CARIBBEAN

CULTURAL

EXPRESSIONPart 1 - Festivals

Culture and Caribbean Festivals

• The Caribbean region can be described as a sphere of cultural variety.

• According to John Campbell, Caribbean culture and cultural expressions are transmissible and always evolving.

• Much of what we recognise today as Caribbean culture is the legacy of our history of colonialism, slavery and migration.

Definitions of Culture

The most important characteristic of culture is that it is

learned

It is NOT innately, biologically or physiologically

acquired.

As society evolves, so does culture,

Therefore culture is not static.

Definition 1

• Sociologists Michael Haralambos and Martin Holborn

define culture as the whole way of life found in a

particular society.

• They contend that culture is learned through

socialization and is shared by members of a society.

• There are different components to culture, including

norms and values.

– Norms are specific guides to action which define

acceptable and appropriate behaviour in particular

situations.

– Values are more general guidelines and are defined as a

belief that something is good and desirable.

Definition 2

• John J. Macionis and Ken Plummer note that culture is

the values, beliefs, behaviour and material objects that

constitute a people’s way of life.

• Culture is composed of non-material and material

culture.

– Non-material culture is the intangible world of ideas created

by members of a society.

– Material culture constitutes the tangible things created by

members of a society.

Caribbean culture can be viewed as a body of learned

behaviours common to the Caribbean region, passed on

from one generation to another.

Caribbean culture possesses it own norms, mores,

symbols, values, and customs.

Oftentimes, culture, by itself is regionally specific.

Festivals

Carnival

Carnival comes from the Latin for ‘Farewell to

meat’.

Carnival varies from place to place as to

season, size and lavishness, but it is

essentially a street celebration in honour of

particular holidays.

• Carnival is widely celebrated in the Caribbean, including,

Antigua, Grenada, Dominica and St. Lucia.

• The best known carnival celebration is the Pre-Lenten

one in Trinidad.

• The Trinidad carnival brings together different faucets of

Trinidad’s society.

• It is also a mixture of African, European and Asian

influences.

• According to Errol Hill:

The Trinidad carnival has been called the ‘outstanding folk

festival of the Western World.’ It has given birth to new

music and song, to language, and dance, to costumes and

masks...

• Calypso is the most popular Carnival music played and

steel pans and street parades are also featured.

• The Trinidad Carnival is famous for its calypso tents and

the annual climatic road march.

• Costumes are elaborate and vibrantly coloured.

• Many tourists attend the carnival annually and as the

attraction of carnival grew, so did its budget which

eventually featured lavish displays.

• As such, many complain that it is now so commercialised

that their culture might be slowly eroding.

Historically, the Trinidad carnival was possessed of two social streams, the upper classes with their masked balls and the lower classes with their street parades.

Pre- emancipation Carnival was a highly stratified and segregated affair, with the planters and free coloureds keeping to themselves.

Early Trinidad carnival, particularly that by the upper class, featured masquerade balls, fetes and house to house visiting.

The enslaved took advantage of the temporary break to indulge in the street parades.

The enslaved had their own celebration called Dame Lorraine masque, which partly featured caricatures of the planters.

Most writers agree that the Carnival commenced in

Trinidad and Tobago in the late 18th century.

According to Carlton Ottley (1974):

Carnival had come to Trinidad sometime in the 1780’s with

the arrival of the flood of French immigrants. It is true that

the Spaniards did celebrate with disguise balls before that,

but, the beginning of the festival such as known today, may

be said to be a product of those early French men and

women who sought refuge here towards the close of the

[18th] century.

These French immigrants came to Trinidad to escape

the unrest in Grenada and the unsettled state of affairs

in Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingue.

• There are those who argue that Carnival has religious

significance that has much to do with French Catholicism

and is thus tied to Easter-Lenten observances.

• However, Corey Gilkes (2003) contends that the Trinidad

Carnival emerged from West African festivals.

• On emancipation day August 1, 1838, the enslaved

people celebrated with their festival of Camboulay which

features torchlight processions, loud music, drumming,

reinterpretations of African masking and representations

of their treatment under slavery.

Maureen Warner-Lewis points out that the word Camboulay is derived from the Congo kambule meaning procession.

In a few years, Camboulay was made to coincide with the pre-Lenten Carnival.

African Trinidadians appropriated the street Carnival adding to it traditional masquerades such as the moko jumbie, derived from the African memory.

Reinterpretations of European characters were also featured.

The African presence caused whites to street carnival.

Anti-Carnival legislation came to bear on the celebrations. However, they were vociferously protested.

The Camboulay element of Carnival was suppressed but returned with the celebration of J’Ouvert which featured characters drawn from folklore.

Carnival was organised into competitions in the early 1920s.

The upper class then returned to participate in Carnival.

Race and class differences were perpetuated in the centres where the competitions were held, the Queen’s Park Savannah and Marine Square.

Eric Williams’ added legitimacy to the celebration in the 1950s as he saw it as being a celebration of all things Creole.

Carnival changed, possessing larger and more sophisticated bands. Costumes became expensive and intricate, forcing many of the poorer persons away from the celebration.

In reaction, they embraced J’Ouvert which was converted to a celebration of mud.

• The Trinidad Carnival changed meaning overtime.

• It was originally a celebration of nostalgia for the French

Creole immigrants.

• It became a celebration of emancipation for the freed

Africans.

• It finally became a secular ceremony of the celebration

of life and sexuality.

• However, according to L. Regis,

Carnival has never integrated its participants as fully as is

believed and race-ethnicity-class divisions are still in

evidence in the organisations of the masquerade bands...

Hosay/Hussay: Moharram in India• During the 14th and 15th centuries an influx of Iranian

Shiite Muslims into India introduced the observance of

Moharram into the sub-continent.

• It retained Persian characteristics of displaying personal

mourning in public by marching in processions, recalling

the names of Hasan and Hosain to the music of drums,

and self-flagellation.

• The Shias start building the tazias (taziya, tadjah) on the

first day of Moharram after holding special consecration

prayers.

• In India, both Sunni and Shiite Muslims participated in

Moharram. By the end of the 18th century the dominant

Hindu culture also began to penetrate Moharram.

• This led to the introduction of the float tazia – an

artistically designed replica of imaginary tombs of Hasan

and Hosain, as an integral part of Moharram processions

on the final day of mourning.

• The tazia is built over nine days. The men participate in

the building while a mixed congregation retells the story

of the battle and sings mercia (mourning songs).

• Incense (loban) is burnt and fanned towards the “graves”

inside the tazia.

• In the mornings, small bands of Shia mourners with flags

parade in the streets playing nagaras (double ended

drums hung from the neck and shoulders) and tassas

(small top-ended drums tied to the waist).

• On the evening of the ninth day, the tazias are brought

out of the shed where they are built and carried to a few

homes in the neighbourhood where the faithful provide

all-night vigil by drumming, reading of scriptures, singing

or mercia and burning of loban.

The 10th day is the climax: there is a procession with the

tazias at the back, led by tassa drummers, sword and

stick fighters.

There is drumming and music and cries of “Hai Hosain”

and self-flagellation.

Late in the afternoon, the processions reach river banks,

sea coasts or burial grounds where the whole tazia or

the paper covering are thrown away or buried.

Hosay/Hussay in the Caribbean

• Observance of Moharram in the Caribbean was initiated by the early indentured workers as they tried to establish homes away from home.

• Hosay was celebrated in Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica, Belize, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Guadeloupe.

• Until the 1940s, Hosay invoked general religious sentiments and devotion among the participants of either religion who would avoid alcohol, sex and other pleasures during the 10 days.

• In the nineteenth century, Moharram was observed strictly according to the Islamic calendar and Indian rituals and traditions.

• There was the belief is that the martyred brothers reappear and grant wishes.

• The building of the Hosay, special acts of sacrifice during the festival period, and contributions of food or money are considered acts of merit and will bring good fortune to the worshipper. Construction of the tazia started on the first day of Moharram after a simple religious ceremony at the craftman’s shed which was regarded as a holy shrine for the next 8 days.

• There were evening assemblies dominated by Muslim men and women who would sing until early morning. On the ninth night, tazias were assembled and it was displayed to the public amidst drumming and singing of mercias.

• The activities of the tenth day were heralded with the playing of music on nagaras (also called dholaks – which are beaten with curved sticks called dankas) and tassas.

• From this point, the tazias moved in an organized procession along the pre-determined route to a “fair-ground” at a river bank or sea shore.

• The procession is led by alamdars (mourners with flags) and drummers, followed by the sword and stick (gutka) fighters, the main body of mourners signing “Hai Hosain” and then the tazia.

• At dusk, the tazias were sunk one by one in the river or sea amidst sounds of the tassa, nagara and shouts of HaiHasan, Hai Hosain.

•

Despite its significance, Olive Senior argues that Hosay

has lost most of its religious significance as, in countries

such as Jamaica, “Hosay features the active

participation of many different religious and ethnic

groups other than Muslims, especially non-Indian

Creoles”. Most celebrants use the opportunity to recall

their ancestors who came to the Caribbean rather than a

religious affirmation of Islam.

The Creolisation of Moharram Explored

The creolisation of Moharram occurred because:

Many Indians projected their ethnic identity on other members of Caribbean society

The Muslim community in the Caribbean was initially small.

Inter-marriages among Indian Muslims and Hindus.

The formation of close bonds between Indians and Afro-Caribbean people.

Working together on sugar and banana plantations, Afro-Caribbean and Indian people came to better understand each other

Indians in time recognised that they had more in common than with Afro-Caribbean people

Thus, the creolised Moharram involves:

Nomenclature or a name change from Moharram to Hosay

Though Trinidad still adheres to the Muslim calendar, secularisation has affected the date of the observance in Jamaica.

Entire communities became involved in Moharram.

The rituals became creolised.

The significance has shifted from a religious event to a festive one.

The style of drumming has changed.

Dancing has been altered.

Drinking now features prominently.

Many have argued that creolisation means commercialisation.

Jonkonnu• It arguably at the beginning of the eighteenth century,

Jonkunnu (John Canoe, Jon Canoe and John Canou).

• Jonkunnu celebrations can be traced to the Christmas holidays when the enslaved were technically given ‘free’ time to celebrate. Oftentimes, this celebration featured music – drumming, dance and costume/masks as well as some satirical mimicry.

• Though Jamaica had a strong culture of Jonkunnu, today, it is in Nassau, Bahamas that it is most celebrated where it is popularly called Junkanoo. The festival also occurs in Belize (called Jankunu) and North Carolina (John Canoe). It is celebrated also in Guyana, Bermuda and St. Kitts-Nevis.

• In general, the celebration occurs anywhere between

Christmas day and New Year’s Day. In Belize, it is

performed on Christmas and Boxing Day while in the

Bahamas it is celebrated between December 26th and

January 1.

• According to Richard Burton, Jonkunnu is first mentioned

in passing by in 1707 by Hans Sloane and later by name

by Edward Long in his History of Jamaica in 1774. In

Jamaica, Jonkunnu had three clearly define phases:

– The early period of introduction and adaptation

– The addition of the set girls in the 1770s

– Post emancipation period with high British influence

• According to Burton, Jonkunnu’s origins are certainly African and until the latter eighteenth century, it developed unimpeded by European culture.

• Cassidy and Le Page contend that the term is a combination of two Ewe words, dzono for sorcery and kúnu for something deadly.

• Burton cedes as he writes:

– “An African cultural form rapidly indigenised in Jamaica and only belatedly subject to surface creolisation, Jonkonnufunctioned as the core of the oppositional culture of Jamaican slaves, at first in isolation then increasingly as part of a much wider cultural phenomenon: the extraordinary “Negro Carnival” that was Christmas in Jamaica during the last thirty or forty years of slavery.”

• There are also arguments that Jonkunnu, with its

completely African dance, possessing elements of

creolisation, incorporated the European tradition of

masquerade balls.

• Of note in Jamaica were the ‘set girls’ characteristic of

the European influence on the festival.

• Creolisation is a feature of the festival since it twinned

African elements such as dance with European ones

such as the celebration of Christmas, masquerades,

dancing and mumming. African slaves retained their

music, dance and masquerade traditions.

• Most Jonkunnu performers are male. Participants

frequently take to the streets and with music, mime and

dance.

• In Jamaican Jonkunnu the main characters include

Pitchy-patchy, Actor Boy, Cow Head, Horse Head and

Devil.

• Other participants include Policeman, Belly-woman and

Wild Indian. Occasionally, a Bride and House Head also

feature.

• In Jamaica, participants would be attired in head

dresses, masks, pitchforks, batons, fans and other items

depending on the character. Shiny material such as

mirrors was often added to give costumes more oomph!

Jonkunnu would be incomplete without the dance of

each character.

Musical bands feature rattles and the gumbay drum – an

African instrument and the fife a European instrument.

This demonstrates the Creole nature of the celebration –

it as neither African nor European but a synthesis of

both.