When Afropan Steelband (formerly Harriet Tubman Survivors Steelband now the Afropan Community Campus Group) won the best playing steelband competition at last month's Caribana Parade in Toronto, Canada, it was the band's seventh consecutive year as winners of this competition.
Records indicate that since1973 Afropan has been judged the best playing steelband 23 times out of a total of 27 competitions. Four other steelbands, Pan Fantasy, Silhouettes, Toronto All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO), and Trinbyrds have each won on one occasion, with Pan Fantasy and Afropan tying for first place once. In 1993, Afropan was awarded the Sam Lewis Trophy for best playing steelband, donated by Lewis, a former chairman of the Caribbean Cultural committee, in memory of his brother.
According to Afropan's very proud chairman Tom Sosa "our string of first places and consecutive wins is unparalleled anywhere, yet Afropan has no recognition for its achievement. Afropan is Toronto's oldest community steelband. This year, 25% of our pannists at the competition were young first year players who had graduated from our 1998/1999 instructional programme. Fifty percent were female."
Afropan's management aggressively promotes the interest in, and appreciation of, steelband music among the youth in the community through instructional classes and partnerships with community groups, such as, St Jamestown, and in the post-secondary environment at the University of Toronto.
Earl La Pierre Sr, a Trinidadian resident in Cayman, has been Afropan's leader from its inception in 1973. Others, like Elton Jones, Leslie Williams and Ken Jeffers, members of the band from day one, and Earle Wong, the band's resident tuner, still maintain leadership roles in the organization.
La Pierre was the leader of Impacts steelband in 1971 when the band won the first Caribana sponsored competition at Maple Leaf Gardens. It is felt that his special talent at arranging, his innovative musical style and dedicated commitment to tutoring young pannists, have contributed to Afropan's string of successes.
Afropan currently occupies storage space in the basement of 44 St George Street, a utility room of the University's Physical Resources Department.
Says Sosa "we share the space with heat, light, power and water connections, valves and meters associated with the building. There is an open area in which we practise and also hold classes for students during the fall and winter terms. The facility is normally very cold in the winter and extremely humid in summer, not an ideal learning environment."
But Afropan carries on because of its continuous, historical relationship with the University of Toronto, dating back to the early 1950's in the International Student Centre (ISC) at 33 St George Street, when students from the Caribbean and, in particular, Trinidad and Tobago, formed the West Indian Students' Association. "There were few of us and our home away from home was the ISC" explained Sosa.
"This was the era of the collapse of the British West Indian Federation and the political transition of the former British colonies from colonialism to independence. The spirit of political independence was high and the ISC was the locale for many heated political debates, guest speakers and open fora. We played the few steel pan instruments we brought from the West Indies in the basement of ISC and were encouraged to participate in the extra curricular activities of campus life."
Sosa believes that "it is conceivable that the steel pan was introduced into Canada at the ISC building at the University of Toronto." Jones was responsible for the designation of ACCG as a student/alumni campus group. He is now a Guidance Counsellor and teacher in the Music Department at George Vanier Collegiate in Toronto, and has been the Program Co-ordinator of the ACCG's orchestra for more than two decades.
As resident steelband of the University, Afropan performs regularly at functions, such as, orientation of new students at University of Toronto Day in September.
The university's alumni members of ACCG have contributed to the development of the music of the steel pan by having it included in the music curriculum of a number of schools in Toronto and at community centres across Ontario, while many top professional artistes now incorporate the steelpan in their performances.
The skills of a member of ACCG who has mastered the complex art of making and tuning steel pans, are sought after by music departments at American universities, while his Canadian clients include many boards of education.
Two students who recently graduated from the University, have both indicated that their first contact with a university, was in the basement of 44 St. George Street as part of Afropan's teaching programme.
And although complaints from a group of residents at Knox College about Afropan's outdoor July practice sessions for the month leading up to Caribana, are currently being addressed by the university's Ombudsperson, the sessions, which have been ongoing for twenty-five years at the same location on the grounds outside 44 St. George Street facing Russell Street, have become a tourist attraction for visitors and residents of Toronto who come to the university to enjoy the rehearsals.