WalterFerguson

A child is born, on May 7th 1919, in the town of Guabito in today´s border line between Panamá and Costa Rica, then a fragile area of undefined and disputed limits between both countries. That child was Walter Ferguson Byfield, the son of West Indian immigrants who arrived in this area to build a railway and after, to join the United Fruit Company (UFCO).

By Musicologist MANUEL MONESTEL

Ferguson celebrates his family’s Caribbean heritage in his beloved Costa Rica

Nobody could imagine then, the talent of that humble little new born baby and the glory eventually involved in his musical work for him and his ancestors of Afro-Caribbean heritage. His family would eventually move to the town of Cahuita in the Costa Rican Republic’s province of Limón on the Caribbean coast, where his father became a small farmer associated with the UFCO, but as an independent supplier of bananas and later cocoa.

Towns like Cahuita and Puerto Limón are replicas of the environments and landscapes of lush Caribbean Islands, where many of the former immigrant settlers preserved the customs of their West Indian ancestors, cultural practices, history and vision of the world.

Ferguson grew up on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica among British inspired cricket matches, picnics on the beach, festivals, religious services — Anglican, Baptist or Methodist — among others. He was always aware of hybrid cults of African and European colonial beliefs, such as Pocomía, present in the province during his young years but harshly repressed by the then government in the 1930s. From religious chants to popular songs heard on the radio, Ferguson learned to play instruments like the harmonica, ukulele, guitar, and clarinet by his own means, rejecting the formal music training offered by a wealthy aunt who lived in Port Limón where he spent some time learning to play the organ.

His soundscape included Jamaican mento and square dances, where the clarinet was a central instrument. With his band “Miserable” he performed the fashionable Caribbean music of that time, rumba, pasillo, mento, and bolero, as well as swing and blues. In the 1970s he retired from music performances and started his most creative stage in life, writing Jamaican inspired mento tradition songs, framed in Trinidad and Tobago’s evolving calypso etiquette. His songs kept the spirit of the old mento but added the philosophy of newer calypso, emulator of critical and sociopolitical issues, without neglecting humour and satire.

Walter serenades Latin America with his Caribbean songs

In the last three decades of his life, he became an extraordinary figure in Costa Rica and Latin America, considered one of the greatest composers of popular calypso songs. This Costa Rican great was frequently visited by famous calypsonians from Trinidad and Tobago such as Chalkdust and Devon Seale, as well as Latino artistes like Javier Ruibal and Perotá Chingó. Two presidents of the Republic and other distinguish visitors were also welcomed in his home.

His songs were performed by 23 artistes from 16 countries on the album “100 Years of Calypso” released in 2019 for his 100th birthday anniversary. Among those guests singers were Jorge Drexler, Devon Seale, Inti Illimani, Perotá Chingó, Marcel Padey, Deborah Dixon and the Costa Rican Kawe Calypso, Editus and Cantoamérica. Ferguson’s music represents the permanent spirit of exchange characteristic of the Caribbean diaspora. his k nowledge of the work of great calypso figures such as Houdini and Kitchener from Trinidad or Harry Belafonte the Jamaican-American folk-calypso-mento singer, are reflected in his way of composing, capturing the surrounding reality in the lyrics of a song.

Ferguson’s opportunity to personally meet Chalkdust and Devon Seale when they participated in the International Calypso Festival in Cahuita, fostered another form of exchange between these calypso colossi in the Caribbean. The participation of other West Indian musicians on the album “100 Years of Calypso: Walter Ferguson”, such as Boulpik from Haiti, The Beachers from Panama or Devon Seale h imself from Trinidad, give continuity to that typical musical interaction of the Caribbean environment t hroughout history.

Walter Ferguson has been named “The Father of Calypso in Costa Rica”, not necessarily because he was the first calypsonian in the country, but because of his great ability to portray reality in his songs and because he became the teacher of several generations of new musicians, who, listening to h is work have understood and learnt what calypso is all about, carrying with honour the title of calypsonian spokesperson for t he people and banner of their culture.

In the context of the pan-Caribbean circle, Ferguson’s work has an important place due to its validity, its relevance, and its close proximity to the traditions, cultural processes, and identities of the region.

The following fragments of songs clearly show how Ferguson seamlessly wove the history and culture of the insular Caribbean into the music that so defined him.

One day I was passing through the baños

I met an outraging Ganja man The fellow was so cantankerous I thought he would have killed the Calypsonian (bis)

I try to show him I’m not a spy

And neither a Babylon

I’m only passing by

I’m only a humble calypsonian (bis) (From the song Babylon)

Anansy playing the fiddle, Tacuma beating the drum

Breda Donkey giving a riddle and breda Monkey drinking the rum (From the song Tacuma and Anansy´s Party)

Numerous local and international awards bestowed

Ferguson is the only Costa Rican artiste included in the Smithsonian Institute Collection.

He has received several official recognitions, like the Popular Culture National Prize and the designation of the day of his birth as the National Calypso Day by the government of Costa Rica; the Reca Mora Prize, the highest recognition to a national musician by the Association of Musical Authors and Composers ACAM; and the Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Costa Rica.

Only two days before his death at the age of 104 years on 25 February 2023, he received the designation of Honorary Citizen by the National Congress of the Republic of Costa Rica.

Ferguson’s songs are framed on Jamaican roots, sung in Caribbean Patois, emulate landscapes (beaches), food (Callaloo), legends and tales (Anansy Stories), magical religious myths (Obeah) and the entire wonderful Caribbean world. This eclectic cultural mix started in 1872 — the beginning of the migration of Jamaicans and other Caribbean islanders looking for work in Central America — that today binds our archipelago of nations in a shared heritage of our people and culture. | JP

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