On August 6, 2025, the Port of Spain City Corporation removed the bronze statue of Christopher Columbus from its pedestal of monolithic stone. This action followed extensive public debate for its erasure from the Port of Spain landscape. According to the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, (08/08/2025),“...the decision to remove it followed consultations with stakeholder groups, including First Peoples and cultural organisations.

The article added: Yesterday morning, Eric Lewis, of the Santa Rosa First Peoples, held a smoke ceremony at the Columbus Square site to commemorate the removal of the statue. He said the statue represented more than history, calling it 'a monstrosity' that carried the symbolic weight of colonial violence... We're here to purify the space and honor our ancestors.”

As far as I could recall, the vestige of the Genoese navigator located in Tarmarind Square, Port of Spain, was to me a reminder of the conquest of Spain. During its early development, Port of Spain lay westward in the shadow of Saint Joseph (San Jose de Oruna), the seat of the Cabildo–the assembly that represented Spain. In fact, Port of Spain, or the Port of Spaniards (Puerto de los Hispanioles) was nothing more than a little fishing village known as Conquerabia, founded on the site of the Amerindian (Arawak) village of Cumucarapo. We moved things, yet things remain.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the first Catholic Church in Port of Spain, built in 1781 by the Spanish governor Martin de Salverria on the site that is now known as Tamarind Square, is still standing proudly to serve its parishioners. Is Christopher Columbus really gone? Is he, that great explorer and what he represented, totally detached from Trinidad and Tobago (T&T)? Has his idea of who or what he believed to be God now dead? Did his philosophy depart with the removal of his effigy? According to informed sources, the statue was placed in the care of the National Trust. The removal was part of a broader effort to replace colonial symbols with local representations and will be made available to the National Museum and Art Gallery.

Okay, these reasons and efforts concerned with the removal of colonial icons in T&T sound extremely good in the ears of those who are involved with the return of the essence of our true history. Nevertheless, the name of our capital city, Port of Spain, has remained. The label 'Port of Spain' did not come by accident. It came from somewhere, and somehow, somebody thought that it was good. Port of Spain carries the tag 'Spain.'

Was Spain colonial? Is it a still a vestige of colonialism that T&T inherited? I leave the answer to all of us who are more than knee-deep into this matter about where we came from, what we are, and to whom we should give recognition. Will the name Port of Spain remain? Jesse Andrews, a Trinidadian poet resident in Canada who considers himself The Panthologist has hopes that the name Port of Spain will be changed to Port of Pan. He also insists that T&T should begin minting 'Tenor Pan' coins. Pan Land News (2002) cited from Andrews' book; Throw ah Eye on de Pan states:

“Port of Spain, Port of Spain

Are you insane?

I'm not Port of Spain.

Listen up, Trinidad and Tobago

Don't treat your culture so

It's time for Spain to go.

Am synonymous with pan

So pass a name change legislation

Call me Port of Pan.

You renamed my backyard

The Brian Lara Promenade

But I have all the records on Pan

So pass a legislation

And call me Port-of-Pan.

I am the grand pan kingdom

Call me Port of Pan

In every Trinidadian

The soul is Port of Pan

In every Tobagonian

The soul is the Port of Pan”

However, there is a difficulty in clarifying the issues and providing plausible answers to the myriad questions with which we still contend. Seeking an answer, my doctoral dissertation titled: Commodification and Distribution of the Steelpan as a Conflicted Tourism Resource, inferred:

“The dynamics inherent in the migration of peoples to Trinidad gave rise to the formation of a culture with all the trimmings of a class structure and social status determined first by race and then by economic status. The British brought their 'royal' elitism and formalities, the Spanish the Roman Catholic religion, the French the pre-Lenten carnival, the Asians (East Indians and Chinese) their competitive way of life towards economic supremacy, and the enslaved Africans, their drums and African religions.

The post-emancipation years (after 1834) witnessed the suffering of free enslaved Africans in the colonies. Many moved away from the plantations because they associated the plantations with the drudgery of hard work and slavery. The freed mass of people were now free to roam, to inhabit spaces, to create places, and to forge a life out of literally nothing for themselves. In other words, they were left to define their own geography.

Many of these freed slaves travelled southwards to places such as San Fernando, La Brea and Point Fortin to find jobs in the fledgling petroleum industry and to seek employment in other forms of unskilled labor. (Note: Petroleum was discovered in south Trinidad in 1866, about 32 years after emancipation). Nevertheless, a large portion migrated to the capital city of Port of Spain and took up residence in the hilly suburbs, the places considered to be the birthplace of the steelpan. Many former enslaved Africans eventually settled Laventille in the mid-1800s. Giving more leverage to this fact, John P. Augelli and Harry W. Taylor in their research posted in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (1960) showed:

“The strong trend of the Negro and colored elements to the urban areas and to the oil fields seems to stem from several causes. These groups prefer wage labor and the social amenities offered in towns to agricultural work, especially work on the estates. Perhaps still lingering in the racial memory of the Negro and the colored man is the stigma of field labor associated with slavery.”

Created out of recycled materials, the steelpan emerged as the instrument destined for the interpretation of the music for the pre-Lenten, Trinidad Carnival. The steelpan is actually the embodiment of the antithesis of status, class, and elitism.

As far as I am concerned, Jesse Andrews is correct! Let us begin with changing the name from Port of Spain to Port of Pan. Here's what I wrote in my folktale titled: Under the Breadfruit Tree-a new story about the steelpan:

“Inside the steelpan are the sequestered spirits of the West African forefathers who have found solace, and who are willing to share the music of real freedom. They showed Oba how to make and play the steelpan and how to present it to massa. They told him to invite massa to play the steelpan, and in so doing, they too will also obtain their real freedom.

Yes, it took a long time before massa acknowledged the steelpan; it took a long time before the religion of the colonists understood the instrument of true freedom; it took a long time before they could taste the soul and sweetness of real freedom. They explained that despite the cruelty of massa they still had the gift of music to be embedded in the steelpan; a token of everlasting forgiveness, joy, love, and sweet rejoicing for all people. Under this breadfruit tree, Oba forged the first spider web steelpan, a fulfilment of the spider web omen over his crib when he was a baby. He created a place to finally impound and protect the music of the forefathers who came from Africa.

Oba is long gone, but today the same steelpan created under the breadfruit tree is a symbol of a powerful and everlasting victory over slavery, struggle, pain, suffering, hate, bloodshed, denigration, disenfranchisement, and inhumanity. The instrument with its spider web notes that emerged from under the breadfruit tree is representative of truth and beauty. It is a voice of discernment that simple things and simple people can make a difference.

Despite the way some people feel, the steelpan echoes to the world that we are all equal and that none of us should be counted as lesser mortals. The douens that persist with their“whoop, whoop” calls are still walking around the alleys, backroads and around people's houses. And yes, the soucouyants are still flying and flapping their wings around Belmont. Nevertheless, drowning out their influences are the soft whispers of the steelpan. The drums could still be heard as you walk through the winding roads of Belmont. Oba's spirit is still there even to this day. All you have to do is listen.”

Yes, sire, we got rid of a statue, but is that enough? We may try and rewrite our textbooks and redesign our school curricula, but is that enough? We may preach about everlasting freedom from our pulpits, but is that enough? Will we still recognise the colonially imputed breadfruit, salted cod (saltfish), pig snout, pig tails and salted pig trotters that the colonists gave as food to enslaved Africans? Apart from Port of Spain, will the other toponyms change? For example, will the Spanish-named towns Sangre Grande, Sangre Chiquito, Manzanilla, Rio Claro, San Fernando, Santa Flora and Palo Seco, be renamed? O, and will the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception be moved to a museum? I don't want to sound too humorous, but it could be that right at this moment the discussants about our colonial past are seriously considering such an agenda of change.

It's a rhetorical question, but are we stamping out the ants while the elephants merrily pass by? Today in T&T, there are so many deleterious and somewhat colonial elements to eradicate that I sometimes feel overwhelmed about where to start. It is my view that we need to concentrate more on the elimination of all forms of crime (including white-collar crime), banditry, violence, hate, racism, extortion, murder, intolerance, children fighting in our schools, inequality, and unequal distribution of resources.

These are, with a tad of innuendo, some of the icons in our society, the unseen things we must seek to obliterate from the culture. In actuality, I have no problem at all with the removal of icons and images from the T&T landscape, but we must not remove one and leave the others blatantly staring us in the face. So how does Port of Pan sound?

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