Rekindle your relationships for Lent

Q : Archbishop J, explain Black Stalin’s party tune?

First, I must say when I wrote on Black Stalin’s ‘Feeling to Party’, in August 2022, I did not see the depth of the redemptive nature of the song. Because of the other songs that year that turned the country to the anaesthetic, I wrestled with the deeper meaning and concluded we did not do our work.

It cannot be coincidence that Black Stalin’s ‘Ah Feel to Party’ has featured twice in our history, in years after national crises. In 1991, the song was a big hit and gave the nation a space to breathe. Of course, that was one year after the 1990 attempted coup.

In 2023, one year after the Covid-19 pandemic crippled our economy and many people in the nation, the song returns with more of its magic to soothe the soul of a battered nation.

bp Renegades president Colin Greaves told me that in December they were trying to find a song to play in Panorama 2023. But they were not finding anything that caught their imagination. The song emerged from nowhere. When it was sent around, everyone felt the tune was it. A few days later Black Stalin (Leroy Calliste) died, as if to confirm the choice and solidify its place in the calypsonian’s legacy.

From Colin’s description, the song literally popped up out of the unconscious. For the second time in the nation’s history, the song emerged victorious against all odds: this is the stuff of the national unconscious.

It was electrifying to see Renegades perform ‘Ah Feel to Party’. And to see Black Stalin’s wife Patsy come on stage and dance with arranger Duvone Stewart was the stuff of mythology. Patsy still had the moves, and you could see her and Leroy moving together.

A second look

In my August 21, 2022 column, I wrote:

‘Ah Feel to Party’ was a turn to the romantic and the rekindling the relationship between husband and wife in the face of all the stifling householder chores. There was a need to lighten up and not take things so seriously. I remember the song and cheered when Stalin won. It completely suited the mood of the nation.

The fact is, however, Stalin signalled a shift from social commentary to rekindling relationships. As the song said: “Leave we worries at the doorsteps; for that we have no time.” If the song is read as metaphor for the nation, then the weight of nationhood was too heavy in 1991. We just had to have some fun. Was this a shift to escape? Or was this a shaman pointing the nation to necessary healing. I believe we took the escape and did not work on the relationship.

Our response to the song may have been escape. But it is obvious now that Black Stalin acted as shaman to the nation inviting us to the depth and to what was most vital in nation building.

We were heading down the road of money before people. Earning money before relationships. Development became being able to afford luxury and not the quality of the relationship in the nation.

In his song, Stalin was giving social commentary. He was pointing to what was most vital to the development of the nation. He was singing in the tradition of the griot, a master storyteller in the West African tradition.

Actually, more than griot, he was a chantwell—the Caribbean evolution through the mixture of French and African traditions.

But, most of all, he acted as shaman speaking to the soul of the nation and inviting us to the most profound step towards national development.

Putting first things first

On the level of the family, this requires rekindling the husband-wife relationship which was strained by the years of attending to the household chores. So many families put the children before their relationship. This is dangerous.

Stalin reaffirms the primacy of the husband-wife relationship. Here the focus is to enjoy each other, as they did when they were courting.

The second vital turn is to the primacy of fun and joy in the relationship. It is not all drudgery and difficult. Here Stalin reminds his wife how they were when they were courting. How they were always there when Joey was playing.

Then he says: “But since we start having children, to make them strong we give dance up, So tonight, tonight, meh darling, We turning back the hands of the clock.”

The rekindling of the love and joy in the primary relationship is the path to authentic development. This is contrasted with all the cares and concerns that have sucked their joy and consumed their time.

Joy of the Gospel

Reading ‘Ah Feel to Party’ as metaphor, opens the song to the path to spiritual renewal. In his Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis says: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus”,

1.The Holy Father continues to comment on the contrast, which we can name, the path to false development:

The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a very real danger for believers too. Many fall prey to it, and end up resentful, angry and listless”, 2.

In this consumer-driven world, so much of our life is spent on duty, drudgery and chasing illusions. ‘Ah Feel to Party’ puts before us, here at the beginning of Lent, a different way.

We were created for God and each other, and our hearts will remain restless ‘till we rest in God. The shaman has put a path of authentic renewal before the family, the Church, and the nation. It is all about relationship and joy.

Lent is a joyful season of repentance. This Lent, if the relationship between each husband and wife was rekindled, if each of our relationships with God was rekindled, then joy would break out and renewal will happen.

What the party is for Black Stalin, the invitation to the desert is for the Christian. It is God’s privileged place to seduce the soul and rekindle the relationship with us.

Let us put God first and enter into the desert of this Lenten season through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These are the practices to renew our relationship with God. Make a commitment this season to renewal and joy.

Key Message:

Renewal comes from rekindling primary relationships with great joy.

Action Step:

Review your primary relationships. Is there joy or just duty? This Lent spend more time with God in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and practise love in your relationships.

Scripture Reading:

Hosea 2:14–15