Belize City, September 2005- "Only sick music makes money today"- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

"I have no pleasure in any man who despises music. It is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us. " - Martin Luther

This year is no different, Creole culture is the rage, at least in the local media and music venues. Thursday, September 8`" the House of Culture threw a Kriol Day bashment that drew a throng of well over a thousand people to see top notch performers like Bredda David, Leela Vernon and Wilfred Peters vocalize and wriggle to their inimitable Brukdong tunes. Knot Day also showcased traditional Creole cuisine; tasty dishes like boil-up, cow-foot soup, gibnut, hicatee, duck-n-ducunu, snapper, pigtail topped off by either stew beans, black-eye peas, or the old favorite rice-n-beans, local crafts, dolls, Boom Village wines and an exhibit of Sharon Pitts' well preserved household artifacts. Saturday, September 10th Tony Wright's annual ode to Belizean music and musicians titled "Belize Sound Fest" heated up the Civic with its exuberant vibes. Wright's fest showcased the depth and breadth of locally brewed tunesmiths and vocalists that included Maurice Banner, Shirley Bowen Ferguson, Jorge Ernesto Babb, Elsworth Castillo, Lucio Enriquez, the Messengers, the Talla Walla Band (from Gales Point) and those two icons of Brukdong: Leela and Wilfred. Creole feelings literally till the air

This annual big-up of Creole culture has a strong historical component for way hack in 1798 it was with the invaluable help of the Creoles that the British-Baymen successfully thwarted a Spanish invasion. In that short two and a half hour encounter the coalition between slavemaster and slave was the decisive factor in victory. According to the myths perpetuated by the British and American historians all the sudden the masters reached enlightenment at the same time the slaves decided the devil they knew was better than the devil they didn't know. How serendipitous (The accounts infer that the slavemasters conveniently realized the blacks were more than chattel; especially after the black fighters saved their owners' white butts. In One fell swoop the masters'- enmasse­figured "we better keep those dudes on our side or there goes the logwood." So much for “Hail Britannia”.

What happened is some 100 years after that encounter on September 10, 1798 the battle was resurrected, hyped up and became a source of pride among the Creole population. They showed their mettle against overwhelming odds and contributed much to the British-Baymen win. So now, 207 years after the battle Belizeans celebrate that unexpected victory and the winning coalition between white and black by annually re­discovering their Creole roots. Too had that historical Awareness-cultural pride doesn't carry over to the rest of the year.

Especially too bad for a handful of die hard Creole Brukdong singers and musicians who more or less live a catch-n-kill existence for eleven and a half months. The unavoidable reality is that local music and local artists take an also-ran place to North American and Jamaican musical idioms. Anyway you cut it BET rules the hearts and minds of our youth. Our youth has been BETed into cultural oblivion. Puffy, 50 Cent and Ja Rule reign supreme, certainly not Wilfred, Leela or David.

Sisyphus time. Maybe a brief explanation is warranted. For pulling some trick on one of the Greek gods, (Hades) Sisyphus was condemned for eternity to hard frustrating labor. His lot in life was to roll a giant boulder to the top of a hill. Though every time Sisyphus, by the greatest of exertion and toil, attained the summit, the darn rock rolled back down again. A life of drudgery compound by never-ending aggravation. Mudda rock.

So the Sisyphus connection is two-fold: (1) the Brukdong artists sing and play their hearts out to no avail and (2) for the last 18 years I've been writing reviews praising the prowess of the local musicians and artists, again with no noticeable affect. Words thrown into the wind.

This week three kick-ass Creole-inspired CDs were released: "Sambai Tyme" by the Maroon Kriols Band that hails from Gales Point, the second is "Neck & Back" by Wilfred Peters, a re-mix of the undisputed Godfather of Brukdong's greatest hits and the third is "Balahu" by the Queen of Buru Brukdong Leela Vernon. Taken as an entity the three CD set gives the listener oblique data on a few of the intricacies of Creole life. For the astute ear, those CDs are miniature history lessons on certain aspects of the Creole zeitgeist; at least from "A" to "D" and back again. Just the song titles give a clue to the odd topics covered by those artists. "Neck and Back" (fussy, compulsive eating habits), Crooked Tree & Burrel Boom" (competition between the two villages) and Uncle Snuffy" (infidelity) by Peters; "Fatal Wedding" (a crack-head marriage) and "Nothing Fi Wi" (inequitable distribution of wealth) by Leela; "Mi Plantation" (rigors and joys of' rural life), "Painabelly" (unwanted pregnancy) by the Maroons.

From a cultural-anthropological perspective the lyrics are the key since virtually all songs done in the Brukdong style are slice of life narratives; mini-vignettes. The stories deal with the trials and tribulations of the poorer classes. The folks that eke out a meager living hustling day to day. The inexplicable dichotomy in Brukdong music is that in spite of its impoverished, catch-n-kill imagery the attitude is emphatically up-heat. There is an unabashed joy of life that is stamped into the musical arrangements. The tales might entail the broke, but in Brukdong-land everybody is having too good a time savoring what little they have to cop a sullen attitude. The re-occurring mood is: "let's party”. Conversely the re-occurring theme in the internationally popular Dance Hall and Gangsta Rap music is their flaunting of consumerism. The songs deal with money, money and more money and all the sex, drugs and guns money can buy. The life depicted in Rap is opulence to the max-, the singers live a king-like life of luxury with dozens of scantily clad babes writhing around in the background. Materialism gone wild. Still the general mood of Rap is aggravation, irritation with the world. It's the exact opposite of Brukdong; the Rap singer has material things up the yin yang but is one angry dude. You figure.

Who knows maybe if the Brukdong artists instilled some bad attitude and killing into their lyrics they'd garner more popularity. But then sourness and negativity go against the grain of Brukdong's character. Probably never work. Can you imagine Wilfred Peters singing the 50 Cent song "How to Rob", "Being broke can make you delirious; So we rob and steal so our ones can be bigger"? I can't either.

Possibly another reason for Brukdong's tiny fan base is its proximity to Polka music. The use of the accordion to lay down the rhythm tends to give Brukdong an ethnic, folksy Eastern European feel. The accordion conjures up visions of hordes of Poles and Czechs stomping around in beer gardens. Shade of Bruegel's "Peasant Wedding". And in this age of trendy urban angst, ethnic and folksy are shunned. For our TV indoctrinated youth, nubile hottie-hottie gals and a Tech 9 in Hummer are the ultimate status symbols. The joys of rural life are sneered at. As are the happy-go-lucky beat and sprightly, life affirming character of Brukdong.

Not to come off too pessimistic, but the future for Brukdong looks kinda bleak; it might die out in the next couple of decades. Two weeks of cultural tokenism wrapped in nostalgia isn't enough to sustain the musicians or the music. Languishing in the dustbin of historical artifacts for eleven-and a half months before being taken out, dusted off, and polished up just doesn't cut it. It would be a damn shame if that aspect of Belizean culture withers and dies due to public apathy. We need more history, not less.

To end this critique on a less cynical note there is a possible way to save Brukdong music from a slow death. It's called education. From the pre-school to the primary school to the college level make Brukdong an integral part of the curriculum. Every pre-school, primary school and college should have an up-to-date collection of Belizean music, especially Brukdong. It should be played and savored and lessons taught on familiarizing the students with it on a thrice weekly basis. Promote Belizean stuff, not foreign. Under that radical education imperative two problems would be a long ways toward solving: ( I) the Belizean artists would sell well over a couple thousand CDs each, which would put bread on the table and (2) Belizean students would be exposed to their local vibes weekly thus possibly countering the stranglehold of BST's materialism and nihilism.

A good start would be for the Education Department to purchase Peters' "Neck & Back", Leela's "Balahu" and Maroon Kriols' "Sambai Tyme" CDs for all the schools this 2005-6 school year. Start the academic term off on the right foot. Then, maybe, just maybe, Brukdong and Creole cultural history would have a fighting chance. Go for it!

Editor's Note: Sambai Tyme is produced by Tribal Productions, (Bredda David's studio in Dangriga) along with NICH's Cultural Retrieval Project and Neck & Back and Balahu are produced by Seabreeze Records and Caye Records headquartered in Los Angeles.