Singing Sandra: Dem Women Strong Than A Wall (Professor Ramabai Espinet)

Singing Sandra: Dem Women stronger than a wall

by Ramabai Espinet

presented at Women on Calypso Symposium 2021

Abstract:

Singing Sandra left us in January of this year, while still at the height of her singing career, in the full measure of her range and vitality. She is most remembered for the now iconic Die with my Dignity (1987) critiquing the sexual exploitation of women by men in positions of power, at a time when the “Me Too” banner was nowhere on the horizon, though the Women’s Movement was gaining ground in the Caribbean. But, striking as this kaiso was in foregrounding women’s empowerment and resistance to sexual exploitation, it really was of a piece with the core of Singing Sandra’s work – bringing attention to issues of equity and social justice facing all citizens “in the ghetto,” far beyond gendered barriers. My commentary here looks at a selection of Sandra Des Vignes-Millington’s calypsos, locating her in the mainstream of societal discourse, illustrating vividly the inner lives of the “poor and the powerless” and confronting the established social order through the medium of entertainment, with the urgent need for solutions. She started from humble beginnings and continued, amidst her success, to live as modestly as she had before. The exaggerated, if ironical, pomp and circumstance of the calypsonian were not among her pursuits. Her artistry and work ethic were an affirmation of the possibilities inherent in the life that made her. “Dem women stronger than a wall,” she sang. Indeed. A wall in no danger of falling down.