Ancestry and Connections

In reading some more about the history of how pan music came about, I found a more detailed description of why people started banging on the semi-random pieces of metal they found. When the Spanish and French came to Trinidad and Tobago to colonize, they brought with them slaves from Africa. This is not uncommon, in fact almost all of the Caribbean was a European colony at some point, but it helps explain the slave's desire for instruments like drums that remind them of their native culture.

When the Europeans brought the slaves over from Africa, they were taking them out of an environment where they felt safe and leaving them little or no remnants of their old life. This is an extreme example of disorientation, and the slaves most likely felt a lot of culture shock. Humans are creatures of habit, so when we are out of our comfort zone we tend to cling to pieces of our native culture. Because African tribes are famous for their drumming and drums are easy to make, this was what those slaves chose to pursue when they reached Trinidad. We see this same phenomenon in the slave music from the South in our country too. The African slaves were creating a little bit of African culture wherever they ended up. The steel pan drum was one of many drums to be created in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Caribbean. Although the steel pan drum was highly imprecise at first, it served as a way to lay down a beat and connect people who came from similar cultures.

When African and Caribbean music started gaining popularity, bands began forming. They would consist of many different styles and pitches of pan, and many now include actual drums and drum sets to back up the pan players. These days the pan bands are a large part of the culture of the islands. There are competitions held each year and the bands are a central element of Carnival every year. Steel pan drums are a connection to the African culture of most of the islanders and a point of pride for all who participate in pan bands. The drums are also a part of the newer Caribbean culture that formed as the relations between the different racial groups on Trinidad changed, because people construct the cultures they live in. As the important anthropologist Geertz says, man is an animal suspended in a web of significance that he himself has spun. The steel pan drum and music of Trinidad and Tobago are integral parts of that web of significance for all those who have lived or are living on the islands.

Citation:

Remy, Jeannine. "Steel Drums History." Idaho State University.

http://www.isu.edu/stdorg/special/csdb/history.html (accessed March 29, 2010)

Image:

http://img.allposters.com/6/LRG/17/1731/6X23D00Z.jpg