Re: The day I saw "Jhumbie".

i have told this story a few times. its only now i have written this article now about it.

no one can tell me that what i saw isnt true.

The Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree’ --- for CARIFESTA X
ONE of the plays to be presented during the Tenth Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA X) is ‘The Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree’, written and directed by Acting Chair of the Symposia Committee, Mr. Al Creighton, and based on a concept by Barry Braithwaite.


Speaking at the weekly press conference at the CARIFESTA X Secretariat in Middle Street, Georgetown, he said Braithwaite submitted the concept which the CARIFESTA X Committee found to be one of the best.


“Coming out of his concept and his story that he outlined…I fashioned out a play or drama and it is largely based on Guyanese folklore and traditions and so on,” he explained.


“Barry is a very strong researcher in Caribbean tradition and folklore, and he has put the strength of his research into this play,” he observed.


He also noted that he has also done some research in this area.


“So it was not difficult for me to work with Barry in producing this and it basically uses the silk cotton tree as the focus and centre of Caribbean traditions over the centuries; all the way back from the Amerindian inhabitation, coming all the way up to slavery, coming through Indian indentureship in the Caribbean,” he said.


“The silk cotton tree is relevant to all those cultures and the play then focuses on the silk cotton tree as a central symbol,” Creighton reiterated.


“It then goes into a range of Caribbean traditions and I think that one of the things Braithwaite wanted to say is that these traditions and folklores are extremely important to the Caribbean people; but the Caribbean people have tended to give it a kind of a glance where they relegated the whole matter to perhaps backward superstition,” he said.


He said the drama also has a lot to do with the supernatural, hence the supernatural element is very strong in the play.


“It makes a link between the Dutch and the Caribbean mythology, and takes us back to the time of the Dutch occupation of Guyana and the very strong traditions that were left on Guyana since the Dutch occupation, where the whole delving into the supernatural and all that has come down to us since then,” he outlined.


The play basically links the interest in these supernatural traditions by a particular Dutch planter and an African ‘obeah man, he hinted.


“One of the things it points to is that those activities left a mark which is very important at the present time in Guyana, and the play then looks at the present heritage in Guyana which has come down from since those days,” Creighton added