Attillah Springer
Trinidad Guardian
The forgotten warrior
Many a pilgrim trekking out east
Moving through trenches like soldiers
Like priests
The weak and humble desire to rise
The repentant sinners
Live up in his eyes.
—Thanks for D Music, Andre Tanker
All things considered, I suppose $1 million is sufficient. Not that you can put a dollar value on what the Soca Warriors have done for our sense of who we are.
Maybe I’m just too cantankerous and hard to please but I was hoping to hear the Government rushing to build national sporting academies.
Maybe a football scholarship to UWI or its new UTT in the name of Latas or Dwightie so that the good bright ballers from here don’t have to depend on grants from US universities to get a further education.
And yes, the guy gives me the heebie jeebies, but surely the Government was being just a little bit petty by not recognising the contribution of our big man in the football business, Jack Warner.
But thank Jah the men who made us so proud don’t just have ball skills. Thank Jah I’ve heard them talking about sporting academies and about using sport as an intervention for this nation’s much berated youth.
Because I watched the look on the father of the nation’s face and I see like Father Patrick don’t really have any idea of what it is to love his nation.
He knows nothing of spirits lifted when he appears on the news speaking through clenched teeth, denying us the pleasure of seeing those famed dimples.
But one thing that really upsets me in this whole self-stroking charade put on by the Government in a belated attempt at celebrating the achievements of the Soca Warriors is this.
The twelfth man on the side. The reason why so many of us really took this football thing to heart even with all the fear and trepidation and memory of November 19, 1989, still fresh in our tear ducts.
I want to know where is Maximus Dan’s Chaconia Gold. Where are his accolades for creating a song more resonant and emotive than the national anthem?
Fighter is more than just a praise song for the Soca Warriors. Fighter is a nation-building song, a God Bless our Nation or Our Nation’s Dawning for the soca generation that has no recollection of that first unfurling of the red, white and black.
It’s not very often that we can really say that we have a song that demonstrates that kind of newness, that kind of freshness that rescues this modern soca music from its mediocrity.
In any other civilization the artist holds a valuable place in the society. The griot is a decorated man or woman. The one who sings the story of his or her people is well respected and decorated for the beauty of his voice and the eloquence with which he depicts the nation’s history.
When the story of T&T is written and they recall the first time we went to the World Cup, what will be said of Fighter.
How will they capture the goosebumps on the arms of every Trinidadian/Tobagonian in those stadiums? How can they document the hoarseness of thousands of people roaring in one voice oh oooh oh, oh oh.
In this time of snack-box soca and regurgitated melodies, Fighter stands out as a clarion call to those of us whose spirits flag. Who are disillusioned and not at all hopeful about the soca, about the politics, about the society.
I only have words. I’m not an overpaid stuffed shirt and unfortunately I’m way too poor to make Maximus the kind of award he deserves.
So thank you, Maximus, for the upliftment. Thank you for being consistent in your words and never falling for the seduction of fluff and fakeness that keeps this local music industry alive.
Thank you for being yourself, and having the kind of humility that only true warriors understand.
Thank you for singing out before we even qualified, for not jumping belatedly on a theme song bandwagon.
Thanks for the music, Maximus and hopefully one day this society will give you the accolades more deserving of a warrior of your stature.
