Tanti

Tanti at de oval

‘Tanti at de oval’ is an astonishing piece written by Paul Keens -Douglas in 1992. It is clearly evident in the piece that cricket is at the centre of attention, bringing out a range of complex and diverse issues that embodies the Caribbean culture from history to the contemporary society. The audio focuses on a sport that has been an ardent part of the Caribbean’s struggle for independence and thus has remained embedded in our rich culture. Thus the issues that are going to be raised in this essay entails colonialism, cricket as a tool of integration or the creation of rivalry and Caribbean life.

From the audio, we gather the colorful environment and bursting excitement that surrounds the cricket match, however it makes us wonder why Paul Keens Douglas particularly chose cricket out of all the other sports in the Caribbean. According to Nasser Mustapha ‘Caribbean history has a long and tumultuous colonial past, with the plantation being the dominant form of economic and social organization, thereby resulting in a rich cultural legacy’1. Thus the infamous and enjoyable sport of cricket that we know today was a mere tool of conquest and domination used by the Europeans in their attainment of absolute power and control. It was an elite sport that only the white could play marginalizing the blacks once more in the pyramidal hierarchy that existed during the colonial period. According to Rose -Marie Belle Antoine , ‘the process of colonisation has been like a huge tidal wave. It has covered our land, submerging the natural life of our people’2.

1 Nasser Mustapha, ‘Sociology for Caribbean Students 2nd edition, 2013’, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, p 106. 2 Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, ‘Commonwealth Caribbean Law and Legal Systems 2nd edition’ 2008: Routledge-Cavendish, p 25.

Thus with the formation of the West Indies cricket team, they have been able to...