CARL Campbell Dance Company 7's forthcoming dance showcase will celebrate more than two decades in the business and in British creative dance work. Carl Campbell 7 is a contemporary Caribbean dance theatre company with a deep commitment to educational development as well as the appreciation and promotion of Caribbean dance and culture as a performing art. Using the medium of contemporary Caribbean dance, the youngsters will perform an exhilarating piece as part of Carl Campbell Dance Company 7's eighth dance education showcase.
Culture is a powerful tool for inspiring human beings and bringing them together in a concerted `family' action, says Prof [Marimba Ani], adding: "Our cultural roots are the most ancient in the world." This is very true and it is accepted that Egyptian science and technology laid the foundations for the development of Europe. It is also true that the finance to fund this development came from the proceeds of the barbaric slave trade. Black history is rich and diverse and knowledge of African achievements in education, politics, art, agriculture, medicine, science, religion, metallurgy, engineering, music and sports can help to boost our self-confidence no end. Records refer to the small population of `Negras' in Elizabethan London and even stretch back to the Roman Empire's occupation of Britain, when Africans were marooned at Hadrian's Wall in the third century AD. In the mid-'50s the Transport and General Workers' Union, now headed by Jamaican-born Bill Morris, insisted that no more than 52 of Wolverhampton's 900 bus workers should be black. This kind of colour bar was prevalent in many city transport companies from West Bromwich to Bristol.
There are three reasons why I think we have missed the Windrush boat. The first is that we have not really controlled this event but allowed it to be run by `caring' local authorities. I never really understood why we should wait for grants from the council to construct our own memorial of significant anniversaries. This dependent or entitlement mentality has meant that we are always waiting for a handout to make things work. The irony of this is that those who came on the Windrush were in search of a better life where their own efforts counted for something compared to dread of their colonial existence in the Caribbean.
