By Biko Agozino
In Trinidad and Tobago, I
witnessed what many locals tell me is the ‘true’ carnival unlike the version in
the Notting Hill Carnival of London where I first saw this phenomenon in the
1990s. The one in Trinidad and Tobago was not as huge as the London ones that I
have seen given the fact that the population of London is more than three times
the population of the whole country and that the carnival in TT takes place all
over the country and not just in one city like London. But as in most things in
life, size is not everything since the Trinidad and Tobago carnival still
serves as the model for most other carnivals. I heard that delegates were sent
from Cross River state to study this carnival and take back lessons for a
better organization of the Amazing Grace Carnival that has since taken off in
Nigeria. Typical of Nigerian ethnic rivalry, the result was that there are separate carnivals in Abuja, Calabar, Lagos and Port Harcourt on different days instead of having one weekend when there will be a national holiday to allow the people to 'play a little mas' in different towns at the same time as they do in Trinidad and Tobago to make for a bigger international tourist attraction. Here are a few tips for the cultural industries in Africa from my own
observation of the events in Trinidad and Tobago:
The carnival starts months in
advance as the Pan Yards get busy with rehearsals for the panorama competition.
This is a key element of the carnival and it is based around the steel drum or
‘pan’ which was invented by poor Africans of Trinidad and refined to the extent
that it has been adopted as the national instrument of the country, shown on
the symbol for the highest national awards. Does any African country have a
national instrument and if they do, is there an annual competition in which
young and old play together to keep the national folk music alive while trying
to win huge sums of money for their efforts? South Africa is probably the
exception not only with the vuvuzeela that annoyed some World Cup commentators
but also with contests in gospel music but I doubt if it is a national contest
sponsored by the government rather than by civil society.
In addition to the panorama in
which most orchestras use the magical steel drums to play all modern
instruments and also ‘sing’ songs instrumentally, there was also the ‘Calypso
Monarch’ competition in which singers go through quarter finals, semi finals
and finals in front of judges to determine who would wear the crown as calypso
king or queen for the year. Even prisoners had their own monarch competition
and many government departments and educational institutions organized fetes in
which people bought tickets for food, drinks and music as fund-raising efforts.
Every weekend from early January till carnival weekend,
there are multiple fetes
(with top local bands) to choose, from the high priced all inclusive
fetes favoured by the
middle classes
to mass gatherings like the Fire Fete (hosted by fire fighters)
where there were once fights with axes and knives one year.
I know that many African
countries are proud of the musical genres that they invented just as Trinidad
and Tobago is proud of calypso, soca and rapso music that African people
invented therein addition to chutney music invented by the East Indians in
Trinidad but how many of African countries are organizing competitions in which
children will vie for, e.g., Afrobeat, Juju or Highlife Monarch of the year to
keep the talents growing? On the contrary, it was left to the children of the
Afrobeat king, Fela Kuti, to organize the annual Felabration events in
remembrance of their father who was repeatedly jailed and nearly killed by military dictators in Nigeria for his patriotic lyrics.
I was amazed to hear that many of
the Calypsonians were serving police officers or teachers and yet they had the
courage to ‘yab’ or abuse their government in their songs without losing their
jobs. One police officer actually went to court to say that the reason why he
was not selected as one of the semi finalists was because his song was critical
of the Prime Minister and the court actually agreed that he should be allowed
to sing in the semi finals where he again failed to impress the judges even
though he already won in some other competitions, beating some of the monarch
finalists. How many African countries would proudly promote music with
political and social commentary as part of the culture of the people?Bob Marley was ambushed and shot with his wife while Peter Tosh was brutalized by the police and later executed by unknown assailants for rebellious lyrics in Jamaica.
There were also competitions in
Soca music or the dancehall version of calypso and the Soca monarch one year surprisingly
was a singer from Barbados. The Mighty Sparrow made this link clear in his 1978
soca hit song titled, ‘Dudu Yemi - Natasha From Nigeria’. I am aware that many
African musicians sing versions of soca but how many of them would be sponsored
by their countries or by businesses in their countries to participate in the
annual soca competitions in Trinidad and Tobago where this genre originated
among the urban poor Africans (they call themselves Africans officially) or
host such contests in Africa to help promote the talents of the youth?
Apart from the musical
competitions, there were costume design competitions, big band, small band,
mini band and all sorts of different contests that started well in advance of
the carnival itself. Then on the morning of the first day of Carnival, Jouvert
morning, people went out as early as 4:00AM to roll in the mud and paint their
faces blue or red and party on the streets until sunrise. This is part of the
ritual of letting go of inhibitions and being free to explore your fantasies as
part of the carnival culture. Although I have not played Jouvert, I saw many
faces with mud and paints when I went to see the carnival processions in the
afternoon of Monday but I did not see any of the fights that used to
characterize the rivalry between the big bands in years gone by. To get a
better literary description of all these, just read Earl Lovelace’s novel, The Dragon Can’t Dance.
Scantily-clad beautiful women and
men file past in costumes that cost them thousands of the local dollars to buy.
They dance and ‘wine’ their waists seductively with smiles of pleasure. Some of
the costumes depicted dessert scenes with snakes and camels, some
‘masqueraders’ wear skimpy soldier costumes, some played ‘Old Mas’ as pirates,
some as sailors, some as kings and queens, some as black Indians, some as African
Tribes, while others present a coffin for some industrialization policies they
did not like and the huge sound systems boomed from truck after truck to see which
musical composition would be played most frequently and therefore be awarded
the road march prize. Notice that men and women are encouraged to play mas or wear masks whereas the enthronement of patriarchy in Africa by colonialism now means that only men are allowed to play masquerades (including female masks like Agbonma or Gelede, played by cross-dressing Igbo and Yoruba men, respectively) as Nwando Achebe indirectly documented in her book, The Female King of Colonial Nigeria with the case of the woman who brought out her own masquerade only for the men to seize it with the support of the Colonial administration.
Among the revelers were many
tourists and many of the spectators too were foreign in appearance. You guessed
right, the costume business and the income from tourism, not to mention the
many street traders hawking the winning tunes, food, drinks, memorabilia and
allegedly pirated popular copies of Nigerian films must be adding a lot to the
country’s economy annually. Trinidadians could also learn filmmaking from
Nollywood.
The second day of the carnival is
often more enchanting and is characterized by ‘pretty mas’. The costumes
appeared more elaborate, the dancers appeared more daring as they would
sometimes leave their troupe to wine on a spectator. The wining seemed to
follow a rule that women were in control of the wining and the men were not
allowed to touch the women wining in front of them except with their equally wining
waists. Many of the women were playing ‘mas’ with their husbands or boy friends
and any touching could result in a fight, I was told. Yet, I discovered that
the no touch rule was also aesthetic because grabbing the waists of 'winers'
could cramp their styles.
There were more female
masqueraders than male ones and so I also found many women wining on each
other. Most European couples wined together but a few of those black men that
the Mighty Sparrow called ‘Congo Boys’ wined with European women; East Indian
couples also wined together mostly in band sections all by themselves and
African couples also wined together as if there was an informal rule that
segregated the masqueraders by race and ethnicity. I was later told that people
signed up for bands in groups of friends and family members and tended to dance
together not as a result of discrimination but just as people who planned to
party together.
Overall, the carnival is fun to
watch and I am told that it is even more fun to participate in by playing mas
or masquerading. There were rumours that some people were leaving the country
out of fear that crime would be on the rise during the carnival but carnival
was remarkably safe according to official reports. How many African countries
could boast of such incident-free street carnivals that would attract tourists
under the watchful eyes of security officials who were not distracted by the
greed for kolanuts or bribes from spectators and performers alike? Yes, some police officers have been charged
with involvement in kidnapping for ransom but it was unbelievable to watch a
soldier or police officer stand at attention while a woman was wining
provocatively in front of his waist.
I am fully aware that Africa is rich in culture but we may have to learn from
the African Diaspora, better ways of maximizing the returns from the culture
industry. The African Trinidadians would be quick to tell you that their
ancestors brought many of the cultural icons with them from Africa
and so we should not be shy to study how they have evolved them into major
industries with the support of public policy.
The key to the marketing is to
open the doors to all who wished to participate instead of continuing with
exclusionary practices that suggest that only men or natives could play
masquerades with whips to chase women and children and intimidate them along
the streets or fight each other physically or remotely without a cause. Yes, I
was told that in previous years, there were fights between carnival bands but
these days, such fights are merely symbolic in the sense that the sound systems
clashed to see whose sound would be heard and loved by more dancers. Let us
learn from their successes in sustaining a multi-racial democracy of Africans
and East Indians, Europeans and Amerindians and avoid any mistakes they may
have made.
Dr. Biko Agozino is a Professor
of Sociology and Professor of Africana Studies, Virginia Tech.
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