WAR Moves on Lyrics Promoting Violence

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Music

Friday, 10 August 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua ST. John's - A group of activists will meet in St. John's on Friday to decide on a broad-brush approach toward dealing with artistic expressions that promote violence and other criminal behaviour against women and others.

The meeting will involve representatives of the lobby group - Women Against Rape (WAR) - which recently led the charge to ban the contentious song “Kick Een She Back Doh”, which subsequently won the Road March title during the just-ended Carnival celebrations.

"The next step is to prevent reoccurrence of the situation where it would appear as though we targeted a particular artiste. We want it as broad-based as a possible so that each song would get the same treatment," said WAR spokesperson Alexandrina Wong.

Wong has been harshly criticised for speaking out against the popular Toriano "Onyan" Edwards song. On the flip side, Wong said, she was bombarded with calls from persons, including victims, who were "appalled" with the lyrics.

The WAR spokesperson acknowledged that her group appears to have gotten "the raw end of the deal", but said they made strides in lifting people's awareness of the lyrical content of songs.

"I am happy that some media houses found it necessary to not play the songs, and I want to commend them for that," she said.

"Any song, any form of artistry that speaks to violence against women, we will not tolerate and we will speak out against it," she said, citing the national observance in April of the National Sexual Assault campaign themed ‘Speak Out’.

The activist maintained that the group never targeted the Burning Flames lead singer, but was simply concerned about the implications on the tune, which she said, had a devastating effect on women who were sexually assaulted after their "doors were broken down" and their homes invaded.

She also asserted that the bashing her group received would not deter its advocacy work.

As it relates to the clergy, she said: "the silence was deafening and definitely surprising."

According to Wong, there are several lessons learned from the situation.

"Persons need to be more conscious of who they are, how they see themselves, how other people see them. That should inform an individual of the quality of life that he or she wants, including for members of their family and their community. In addition, it has also shown that while a number of persons may not be in favour of a situation that is taking place, they will not come forward and voice their opinions publicly for a number of reasons best known to themselves," she noted.



"We're urging persons to really look at what is happening around them and take a stand. The same quality of life you would want for yourself, you should want for other persons," the WAR spokesperson urged.

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