Remembering Roderick Walcott

This was an interesting article published in the VOICE newspaper, it was written by my good friend and supporter of MTC and it's projects, Jacques Compton. Just thought that I should share this and say as well that we still miss Jacques,  our most eloquent and learned Mentor.
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Remembering Roderick Walcott
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On the evening of the 7th, April at the University of the West Indies Open Campus, Morne Fortune, I witnessed an event which for a long time I had hoped to see before I departed this life. 

The occasion was the official handing-over ceremony of the late Roderick Walcott’s collection of papers. Indeed, it was more than that, for it was the occasion, also, of the recognition of a son of the soil who had contributed so immensely to celebration of Saint Lucia’s folk culture and folk tradition.

Roderick Walcott, twin brother of Nobel Prize winner, the Hon. Derek Walcott, had been, in his lifetime, a most accomplished playwright, best known for his musicals which were always based on Saint Lucia’s colourful French Creole culture. Along with his twin brother, the Hon. Derek Walcott, he founded the Saint Lucia Arts Guild in which most of the plays produced were directed by Roderick Walcott. 

The name of Mr. Charles  Cadet, is synonymous with Roderick Walcott, for Mr. Cadet, a most accomplished composer in his own right, had written the music for all Mr. Roderick Walcott’s musicals. Also deeply involved in the productions of the Arts Guild were Arthur Jacobs, Kenneth Monplaisir, McDonald Dixon, Eric Branford, Dunstan St. Omer, Joyce Auguste, Sextus Charles, the late Howick Elcock and Ruby Yorke.

Some of those former members are still with us and several of them were there on the night to reminisce on those glorious days of the Saint Lucia Arts Guild and Roderick Walcott’s famous Carnival Band, the Turks. Saint Lucia in those days had been the mecca for dramatic productions of the highest quality and excellence. Indeed, those days were truly the Renaissance of Saint Lucian artistic creativity.

From the very first publication of his collection of poems, entitled ‘Twenty-Five Poems,’ Derek Walcott had begun to stamp his mark as an accomplished poet and later, as a playwright and was becoming known outside Saint Lucia. But of his twin 
brother, Roderick, no one outside Saint Lucia knew very much about him.

Indeed, it was Roderick Walcott who encouraged his twin brother, Derek Walcott, to write his first play, ‘Henri Christophe.’ From then on Derek Walcott became infatuated with West Indian History and that engagement with History motivate him to write the historical plays, the epic, ‘Drums and Colours,’ and ‘The Haytian Earth.’ With those three historical plays Derek Walcott had carved a place in the modern theatre for the History of the West Indies.

Roderick Walcott, in the meanwhile had been producing not only musicals, with the music by Mr. Charles Cadet, but three one-act plays ‘The Harrowing of Bengy,’ ‘Shrove Tuesday March,’ and 'The Trouble With Albino Joe.’  Then there is the full-length drama ‘Malfinis’ based on the trial of three men who had been convicted of a murder which had been committed in 1904 at Monchy when a boy was killed so that parts of his body could be used for the purposes of black magic.

Obeah and black Magic were very prevalent at the time and, according to the newspaper, the Saint Lucia Observer in the 19th. century, pervaded all sections of Saint Lucian society. Roddy’s musicals include ‘Banjoman,’ ‘Chanson Marianne,’ ‘Romiel Ec Juliette,’ ‘The Wonderful World of Brother Rabbit,’ and ‘The Guitar Man’s Song.’ This last was performed during the tenth anniversary of Saint Lucia’s Independence and was directed by Roderick Walcott who had been brought back from his residence in Canada specifically for the occasion. In 1986 as Director of Culture with the Government of Saint Lucia I persuaded the Government to participate in London, England, in a Caribbean Festival entitled‘Caribbean Focus.’ I chose two plays, Derek Walcott’s ‘Ti-Jean and His Brothers’ and Roderick Walcott’s ‘Banjoman.’ I had no difficulty justifying the expenditure. The outside world knew of Derek Walcott, I argued, but not of his twin brother, Roderick Walcott, and I wanted
the outside world to see and to experience the work of Roderick Walcott.

Also on display at the Commonwealth Institute for the occasion were exhibitions of sculpture by Mr. Joseph Eudovic and photographs of famous landmarks and historical sights in Saint Lucia, photography by Mr. Frank Norville. Mr. Milton ‘Junior’ Branford had designed and built the set for the production of the two plays. I took the occasion of our stay in London to take some members of the cast on tours of my former home, London, introducing them to that great metropolis of thirty-two professional theatres, not to mention the numberless small fringe theatres. In attendance at the Roderick Walcott Ceremony was the Governor-General, Dame Pearlette Louisy, and the Hon Derek Walcott. 

Welcome remarks were delivered by Mrs. Veronica Simon, always a great pleasure to listen to her. Remarks also came from Dr. Anthony Felicien, Education Officer, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Paule Turmel_John, formerly employed by UNESCO in 
Saint Lucia, Feature Address was delivered by Mr. Kendel Hippolyte and Musical Renditions by Miss Elra Ermay and The Mighty Pelay. Mr. McDonald Dixon dramatized an excerpt from ‘Malfinis.’ The symbolic Handover and remarks were by Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of the Open Campus and Miss Carrie Walcott, daughter of the late Roderick Walcott whose remarks were so emotionally delivered that she could hardly restrain her tears. Mrs. Margot Thomas moved the Vote of  Thanks. It was the very first occasion in Saint Lucia that I had seen gathered so many people who. in one way or the other, were and are still involved in the Arts. It was, indeed, a evening to remember and to reminisce, for the work of the late Roderick Walcott, that of his surviving twin brother, the Hon. Derek Walcott and the former Saint Lucia Arts Guild have been major contributions to the development, and appreciation of Saint Lucian culture and artistic creativity.