Trinidad - The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands - page 108

'Madam Joe' strikes the same note of social admonition.
'You go straightening your hair
And going on with strange doings most everywhere.
Your age is about sixty-three,
Yet you behave so disgracefully.
And in the night you like rufus-vampire
Going around the town as a British Spitfire,
With your balloon-barrage.
O Lord, Madam, do give up your badge.'
Attila the Hun is the Calypsonian whose songs are most prone to slip into a type of vaguely metrical
pamphleteering—a sort of Calypso that will provide precious data for Trinidadian social historians of the
future. For instance:—
'In this world I know there are millions of whites
Who appreciate the coloured man's rights,
And has a desire and willingness
To aid in his pursuit of happiness.
A white man would love a Negro to the core
As a brother, but not a brother-in-law.
So these mixed marriages, in my opinion,
Is the cause of all this racial discrimination.'
And
'Again and again I am forced to comment
On what I call our most peculiar government.
They said they were unable financially
To help the West Indian University.
To aid deserving cases they always fail,
Yet they can build a million-dollar jail.'
There is something very impressive about the names of the Calypsonians—itself a superbly fustian
word—many of them, like my acquaintance the Duke of Albany (to whose diligence in collecting old
Calypsos I owe most of the ones quoted), remaining with them for life. They form a Trinidadian Debrett,
Zoo and Valhalla: the Black Prince, the Iron Duke, King Fanto, the Cat, the Duke of Normandy, Attila
the Hun, Lord Executor, the Lion, King Radio, the Tiger, the Mighty Viking, Lord Kitchener, [9] Lord
Invader, Lord Caressor, Count Buckram and the Mighty Spoiler. Many of their songs express patronage
and scorn for the neighbouring islands, treating them as provincial, poor and backward. Barbados, Gren-
ada and Tobago get a very bad press:—