THE second conference on Afro-Caribbean culture and Festival of the Word in honour of Caribbean literary icon Kamau Braithwaite, opened at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus on Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, the conference began without its main attraction — Nobel prize winning Nigerian author, Wole Soyinka — who had to pull out at the last minute to attend the funeral of his friend — the recently assassinated Nigerian minister of justice — where he was delivering the eulogy.

Soyinka’s replacement, Ghanaian poet and broadcaster, Kofi Anyidoho, began with an apology. “I feel all the discomfort of an antelope asked to step into the shoes of an elephant,” he joked. “I cannot replace Soyinka but nor could I refuse as I was already here!”

The central message of the conference, according to Anyidoho, was the continuity of culture from Africa to the Caribbean. Or, as he put it, “the fact that African culture had not been destroyed by the trauma of the Middle Passage but had crossed the Atlantic, survived and creatively adapted to its new environment.”

The opening ceremony demonstrated this cultural progression in the liveliest possible way. Starting the festival with a bang, were the West African style Akwaaba drummers. They were followed by a mixed spectacle of African drums and dance, English poetry, and finally a Calypso tune performed by the University’s Panoridim Steel Orchestra.

The guest of honour of the evening, writer and historian Kamau Braithwaite, originally named Lawson Edward Braithwaite, was born in Barbados in 1930. After an unhappy period in Europe, Braithwaite settled in Ghana for eight years. Described as “the poet of total African consciousness”, Braithwaite’s early work is influenced by African artistic models, while his later work is inspired by New World forms such as Blues and Jazz.

The evening finished with readings by Jamaican poets Edward Baugh and Lorna Goodison and from Anyidoho. Braithwaite himself was silent — we will have to wait for the closing ceremony on Saturday when he makes the keynote address.

Yesterday evening, another melting pot of words and music was performed, this time featuring more modern Caribbean talents such as Mutabaruka, Mervyn Morris, Cyril Dabydeen, and Belize author, Zee Edgell.

Tonight’s festival will feature readings by Colin Channer, Erna Broadber, Earl Lovelace and Lynton Qwesi Johnson.

Tomorrow evening, the festival of four nights and three days will come to a close — as it began — with the beats of the Akwaaba drummers.