In the 1930s, being poor, Laventille residents, unable to afford traditional instruments like the guitar and violin, began experimenting. Experiments began with rudimentary instruments made from scraps of metals. Old hub caps, paint tins, milk pans, biscuit tins and even pots were used. In fact, the biscuit tin was said to be used to make the first true pan that was hung around the player’s neck using string. This first pan, like a drum, was beat with the palm of the hand and not sticks.
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This biscuit tin pan was nurtured and developed until it became our beloved steelpan of today. The steelpan was given life and nurtured among the people of Laventille with John John being officially recognised as the birthplace of pan. Created among outcasts, the steelpan was itself considered a derelict only to be played by the low class of society. But, like the biblical block discarded by the builder, the steel pan would endure to become the chief corner stone and the toast of a proud nation.
So next carnival, when yuh chipping down the road to the sweet, hypnotic sounds of pan, listen for the spirit of the shango drums and dash some rum on the ground for the forefathers of pan. And remember, that it was Laventille that ensured “the forbidden drums survived to instill their spirit in the very heart of the steelpan where the drumbeat and heartbeat are inseparable.”
N.B Much of the information obtained for this post, including the quotation in the last line, came from the following website: http://www.steelisland.com/history.asp
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