All language subtitles for Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown S09E07 Trinidad (1080p x265 10bit Joy)

♪

There's Trinidad

and Tobago.

One country,

two very different islands,

two very different places.

♪

One island is what
you expected when you arrived

wearing flip-flops
and a Hawaiian shirt,

all greased up
with cocoa butter.

♪

The other
ain't about that at all.

♪

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain
on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain
getting colder ♪

♪ La, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

♪ If I had the choice,
I would choose ♪

♪ To live back when
Calypso brought the news ♪

♪ If I had the choice,
I would choose ♪

♪ To live right back when
Calypso brought the news ♪

♪ No more reporters,
no anchormen ♪

♪ No recorder, no pad and pen ♪

♪ No nosy cameras
to point and shoot ♪

♪ No red ink
to cross out the truth ♪

♪

Many visitors
come to Trinidad for one thing

and one thing only, Carnival,

which locals say is
the biggest party on Earth,

a pre-Lenten festival
of costumes,

food, copious drinking,
and the kind of dancing

you'd better be good at
before trying in public.

It's almost two months before
the party officially starts,

but here in Trinidad's capital,
Port of Spain,

the Carnival season
has already begun.

I thought it was a pity
that you weren't here

during the peak
of the Carnival season.

I'll tell you something
really terrible about myself.

Like, I've never been to
Mardi Gras, Carnival in Rio,

any kind of Carnival.
Okay.

Like, large numbers
of strangers...

That is very interesting.

Swarming through the streets
dancing in uniforms?

- Doesn't do it for you?
- No. Some of my deepest fears

are having to dance
or sing in public.

Either of these
would be terrifying,

so this seems like a situation

where that might come up,
you know?

♪

Queen's Park Savannah will be
the epicenter of Carnival,

but tonight it's still
Trinidad's street food center.

♪

My dinner companion
for some fried snapper

is La Shaun Prescott,

who's here to tell me
about two essential skills

necessary for the proper
enjoyment of local nightlife.

Turns out I am very good at one
and suck epically at the other.

What is liming?

Liming is, like, our version
of hanging out, you know?

- Right.
- You're with friends.

You're chilling.
That's liming.

Is there alcohol involved?
Chances are if you're liming...

Of course, probably.

Well, I mean,
you can lime without beer.

What about the rum?
I haven't had any rum here.

How does one drink rum here,

and which rum should
I be drinking?

Does one drink it
on the rocks or mixed?

- So one drinks it with Coke.
- With Coke?

Yeah, rum and Coke.

But the rum's supposed to be
really, really good here.

Yeah.

Okay, so we've established
what liming is.

What is wining?

The technical term is
the circumduction of the hips,

and it's a style of dance.

♪

And if you're not used
to the culture,

you don't understand
what it means,

you can interpret it
the wrong way.

When you see it
for the first time,

you can think it's seductive,
you can think it's sexual.

♪

But people can wine
on each other

and not really mean anything.
Right.

I could wine on you,
and it doesn't mean

that I want
to take you home, you know?

It's something
that's really about freedom

of expression of self,

and it's something
that crosses ages, races,

ethnicities, especially
during Carnival time.

You see people from high status
and people who are,

you know, lower class,
they both wine together.

You know, the barriers
are no longer there.

It's all just a mix of all
different ethnicities and stuff.

♪

♪

The faces you see
in the streets are African,

Indian, Chinese,

Middle Eastern in features

and every shade of mix
in between.

This patchwork of ethnic
identities and colors

is a direct legacy
of Trinidad's colonial past.

Located at the southern end
of the Caribbean Sea,

seven miles offshore
from Venezuela,

Trinidad and Tobago
have long been

important ports of call.

Like a lot of islands
in the area,

everybody's been through here
at one point or another.

The usual European
hunters of fortune.

The Spanish came
looking for gold.

Then the Dutch, French,
and British took their turns

at the real money
of the time, sugar,

an economy built on
plantation labor and slavery.

Finally, the island hit
the big money...

oil.

During World War II,

a pair of seemingly
unrelated events

had a big impact on
the island's musical culture.

The U.S. Navy
built an oil depot

to supply overseas
strategic needs.

And the ruling
British banned drums

made from traditional-style
animal skins

after a series of riots

they insisted were inspired
by African drumming.

♪

One improvises
in such circumstances,

and all those oil drums
were repurposed.

♪

♪

This is Phase II, one of only
11 large steel bands

taking part in the worldwide
competition, Panorama,

that happens in a few weeks.

Winner gets 150 grand.

♪

They've taken home
the prize seven times,

in no small part
due to this man,

Lennox "Boogsie" Sharpe.

♪

The rehearsal space
is called a pan yard,

and if you're lucky, somebody
nearby is making this,

corn soup,

split pea broth,

dumplings, and, of course, corn.

Kim Johnson is a local
journalist and historian

who knows about this stuff.

It's far more complex
than you think.

♪

Wow. I got to tell you,
that was incredible.

I heard a lot of, you know,
little steel drum bands

around the Caribbean,
but nothing like that.

All percussion, right? 100%?
Yes.

How did your interest
in this develop?

I grew up here.
Later I became a writer.

I discovered there
just hundreds of stories.

Because in the early days,

up until the
'60s the steel bands

were partly like...
Like street gangs.

They would fight one another,

the "West Side Story"
kind of thing.

The steel bands doubled as that.

♪

So I just got fascinated

by tracking down
all of these pioneers

and getting their stories
of how they got involved.

I'll been 64 years this year.

I play music since I was a kid.

And his story is that
he grew up with them

in one of his back yards.

When he was about
three years old,

he was going out
playing with them.

♪

Boogsie composes his pieces

by layering different
types of drums

on top of each other.

Engine Room,
made of unpitched percussion,

lays down the groove.

♪

Next, a section of six
bass pans drops a bass line.

♪

The guitar and cello pans
add harmonies

that sound like strumming.

♪

And the frontline pans
play the melody.

♪

The result?
A symphonic wall of sound.

♪

I'd like someday
to marriage this

with a big orchestra,
symphony orchestra.

Yeah, that's... that's my dream.

It's because of the music
Africans survived slavery,

not just physically,
survived psychically.

It's a question of just
improvising instruments.

♪

♪

Thanks so much.

Holy crap, okay.

This is a challenge.

People keep coming up
to me in the street.

The first thing they say is,

"Have you had doubles yet?
Did you get a doubles yet?"

So I'm eating doubles,
all right?

♪

Doubles are a Caribbean take

on the Indian chana bhatura,

two floppy,
tender pieces of soft,

Indian-style bread

loaded with a wet heap
of curried chickpeas,

pepper sauce, and mango.

Structurally,
I have questions here.

Yeah, I don't want seepage.
Seepage is never... never good.

If somebody uses
"seepage" in a sentence,

it... it... nothing good
is gonna happen.

I'm gonna suck the paper.

I don't think
there's meat in here,

but I still like it.

It's really, really good.

♪

♪

A half-century after Trinidad

became independent
of the British Empire,

there are surprisingly
few architectural remnants,

but the face of the country

and its population
were forever changed

when slavery ended in 1834

and Great Britain found itself
in need of cheap,

if not free, labor
to work the plantations.

They found it in East India.

At the abolition of slavery,
the plantation owners

desperately needed to find labor

to fill the void
created by the slaves

who turned their backs
on the plantation

for obvious reasons,
and they looked around.

They tried Portuguese.
They tried Chinese.

They tried many communities

until they found out that
Indians are the best suited

because they were already
planting sugarcane

in India successfully.

♪

Between the end
of outright slavery

and the beginning of
World War I,

150,000 indenturedservants
were brought here from India.

Indentured servitude
is slavery by another name.

The people brought here
from India were bought, sold,

and treated like property
but were told that

if they completed five years
of often back-breaking labor,

they would be set free.

♪

Noon on a Monday,
ordinarily a workday,

but today the Singh family
is having a boys' river wine.

Chan, the patriarch,
is a retired diplomat.

His son, Keshav,
is a music producer.

Uncle Charlie is
in charge of the cooking.

♪

How far back does the family go?

This family goes back to 1845.

1845?
Those were hard times.

Life was not good for y...
For the family in India.

There was poverty,
there was wars

and all sorts of things,
and yes.

- Famine.
- They came into real

hard times here
because the Indian

immigrants from India
replaced the liberated slaves,

and the conditions
were not very different.

Difficult times, but it was
a means to social mobility

and away from
the situation in India.

We part of the descendents
of that generation.

♪

Hey!

Start with one whole duck,
hack into pieces,

rub with lime juice, season
with hot peppers, garlic,

and the tropical herb
shado beni.

Add generous helpings
of masala and curry powder.

Marinate for a bit,
then sear in oil,

then simmer in coconut milk
until tender.

Mmm, man, that's good.

The pepper's soft.
Really hot peppers.

- Yeah.
- That's really good.

We got to kill some more ducks
'cause that is...

When we have it like this,

when we're drinking
before the actual meal,

it's like an appetizer,
but we call it cutters

because it cuts the alcohol.

Yeah.

Right, I'm sobering up
as we speak.

So, look,
you're all Trinidadian?

- Mm-hmm.
- Yes.

It's Trinidad first,
Indian second.

- Yeah.
- 'Cause, I mean,

when the Indians came,

you know,
160-something years ago,

there was a disconnect
with the motherland.

Most of these Indian
were promised

that they were going
for a short tenure

to make a lot of money
and then return home.

They gave return passage
or land... or land.

So when the first Indians
took the option to go back,

couldn't find their families.
Right.

And those who found
their family were rejected

because they said, "You guys
abandoned us for five years."

- Wow.
- "You may as well take

that five acres of land
and stay there."

So there's no closure
to descendants like us

who have not found
any connection

between our families in India.

Soft paratha dough
is cooked on a massive tawa

and slathered with ghee.

But here, just as
it's reaching peak flakiness,

it gets a beating.

Here they call it buss-up-shut,

which means "burst up shirt."

- Burst up shirt?
- Yeah.

Because they'd make
a huge paratha,

and then they whack it
with two sticks.

Oh, okay, I thought
they were talking about

what's gonna happen
to my shirt after I eat it.

What about skin color?

Look, you look at Jamaica,

you look at Haiti.

I don't care what they say,

but what they do is it's still
a powerful determinant

of where your status is in the...
In a power structure.

- Yeah.
- Does that exist here?

It's not something that
has consumed our imagination.

Being Trinidadian is not
necessarily color-tone oriented,

but it's more... and I think
what people really revel in

and enjoy
is the common experiences.

The food is the glue
that binds the society together.

In spite of the problem
that we have here,

we are still one
of the most harmonious,

multiethnic society
in the world,

and the multi-ethnicity
of Trinidad,

the bigger multi-religious
tolerance

are examples
for the world to follow.

We are a small island,
and if you don't learn

to live together,
you have to live in the sea.

We have to.
Right?

♪ Oh why Trinidad is nice

♪ Trinidad is a paradise

♪ Trinidad is nice

♪ Trinidad is a paradise

♪

Yeah, my theory
was always the whole world

is gonna look like Trinidad
in another 100 years, anyway.

- It'd be a great world.
- Well, I think so.

Cheers to that.
Cheers, cheers.

- Cheers.
- Cheers to that.

♪ Trinidad is nice

♪ Trinidad is a paradise

♪ Why, Trinidad is nice

♪ Trinidad is a paradise

Thank you.

♪

It started in 1898,
more than 100 years ago.

Most of the Christians were
being persecuted by the Turks,

so there was an exodus
of Christians leaving Syria.

They boarded
the ships from Beirut,

and as long as it
was heading west,

they thought they were
going to America.

Many of our parents
landed in Trinidad,

and that's when we started.

That's the first generation.

Just outside of Port of Spain,

Bayshore is one of the priciest
neighborhoods in the country.

I'm here as a guest
of the Sabgavuds,

a successful family
of Lebanese Syrians.

- Look at... isn't this amazing?
- Beirut.

Oh, yes, like Beirut.
You know arak?

- I do indeed.
- Would you like arak?

A little ice and some water

would be perfect.
It would be perfect.

My drink of choice is
Grey Goose and coconut water.

The family's story
is not an uncommon one.

The first members came here

during the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire,

arriving penniless.

They worked their way up
as textile merchants

and branched out
to run businesses that sell

everything from medical
equipment to real estate.

And how large is
the community now in Trinidad?

A little under 5,000.

That's still a fairly
small percentage of the...

Extremely small.

Actually, we are the smallest
ethnic group in Trinidad.

But the most powerful,
almost the most powerful.

Small but the
most powerful, huh?

That's not bragging.

Syrian-Lebanese merchant class
are generally seen as the elite.

Actually, I'm very big
in the food business.

I have a 120 restaurants.

Call me the Starbucks
of the Caribbean.

I can't tell you how happy
I am about this meal.

I love, love the food.

This is raw kibbeh,

the best raw kibbeh
you'll ever eat in your life.

- Yeah.
- This is the fried version,

which is stuffed
with the nice stuffing,

and then we have
the typical hummus.

This is muhammara,
which is made from chili paste

and ground nuts,
the best muhammara in Trinidad.

Then we have falafel patties.

We have grilled wings
with garlic, which is...

Every Arab loves,

Fish in tahini sauce.
You ever had that?

- Yeah, beautiful.
- See, I'm gonna pour

some olive oil over
our lovely things

'cause olive oil is a must.

I mean, and how closely
do people stay in contact

with family or relatives

back in Lebanon or Syria
if at all?

- Not very much.
- We are Trinidadians too.

As much as we are Lebanese
and Syrian, we are Trinidadians.

Trinidad has been good to us,
and we know it.

But life is good here
in Trinidad.

Life is very good,

but there is a measure
of concern in the fact

that at one time we used
to have a huge middle class

which was a sort of a security

in terms
of any possible conflict

between the haves
and the have-not.

But now that's eroding,
and they're getting poorer,

so they're starting
to get angry.

What do you think
the biggest danger is right now?

Civil commotion.

- Yes.
- Civil commotion?

Yeah. We have a crime problem
related to gangs.

Gang warfare.
Related to gang warfare.

It ain't all good for
everybody here by a long shot.

Trinidad, with a population
of only 1.3 million people,

had 460 murders last year,
giving Port of Spain

a per capita murder rate
higher than Detroit,

Oakland, or Chicago.

Mark Bassant covers
the subjects of drug

and gang-related violence
as an investigative journalist.

People want you dead?

You could say that.

Who wants you dead,
do you think?

Well, two years ago I did

a piece about
the state prosecutor,

Dana Seetahal,
who was shot dead.

When state prosecutor
Dana Seetahal left

the Ma Pau car park just
before midnight on May 3rd,

she had no inclination it
would be her last moments alive.

When Mark began to look into
the murder of the prosecutor,

an informant told him

there was a $20,000 contract
on his life.

They had people following me
over a period of time,

some law enforcement officers
and so on,

so my company put me on a plane.

I went... I stayed
under an assumed name

for about three months in
a location outside of Trinidad.

Generally speaking, when
people like that want you dead,

they get you.

Why are you back?

I guess, to quote from a great

U.S. journalist,
Walter Cronkite,

"It's not what you
want people to know.

It's what they need to know."

We need to have people held
accountable for certain things.

With drug trafficking being one
of the biggest businesses

in the world,

Trinidad continues to be
a major transshipment point

for drug dealers

to get that product out
to North America

and to Europe,

so you find now
the explosion of violence

that we have is for those

that are involved locally
with the drug trafficking,

this fight for territory.

An estimated $3.5 billion
worth of narcotics

moves through
the Caribbean each year.

Trinidad's porous borders,

busy port,
proximity to Venezuela,

and the inevitable corruption
that comes with numbers

and threats like that make it,

unfortunately,
an ideal transshipment point.

How bad is high-level
corruption alleged to be?

Fairly deep.
I think that the complicity

comes across the law
enforcement agencies,

customs, police officers,
even at higher levels.

And with corruption,
poverty, hopelessness,

add some radical ideology
to that,

and Trinidad has proved
relatively fertile ground

for the recruitment
of ISIS fighters...

and terrorists.

It's quite alarming,
Trinidadian nationals

being one of the highest
in the region going to Syria,

and it's over a hundred
on a list, FBI list.

They feel that it's their
calling from ISIS

that they need to go.

So what's the future look like?

What do you think?
How's it gonna go?

Wow, that's a loaded question.

There are really good people
here in Trinidad.

They're really,
really good people

that can make a difference
on all fronts.

If we go down the path
that we go now,

there will be all bad.

♪

In 1990 the radical
Islamic group

Jamaat al Muslimeen laid siege
to Trinidad's parliament,

claiming they were responding
to rising inequality, poverty,

and religious discrimination.

What ensued was a violent
and terrifying disaster.

26 people were killed
in skirmishes,

and the hostage-takers,
would-be revolutionaries,

gave up in exchange
for clemency after six days.

Little changed.

♪

Muhammad Muwakil's father took
part in the attempted coup.

He grew up, in fact,

in the Jamaat al Muslimeen
compound,

but he's chosen to take
a different path, music.

He's the lead singer
of Freetown Collective,

a band named after
a Port of Spain neighborhood

that was once a settlement
for freed slaves.

♪ They say we can't
write no love songs ♪

♪ Live fast and we die young ♪

♪ They say we doomed
to fail, yeah ♪

♪ They say we doomed to fail

♪ They say we prone to
violence ♪

- ♪ Violence
- ♪ And a sinking silence

♪ They don't know what they say,
no, no, no, no, no ♪

♪ No, no, no, no

Much like a lot of reggae,

his music calls
out the social ills

that have been
disproportionately visited

on the Afro-Caribbean
population.

♪ I see bodies lying
in the streets ♪

♪ Nations collapse
in the midday heat ♪

♪ Lord, I need to cool my head ♪

♪ My head

♪ They calling it
a brave new world ♪

♪ Freedom for brave
new boys and girls ♪

♪ What good is freedom
if you're dead? ♪

You look around
my city right now,

and a lot of young people
are choosing death over life

because the life that they look
at doesn't feel like

it's substantiated by anything.

In the Freetown neighborhood
now called Belmont,

he lives with his
81-year-old granny, Neela Natu.

The thing is that recently
we've had a lot of people,

people who I've known,
who I grew up with

who've gone to fight in Syria,
who've left here.

I mean, they will tell you
that the official count is 140.

I would say it's more.

- You'd say it's more?
- I'd say it's more.

And why do you think
people would go?

I'd have to go back into

my childhood
to explain that to you.

The coup that happened here

happened when
I was six years old.

They had all these young people
in there who had this idea,

you know, we're going
to build this thing.

There's this community
that's gonna stand up

against what's going on
in Trinidad,

that's going to stand up
against the drugs

and stand up against poverty

and stand up against crime,
and nothing happened.

In none of these causes,

religious fundamentalism
or fervor has not come up.

You... every... every issue
you've mentioned so far

has been perceived
inadequacy of social justice.

Right, yeah.

So these kids
going off to Syria,

do they have any idea
what they're doing?

- No, they do not.
- Or are they just pissed off?

No, they do not. People say
that poverty breeds crime.

I don't think poverty
breeds crime in a sense.

I think exclusion breeds crime
because if I truly care for you,

if I feel like you are a part
of the thing that I exist in,

then I won't... I won't hurt you.

Might come in your house
and steal some food,

but when you see
that kind of violence

being enacted,
you have to ask yourself.

It's not just somebody saying,

"I need this tablecloth.
I'm gonna take this."

No, "I want this tablecloth",

"and you, you had this
tablecloth for too long,

"so you know what,
I'm gonna take this out on you.

This is gonna happen.
That's gonna happen."

And that's what
we're seeing now.

I mean, how long can people
put up with something

before they decide this is
enough, you know what I mean?

Would you say that Carnival
and that Carnival attitude,

the liming culture is a...

Might as well be a brilliant
strategy to narcotize

the people into being satisfied
with the status quo?

Everything here is somehow
designed to...

pacify it
without us really realizing,

so our music, which is
supposed to give us adrenaline

as well as sleeping pills
sometimes,

it's just doling
out sleeping pills.

Like, go ahead, enjoy yourself.
Enjoy yourself.

Enjoy yourself.
You are Trini.

Trini means fun-loving and happy

and whatever
despite whatever it is.

Ah.

It's a big and delicious
home-cooked meal.

I caught this myself.

- Really?
- Yes, sir.

- Red snapper?
- Yeah, yeah.

The snapper is seasoned
with lime juice,

shado beni and onion.

What's this dish called?
Is there a name for it?

- This is called oil down.
- Oil down?

- Yeah.
- For oil down

they season breadfruit

and meat with dasheen
and green figs,

then simmer in coconut milk.

And, well, she uses pork,
as you can see,

which I... now I can't have any,
so that's okay.

Now your grandma, not a Muslim?

No, the Roman Catholic-est
of all Roman Catholics.

- Old-school?
- Sacred heart up on the wall.

I got a kind of a perfect one
for you, so you have this.

- Oh, beautiful, thank you.
- Pastel.

This is mostly when
the Spaniards where here,

introduced this.
This is a Spanish one.

Pastels are the Caribbean
cousin to the tamale.

Minced beef is wrapped
in cornmeal dough,

then in banana leaf,
then steamed.

Table for sure.

She will feed you till
you burst like any grandmother.

You know, right?
Yeah.

- I'll be well looked after.
- And that is once a year.

- So when do these ordinarily...
- Christmastime.

Christmas, oh.
This is very, very delicious.

Thank you very much,
and one thing I've asked about.

Why you didn't put ice
in his glass?

It's good.
It's fine.

So he must say thanks
to whatever you made.

Tell Muhammad it's not good.

See how... see how
that generation, very proper,

like, very, very proper,

and one of the things
about Trinidad is that...

Muhammad, don't bad-talk me.

I'm not bad-talking you.
I only speak the truth.

That generation very much
believed in independence

and that this nation
would be something,

and then they told
their children,

"Study and come
and help this nation.

Build this nation,
and it's gonna be something."

And that generation, which was
my parents, they did that.

Right.

And then they had kids,
you know?

And all of a sudden it was like,
okay, all these things

you have been saying about
building a nation and whatever,

how come I'm seeing these people
benefitting, and I'm not?

How come I'm seeing this, I'm
seeing that, I'm seeing that?

And there were very few answers,
you know what I mean?

So who runs this country?

Like everywhere else, that 1%.
Like everywhere else.

Everybody here
is very eager to tell you

what a wonderful mix it is,

and the food, if you look at it,

it does... is this incredibly
harmonious stew pot.

Right.

But I guess life
doesn't work as well as food.

No. The only thing
we've agreed on in this place

is how much salt
to put in anything.

So that's the only thing
we've agreed on.

♪

♪ Man we on a mission

♪ A whole world to change

♪ Yeah a whole world
to change ♪

♪

♪

Trinidad, it should be
pointed out right now,

before you start packing
your Speedo

and your cocoa butter,
is an industrial island.

And like so many places,

industrialization
is changing the landscape here,

but some things persist,

remain, echo from
all the way back then...

When West African slaves
would covertly do this,

Calinda.

This martial art,
based on our research,

is maybe 500, 600 years old.

Stick fighting variations

occur throughout the Caribbean,

but in Trinidad and Tobago it's,
like, deep in their blood.

This martial art was illegal
for many, many years.

Yes?
Yeah.

I mean, certainly during
slavery times it was illegal.

To this day,
I believe there's still laws

on our books
that ban this stick,

and if you're caught with it,
you could go to jail.

The laws of slavery times
forced this sport underground.

Like Capoeira, it often had
to be disguised as a dance,

but this ain't no dance.

The guys with the whip
and the guys with the stick

were all the guys saying,
"You have not broken us.

We will continue to resist
to the ends of time."

♪

Rondel Benjamin and Keegan
Taylor studied fighting styles

from around the world
before coming around

to their own
homegrown martial art.

Now, what's legal?

- What's not legal is...
- Oh, they say what's not legal?

♪

I can't hit to the legs, knees.

- You can't?
- Can't.

Oh, damn, 'cause that would
be the first thing I'd think of.

I'm thinking, "I got to get that
knee... that knee in particular."

Now, to be honest,
in stick fighting,

legal and illegal is a concept,

but it doesn't stop that kind
of stuff from happening.

Right, but I mean,
let's face it.

This is a pretty heavy object.
Yeah.

I get a good swing, a tee off,

and I get a clean shot
on the head...

This is what the
New York Police Department

would call a deadly weapon.

- Yes, sir.
- If I'm fighting,

if I'm really fighting,
I'm a monster.

I got to look you down.

I got to kill you.
I got to dig you up.

I got to bury you.
I got to murder you.

I got to take you out.

♪

The demon in me
is gonna come out,

but I call that demon
to work with me.

King David is one of
the old-school street fighters

who has kept this form
from fading over the years.

♪

As in Brazil and the Deep South,

African slaves were
given little to work with

when it came time for the meal.

More often than not,
if they wanted meat,

they had to make do with what
the slave masters did not want,

a tongue here, cow foot there.

Here, as elsewhere,
they figured out

how to make something
delicious and tender

from whatever there was,
like souse.

Pig foot is pickled
in shado beni, onions

and hot peppers,

and then topped off
with cucumbers.

This is a martial art.
You either win or you lose.

- Correct.
- How do you win?

What decides winner?

Who draws blood first win.

All it requires
is the end result.

All you have to do
is cut the guy.

Blood is blood.

What's the worst injury
you've ever had in a fight?

This finger.

What's the worst injury
you've seen in a fight?

I lost... I see
a man lost the eye.

And also I saw a man die.

You have to be a real warrior,

a born, born, born fighter

to stand up there and face

that demon
which walk in like a man.

30 miles east of Trinidad,

its sister island, Tobago.

A whole different vibe
around here,

more like what you'd hope for

when you'd waddle away
from the buffet

on the S.S. Norwalk
cruise ship.

Lazy beach days,
boat drinks, villas,

all set to a calypso beat.

♪

♪

Oh, solo.

In the 1800s slaves
would sing the news

and gossip of the day
in a Creole patois

to an African beat.

Later musicians
added European-style melodies,

and calypso was born.

The longtime reigning queen
of this music

and absolute pioneer
of the form is Calypso Rose.

♪ They say that
I reign too long ♪

♪ Forgetting that
my constitution is strong ♪

♪ Instead of respecting
my long, long reign ♪

♪ They making threat
to take down my name ♪

♪ I've been breaking down walls
ever since I was tall ♪

♪ They would stand up
tall and strong ♪

♪ Like a wrecking ball,
I go knock them down ♪

♪ They say that
I reign too long ♪

Come on, baby!

She was the first woman
to win the Calypso King title,

which tells you what
the environment was like

at the time for a female artist.

♪ Everywhere I reign supreme

♪ The one and only
calypso queen ♪

♪ No man alive or dead

♪ Could come and take
the crown off me head ♪

♪

Rose grew up in a large

and strict
Baptist family in Tobago

until she was nine years old

and was sent to live
with her aunt in Trinidad,

so she grew up
with a foot in each island.

What's the difference between
growing up in Trinidad

and growing up in Tobago?
It's much different.

Tobagonians are 99 1/2% African.

They're African
slave descendants.

The culture is more African,

and this, this here
is the cornmeal cou co...

They call it fufu in Africa,

but in Tobago they say cou co...

And this is callaloo?

And this is the callaloo
made from the leaves-

- Dasheens.
- Of dasheen, you know?

But the great thing is the crab.

♪

Everybody come to Tobago
must eat crab and dumpling.

They dry coconut.

They grated the coconut,
and the juice of that coconut,

they put it in the pot

with your little ingredients
like tomato, onion,

thyme and your curry.

Crunch it up.

Good teeth.

If you have false teeth,
be careful.

All right.
Yeah, so far, so good.

Here's what I...
What really fascinates me,

is you started singing calypso
music and writing songs...

Of course.

At a time when it was only men.

Your father was not...

- My father was against it.
- Against it?

My father was traditional
Baptist minister.

My father say
calypso belong to the devil.

Calypso belongs to the devil,
but it also belonged to men,

and here you are
at age 15 doing...

- Age 13, I start writing.
- 13?

Doing what was considered a
completely revolutionary thing.

What was it about you
that made you strong enough

and different enough
and determined enough

to choose to do such a difficult

and unusual thing
when everybody was against it?

My fans, because some people
at home, they're sad.

They're going through so much
financially, economically,

they're being abused
by their spouse,

and they come out
to have a good time,

and when they come out,
I bring joy to their heart.

So is making
beautiful things enough?

Yes, making
beautiful things enough.

Well, when you start thinking
consciously on beautiful things,

like how the sea is
rolling there...

How the sea is
moving, moving, moving,

making beautiful things
is enough.

It is enough?

♪

No island in the sun
is paradise on Earth,

however it might look
from the concrete blocks,

glass cubicles,
or wood boxes we may live in.

♪

And all the dancing and music

and great food in the world

can never hold together,
by itself,

what would keep us apart.

♪

What might look like
a utopian stew

of ethnicities and cultures

living together
under gently swaying palms

is of course
a far more complicated matter.

♪

But Trinidad
has done better than most

and in proud and unique style.

Solo, solo.

♪