In Guyana, Feeling Stifled After Needling Government in Song
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Version 0 of 1. GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Dressed in a bright yellow hat, garish green shirt and oversize red tie, De Professor danced onstage, his waist-length dreadlocks following behind while he sang of government wrongdoing. </param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="seamlessTabbing" value="false"></param><param name="swliveconnect" value="true"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="quality" value="high"></param><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param></object><h6 class="credit">By Girish Gupta</h6><p itemprop="articleBody" class="caption">Ras Marcus, an award-winning Calypsonian artist, singing “Go Fuh Cup.” The calypso genre is known for double entendres. One of Mr. Marcus’s songs ostensibly promotes the governing party here, which is identified by its symbol, a cup. However, the song in reality plays on an obscenity and describes the party’s mistakes. “I was told I used indecent language,” Mr. Marcus said. “I was talking about this cup, the symbol of the party. I was advising people to go for the cup.” Senior staff members at NCN deny that any ban on playing calypso is in effect, though it is rare to hear the music aired. Michael Gordon, the chief executive of the network, said that the notices ordering staff members not to play calypso had been put up in an act of “overexuberance” by a colleague without his knowledge. He added that the station had opened its studios to the calypsonians to record their music, though they had not taken up the offer. Mighty Rebel, 67, the president of the Calypso Association here, said that “in calypso, you talk about the politicians, you talk about the preachers, you talk about anyone who does anything that needs speaking about.” “We are the mouthpiece of the people,” he said in a sugar cane field outside his modest home. “The government needs to give us a break and let us sing.” |