TRINIDAD CARNIVAL HISTORY

I hear how they planning for Carnival coming
I get information bout the situation
They say they go beat people
And they don’t care bout trouble
But tell them don’t worry with me
Is a different thing 1963
Because the road make to walk on Carnival Day
Constable I don’t want to talk but I got to say
Any steelband man only venture to break this band
Is a long funeral from the Royal Hospital

From the 1963 Carnival Road March The Road sung by Aldwyn “Lord Kitchener” Roberts

Lord Kitchener born Aldwyn Roberts on April 18, 1922 in Arima, Trinidad had returned to the island in 1963 after living in Britain for 14 years. He was one of the almost 500 Caribbean people who arrived in Tilbury, England on June 22, 1948 aboard the MV Empire Windrush. The British government had advertised for workers from its Caribbean colonies to address its labour shortage and even offered cheap fares as encouragement. Kitch as he was fondly called by his legion of fans, and the other passengers aboard the Windrush were the first in the wave of immigrants from the Caribbean to Britain. Jamaican poet the Honourable Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett-Coverly immortalized the wave of immigration in her popular poem Colonization in Reverse http://louisebennett.com/newsdetails.asp?NewsID=8. Even though the British government needed the Caribbean workers and there was work available, the white people in Britain were not happy to have large groups of Africans from their former Caribbean colonies in their midst. Kitch and his fellow Windrush passengers were treated to Britain’s special brand of racism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh8SeGmzai4. Maybe that was his reason for returning to Trinidad after spending 14 years in Britain. Whatever his reason for leaving the “mother country” Kitch was back home in Trinidad for the 1963 Carnival and was obviously sending a message with “The Road” to any and all “steelband man” who would think of ruining his enjoyment of the day. Calypso which is the music of Trinidad and Tobago and inextricably linked to the island’s celebration of Carnival has been used to educate and make social commentary “oftentimes laced with humorous satire on current events” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bC1OF-4eog&feature=related. In 1963 popular calypsonian Dr. Francisco “the Mighty Sparrow” Slinger also commented on the “steelband man” citing the history of their “outcast” status. The lyrics of Sparrow’s calypso “Outcast” include:
Calypsonians really ketch hell for a long time
To associate yourself with them was a big crime
If your sister talked to a steelband man
The family want to break she hand
Put she out, lick out every teeth in she mouth
Pass you outcast!

In his 1972 published book The Trinidad Carnival Errol Hill wrote: The antecedents of the calypso were the praise songs and songs of derision of West African natives captured as slaves and brought to the West Indies. Dr. Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool in his 2001 published Rituals of Power & Rebellion: The Carnival Tradition in Trinidad & Tobago, 1763-1962 expands on this as he compares the calypsonians to the griots of Africa: The history of the griot tradition show that in West Africa, in all the areas from which the enslaved Africans in Trinidad were taken, griots as praise singers and storytellers can be found. Among the Africans enslaved in Trinidad, there were inevitably many praise singing griots whose main role it was to praise and deride their leaders in their homelands during official ceremonies and masquerades.

Trinidad and Tobago celebrated their 2012 Carnival on Monday February 20 and Tuesday February 21 with the accompanying steel band music, spectacular costumes, calypso and soca. In Rituals of Power & Rebellion Liverpool writes about the African influence and historical connection to Carnival: The Africans, native as well as creole born, as the most populous group on the island, applied their West African traditions, values and principles, which they brought to the island, to new events and experiences so that their traditions in Trinidad from 1783 to 1962 reveal continuity and change. They used their traditions and carnival practices, too to resist the attempts by the British colonial government and the elite to oppress and control them.

Toronto’s Caribana and London, England’s Notting Hill Carnival are both modelled on the Trinidad Carnival traditions. The history of the Carnival and the African cultural connection is not usually a part of the revelry. In Toronto for instance, although the Caribana parade is held at the same time as Emancipation Day, August 1st that connection is usually missing even though slavery in Canada was also abolished on August 1st. According to Liverpool, Carnival in Trinidad was at one time celebrated on Emancipation Day. He quotes from the records of a Dominican priest, Fr. Bernard Cothonay who wrote of his experiences of the Africans’ Carnival in Carenage, a village in West Trinidad. I told you that our Trinidad Blacks particularly those in Carenage are ex-slaves or sons of slaves. Following Emancipation which occurred on August 1st, 1838, they resolved to celebrate each year this day, a solemn festival for perpetual memory. This festival began at daybreak with high mass, loud music, blessed bread, a procession etc., and it continued for three days during which, in the course of festivities, there were nameless dances and orgies, remembrances of African life. Obviously this priest did not understand what the Africans were feeling as they celebrated their freedom from a life of being owned by other people where they and their children could be sold and where they were forced to work without pay. The Mighty Sparrow immortalized the life of enslaved Africans in his calypso Slave http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_lr_rHdSuQ History is usually told from the point of view of the powerful and privileged and that is why African history being featured during this month remains relevant since we are usually relegated to the margins of European history. Liverpool argues that: History in the Caribbean has largely limited itself to politics, constitutions, economics and religion. In this regard, it has not changed much from traditional historiography, and English historians with their emphasis on wars, conquests, constitutional changes and the like. In the context of Caribbean history, the Carnival in Trinidad must be seen against the background of African enslavement and resistance, that took place in most Caribbean islands from around 1500 with the coming of the Europeans to the 1960s when some islands gained formal independence. It was a period characterized by violence against Caribbean peoples, who responded by political, socio-economic and cultural resistance.

During this month when we pay especial attention to our history we do not need to imitate anyone else’s idea of what makes history and how we celebrate/commemorate that history. In writing Rituals of Power & Rebellion Liverpool has obviously done meticulous research of his subject. As a cultural anthropologist, calypsonian and historian he is eminently qualified to address the culture and history of Trinidad’s Carnival. The Toronto Public Library (TPL) system has 3 copies of this book with only 2 available for borrowing the third is a reference only copy. What are you reading this month? What is your child learning about the history of African people in school especially during this month? If nothing is happening in your child’s school please have a discussion with the teachers and principal. The recognition of Black History Month, African History Month, African Liberation Month remains necessary and relevant. There are still two weeks remaining in February and the learning need not stop at the end of February.