The spirits of Pembroke’s ancestors were awakened on Wednesday night during the village’s signature Tobago Heritage Festival presentation, Salaka Feast.
But there were some tense moments as intermittent drizzles threatened to derail the two-and-a-half-hour cultural show, which was held before a thoroughly appreciative audience at the Pembroke Heritage Park.
Luckily, many people had umbrellas and shared with others.
[caption id="attachment_967177" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Jessy Tailor re-enacts sacred ancestral acts of yesteryear, as he blows incense smoke into the crowd at Salaka Feast, Pembroke Village, Tobago. - DAVID REID[/caption]
The village’s two-year absence from the heritage festival, owing to the covid19 pandemic, was not reflected in the presentation. If anything, its performers appeared energised, confident and intent on making up for lost time.
Pembroke’s Salaka Feast is one of the more highly-anticipated presentations of the annual heritage festival. It followed Charlotteville’s Natural Treasures Day on Monday.
The theme of this year’s heritage festival, which ends with an Emancipation celebration on August 1, is Reflect, Rebirth, Rejoice: Reigniting the Flames of Our Legacy.
Titled Welcome Inna De Yard: Ancestral Wisdom, Pembroke’s Salaka Feast paid tribute to the ancestors of its descendants, many of whom contributed to the area’s status as Tobago’s cultural capital.
“This production gives an in-depth look at the wisdom of our ancestors who had the wisdom and foresight to transfer through various means and actions, songs, dances, messages, clothing, food, agriculture, beauty expressions and blessings – the things we now have and must never lose,” the Pembroke Heritage Festival Committee wrote in the programme.
[caption id="attachment_967176" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The rain threatened to stop festivities at Salaka Feast 2022, Pembroke Village, Tobago on july 27. - DAVID REID[/caption]
The presentation again showed Pembroke’s versatility in almost every aspect of Tobago’s culture – dance, drumming, song and overall knowledge of the island’s heritage.
It began with a chilling rendition of the Ella Andall's classic Bring Down the Power.
Pembroke native and cultural activist Jesse Taylor then rang a bell in a symbolic gesture, calling people to action.
A spiritual Baptist leader, dressed in white, also reminded the gathering of a passage in Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, which says that “for everything there is a season."
“The time to be happy is now,” he declared.
During that time, a group of young performers, dressed mostly in white with coloured scarves, sang the Spiritual Baptist hymn, Children, Come Go to Zion with Me. The piece, which featured, singing, dancing and drumming, set the tone for an all-out tribute to Pembroke’s forbears.
After naming several people who had contributed to the cultural development of the community many years ago, an upbeat Taylor declared, “We celebrate you all. Let us join and celebrate them for who they are.”
He then gave a syno
