By now you must have heard how Bankie Banx and the Roots and Herbs rocked the early night crowd at the recently concluded St. Kitts Music Festival. In between rocking myself, I was scanning the entire venue checking audience response and was really pleased to note patrons of all ages dancing and singing along while comments from a couple of youngsters included “versatile” and “boy, dem ku really play”.

What you may not have heard, and what I want to share with you is result of Bankie’s brilliant idea of presenting two guitars from the Anguilla Stingray Music Programme to worthy causes in St. Kitts. Right away the St. Kitts Children’s Home came to mind and I was not sure if the Harris’ Home for boys had ever been rebuilt so I needed to make a couple of telephone calls. Best friend Dawne immediately suggested Project Strong so I called up former colleagues in the Department of Youth and the Department of Culture. Youth Director Jeffrey Hanley thought those were excellent choices for the guitar presentation and Marlene Philips-Lee of the Department of Culture set the wheels in motion to ensure it was all happening. I’ve never written and faxed a letter so quickly in my life and I knew the Music Festival team would be full and running over of things to do but I emailed them anyway. The Children’s Home is an orphanage that I have known all my life but I had never heard of Project Strong, the brainchild of Kittitian education and icon, Washington Archibald. Marlene Liburd an officer of the Community Development Department accepted the guitar for the Children’s Home and Dodd Caines, a gentleman with an English accent accepted the guitar for Project Strong, where he teaches English including the poetry of Bob Marley. I found out that we both use the lyrics of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song, to teach many a lesson. He filled me in on the objectives of that eight year old programme which are very similar to those of the Anguilla Stingray Music Programme. Project Strong also offers courses in Information Technology, Beekeeping and Tailoring. When Minister of National Security, Hon. Dwyer Astaphan entered the room, Mr. Caines pointed out that the Minister had provided strong support for the start-up of the Project so I invited a comment from the Minister. He described Project Strong as “an avenue of redemption for marginalized youth in St. Kitts – youth who have been rejected by their families and by the system. In redeeming them,” he said, “we redeem ourselves.”

I was impressed by the fact that the Festival’s Executive Director not only checked his email but actually took my calls, exhausted as he was and made transportation arrangements in time for me to get to the Press Conference as a representative of The Anguillian. It was in that capacity that I was able to pose my question to the legendary Joseph Hill/Culture of Jamaica, the dynamic Crucial Bankie of St. Kitts, two brothers of the conscious inspiration Morgan Heritage and King of the Dancehall Beenie Man, who shared the table with Ras B and Bankie Banx. With such a lineup of Rastafari stars marketing their night’s offerings to the listening and viewing public, host Junie Liburd was moved to declare himself a Rastaman and was quick on the uptake when someone shouted to ask him about his dreadlocks, responding, “you don’t haffi dread to be Rasta.” My claim to fame was that I got to hug the brethren and to offer a word of congratulations to Beenie Man on his pending marriage – a birthday gift to himself on August 22nd 2006. If astrology has anything to do with it, he must be a good man because my mother’s birthday is on August 21st. I laughed when I caught myself thinking of Beenie and my dear old Mum in the same breath and I must remember to ask her if she has ever heard of him.

My questions was how could the illustrious ones in the music industry make themselves physically available to young people in trouble even in prison settings who could be inspired by their success and their presence and who could be helped to better I-verstand what it means to be Rasta. Beenie was most pragmatic in his answer pointing out that reasoning about saving the youth could take a whole day and that the message of the music needed to be the focus because it was impossible for the reggae stars to be present everywhere. In answering another question that sought advice for young people wanting to be successful in the music industry, he indicated that it was not necessary to have a university degree but that literacy – the ability to read and write was critical. If you know any young Beenie fans out there, please tell them that Beenie Man emphasized the importance of being able to read and write. He stoutly defended his ability to sing and dance to bring the fun element to young people and it was Father Moses of Morgan Heritage who told the gathering about Beenie’s upbringing in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian World Federation. Beenie then acknowledged his baptism in the Judah Coptic faith. Culture was more visionary, indicating that there should be an international law or policy dictating the need to take music to every existing prison. I saw this as an expansion of Bankie Banx’s vision and therefore Anguilla must not be surprised to find Stingray operating in the context of a world wide movement of musicians knowing the power of that universal language, both for its spirituality and for its viability.

Morgan Heritage continues to inspire me. I know that the numbers of Denroy Morgan’s children run into double digits – high double digits – too high for one woman to have borne them all. However, he and those women did a tremendous job because that group of Morgan’s sons and daughters are among the top reggae groups today and they obviously have staying power. On and offstage they continue to promote strong family values and at Friday’s press conference, cited those values of love and caring and unity and not letting the sun set on one’s anger as the reason they have been able to stay together and enjoy success for so long. They repeatedly reminded the audience to stay close to the culture of African people in the Caribbean, to greet people on the streets and so on. Bankie and Ras B sang the praises of diversity in music, with Bankie noting the different influences and relationships between different genres of Caribbean and world music as well as the borrowing and sometimes stealing that went into producing other sounds. Morgan Heritage focused on the need for conscious lyrics while praising Beenie for his gift of dance while Beenie and Crucial Bankie acknowledged the great foundation laid by the veterans like Culture. All of them acknowledged the Most High JAH as the Word.

I am not sure who is on the lineup for the International Reggae Night for the Summer Festival programme but it would be opportune for the summer visitors to get a taste of Bankie and the Roots and Herbs before they go off to wow the crowds at CARFESTA IX in T & T in September. As for the Stingrays – watch out for the Stingray Drummers in the children’s parade on Saturday 5th August.

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