THE Tobago Music Arts and Cultural Festival (TOMAC) featuring Grammy award-winning Nigerian Afrobeat star, Burna Boy, is the genesis of a rediscovery journey of what it means to be Tobagonian.
Because Nigeria’s Igbo tribe is inextricably linked to Tobago’s history and cultural influence, Burna Boy’s performance will compliment the message TOMAC's organisers and sisters Arlene and Corelli Lyons want the world to understand about the Tobago diaspora.
Soon after slaves were emancipated in 1838 a group from the Igbo tribe settled in Tobago throughout the Pembroke village. Every year during the Tobago Heritage Festival, Pembroke’s Salaka Feast pays tribute to the ancestors of its descendants’ legacy and the contribution they made to sculpt the foundation of Tobago’s traditions.
The five-day festival, October 24-28, gets going with an honorary ceremony for Tobago-born calypsonian Lord Nelson on October 24, at the Plymouth Recreational Ground. All of TOMAC's events will be held at the Plymouth ground.
On the final day, October 28, TOMAC will host a mud mas event to close the festival and usher in Tobago carnival celebrations from October 28-30.
[caption id="attachment_977925" align="alignnone" width="819"] Grammy award-winning Nigerian Afrobeat star, Burna Boy, will perform in Tobago. -[/caption]
In a Zoom interview with Newsday, the sisters said the festival will give visitors a first-hand experience of the uniqueness of Tobagonians.
Arlene said, “This festival is launching that kind of back-to-roots campaign where a lot of people in the diaspora can buy a back-to-roots package and experience Tobago in its original form. They can connect with family, go back to the village and meet family they never knew they had.”
The festival is a small detail of a much bigger “mission” which is to create a new, re-energised economy in Tobago – something Tobagonians around the world have been clamouring for over the past 30 years.
With a solid background in finance, marketing, corporate investment and entrepreneurship, the sisters are confident they can refashion the way the world views Tobago and its people.
Arlene explained, “Burna Boy is to draw people in to hear and feel the message.”
Less than a week after the launch of TOMAC in early September, the Last Last singer publicly confirmed he will be in Tobago in an Instagram post: “Tobago 27/10, Plymouth Recreation Ground.”
Since then, the post received over 33,000 likes and almost 800 comments.
The event is being hosted with the support of several private sponsors based on guidance from historian and author of the Revolution of Life in Tobago, Dr Rita Pemberton, and others on the island.
[caption id="attachment_977923" align="alignnone" width="768"] Sisters Arlene and Corelli Lyons are organisers of the Tobago Music Arts and Cultural Festival (TOMAC) which will feature Nigerian Afrobeat star Burna Boy. -[/caption]
The event is also heavily supported by Burna Boy’s mother, Bose Ogulu, who, in her acceptance speech on behalf of her son for the Best Inter
