and dance movements of these groups had an interest and significance both as folklore material and as a basis for higher creative performances. Thus, Elstablish- ment sanction was given to this aspect of indigenous expression by the setting up of the Folk Music Research Unit as a department of the Jamaica School of Music, its basic task being to collect and catalogue and preserve all folk music.

It is in this context that the first attempt has been made in the history of cultural policy in Jamaica, to develop indigenous culture in a systematic and scientific way. Edward Seaga’ stated the official intention with clarity in an address delivered to the conference of the Inter- national Folk Music Council held in Kingston, Jamaica, under the sponsorship of Unesco in 1971:

Folk Music coming as it does from folk society, is usually plagued by the social an.d cultural gaps which separate folk society from the rest of society in developed countries. Indeed I a m quite sure that gaps exist even in the most developed and industrial- ized countries, especially those that are comprised of different ethnic strains. It is necessary to bridge that gap, otherwise the material collected from within the confines of folk society which creates it, or which carries it on as a tradition, is exposed across a bridge into those other areas of society which have not had the first-hand experi. m c e of witnessing or participating in the folk rituals or the folklore.

It is necessary, therefore, to create a central pool of material where, firstly, the researcher can go for information, but also where the creative artist can go, so as to be able to get hie material which he uses as a point of departure in the creative

1. Edward Seaga was then Minister of Finance with responsibility for art and culture.

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process, to enable him to create in pexforming arts, material which properly reflects the folk basis of his performance.

. . . It is obvious that folk material as it stands in the raw, in what I call hot blood, is not in most cases suitable for stage or drawing room performances. Here it is left to the creative artist to modify, to adapt, always retaining the essential substance of the performance so as to bring it in a manner of exposure that will be adaptable to the performance hall, but at the same time carry with it the rich experience as it occurs in the live situation in hot blood.

There comes a time in that strategy, when a society is fully aware of what really is the true experience, that folk material becomes just a point of departure from a rich creative process to something distorted, if I might use the word; and it is that second stage, of course, that many countries have reached. But many have not, and it is to those countries that have not reached that stage where the gaps have been bridged and the whole society is fully sharing the experience of what is the true folk material in performance or in creation, it is those societies to which I make a plea: that they should not take the second step before taking the first, that is, in providing for their libraries and their archives all the material as it occurs, so as to at least leave the tradition in a form where it can be viewed, where it can be read, where it can be shared in its actual experience before it eventually disappears.’

T h e National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC)

A cultural performing group which m a y be said to have originated against the background of the assumption of the validity and strength of folk material is the National Dance Theatre Company which was formed in 1962, in a conscious ‘independence’ gesture, partly out of the m o d e m and classical dance activities in Jamaica of the preceding fifteen years and directly out of the Dance Theatre Group which had produced the highly successful dance-show, Roots and Rhythms.

The founder and Artistic Directos of the NDTC recounts that in preparing for the staging in 1963 of the remarkable dance-drama Poco- mania, the choreographers, singers, costume-designers and dancers of the company visited cults and seriously studied and recorded the music and dance movements of actual Pocomania meetings for transformation and re-creation on the stage, an important advance in procedure, considering the middle-class background and therefore ‘Establishment-culture’ orien- tation of most of the company. Rex Nettleford finds a wide significance in the use of folk material as the point of departure for the creative artist:

Whatever purposes Pocomania may serve it will continue to serve people like myself and others with a rich and valuable source of movement-designs and movement qualities for Jamaican dance theatre. It would be a disservice to the arts if doctrinaire social-content attitudes were allowed to freeze all that wealth of movement and movement-ideas within the authenticity of the cult ritual. Much of what is peculiarly

1. Quoted in 1971 Yembmk of the International FoWc Music Council, Vol. 3. 2. Professor the Hon. Rex Nettleford, omM, Director, Extra-mural Department, Univers.

ity of the West Indies.

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revivalist (to use the generic term) can indeed be woven into the fabric of the country’s artistic expression without threat to the deeper social and psychological meanings of the cults themselves. And the job of the artist to abstract and project the essences of the existence so that they can be of continuing meaning to the people they serve is the very challenge offered by the cult of Pocomania.1

T h e National Dance Theatre Company developed as a performing group with well-trained and talented dancers. It experiments with dance forms and techniques of all kinds in an effort to create a style and form reflective of the movement patterns of Jamaica and the Caribbean and especially encourages and conducts research into indigenous dance forms. In 1969, the Jamaica School of Dance was founded as the official trainingschool of the NDTC (see page 29).

All members of the National Dance Theatre Company pursue the dance as a part-time activity and without remuneration. In spite of this, the company has grown to be prestigious and professional in performance to the extent where it is n o w officially regarded as the national dance company of Jamaica.

T h e pantomime of the Little Theatre Movement

An interesting attempt at the indigenization of a foreign cultural form has been the Little Theatre Movement’s annual pantomime, a celebrated English form of vaudeville for children. For more than thirty years, the Little Theatre Movement has staged an annual pantomime, beginning in exact nostalgic imitation of the English pantomime (but with topical references) and then gradually becoming Jamaicanized after the Second World War. The pantomimes are n o w referred to as ‘completely Ja- maican musicals based on Jamaican song, dance and humour’? ‘Jamaica- nization’ meant, not the careful articulation of any (supposed) Jamaican cultural values but the gradual introduction within the framework of British music-hall tradition of black Jamaican personnel into the cast, broad comedians at first, then dancers and finally, a farcical plot based on folk foibles. This mélange is easily the most popular single cultural event in Jamaica, to which thousands of adults and children flock every year and are richly entertained.

It is especially noteworthy that the pantomime has been the main exposure ground for scores of Jamaican actors and actresses, producers, directors, playwrights, script-writers, songwriters, stage-designers and

1. Rex Nettleford, ‘Pocomania in Dance Theatre’, Jamaica Journal (Kingston), Vol. 3,

2. Henry Fowler, ‘A History of Jamaican Theatre’, Janmica Journal (Kingston), Vol. 2, No. 2, 1969, p. 24.

No. 1, 1968, p. 58.

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choreographers so that there are very few Jamaican theatre artists w h o do not owe the Little Theatre Movement and the pantomime a continuing debt of gratitude.’ Moreover, the pantomime has always been given official government recognition, through the Little Theatre Move- ment. Nevertheless, the supposed therapeutic value of ‘laughing at yourself once a year’ and comic entertainment at a farcical level cannot be the basis for a folk theatre, and the healthy tradition of an ‘anti- pantomime’ is developing, seeking authentic roots among the people, staged annually as a counter balance to the official spectacular show.

T h e Jamaica Festival Commission

The Jamaica Festival Commission was established in 1968 to be responsible for the annual festivals to celebrate the anniversary of Jamaica’s independence. These festivals had grown, between 1962 and 1967, to involve island-wide participation in numerous events affecting large numbers of the population. The Festival Commission as a statutory body was given the task of planning, organizing and conducting the annual Inde- pendence Festival.

The government planned in 1962 that the parish festivals in the arts and in sports would be staged so that the finals would coincide with the annual Independence Festival. The emphasis of the festival would be Jamaican in context, creation, workmanship and performance. The festival was conceived as an annual report to the nation on all its phases of national achievement. Street dancing, concerts, and parades and village festivities would ensure that the festival involved the broadest cross- section of Jamaican life.

A total of six annual festivals were presented from 1963 to 1968 before the commission was inaugurated.

The Jamaica Festival has been conceived in terms of mass participation and a search for indigenous folk material and human talent in an annual cultural event. In order to help achieve this end, a careful orga- nizational participatory structure has been devised.

P A R I S H F E S T I V A L C O M M I T T E E S

Parish committees are set up by a democratic system of membership recruitment and officers are appointed by the elective process. Parish committees recruit their members from a wide cross-section of the community and include teachers, leaders of citizens’ organizations, knowledge-

1. The Little Theatre Movement was awarded the gold Musgrave Medal (1975) of the Institute of Jamaica in recognition of the movement’s contribution to the develop ment of theatre in Jamaica.

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able persons in the arts and festivities, central and local government personnel, parish dignitaries and professionals.

As a further means of ensuring full community participation, the parish committees divide their areas into geographic zones and establish a network of Zone Festival Committees structured along lines similar to the central parish committees. As a result, at the parish and zone levels of the festival, some 1,500 voluntary leaders were involved in 1969. Direct management of parish (festival) affairs is left entirely to parish committees and care is taken to avoid any action directed at uniformity that might be inimical to the essential element of innovation needed for artistic and cultural development.

N A T I O N A L C O M M I T T E E S

Responsibility for specific aspects of festival organization and presentation is delegated by the commission to a number of project committees. In the years following 1968, the national committees were grouped into (a) general services, (b) the Art Development Group, (c) festivity subjects, thus:

General services: finance; parish organizations ; sponsorship and awards ; show production; sale of tickets and control.

Art Development Group: culinary arts; music; dance; drama; speech; literature; fine arts; photography; popular and mento music; crafts; costumes; festival magazine.

Festivity subjects: Governor-General’s Ball ;’ Miss Jamaica Beauty Con- test ;] the Grand Gala; Mello-Go-Roun’; Festival song; street dancing; street concerts.

F U N C T I O N S

The functions of some of the areas of the festival are worth noting. The Sponsorship and Awards Committee is the commission’s link with the private sector of commerce and industry. It receives requests from the project committees, solicits cash incentive awards for all the competitive subjects, secures scholarships, different types of prizes and sponsorship of competitors (e.g. in the costume contest), events and services.

The Speech and Drama Committee is responsible for programme development, syllabus presentation, the issuing of an annotated list of suitable plays and an anthology of test pieces for speech competitions.

The Culinary Arts Committee is concerned with the preparation and presentation of Jamaican dishes. This is a competitive subject for house- wives and children in the amateur division and for hotels and other catering institutions in the professional division.

1. Discontinued since 1974.

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Art students at the Cultural Training Centre. The late ‘Count Ossie’ African-Jamaican musician.

Children’s art exhibition.

Folk Museum: Spanish Town.

Rehearsal of a folk dance.

Performers in Carifesta 76.

Paul Bogle, national hero, sculpture by Edna Manley.

Folk musicians.


The Popular Arts include the Festival Song Contest and the Mento Music Contest. The Festival Song Contest aims at attracting the interest of professional popular composers and singers in the festival and at providing a theme song for the festivities. It also offers a vehicle through which the festival penetrates deep into society and involves the active participation of the thousands of people w h o sing the song and dance to the music in an island-wide identification with the festival. T h e suc- cess of the festival song depends on the wide popular acceptance it receives in the accepted ‘pop’ idiom of the year. The Mento Music Contest for singers and bands aims at both preserving traditional mento songs and encouraging new compositions.

The creative and performing talent which comes to light in the festival every year is further encouraged by scholarships to the schools of art, music, dance and drama.

Utilization of folk material

Jamaica’s cultural policy is n o w based on the understanding that no true development can take place through the mere imitation of foreign forms and that the mass of raw folk material must be studied, documented, refined, even rejuvenated, and used as the primary source for training in the arts.

Schools of music and schools of dance exist, but very often attention is not given to the training within those institutions in the folk element, in the folk material of the society, so as to create the folk music teacher and not just the music teacher, to create the folk dance teacher and not just the dancing instructor; to create the folk theatre and not just the theatre. It is because of this that the Jamaica Government decided to establish an art training complex which will link schools of dance, schools of drama and all other branches of the arts in a single institution acting as a focal course of guidance, inspiration and control.’

1. Edward Seaga, quoted in 1971 Yearbook of the Internatid Folk Music Cmil, op. cit., p. 13.

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Cultural decolonization

Exploratory Committee on the Arts and Culture 1972

In an attempt to devise a conscious and coherent cultural policy, the Government of Jamaica in 1972 appointed an Exploratory Committee on the Arts and Culture to assess the cultural situation in the country after ten years of political independence and to make proposals and recommendations for overall cultural development. The areas considered by the committee were: (a) the role of the government in the development of the arts and culture ‘consistent with freedom’; (b) the rationalization and maximization of existing resources provided by the government and the private sector; (c) the decentralization and spread of resources into areas outside Kingston; (d) the provision of increased opportunities for the greater participation of the large majority of the people; (e) the development of means to bring the country’s cultural heritage into per- spective, bearing in mind the imbalances of history and the contemporary response to this phenomenon especially among the assertive and self-aware youth.

The almost Aesopean language of (d) and (e) does not conceal the committee’s awareness of the hegemony of Anglo-American culture which remained the dominant and official culture during the post-colonial period. The government recognized that among the more articulate m e m - bers of society there was an explicit demand for cultural change which would acknowledge the importance of the subculture referred to in the phrase ‘greater participation of the large majority’. At the same time, the government recognized that the cultural implications which flow from the obvious African ancestry of the majority of the Jamaican people which have been officially neglected (‘the imbalances of history’) must be given full weight in any developmental cultural policy.

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The Exploratory Committee was made up of distinguished leaders in the arts and culture whose intellectual and creative work rested firmly on the values and methods of Anglo-American culture (the ‘great’ tradition) but who, nevertheless, were sensitive to the vitality and insistence of the local subculture (the ‘little’ tradition). The committee’s delibera- tions ranged widely over education, architecture, music, fine art, literature, theatre, dance, cinema, crafts, the environment, the business community, libraries, youth groups, the church, broadcasting, sports and recreation.

The final report of the committee has been accepted by the government as the virtual blueprint for cultural policies in the future. It is significant that, in a preamble, the committee firmly sets its face against the governmental use of the arts for propaganda purposes:

The responsibility is p1ace.d on the community rather than on Government exclusively since the Committee saw the arts not as an instrument of propaganda but as an instru. ment of cultural growth and personality development. As such, Government, through practical help and constructive guidance, can act as a catalyst to help an activity which flourishes best if left to ierment on its own?

Positively, the committee recommended the establishment of a council of art and culture designed, inter alia: (a) to develop and improve the knowledge, understanding and practice of the arts; (b) to co-ordinate the cultural activities of creation, dissemination, training and conservation among official and voluntary bodies as well as individuals; and (c) to administer such funds as m a y be made available for the arts from time to time by the government and other sources.

The Arts Council was seen as the government’s main, if not sole, vehicle for a new thrust in cultural development, having strong moral authority in the co-ordination and evaluation of the role of government ministries and departments in the country’s cultural development and of established non-governmental institutions.

The Arts Council would consist of seven advisory sub-committees on libraries, theatre, dance, arts and crafts, music, folklore, broadcasting and cinema. Education (through the Jamaica Teachers’ Association), youth development and architects’ and environmental bodies should be represented on the council.

T R A I N I N G IN T H E A R T S

The most far-reaching proposal of the committee was for the establishment of a Cultural Training Centre to provide facilities for the training

1. T h e committee recognized and wished to preseme ‘the autonomy of existing private organizations which have played such a vital part in furthering [Jamaica’s] cultural development in the past’ although the content of that ‘cultural development’ is neither analysed nor evaluated.


of teaching, creative and performing talents in music, dance and drama as well as in fine arts and crafts. A central, shared, location was considered absolutely vital for the day-to-day contacts so essential in the cross-fertilization necessary for ‘vigorous developments’ in the arts. With regard to the various schools to be moved to the new location of the Cultural Training Centre, the committee made the following proposals.

The Jamaica School of Music should restructure and re-orient its work with greater relevance to the needs of Jamaican musical education and, in particular, the vibrant work begun in the Folk Music Research Unit should be expanded and included in the curriculum of the school. The creative talent evidenced in Jamaican popular music should be recognized and encouraged by the school through extra-mural and intra- mural courses of study.

The committee noted that the Jamaica School of Music had been established as a limited company in 1961 but was heavily subsidized by the government. The school offered a traditional conservatoire training in serious European music including organ, voice, stringed, woodwind and brass instruments, theory and harmony, general musicianship and the history of music, the emphasis of training being on performance. The Folk Music Research Unit was set up, with very limited facilities, as a gesture towards a general indigenization implicit in the granting of political independence, and was only a fringe activity of the school. In the atmosphere generated by colonial cultural values which still strongly prevailed in 1972, the temperate call of the Exploratory Committee for the ‘expansion and integration’ of (but not giving central place to) research into the musical heritage of the majority of the Jamaican people, was nothing short of revolutionary. At the same time, to preserve a balance, the committee proposed that the school should ‘work towards’ the establishment of a National Symphony Orchestra.

The Jamaica School of Art, then a constituent division of the Institute of Jamaica, should be re-sited at the Cultural Training Centre as an autonomous body, should give emphasis to courses in commercial art and devise courses for the training of teachers of art.

The committee was aware that, although from the inception of the school, the majority of students were of working-class origin, the values and methodology of instruction were Anglo-American, especially in the emphasis on painting. The committee was silent on the need for the School of Art to initiate research into, and evaluation of, indigenous forms of plastic expression as the basis for a Jamaican methodology.

The Jamaica School of Drama, set up in 1970 by the Little Theatre Movement (a private theatre company), was n o w to be brought under the new Arts Council. The committee proposed that the school should expand its training-courses in the following areas: (a) to train students for dramatic work in radio and television and films; (b) to provide in-

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service training for teachers and to provide drama specialists for schools; (c) to provide trained personnel for work in the rural areas, with the Jamaica Festival Commission and the Ministry of Youth and Community Development; (d) to provide a vehicle for indigenous playwrights.

As with the School of Art, the committee was aware that, on the one hand, the training methods in the School of Drama were based on those of renowned foreign institutions such as the Rose Bruford Drama School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the United Kingdom, and the Yale University Drama School in the United States of America, and that, on the other hand, an indigenous folk/urban theatre of the ‘little’ tradition persisted among the majority of the people.

The Jamaica School of Dance should be formally established under the Arta Council and should: (a) train dancers in a wide variety of techniques against the background of Jamaican and West Indian dance forms; (b) conduct training for work in dance in television and films; (c) train teachers (in-service) and develop courses for the provision of dance specialists in schools; (d) develop and maintain active interest in the recreational, artistic and educational potential of dance.

The committee proceeded to make the following specific recommendations (at present being implemented) on the Institute of Jamaica, the Jamaica National Trust Commission, the Jamaica Festival Commission and a National Council on Libraries and Archives.

The Institute of Jamaica should establish a folklore department to collect, study, utilize and present various manifestations of Jamaica’s cultural heritage through research projects, archives, and exchanges of folklore material internationally and inter-regionally (the Caribbean and Latin America). A tape library of Jamaican and West Indian authors reading their own works should be established. The encouragement and development of literature should be a special task of the Institute of Jamaica through the publication of works on Jamaican art and culture, the offering of fellowships to deserving writers and the subsidizing of literary magazines and reviews.

The Natio’nal Trust Cornmission should prepare an inventory of Ja- maica’s environmental assets, embark on a programme of public education on the work of the commission and its assets and lay greater emphasis on the presentation and restoration of domestic architecture of historic significance.

The Jamaica Festival Commission should decentralize its administration and develop a deeper regional structure. It should introduce village improvement competitions to emphasize the importance of environmental qualities. Trained personnel should be employed to improve the standard of festival programmes throughout the rural and urban communities.

By far the most important recommendation of the Exploratory C o m - mittee was for the establishment, as a top priority, of a National Council

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on Libraries and Archives’ because the committee felt strongly that the sine qua non for meaningful cultural development was a nationally organized information service for the transmission of both book and non- book material. The National Council on Libraries and Archives should provide a national plan for libraries in Jamaica, establish a National Library of Jamaica with clear responsibilities and the financial resources to function effectively. The necessity for this system was not lessened in the eyes of the committee by the fact that there was a 40 per cent illiteracy rate in Jamaica.

The libraries to be included in an integrated national development system were the following :

1. The libraries of the Institute of Jamaica (the West India Reference Library, the General Reference Library, the Science Museum Library, the Junior Centres Library).

2. The libraries of the Jamaica Library Service (210 public libraries, 7 bookmobiles covering approximately 235 stops, a school library service to 830 schools with use of a further six bookmobiles).

3. The libraries of academic institutions (the University of the West Indies, the College of Art, Science and Technology, the School of Agri- culture, teacher training-colleges ).

4. The libraries of government departments and other institutions (all Ministry libraries, and those of the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation, the Scientific Research Council, the Supreme Court, and the Jamaica Agricultural Society).

The National Council on Libraries and Archives should study and seek to stimulate the development of the libraries of private organizations and establish official channels for the use of their resources (unclassified material) in the national system. This should include the libraries of the bauxite companies, the radio and television companies, and the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association.

The council should advise the government on the legislation required to establish a National Deposit Library responsible for: (a) legal-deposit collection of books and allied material including audio and visual material; (b) the collection, storage and retrieval of this material through a suitable reference library service; (c) the compilation and maintenance of an up-to-date union catalogue and the regular publication of relevant bibliographies; (d) the establishment of special reference and display collections of Caribbean culture relevant to Jamaica’s growing needs.

The council would examine recommended library standards and advise

1. The National Council on Libraries, Archives and Documentation Service was established by the government in 1974.

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on legislation for the implementation of ‘national standards’ as a guide- line for upgrading all types of libraries in Jamaica.

The Exploratory Committee went on to make specific recommendations for library development. It recommended that the following mini- mum book provision should be established: (a) public libraries-3 books per reader (the existing rate being 1.9 per reader or 0.38 book per head of population); (b) primary schools and schools for all ages-3 books per reader (the existing rate being 0.84 book per class).

Turning to supportive material for the National Literacy Programme,’ the committee recommended the establishment in all public libraries of book collections with special large-print books for new literates in mini- m u m quantities of five books per reader:

The most important and perhaps the most difficult part of the Literacy Programme is the task of keeping new literates functionally literate. This can best be done through a library where the new literate has regular and easy access to reading material within the range of his reading skill and his personal interest in its contents.

It was further recommended that in addition to the National Deposit Library, the government should establish the following libraries : (a) departmental libraries in all government departments; (b) a Central Gov- ernment Library responsible for supervising and co-ordinating all ministry and departmental libraries; (c) a Central Library of Science and Technology; (d) a Central Library of the Fine Arts; (e) a Central Medical Library; (f) a Central L a w Library.

G O V E R N M E N T M I N I S T R I E S

The committee next considered proposals for changing the style of work in various ministries and other organizations and agencies concerned with the arts in an effort to develop cultural independence, as follows.

The Ministry of Education should review and re-evaluate the present radio and television services so as to realize the immense educational potential of these media by utilizing the wealth of indigenous material available as a replacement for foreign transcriptions of radio and television broadcasts for schools. It was urged that the ministry should employ centrally trained personnel in the arts on a full-time or part-time basis throughout the schools.

In a direct reference to the need to delimit the hegemony of colonial culture, the committee recommended:

1. The exposure of students to the crafts of older, Third World, traditions such as those of the Indian, African and Chinese civilizations.

1. The name ‘Literacy Programme’ was changed in 1974 to JAMAL (Jamaica Move- ment for Adult Literacy).

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2. The introduction of a stream of African studies into the curriculum

3. The exposure of students to Jamaican popular music (traditional and

4. The structuring of courses on folklore for use at all levels of the educa-

5. The establishment of a ministry tape library or in-depth critical stu-

6. Th e restructuring of the physical education curriculum to give it a

7. The introduction of band and string musical groups in schools to dev-

of all Jamaican schools.

contemporary) in a serious way.

tional system.

dies of Jamaican and West Indian authors, for use in schools.

greater dance component.

elop instrumentalists for an eventual national orchestra.

As the necessary pre-condition for these reforms, it was proposed that ‘education in Jamaica break from the British examination system’.

The Ministry of Youth and Community Development,‘ in collaboration with planners, developers, community organizations and educational institutions, etc., should undertake recreation research to determine existing patterns, habits, available facilities and requirements as a basis for a twenty-year projection. The ministry should also prepare, collect, edit and distribute recreational material related to Jamaica and encourage the fuller utilization of existing facilities for recreation.

The committee recommended that in all public buildings to be con- structed in the future, the Ministry of Works should ensure that one or two per cent of construction costs should be allocated for art works to be commissioned through the Arts Council’! and that all public buildings, including schools, should be decorated with paintings, sculpture, etc., commissioned from local artists.

The Ministry of Mining and Natural Resources should place greater emphasis on the development of visual amenities for the community, for the development of national recreational parks, underwater parks, scenic drives, etc.

The committee recommended, under the Ministry of Home Affairs and Justice: (a) the amendment of the existing copyright laws to ensure protection of all works of art; and (b) the repealing of all existing legislation prejudicial to the practice and conservation of Jamaican folklore and the enacting of legislation for the protection and conservation of folklore material.

The committee recommended that the Ministry of Finance should give its sanction to donations to charities and cultural organizations

1. Ministry of Youth and Sports (1977). 2. Since 1973, works of art to a cost of 2 per cent of construction costs of new public

buildings have been commissioned through a committee appointed by the Office of the Prime Minister.

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(approved by the Arts Council) being deductible as expenses for tax purposes as follows: (a) for companies, up to a total of 10 per cent of char- geable income; (b) for individuals, up to 20 per cent of net income.

There should also be: (a) tax relief for private persons w h o restore buildings scheduled by the National Trust Commission, and where private developers or individuals expend funds for integrated fine art work, the cost thereof should have an accelerated rate of depreciation; (b) tax incentives for artists, and duty-free importation of art materials; (c) free postal services for non-profit-making artistic organizations approved by the Arts Council.

The Ministry of Industry and Tourism should restrict the importation of foreign commercials for radio, television and cinema and ensure that all film companies shooting on location in Jamaica make use of existing equipment and crew.

J A M A I C A B R O A D C A S T I N G C O R P O R A T I O N

T h e following specific recommendations were made for the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (radio and television) :

1. The promotion of live presentations in the traditional and popular

2. The promotion of public relations programmes on suitable leisure-

3. T h e exercise of greater discipline in ensuring true professional stand-

4. Increase in the programming and sponsorship of local sports events. 5. The promotion OE increased Jamaican content in the overall pro-

6. The promotion of programmes that relate consciously to national cul-

folk arts.

time pursuits.

ards from all performers.

gramming of the station.

tural goals.

J A M A I C A I N F O R M A T I O N S E R V I C E '

The Jamaica Information Service should produce public relations programmes to encourage Jamaicans to rethink their attitude towards the arts and cultural development, and should launch a public relations drive on the entire question of the environment. Further, as a matter of urgency, the Jamaica Information Service should establish a proper film library and produce films with Jamaican cultural content for distribution to Jamaican diplomatic missions.

1. Now the Agency for Public Information.

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S T R U C T U R E O F T H E A R T S C O U N C I L

The committee recommended that the Arts Council should be

fairly large and have a small executive committee and a small full-time paid secretariat and should be comprised of, say, ten members appointed for three years by the Prime Minister and ten elected annually from cultural organizations-these twenty members to co-opt up to ten additional members who shall hold office for two or four years (at least two such members to be from the University of the West Indies)-to meet annually prior to budget in a two-day conference with a top-level Inter-Ministerial Committee to discuss budget needs for the arts and general policy.

Specifically :

the Executive Committee (to meet monthly or as therein determined) would consist of the Chairman of the seven Advisory Committees [see page 271, presided over by the Chairman of the Arts Council, to prepare policy recommendations for the Arts Council and to carry out the decisions of the Council.

The secretariat of the Arts Council initially could be three persons but within a short time there should be as many as there are sub-committees.

The members of the secretariat would be in direct daily touch with the cultural bodies that operate under the umbrella of the Arts Council.

F I N A N C I N G

The committee envisaged two types of financing of cultural organizations. ‘Directly financed bodies’ which obtained money directly from the government through various ministries, such as the Jamaica Library Service and the Institute of Jamaica, should continue to do so. However, the Arts Council should budget for the newer bodies and for those like the Ja- maica School of Art and the Jamaica School of Music, which were being re-located or ‘becoming independent of their former masters’. All new cultural bodies set up after the formation of the Arts Council should receive their budgets through the council. The committee also considered that, in time, new projects initiated by ‘directly financed bodies’ should probably be supported by Arts Council grants and, as the Arts Council grew in financial strength and authority, these organizations might wish to put more and more of their expansion proposals through the Arts Council, ‘or ministries might rule that new money must come through Arts Council grants’.

A P P O I N T M E N T S

The committee made specific proposals for appointments to the Arts Council. The Prime Minister should, at his discretion, normally include in his appointments about five persons who enjoyed the full confidence of, and were of high enough status to influence decisions in, the Min-

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istries of Finance, Education, Youth and Community Development, Health and Environmental Control, and Industry and Tourism. The committee stressed (though without giving any specific reasons) that at least two of the Prime Minister’s appointees should be ‘dynamic businessmen with real interest in the arts’ and that the other three (making a total of ten) should be persons with a direct connection with the ‘arts movements of the community’.

The committee envisaged the Arts Council as an entirely new organization, separate and apart from any existing cultural institution.

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Policy implementation

Restructuring the Institute of Jamaica

The government decided that the major proposals contained in the Ex- ploratory Committee’s report should be implemented, in general, through the Institute of Jamaica, which was already in the process of changing its administrative structure and reviewing its aims and objectives.

In 1973, the institute embarked on a policy of attempting to make its implicit values and programme activities more relevant to the needs of Jamaica in the 1970s. While the institute continued its traditional function of encouraging literature, science and art in any local manifestation, and maintained its museums, libraries and galleries, attention began to be focused on Jamaican cultural forms. T h e main task has, therefore, been to identify and evaluate systematically the mass of historical, artistic, archaeological and antiquarian material which had been collected in the institute for nearly a century, and to present it as an ordered cultural unity from which all the Jamaican people can draw spiritual sustenance and in which the gifted will find inspiration for true creativity.

C U L T U R A L T R A N S M I S S I O N

Particular emphasis has been placed on bringing Jamaican manifestations of culture to the consciousness of the ordinary people. The colonial assumption that cultural development means the imitation of Anglo- American models (with the allied acceptance of exclusivity and a cultural élite) has been firmly rejected for the first time.

To further this new attitude, the Institute of Jamaica successfully produced a series of workshop entertainments under the general title of Anatomies of Jamaica Culture, designed to explore and demonstrate the structure of the Jamaican folk and popular arts and relate these arts to Jamaica’s wider cultural heritage. In Jamaican popular music, the histori-

I Policy implementation

cal development from mento to reggae was seriously examined and presented both as’ an analysis and as entertainment. In dance, the African and the European heritages were explored and a close look taken at Jamaica’s Chinese and Indian dances. Other programmes studied and presented the popular theatre in Jamaica and the development of creativity in ,the plastic and graphic arts, particularly among the underprivileged.

T H E A F R I C A N - CA R I B B E A N I N S T I T U T E O F J A M A I C A ( A C I J )

Recognizing that (a) the basic cultural heritage of the vast majority of the Jamaican people is African; (b) it is a matter of urgency and permanent importance to the psychological health and the progress of the Jamaican people to identify, evaluate, strengthen and extend this heritage; and (c) the value of Jamaica’s African cultural heritage can only be understood through a continuing study of its relationship to and interaction with the other migrant cultures that make up Jamaica’s culture and way of life, the Government of Jamaica established the African- Caribbean Institute of Jamaica in 1972, as a constituent division of the Institute of Jamaica.

The African-Caribbean Institute is a non-racial national institution dedicated to the fostering of a national Jamaican identity and is the government’s principal agency for the promulgation of information about Africa and the African cultural heritage as transmuted in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

The initial tasks of the African-Caribbean Institute were to establish authoritatively the reality and validity of the African cultural presence in Jamaica and the Caribbean and to devise methods of preservation and means of propagating that presence.

ACIJ has established exchange programmes of scholars and artists with various African countries and, in particular, has a formal reciprocal agreement with the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana. Exchanges have included visits of two Ghanaian ethnomusic- ologists to Jamaica and the visits of a Jamaican research fellow in linguistics and a Jamaican archaeologist to Ghana. Plans have been made for a fiveman cultural mission of Makonde master carvers to visit Ja- maica from September to November 1977 under the sponsorship of ACIJ, and to give demonstrations of the art of carving to students at the Ja- maica School of Art, to practising carvers in urban and rural areas and to schoolchildren in technical schools. Throughout an exhibition of their work, a special feature will be an ‘on-the-spot’ demonstration of carving in ebony.

ACIJ holds an annual festival of African films which has proved extremely popular, especially with audiences of primary schoolchildren

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and the working class. T h e films chosen for presentation deal with such topics as post-independence nation-building in the United Republic of Tanzania, the cultural heritage of Ghana and Zambia, industry in Swazi- land and Liberia, agriculture in Kenya and the liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique and southern Africa generally.

Research into African retentions and continuities is conducted by research fellows in linguistics, dance and music. Linguistic research has revealed isolated pockets of Jamaica where African languages such as Kikongo, Nago, Twi, Ibo still survive. A library of film and tape material related to African survivals is being steadily built up. At he same time, research fellows are communicating their findings to the population through regular lectures and seminars in schools and colleges.

Research publications include : Vest African Languages and Jamaican Creole,’ by Ms B. Hall; Black Jamaicans’ Struggle Against Slavery, by Richard Hart; Introduction to a Jamaican Ethnobotany: by Ms B. Hall; Jonkunno in Jamaica, by Ms C. Ryman; A Collection of Jamaican Child- ren’s Songs, by Dr B. Brown; and Prolegomena to Caribbean Literature: by Neville Dawes. A linguistic dialect m a p of Jamaica and a traditional dance m a p of Jamaica are soon to be published.

General publications of the African-Caribbean Institute include fact sheets on each African country and newsletters giving information about traditional Africa. These publications are distributed free of charge to all schools and colleges in Jamaica and to the University of the West Indies. Other publications include Salute to Afro-Cuba (1975), and The Rebel W o m a n in the British West Zndies during Slavery, by D r Lucille Mair.

T h e African-Caribbean Institute is responsible for the Museum of African Traditional Arts and Crafts established in 1971 in the stables of Devon House, in which is displayed a small selection from over 2,000 objects of authentic African arts and crafts held by the Institute of Jamaica. This museum has proved to be extremely popular with children from primary schools. It is at present being reorganized with particular emphasis on the accurate ethnographic descriptions of the exhibits and on the creation of a suitable ambiance for audio-visual presentations. Also under the aegis of ACIJ is the museum established in 1961 in the stables of the Old King’s House (former Governor’s residence) and devoted to the folk art of the people of Jamaica. T h e original intention in setting up this museum was to create an exotic tourist attraction. Under ACIJ the museum (formerly the ‘Folk Museum’) has been re- named T h e Jamaican People’s Museum of Craft and Technology and rearranged so as to reveal the ingenuity of the underprivileged in creating

1. Paper presented at the second World Black Festival of Arts, Lagos, 1976. 2. Monograph partly financed by Unesco. 3. Monograph on literature pr0duce.d by the African Diaspora in the Caribbean.

38


for themselves, out of the most unlikely material, objects and devices of beauty and usefulness to help alleviate the oppression of their lives. This museum is still a tourist attraction but has taken on a new significance for the thousands of schoolchildren who visit it annually.

Under the general theme of ‘The Integratedness and Philosophical Unity of the Black Experience’, the African-Caribbean Institute, in con- junction with the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, sponsored a Summer School in African and Caribbean Studies in Kings- ton from 2 August to 2 September 1977. The following courses were offered :

Core courses

1. A Culture History of Africa (general survey of West African culture; traditional black Africa ; ancient African civilizations; kinship systems; belief systems ; erpres- sive culture and society).

2. Slavery, Colonialism and Decolonization in Africa and the Caribbean.

Special o p t h

1. African Continuities in Caribbean languages (origins and characteristics of Caribbean Creoles ; relationship between Caribbean Creoles and West African languages ; sur. vival of remnants of African languages in the diaspora).

2. African Continuities in Caribbean Music (musical genres ; musical performance ; the role of music in social behaviour and institutions).

3. African Continuities in Caribbean Dance (sources for studying black dances in Africa and the Caribbean; the continuing effect of slavery and colonialism on Afri. can culture as exemplified in the dance).

4. African continuities in Caribbean Religions (traditional belief systems; syncretic forms; role of priests; religion and medicine).

African lmguuges

Proficiency courses in spoken Twi and Amharic.

Staff at the summer school included the distinguished Africanists, Pro- fessor Merrick Posnansky (archaeology) and Professor J. H. Nketia (ethnomusicology ) and the eminent Caribbean poet/historian Edward Kamau Brathwaite. Most of the students at the summer school were teachers from the primary schools and ACIJ has made arrangements for individual follow-up through correspondence courses.

In its planning and activities, the African-Caribbean Institute has been guided by the government’s general directive of 1972, that in government-financed cultural development, programmes should be devised so as to achieve a ‘multiplier’ effect upon the mass of the population and that inquiry should focus on evidence of a continuing and virile African heritage.

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T H E N A T I O N A L G A L L E R Y O F J A M A I C A

The National Gallery of Jamaica was established as a limited company in 1974, to house the national collection of fine art, mainly Jamaican painting and sculpture, which had previously been in the keeping of the Institute of Jamaica. All shares in the National Gallery are vested in the Board of Governors of the institute w h o appoint the Board of Directors and the curatorial staff.

The main objectives of the National Gallery are:

1. T o acquire Jamaican and Caribbean art, especially painting, sculpture and ceramics.

2. T o acquire the traditional arts and crafts of the older civilizationa from which the people of Jamaica originate, especially Indian, Afri- can and Chinese.

3. T o preserve the national collection of art. The gallery will in the near future operate an advisory service on conservation and restoration for private and public galleries and for private collectors w h o may require such a service.

4. T o mount national and international exhibitions and be responsible for all government-to-government exchanges.

5. T o organize popular art exhibitions on an island-wide scale and especially to display outstanding works by Jamaican artists to children in the primary schools.

6. T o organize local art competitions and to award prizes. 7. T o grant fellowships and scholarships to practising artists. 8. T o publish and sell reproductions of the national collection. 9. T o conduct research into the history of Jamaican art.

The National Gallery is housed temporarily in a fine nineteenth-century stately house’ until funds become available for the erecting of permanent gallery buildings estimated to cost J$3 million, in the first building phase.

The directors of the National Gallery are aware of the role the gallery plays in the development process and place great emphasis on bringing the artistic treasures of the nation to all the people.

I N S T I T U T E O F J A M A I C A L A W , 1977

In order to give legal authority to the Institute of Jamaica in its function as the government body with overall responsibility for Jamaica’s cultural development programme, a new Institute of Jamaica law will be promulgated in 1977, the principal objects being to reconstitute the Board of Governors under the name of ‘the Council’ and to confer on

1. Devon House, scheduled by the National Trust Commission.

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the council additional functions in relation to the encouragement and development of literature, science, the arts and culture, the pursuit of history and the preservation of national monuments for the public benefit.

The Council of the Institute of Jamaica

The proposal of the Exploratory Committee that an Arts Council should be established, has been realized in the setting up of the Council of the institute which consista of twenty-five members appointed by the ministry, including five Fellows of the institute, appointed in recognition of their distinguished personal achievement in cultural activity.

Board of Management

Under the 1977 Law, the minister will appoint boards of management which will be in charge of the following divisions of the institute:

1. The West India Reference Library. 2. The Natural History Division. 3. Museums and Archaeology. 4. The African-Caribbean Institute (see page 37). 5. Cultural Projection Programme and Junior Cultural Centres. 6. Publications. 7. The Cultural Training Centre.

The West India Reference Library The Library collects, preserves and disseminates information in all forms on all the Caribbean islands with greatest emphasis on Jamaica (for which it functions as the national reference collection). M u c h attention is devoted to the English-speaking islands and the mainland countries, Guyana and Belize. The library’s collections on the non-English-speaking Caribbean islands, such as Cuba and Haiti and countries bordering the Caribbean Sea have increased considerably in recent years.

In addition to a reference stock of 27,141 books and pamphlets, there are periodicals, newspapers and non-book items such as maps, manuscripts, prints, microfilms, gramophone records, negatives, photographs and tapes.

T h e West India Reference Library houses most of the documentary and non-book treasures of the Jamaican heritage and carries out and encourages scholarly research into this material.

The Natural History Division Over the years, this division has specialized in taxonomy and has become the chief national and international source of information about the fauna and flora of Jamaica. A considerable amount of this information

41


has been recorded in the division’s science bulletins, in Slonea (occasional papers) and in overseas publications.

The division carries out practical work involving the collecting and accurate identification of plants and animals : for example, supplying fruits and other parts of plants for studies for potential pharmaceutical activity.

The Natural History Gallery, maintained by the division, containing specimens with detailed labels, has become a stimulus to Jamaicans, especially to youth, to take an interest in and appreciate Jamaica’s fauna and flora. The staff of the division give lectures, conduct or assist in field trips and help students locate information in the books and journals of the division’s very useful natural history library.

The herbarium, which is Caribbean in scope, is considered to be one of the finest in the world.

Museums and Archaeology The Institute of Jamaica maintains five museums, as follows :

Arawak Indian Museum (White Marl). A display on the earliest known inhabitants of Jamaica. T h e hill above the museum appears to have been occupied by the Arawaks continuously from 900 A.D. M a n y of the exhibits in the museum were recovered from that site.

The Forces Museum. Established in 1972, this museum is devoted to the display of weapons, uniforms, medals and plate commemorating the occupation of Jamaica by British armed forces from 1655 to the end of the First World War. The museum is jointly maintained by the Jamaica Defence Force Council and the Institute of Jamaica.

The Archaeological Museurn. This is a site museum, founded in 1975, displaying some of the artefacts recovered from archaeological excava- tions (1971 - 1974) on the Old King’s House site. Artefacts range from popular European ceramics, Chinese blue-and-white porcelain and Wedg- wood to Jamaican-made earthenware vessels (yabbas) produced by and for the use of the African population.

The Folk Museum, Spanish Town. A folk museum was created in 1961 in the stables of the Old King’s House in Spanish Town, by a committee headed by His Excellency Sir Kenneth Blackbourne, GBE, KCMG, the Governor of Jamaica. This museum is now being reorganized as the Ja- maican People’s Museum of Crafts and Technology (see page 38).

The Museum of African Traditional Arts and Crafts (see page 38).

Cultural Projection Programme ancl Junior Cultural Centres This programme disseminates information on, and seeks to involve Ja- maicans at home and overseas in, all aspects of Jamaica’s cultural heritage. Emphasis is placed on projecting cultural activities through the media and by lectures and demonstrations to primary schools, high schools and colleges. This division maintains close contact with Caribbean

42


and foreign cultural organizations and foundations such as the Organiza- tion of American States (OAS), the Smithsoniam Institution in Wash- ington, the Casa de las Americas (Cuba), the National History and Arts Council of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The Institute of Jamaica n o w operates three Junior Cultural Centres in Kingston (see page 15) to stimulate awareness, among children, of Jamaica’s cultural heritage in the widest sense. The content and techniques of activities such as painting, dance, music and drama, n o w focus on Jamaican reality.

Associated with the Junior Centres is the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre in a working-class section of Kingston. This centre ia operated by the West Kingston Trust and serves as the central administrative point for a number of other centres in the community. It participates widely in cultural, sporting and educational activities, including semi-profes- aional musical and dance groups and the Tivoli Gardens football teams.

Publications The Institute of Jamaica has been a publisher of books, monographs and pamphlets for nearly a century. Frank Cundall, during his years as Secretary of the institute, wrote and printed, under the institute’s im- primatur, several books including Bibliography of the West Zndies (1909), Historic Jamaica (1915) and Governor of Jamaica in the Eighteenth Century (1937).

The institute concentrates at present on publishing books in series related to Jamaica’s history and culture. Recent publications include the following:

(a) Cultural Heritage series: George William Gordon, by Ansell Hart (1972); Sixty Years of C h g e , 1806-1866, by H. P. Jacobs (1973); Sir John Peter Grant, Gov- ernor of Jamaica, 1866-1874, by Vincent John Marsala (1972); Some Aspects of Jamicds Politics, 1918 - 1938, by James Carnegie (1973).

(b) Jamaicans of Distinction series: George ‘Atlas’ Headley, by Noel White and George Headley (1974); Herb MciLenZey4Zppic Star, by E. Townshend, J. Car- negie and H. MdCenley (1974); The Life and Times of W‘idlie Henry, by Clyde Hoyte (1975).

(e) Science Bulletin series (taxonomy of Jamaican fauna and flora) : twenty volumes in this series have been published.

(d) Lignum Vitae aeries (novels): The JmnaiCans, by Victor Stafford Reid (1976); Interim, by Neville Dawes (1977).

(e) Sloanea (occasional papers in taxonomy): Nau Plants fm the Cuymmt Ish&, by G. R. Proctor (1977); Assassin Bugs of Jamaica (Hemiptera: Redilvidad, by J. Maldonado Capriles and Thomas H. Farr (1977).

(f) Jamaica J o d : the Institute of Jamaica quarterly was first published in 1968. It enjoys high prestige abroad for its content, presentation and production.

The Cultural Training Centre The Cultural Training Centre which houses the four schools-Art, Dance, Drama and Music, was completed in 1976. The costly building represents

43


graphically the government’s total commitment to the policy of providing training in the various branches of the arts. The centre’s main priority is to provide teachers and cultural agents from the four schools for the educational system at all levels, and for work with the community. The importance of this programme cannot be over-emphasized in a country where class divisions in society are heightened by the difference between the quality of education offered in early childhood in public elementary schools and the education offered at expensive private schools available only to the rich. The creative stimulus to the young mind through exposure to the arts, is seen as a factor of reform which may reduce the effects of class-division by making equal opportunities for developing individual creativity available to all.

At this centre, training is also given to cultural officers working in community projects at grass-roots level. Thus, the centre m a y have an effect on the present stratification of society, the personnel w h o are being trained emerging as the real levellers in the social reform which is the priority target of Government strategy.

The Jamaica School of Art (see page 15). The main function of the Jamaica School of Art (formerly the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts) is to give tuition, help and guidance in aesthetic and practical two- dimensional and three-dimensional art and to encourage community-wide art appreciation.

The school offers two vocational (full-time) courses-the diploma course of four years’ duration and the certificate course of three years’ duration in the Departments of Painting, Graphic Design, Sculpture, Ceramics, Textile, Jewelcraft and Photography. All students are required to do a foundation course in basic design, life drawing and anatomy after which specialization begins. Graduates of the school are classified by the Ministry of Education as Specialist Teachers Grade I (Diploma) and Specialist Teachers Grade II (Certificate). Enrolment at the school in 1977 was 182 full-time students and 240 part-time students. There are 12 full-time and 18 part-time staff members.

The Jamaica School of Dance (see page 29). The following courses are taught in the Jamaica School of Dance: Ballet; Jamaican and Carib- bean Dance Forms; Modern Dance; The Dancer’s Instrument (a combination course including anatomy, physiology, learning through the muscles and feeling through movement) ; History of Dance (the accent on black dance forms and the historical development of Jamaican folk forms) ; Choreography.

The number of students enrolled in the period 1975 - 77 is as follows: Females Males Total

1975 309 6 315 1976 3 08 20 328 1971 300 18 318

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There are 4 full-time and 4 part-time tutors. The school has a junior department and a workshop comprised of students who, having attained a high level of competence, are given an opportunity to display their talents in public performances. The workshop also serves as a nursery for young choreographers within the school.

The Jamaica School of Drama (see page 28). The school offers five options in theatrical skills : acting, directing, playwriting, technical theatre and the teaching of drama.

A Youth Theatre within the 6ChOOl provides recreational activity for youth (ages 12 - 17 years) and gives young people a knowledge of drama and theatrical skills. The Youth Theatre also seeks to supplement the social studies and language programmes of secondary-level institutions by using themes from school syllabi. A Children’s Theatre is being developed for children (ages 7-12 years) and the successful experiment is being made of including deaf children in this theatre.

T o encourage new playwrights, the school produces new Jamaican plays using students as well as professionals in the casts and the production teams. The school also assista community groups and primary and secondary schools.

There are 4 full-time and 19 part-time tutors. In 1976, there were 30 full-time and 100 part-time students. Eighteen students graduated with the Diploma in Drama in 1977.

The Jamaica School of Music (see page 28). The Jamaica School of Music n o w offers diplomas (three-year) in Teaching and Performance and Music Education, and Certificates (two-year) in School Music Teach- ing and in African-American Studies.

In 1974, the teaching of jazz was introduced for the first time with the establishment of a Department of African-American Studies under Ms Melba Liston of the United States. The curriculum includes ear training, harmony, jazz history, arranging and composition and is intended to increase the skills of Jamaican popular musicians and composers.

The Certificate in School Music Teaching is intended especially for teachers in primary schools with limited instrumental skills w h o are nevertheless required to teach music.

The Folk Music Research Department has developed over the years and n o w houses a collection of more than 300 field recordings and taped copies of commercial recordings of the music of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Near East and the Far East. In addition, the department houses archives of Jamaican folk material and employs anthropological, sociological and ethnological assistance in researching traditional material. The department also acts as a national centre of information on Jamaican folk music and produces material from local resources for use throughout the educational system by the preparation of programmes for the Educational Broadcasting Service as well as for overseas areas such as London and N e w York where there is a high con-

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centration of West Indian children. The department gives classes in Ja- maican studies to all students of the school, emphasis being laid on Jamaican traditional music and the playing and methods of constructing traditional instruments.

The Junior Department caters for talented students between the ages of 7 and 14 wh o wish to study music seriously, and acts as a practice school for the Music Education Department. It also provides laboratory conditions for testing new programmes of music teaching to be carried out in schools. Courses in African-American and Jamaican music are taught, and Jamaican music is used extensively in musicianship and ensemble classes.

There are 9 full-time tutors, 13 resource tutors, 11 part-time tutors and 7 assistant (student) teachers. In 1977, there were 32 full-time and 342 part-time students enrolled in the school.

The Cultural Training Centre aims at equipping personnel to meet the professional demands of stage performance and the recording studio and ,

I at producing a ‘multiplier’ effect through skilled teaching of the arts in schools and in community projects, working almost exclusively at grass- ,

I roots level. I I Budget of the institute of Jamaica

The institute is financed by an annual grant from the central govem- ment. Divisional subventions (in Jamaican dollars) from 1975 to 1977 were as shown in Table 1.

Allocations (in Jamaican dollars) for special development projects of the various divisions of the Institute are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 1 Institute of Jamaica: central government subventions, 1975 - 71, by division

Division 1975 1976 1977

Administration West India Reference Library Natural History Division Museums and Archaeology African-Caribbean Institute Cultural Projections and Junior Centres Publications Jamaica School of Art Jamaica School of Dance Jamaica School of Drama

192,496 213,895 83,780 61,257 101,695 95,154 75,556 11 6,99 1 - -

249,616 246,651 100,335 58,415 116,028 18,954 94,909 139,760 49,145 68200

331,406 297,211 103,125 63,951 100,750 97,074 101,947 202,191 68,605 93,451

TOTAL $940,824 $1,201,959 $1,471,711

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TABLE 2


Institute of Jamaica : allocations for special development projects, 1975 - 77

Division and project 1975 1976 1977

$ $ $ West India Reference Library Historical Research Project 3,000 3,000 3,000 Conservation and restoration 3,000 3,000 7,300 Acquisition of Jamaican, Latin American and Caribbean material 2,000 2,000 10,000 --- TOTAL $8,000 $8,000 $20,300

Natural History Division Ecological field stations Educational programmes Natural History Gallery

TOTAL

4,200 3,200 1,200 500

3,000 2,000 1,500

$7,200 $5,200 $3,200

- -

~-~

Museums and Archaeology Archaeological Museum Development Arawak Indian Museum

TOTAL

African-Caribbean Institute Cultural exchange programmes Pamphlets and brochures on Africa Field research equipment

TOTAL

1,000 500 5 0.0 1,600 400 500

$2,600 $900 $1,000

32,000 25,000 10,000 3,000 5,000 1,500 3,000 6,000 500

$38,000 $36,000 $12,000 ---

Culbilral Projection Programme aJid Junior Cultural Centres

Art materials 1,500 1,500 1,500 Audio-visuals 1,600 1,600 2,000

TOTAL $4,100 $5,100 $5,500

Popular cultural education 1,000 2,000 2,000

~~~

Publications Jamaica Journal Cultural Heritage series Jamaicans of Distinction series Science publications

TOTAL

30,000 30,000 25,500 15,000 15,000 3,000 15,000 15,000 10,000

2,000 1,000

$6O,OQO $62,000 $39,500

- ---

[mnt. om p. a]

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TABLE 2 (contJ

Division and project 1975 1976 1977 ~~ ~~~~~

Jamaica School wf Art Equipment Art materials

T ~ A L

Jamaica School of Dance Staff development

TOTAL

Jamaica School of Drama Theatre production Stage equipment

TOTAL

5,000 10,000 5,500 5,000 6,500 7,500

$10,000 $16,500 $13,000 - - ~

- 2,000 1,000

- $2,000 $1,000 ~ - -

- 8,000 4,000 - 1,400

- $8,000 $5,400

- ---

Central administration

The central administration of the Institute of Jamaica performs a co- ordinating function and exercises financial control over the entire institute. It is headed by an executive director w h o is the chief executive officer, and an ex officio member of the Council; he is supported by a deputy director, a financial controller and a staff of 30.

The total full-time staff of the institute numbers 200, of w h o m 70 are professionals and 130 are technical and support staff.

Other agencies-community programmes

The annual Independence Festival (see page 23) has in recent years become more than a showcase for individual artistic expression. Emphasis is n o w placed on the community in the awareness that basic work at this level will foster a feeling of unity, develop a sense of direction and gen- erate a national spirit. The process of identification begins with the young and the Festival Commission n o w concentrates much of its effort on work in primary schools.

The Festival Commission is also concerned with rural life and in co- operation with the Social Development Commission has developed a programme which focuses on the quality and beauty of Jamaican rural life. Communities which participate in the programme are assessed, for award purposes, on their cultural and artistic activities, the effectiveness of their community organizations in the development of community life, and on

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h o w well they appreciate and maintain their physical environment. The programme helps in rural reconstruction and can assist in stemming the rural/urban drift. Local artistic expression in the performing, graphic and visual arts assists in bridging the gap between rural and urban communities.

This aspect of the work of the Festival Commission is highlighted in the Festival Community Programme in which rural areas are divided into the categories of ‘village’, ‘district’ and ‘township’. In July, de- signated as ‘Festival Community Month, the rural communities are asked to put on an event, to encourage them to organize at least one occasion each year involving all their people. Most rural communities have their heritage of traditional dances such as the quadrille, the kumina, the maypole, ring games, John Canoe and Hussein and forms of traditional oral expression such as riddles, proverbs and tales. Some communities present a combination of these activities in the form of picnics, fairs, bruckin’s parties and tea meetings. Each year, a Festival Community Award (a gold medal), a Parish Community Award (a silver medal) and a Certificate of Merit (bronze medal) are presented to the outstanding communities.

T R A I N I N G A N D C O M P E T I T I O N S

During the festival, competitions are also organized in the ‘performing arts’-in music, speech (including dialect verse), drama and dance. This aspect of festival work is developed in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education, so that teaching materials and work done in nor- mal schooltime are used afterwards for festival competitions and performances.

A new feature of the competitions is the training provided. At the beginning of each festival year, seminars are held in each parish to outline the rules and regulations of the competitions. These seminars are attended by teachers, group leaders and interested individuals. The seminars are followed by the establishment of workshops in each parish where participants are given training and advice in order to upgrade their skills. Competitors then take part in the parish finals which com- mence in April and end in the last week of May. At the parish level, adjudication is on a points basis and competitors receive a parish certificate or a recommendation for entry to the regional finals. The regional finals are held when two or three parishes come together and vie for awards which are presented in the form of gold, silver and bronze medals, a certificate of merit or a scholarship to a cultural training institution.

P O P M U S I C

Particular attention has been paid recently to popular (pop) music. Training is offered through one-day seminars and short courses covering

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stagecraft, microphone technique, delivery, band and song co-ordination, timing, choice of material as well as in the ‘economics’ of pop music -the understanding of legislation, contracts, service agents, promoters, royalties, the manufacturing and distribution of records and tapes and the rights of composers and authors.

The search for talent is assiduously carried out by voluntary committees in the parishes, and any talent found is invited to, and assisted by, the training-programmes. In an effort to support the pop musician during the period of off-season unemployment, a fund has been set up to help promote public concern, shows in schools and shows arranged as pre-film features. The commission’s policy is to assist and give opportunities to those artists w h o take advantage of the training-programmes.

The Jamaica Festival, which culminates annually on Independence Day in August, can be said to be the resource core of the arts in Jamaica both as a vehicle through which people of all classes can express themselves freely and display their varying talents, and as one of the means by which folk culture is preserved and propagated.

Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL)

The National Literacy Programme (re-named JAMAL in 1974) was introduced in 1972 to eradicate illiteracy (40-50 per cent of the population over 15 years old was adjudged to be functionally illiterate). The aim was that all illiterate adults (a total of 500,000 non-readers) would be reached by this programme by 1976. A review of the programme, undertaken in 1973, resulted in the restructuring and refining of stra- tegies and the setting of 1980 as the realistic target-date.

Through the assistance of Unesco and UNDP, valuable experience and training have been obtained by management staff from well-established literacy programmes overseas.

The printing of reading material has been assisted by the acquisition of equipment for a printing workshop through the help of Unesco/UNDP and paper supplies obtained through the assistance of a long-term loan of 300,000 Canadian dollars from the Canadian Government. The printing workshop production has been impressive. Between the months of March and August 1975, the following were produced: readers and workbooks, 30,000 copies ; teachers’ guides, 40,000 copies; supplementary material (books and booklets), 270,000 copies; Let’s Read (monthly), 75,000 copies; evaluation modules, 2,039,000.’

1. National Literacy Cwnpaign ,(Janutica), p. 6, Paris, 1976. (Unesco terminal report, JAM/72/010.)

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Unesco, which had long been associated with literacy m Jamaica, was the executing agency for the UNDP project amounting to U.S.$400,000.

JAMAL operates at local and grass-roots levels and is outstanding as a people-oriented programme supported by community-conscious individuals w h o work as teachers or on local committees. At the inception of the Literacy Programme, it was envisaged that literacy teaching would take place in the evenings when a large corps of voluntary workers would be available to take classes throughout Jamaica. Since 1973, however, Adult Education Day Centres have been established, allowing the programme to graduate larger numbers of students in a shorter period of time.

Of particular cultural interest was the Unesco-sponsored ‘Drama for Progress’ project developed in 1974/75 (but since discontinued due to local financial pressures) which was successful in developing ‘a kind of “ rough” popular theatre with a motivational content’.’

Carifesta

Jamaica was the venue for the second Caribbean Festival of Arts (Cari- festa) from 23 July to 2 August 1976. The first Carifesta was held in Guyana in 1972, and proved so successful that it was decided that, there- after, the festival should be held on a regular basis.

The aims and objectives of Carifesta 76 were:

1. T o expose the peoples of the region to each other’s culture through creative activity, thus deepening their knowledge and awareness of the native aspirations of their neighbours.

2. T o forge, through cultural participation, closer relations between peoples of the region.

3. To demonstrate the importance of the arts as a unifying force. 4. To develop the content and the aesthetic forms of Caribbean culture.

The festival embraces not only the islands of the Caribbean but also the mainland countries which border on the Caribbean Sea. Countries participating in Carifesta 76 were Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St Lucia, Surinam and Trinidad and Tobago.

Some of the highlights of Carifesta 76 were the following: Carifesta Grund Market. Each participating country had a pavilion,

open daily, featuring its produce, art, craftwork, music, folklore, storytelling, folk dances and culinary arts.

I

1. National Literacy Campaign (Jamaica), op. cit. p. 29.

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Film Festival. Under the theme ‘The H u m a n Condition’, a film festival showed the development of the cinematic art in the Caribbean and Latin America and contributed to knowledge of the styles and trends in contemporary film-making in the region.

Carifesta Song Festival. Organized as a competition, the Song Festival featured popular musical selections in English, Spanish, French and Dutch.

Theatre. Plays, musicals, operas and dance, were featured. Of especial interest were the Ballet Folklórico de Oaxaca (Mexico) and the Danza Nacional de Cuba (modern dance).

Carifesta Gala. The colourful pageantry of the region was displayed in a gala featuring more than 30,000 performers and presenting the superb diversity of Caribbean life. The production paid tribute to five Caribbean and Latin American heroes-Toussaint l’ouverture (Haiti), Benito Juárez (Mexico), Simón Bolívar (Venezuela), José Julián Marti (Cuba) and Marcus Mosiah Garvey (Jamaica).

Summation

Carifesta, a bi-annual event, represents the finest in cultural and artistic development and exploration among Caribbean peoples, produced with élan in an atmosphere of celebration. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Hon. Michael Manley, whose ministry is responsible for Jamaica’s cultural policy, defines the main cultural task facing post-colonial societies when he writes,

. . .they must re-discover the validity of their own culture at the moment of the colonial intervention and rétrace the steps that led through history to that point. And they must establish within a framework of reality, the culture which colonialism imposed upon them so that this may loom neither larger nor smaller than it deserves and suffer from none of the distortions which can result from the ambivalence of a ruler.subject sitnation?

Transition and transformation

Culture and cultural development in Jamaica are on the threshold of transition and transformation from a situation where ‘approved cultural material and a set of activities were the preserve of an elite trained to foreign norms, to a democratic situation in which the materials of culture belong to all the people and draw their strength from authentic folk traditions.

The new (1977) Ministry of Information and CuIture is vital to this transformation working through the Council of the Institute of Jamaica

1. Michael Manby, The Pdikïcs of Change, p. 146, London, 1974.

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and other agencies such as the Jamaica Festival Commission, the Jamaica National Trust Commission and the JAMAL foundation.

The Council of the Institute of Jamaica, drawing on the experience of private and public cultural groups and organizations, must make an effort to communicate valuable cultural works to all sections of the community, to raise the quality and quantity of cultural products, and to ensure that they are enjoyed by increasing numbers of the population.

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Cultural policy in Jamaica; Studies and documents on...

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