LECTURE HALL MEMOIRS 2.

Written by Gîtaû wa Kûngû ✒️

It is 9:00 AM. It's drizzling and the mother of all colds is busy directing her offspring to deal with us ruthlessly.

My coursemates and I are glued to our phones in the comfort of our rooms. I guess none is out there in the cold at some wi-fi hotspot zone. We've cursed even the birds perched on nearby trees as if they are the ones causing the weak wi-fi connection during an online class.

The online lecture begins. The topic is about Ritual, Folklore and the Nation as Errol Hill paints about the Trinidad literature in his play: Man Better Man. The lecture runs smoothly without any interruption, thanks to the lecturer. He has blocked chatting and camcorder video. 

Online classes were disorderly especially when they were introduced for physical learning on the advent of the deadly Covid-19. They were a measure to progress leaning and control the spread of the coronavirus. 

We're safe now safe.The class is orderly and interesting. Only the lecturer is speaking. At least there is nobody whose name (as they appeared on the attendance list) were the kind that would cause a born-again lecturer to "disband the class and everybody to go back to sleep."

Yes, the characters whose parents, guardians and relatives are probably boasting to every envious ear in their bored discussions that they have a wise gentleman or lady in the best university studying to become a very great teacher. Pitiful, isn't it?

We go on learning how Reggae was invented by the blacks in the Carribean islands of Jamaica. The reggae songs were sung as liberation songs by blacks against oppression and dehumanisation by their white masters who had oppressed them since the slave trade days.

The blacks used to use old sufurias as the drum because they had no access to any musical instruments. We also learn about the invention of ska and calypso music in Trinidad. They were songs that reminded blacks about their African origin and the painful days of slave trade.

It gets more emotional especially when familiar names of my tribesmen, Maina and Mugo are mentioned among the heroes of stick fighting. They had been abducted into slave trade.

Stick fighting was a sport and also the final conflict resolution seeking activity between men who could not solve their grudges through mediation.The men would cut equal number of sticks and each would beat the other in turns (say on the buttocks) until the sticks broke into pieces. 

Woe unto those whose sticks would break first or he fails to persevere the pain and run away. He was the loser. Champions in annual stick fighting competitions were rewarded with whatever they wished.

The history of black people in Carribean is one of extreme physical, emotional and psychological pain yet they have overcome to become one amongst the greatest in world history like Usain Bolt, Reggae stars, great writers like Errol Hill among many others. 

Finally the lecture ends without me noticing. 

  Gîtaû wa Kûngû ✒️