Grounation explores reform, republic, music and monarchy

The theme for this year’s heritage series, Grounation, sounds rather lofty: ‘Music and Reasoning in Working Class Culture: Implications for Governance and Constitutional Reform’, but Herbie Miller, director of the Jamaica Music Museum, which stages the series each February, says it is, above all else, timely.

The series started last Sunday with erudite panellists Dr Michael Witter, Professor Clinton Hutton and Earl Moxam, exploring the topic ‘Our 61-year Independence Journey: Lessons for creating a Jamaican Republic’.

Now in its 12th staging, Grounation has built up a loyal following and the audience was at rapt attention in the IOJ’s lecture theatre on Sunday.

Miller shared that the topic for this year came out of the current discussion taking place in the public regarding whether or not Jamaica should become a republic and the general lack of knowledge from “the working class, the poor people, the ones who law affects in all kinds of weird ways”.

Miller made a case for such conversations to be had in the context of culture, asking what better way to attract a crowd than to put on the sound system, or to have these discussion in spots with men sitting down and playing dominoes.

“You’d be surprised to see how the game and fun that follows becomes secondary when people realise that they can have a say in how we are governed and how we elect government ... and how we can get out government ... and how the voice of the people is more powerful than the people in power.”

With the three strong conversations, which had cultural gems dripping from the lips of the panellists Witter, Hutton and Moxam, Miller hopes that all would leave a little more enlightened.

Hutton’s focus was strong on music, and he noted that: “We have created some of the most beautiful songs in the world and we wonder how people like [Don] Drummond ... how these horsemen in the 1960s and ‘50s, poor men, how they have created such beautiful things which become a joy forever.”

“Our musicians remind us about slavery and its relevance in the articulation of freedom and sovereignty and in the culture of independence. Our musicians did that,” Hutton shared, reciting the powerful words of Slave Driver by Bob Marley and the Wailers, “ Everytime I hear the crack of the whip my blood runs cold. I remember on the slave ship how they brutalised our very souls”.

MONARCHY

During the open-floor discussion, a young man shared that he liked the pomp and pageantry associated with the monarchy.

“But is that what the majority wants? Then a referendum will determine that. But if we go into a referendum better informed, then we could make a contribution that balances the thing more. Do you want to continue having a GG representing the King or do you want to say ‘Watch yah King, we gonna govern ourselves’,” Miller said in an interview with The Gleaner.

The Music Museum director admitted that he would like to see see a Grounation audience that reflects demographics of age and stage in life and uptown/downtown, in particular the youth, and when asked, he touched briefly on the recent brouhaha in which the British tabloids pasted an “anti-monarchy” label on Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

“The prime minister made a statement a couple years ago, and I can’t say that is something he genuinely had in mind at that situation, but the pressure from the public meant that our prime minister had to respond. And I think he balanced his response. I don’t know that he is committed to his response, based on how I see things going, but he responded in a way that made that British newspaper writer call him an ‘anti-monarch’,” Miller said.

He expressed the hope that the entire government and Opposition are pushing for that and will get that information out to the nook and cranny of the country “so that when we go out to cast our vote for ‘yes’ or ‘no’ it is so overwhelming that it will bring more people to the polls, even during a general election or a local government election, where we don’t even know who represents our constituency”.

Each week’s discussion is highlighted by performances from the JaMM orchestra and invited guest artistes. Last week, some of the audience got impatient when the discussion seemed to cut into the time for the musical delights.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com