‘Dutty Man’ steals the show at Prison Concert

In the prison system the world over, rapists are considered the lowest form of criminals and in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), it seems that the same holds.

Last Sunday at the annual prison concert, a skit written by inmate Javorn Samuel and presented with the help of 17 other prisoners (14 males and three females), stole the show.

The presentation, “Dutty Man” is about a Nigerian pastor named Pastor Tungi who comes to SVG and uses his position in the church to facilitate sexual encounters with both males and females whether adult or underage.

AVA CHARLES

Pastor Tungi, played by Samuel, was eventually caught and given a lengthy sentence for his crimes after his defense lawyer Eugene Noel failed to convince jurors that his client was innocent.

Coincidentally, Noel a former policeman, is currently serving a total of 30 years in prison after being convicted on six counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13. Last week, his contribution to the 2019 Prisons’ Public Speaking Competition sparked public outrage as he contributed to the topic, “Can More Be Done to Combat the Rampant Increase in Sexual Offences in SVG?”.

Playwright Samuel told SEARCHLIGHT that he wrote “Dutty Man” because he thinks there is a serious problem with rape in our society.

“Every time I try to read the newspaper,” first thing ah pop up on the headline is rape, rape, rape and me nah like that because me have two daughters and me nah really know what could happen to them because me nah dey bout,” Samuel said.

He said he thinks the age of consent should be looked at and stiffer penalties given to sexual offenders.

“If you notice in my play, I was talking about execution for them (sexual offenders) but that won’t happen, so we need to look at other ways to stop them,” Samuel commented.

When questioned about Noel’s involvement in the play, Samuel said he thought it was important to have someone like Noel in the play although he (Noel) received a backlash in the newspaper last week for his public speaking contribution.

BERNARD WHITE doing a song “Cant live so”

“Remember he said (in his public speaking presentation) that you can use sex offenders to carry out the message so I tell him to be a part of this as this is a betterment and a chance for him to change,” Samuel said.

The play, apart from focusing on sexual issues, also addressed family relationships, honesty, materialism, youth crime and homosexuality.

Samuel said he was happy it went down well with the audience.

The event, held annually to raise funds for HMP, also saw performances in singing and dancing from among others, female prisoners Ava Charles, Twanecia Ollivierre and Alana Hudson and male prisoners Alex Alexander, Bernard Shallow, Osborne Brudy, Jason Delpesche, Luke Williams, Bernard White, Bradley Huggins, Ken Davis and Luke Browne.

Soca Artiste Rondy “Luta” McIntosh also made a guest appearance.