The 10th Annual Brimstone Fortress National Park Society Emancipation Concert took place on Sunday 12th August at the historic Brimstone Hill. The evening commenced with a march on and chant by the Okolo Drummers. The President, Sir Probyn Inniss in his welcome address acknowledged the presence of a number of international visitors including the former US Ambassador to Senegal, West Africa, Mrs Harriet Elam-Thomas and her husband. Introducing the Master of Ceremonies Mr Michael Martin, Sir Probyn Inniss invited the audience to enjoy the packed programme, and the varied talents of the performers.

And it was a packed and varied programme indeed: poetry of every form and theme; reflective, questioning, challenging, uplifting and affirming, the poets did their jobs as historians, reminding us of the past, raconteurs, recording our present, and seers foretelling our future.

Music of every genre; lead by Masud Sadiki with the Marley classic ‘Redemption Song’. Classic Negro spiritual, reggae, dub, caiso, calypso; performers, accompanied by the ‘The Band’, sung of our past, our pain, our joys of living here in Liamuiga. The highlight for me of this section was the Instrumental Medley performed by two young performers Mavincia and Phillip Brown, a brother age 6 on drums and sister age 8 on the steelpan. What a wide selection from such young musicians, destined we pray to become great exponents of their art.

We mustn’t forget the dance, the Okolo Tegremantine dancers accompanied by the Okolo drummers, gave a passionate visual depiction of the life of our ancestors.

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