Trinidad Carnival revisited

For as long as I can recall there has been disagreement, discomfort, even hostility by certain sections of Trinidad society to the annual pre-lenten bacchanal called carnival. That carnival has survived from it rudimentary beginnings to the mass appeal it now enjoys in that country is due in part to its origins in protest by the masses of liberated slaves choosing to celebrate rather than volunteering to cut the ripe sugar cane for the pittance, then offered as payment. These protests were to eventuate in a major confrontation and retaliation by means of a stick fight in the capital city between law enforcement and the freed people. And this took place at a time when the white colonialists were preparing to celebrate their annual carnival which the freed people insisted on mimicking. The survival of Trinidad carnival is also due in part to its association with the steel pan an instrument developed from the above mentioned protests from the beating of empty tin cans and metal drums and sundry bits of metal from the backyards and garbage containers of the city dwellers. It is claimed that at least two other elements are responsible for the survival of the carnival. The calypso and the masquerade, simply called mas. The wit, the pointed social commentary and the double entendre of the calypso coupled with the colour, variety and creative genius of the band leaders ensured the growth of Trinidad carnival in the post colonial period. Political independence and increasing material wealth and education also ensured further experimentation and organic growth and development in the post second world war period. Since the sixties, Trinidad carnival has been variously promoted as ‘the greatest show on earth’ or as ‘Trinidad’s gift to the world’. and the steel pan as the only new musical instrument invented in the twentieth century.
One could therefore be excused for believing that the main issues in Trinidad’s carnival were settled a long time ago and that any further debate would most likely surround such matters as venue for the various shows and possibly prize money for participating contestants in calypso, steel bands and costuming of the king and queen of the bands.
In recent times however, there has been a growing disenchantment with the direction which the carnival ‘art form’ is taking. And to accentuate the debate there are those who have gone as far as suggest a change of the date of the celebration of Trinidad carnival. The debate, from the little I was able to discern from my short visit there seems to revolve around two principle lines of thinking. The first is that the celebrations - particularly the mas - is presently being sacrificed and demeaned as many band leaders seem to have thrown past creativity out the window and substituted near naked women in its place. In fact, critics describe present carnival costumes as ‘beads and bikini aberrations’ that are geared to expose the female anatomy in all its glorious perfections (and imperfections too) aimed mainly at satisfying those who, like the extroverts in Holly wood, California are too intent on celebrating the human flesh and form and little else. They say that the authentic portrayal of the creative genius of the people of that twin island republic is being lost through laziness, greed and blindly imitating Hollywood and Las Vegas.
The mas legends point to those who have quietly taken over the mas with their mass produced made - in - China bikini and beads costumes as proof of the same. A further down side alluded to is the gradual death of camaraderie, community participation and ‘ole talk’ in the mas camps in Trinidad and Tobago in which carnival costumes were traditionally made. It is feared that in the long run this decoupling or de-linking, if you prefer of male and female participants in the production of costumes as well as the potential creation of idleness among mass camp activists may be of greater and deeper significance than the mere transfer of technical and financial resources from Trinidad to China.

The increasing use of the skimpy bikini that are touched delicately by colourful feathers and sequins - and further adorning its wearer’s neck with colourful beads - have become the preferred costume of the average female masquerader in recent times. Both aspects of these debates should be of interest to carnival loving St. Lucians. First, that which proposes a change of date of carnival from its historic pre- lenten season and its traditional dates to one in April, six to seven weeks lower down the calender. The proponents of this idea argue that this would give masqueraders more time to prepare and also encourage more visitors to Trinidad and as a consequence broaden and strengthen the carnival and help in the growth of tourism. This may sound familiar to those who were paying attention when the local Lucian/trini posse wanted to change the dates of St. Lucia’s carnival from February to July in order to afford these people an opportunity to enjoy Trinidad carnival and in return have their friends from Trinidad visit St. Lucia later in the year perchance to help spread the virus of bikini and beads to masqueraders in St. Lucia.
A commentary in a leading Trinidad news paper of Monday January 28th. caught my attention and I should like to summarize it here for the benefit of the curious. The writer, an obvious opponent of the changing of the date of carnival opens by posing three simple questions : why not change St. Patrick’s day from March 17th. to a later date, or change Bastille day from July 14th. or maybe change the date of ‘Thanksgiving’ since this date seems too close to Christmas. I think what the writer may have been hinting at is an aspect of ‘development’ which emerging post colonial peoples may not yet have come to terms with. And that is that, the concept of development is also built on the creation of traditions through lengthy abiding practices. There is significance in the above dates for the Irish, the French and the Americans. And the clear implication is that for Trinidad and Tobago the date of carnival should also bear important significance and should be left untouched. Such dated events acquire greater significance over time - becoming more meaningful with the passage of time.
Dates of historical importance should therefore not be experimented with simply to please avarice and greed. And then there is the all important Ash Wednesday observance and the opening of the Lenten season following the two- days of mas. The bacchanal of the flesh gives way to the spiritual and a sense of balance and sanity returns perhaps for the purpose of preserving us for another carnival.
As far as the direction which the carnival is taking in Trinidad another news columnist has argued that carnival Friday has become the most significant day of the masquerade; and that this celebration arose out of the ruins of the plantation system; and the canboulay (the burning of the canes in protest by freed slaves) has again been encouraged so as to point to the historicity of the masquerade. In fact so intense was the writer in the Trinidad Guardian of Wednesday January 30 th. that he ended by expressing the hope that the Patois language of the people of Trinidad be resurrected through the Canboulay re-enactments. It is a suggestion that many St. Lucians would welcome. If that were to happen the patois speaking Trinidad and Tobago would further strengthen the bonds between these two Caribbean countries and perhaps even open up a new avenues that would allow St. Lucians to be more comfortable in both the creole language as well as the English which the average Trinidadian takes such great pains at trying to master.
And just as a matter of interest the winner of the large band category this year (2008) has said he will play ‘AFRICA’ next year and the C.E.O. of Trinidad carnival has announced that the tag line for 2009 mas is ‘the road is mine. Interesting. They both probably know how many visitors will visit in 2009.