Sugar Aloes doesn't really have the moral authority to call Bodyguard's song racist but I don't think it is.
ALOES AND BODYGUARD BATTLE OVER ‘RACE’ SONG So there’s not only controversy in the Soca world but the Calypso fraternity as well.
In fact there’s one brewing presently.
Roger Mohammed, better known in the calypso fraternity as “Bodyguard” has managed to upset one Calypso icon enough to be left out of for the Kalypso Revue tent this season for his song False Papers.
Michael “Sugar Aloes” Osouna manager of the Revue tent and a veteran calypsonian known for his controversial calypsoes, has rejected the song because he says it is offensive, racist, unfairly attacked members of the Indo-Trinidadian community and would serve to divide Afro-Trinidadians and Indo-Trinidadians
However, Mohammed has shot back, saying he (Osouna) has no moral authority to talk about racism.
In an interview yesterday, Mohammed charged that Osouna was also responsible for “almost single-handedly running the majority of “East Indians” out of calypso tents.
He says that the song talks about the people who were caught with false papers and these people happen to be East Indians.
“From Reshmi Ramnarine to others. I cannot talk about the Syrians or Chinese because they have not been caught doing this. I am just doing my job as a calypsonian,” Mohammed said.
Here are some of the lyrics:
First verse
It easy to say Sat will be Sat
And try to ignore people like dat
But Sat Maharaj controls a large group in society
So when he makes a definitive declaration
It carries a lot of clout
We feel he know what he talkin bout
But time has a way
Of recycling the tings we say
And holding them up against logic and reason
So when Sat say ‘Indian children beating book
‘While black children beating pan’
No cousin! Is better yuh didn’t say nuttin
Chorus
Cause recently, one setta Indian people get caught
Wid false papers, false papers
I’m yet to see, one single African in the lot
And not one of them fraudsters ever face a court
So yuh theory have more holes than a water can
Like is better some ah dem Indian did beat a pan
When yuh feel dey was beating more book than the African
Dey was fabricating degrees, defrauding the land
Fourth verse
Doh bother to say dat I on race
Such red herrings are well out of place
I’m simply putting Sat’s statement on the altar of truth
For too long so-called leaders in this country
Have abused media access
Causing divisiveness and unrest
If Cudjoe or Khambon should rage
And say something that’s off the page
You will jump up to defend your race and religion
So yuh poison pen ah cyar condone
Stop pushing that racist undertone and lies
The evidence says otherwise
Chorus
So you tell me, how so much Indian people get caught?
Wid false papers, false papers
While conversely, not one African in the lot
Plenty black people study and work hard for what they got
A good degree could stand scrutiny for decades after
But the false ones disappear like nougat sweetie paper
And like they try to put ah African inside dey cancar
But dey bounce dey head because W….. M….. is a dougla.