2013-Jan-04-0943Hrs
Dear Errol:
I have some further thoughts on this question of what it means to be a Mausican, what are the limits of this concept, and where we should draw lines and condemn. When Martin Brathwaite (Haven, 1966-1968) died, Efebo Wilkinson wrote in his memory saying that what stood out about him was that when we needed MEN in the Haven, we could count on "Braff". I knew what he meant. We are teachers yes, but we are not pushovers. A mausican is not just an ice-cream social, tea-sipping, folk-song singing goody two-shoes. The place was too representative of the culture for that. We had our priests and pundits, and La Sorrorite people, but we also had people whose experience prior to campus was to hang out on corners, one famously with Dr. Rat.
So when a Mausican or his/her offspring stumbles, we should try to help him/her break the fall, and leave the criticism and the goodyshoeing for the Mausica haters. Elsewhere in a winning calypso, Efebo in 1968 sang the following first two lines in his "Mausica":
"We have a big problem here since 1963"
"People on the outside dey only washing dey mouth on we"
The key word here is "Outside". To be inside is to be a Mausican. "Inside" does not mean merely behind the fence that separated us from the chicken farm or cane and orange fields, or Piarco. It is rather a state of mind. Insiders must care for and about our own, and that has to be transported across time and generations.
On this point I agree with the sentiments of my Haven brother Rodney Foster who writes in the blog about what it means to be family. You can't be a Mausican and turn your back on a second generation member who would have been absolutely at home in Haven, or even Mayfair. Talking about Machel.
Theodore Lewis (Scratchie)
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