Newspaper Page Text
(File Photo)
Dr. Ajamu Nyomba, CAU economics professor, (front right) cues members of the Pan
People Steelband who will perform during the "Fifty Year Steel Drum Celebration."
steel drums
Preserving Steel Drum History:
Steel Pride Steals Concern
By Wendy Isom
Features Editor
teel drum history isn’t anything to play with.
Steel pan, as it is called in the islands, was declared
the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago in
1992 by Prime Minister Patrick Manning. However, “It’s no
longer an island thing,” said Dr. Ajamu Nyomba, a
Trinidadian Pan People Steel band member and economics
professor at Clark Atlanta University. “It has become an inter
national investment.”
According to Dawn Batson, director of the steel band pro
gram at the University of Miami, Trinidad has always been an
oil producing industry. During World War II, the Carnival,
which is an annual Caribbean Music Festival, was banned.
During the ban, pan artists began to experiment.
After WWII, pan artists used discarded 55 gallon steel oil
drums to hammer the sound that evolved from the African
drum. The larger surface and the availability of the drums
gave boom to. Fifty years later, the national resource for the
pan is in Ohio.
The non-electrical instrument, bom in the ghettos of East
Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad, is being taught today in the guest
halls of Northern Illinois University by island artists. NIU has
become one of the best places for major pan instruction. NIU
has also created one of the largest pan programs in the country
where students can major in pan. Students not only learn how
to play the pan, but also how to make it and tune it.
Batson, also a native of Trinidad, said she is not concerned
with non-islanders learning how to make or play the pan.
“I think it’s very good that NIU and other schools have pan
programs,” said Batson. “It’s just like courses on African-
American history. It’s important for people to be well-versed.
It is also important that the courses are taught by people who
know.”
Currently, Batson is completing her dissertation, “Pan into
the 21st Century: The Steel band as an Economic Force in
Trinidad.” As a pannist who has been on tour, Batson has seen
the large market for this art form and an even larger market for
it to be taken advantage of. She said this is one of the main
reasons why she pursued a master’s in music and business.
Batson wants to “find ways for the talented pan artists to profit
using the art, but not commercializing the art. It’s internation
al. The creators need to benefit,” she said.
“[Now] white folks have realized what it [pan] is. What does
it mean for us [Trinidadians]?” said Nyomba. “It means for us
to jump on the bandwagon.”
The CAU professor and pan performer helped start his own
bandwagon, Pan People Steel band, 9 years ago. Since then,
his band has gained both artistic and academic acclaim.
The group was founded by college students and faculty from
the Atlanta University Center. The members of the steel band
continue to drum up education while they drum up entertain
ment. There are two medical students, an attorney, a few
accountants and a Ph.D. in economics planning pan music and
movement together. One move that Nyomba doesn’t want pan
to take is one that jazz, blues, rock’n roll and other forms of
black music have taken - commercialization by Europeans.
As a pan member, he is a part of “Fifty Years Of The Steel
Continued P8
Writer’s Workshop Conference
“A Salute To Black Men”
Panel Discussions
10 a.m. - Panel discussion in
the Research Auditorium.
Noon - Luncheon - Research
Auditorium Exhibition Hall
2 p.m. - Lecture: Judge
Thelma Wyatt Cummings
Moore -
Research Auditorium
Exhibition Hall
7 p.m. - Lecture: Haki
Madhubuti Book Signing and
Reception - Research
Auditorium Exhibition Hail
April 12
10 a.m. - Lecture: Askia Toure -
Research Auditorium
2 p.m. - Lecture: Amiri
Baraka - Research Auditorium
7 p.m. - Lecture: Nathan
McCall - Research
Auditorium
8 p.m. - Jazz Concert: Gil
Scott-Heron - Davage
Auditorium
7 p.m. - Spring Concert CAU
Symphonic Band, Percussion
Ensemble and Jazz Orchestra
- Davage Auditorium
4 p.m. - Susan Taylor Lecture
Davage Auditorium
8 p.m. - Fashion Show
Davage Auditorium
11 a.m. - James Chapman
Lecture - Davage Auditorium
7:30 p.m. - CAU Dancers host
Dance Atlanta - Davage
Auditorium
9 a.m.-6 p.m. - Black
Inventions Museum - Exhibition
Hall