T&T Carnival History

Two most interesting accounts of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival History,that I have seen thus far was done in 2004 by the National Library and Information System Authority in T&T. “Mama Dis is Mas”: A Historical Overview of the Trinidad Carnival, 1783 – 1900. The other article of interest was done by TriniSoca.com The Carnival Story - 162 Years Of Mas By Terry Joseph.


To understand the process of were we are today, these articles examine the complex historical, social, cultural and political contexts which gave birth to our Carnival Culture.

From Christopher Columbus's landing in Trinidad in 1498 to the emancipation of the slaves in 1838.The article gives a vivid picture of the Cannes Bruleés (French for Burnt Canes), comprising songs, dances and stick fights.

"Cannes Bruleés had its genesis during slavery. Whenever a fire broke out in the cane fields, the slaves on the surrounding properties were rounded up and marched to the spot, to the accompaniment of horns and shells. The gangs were followed by the drivers cracking their whips and urging them, with cries and blows, to harvest the cane before it was burnt.

THE JAMETTE CARNIVAL a term which was used by the French and English to describe the Carnival celebrations of the African population during the period 1860 to 1896. The term comes from the French “diametre” meaning beneath the diameter of respectability, or the underworld . The view of the whites was that the Carnival activities were immoral, obscene and violent. For free slaves in Trinidad, Carnival was more than just music , masquerade and dance. It was about their very existence a release from the struggle that was their daily lives."

Masqueraders used current topics in their creativity of costumes, the plight of the ordinary people, the aristocrats and to poke fun at ruling governments. Newly arrived Africans also depicted ancestral spirits such as Moko Jumbie.

"Moko Jumbie - This is an authentic African masquerade mounted on sticks. It was believed that the height of the stilts was associated with the ability to foresee evil faster than ordinary men. A jumbie among Africans is a spirit. Moko is a “diviner” in the Congo language. The Moko Jumbie was felt to be a protector of the village. This masquerade is still in existence today and is seen at occasions other than carnival."

The liberated slaves created traditional carnival characters such as MINSTRELS,DAME LORRAINE, JAB JAB, FANCY INDIANS, JAB MOLASSIE, PIERROT GRENADE, BATS, MIDNIGHT ROBBER, BURROKEET, BOOKMAN, SAILOR MAS, BABY DOLL, NEGUE JADIN, and COW BAND.

The ruling classes restricted their participation to house parties and club dances and fancy balls. It is from these balls that the Carnival Queen Show and the Dimanche Gras productions emerged.

"Fancy dress balls were held at the Prince’s building adjacent to the Queen’s Park Savannah. In 1922, the first major Carnival stage spectacle was presented by the Les Amantes de Jesus Society – a voluntary organization under the leadership of M. Joseph Scheult. The Society gave an annual charity ball on Carnival Monday night. This started in the 1920s and continued until 1948. After a fire destroyed the City Council building, the Council offices were moved to the Princes' Building. The offices were then moved to the Queen's Park Oval."

With a few omissions here is the Carnival Story article.

"Although a major part of the Trinidad Carnival mystique lies in its unique ability to bring people of diverse backgrounds together in harmonious circumstances, the festival was not born to such noble pursuits.

During the first 50 years of the 20th century, the Carnival was affected by global and domestic conflict. There were World Wars and local gang riots, but creativity flourished in peacetime.

Pan was invented. Early development of the instrument far exceeded the speed of its acceptance across the board. Calypso went international and people actually made their own mas costumes or at least participated in the exercise.

In the second half of that same century, Carnival first rose to a level of extraordinary splendour, then hit a sharp curve. The burst of creativity that came in its glory days radiated from both social groups and was identifiable in every component of the festival. Historical and tribal mas presented educational and aesthetically pleasing images. Pan development enjoyed both diversification and a sense of urgency and calypso chalked up a reprise of its golden age.

However, by the turn of the 1990s, much of the applause earned earlier in the period had subsided, as the festival had undergone a categorical shift of focus, one that clearly pleases the majority, but continues to be a source of bother to more than a few.

Like the rest of the society, Trinidad Carnival had in fact been touched by a number of social and economic realities. The Black Power movement that began at the turn of the 1970s and the boom economy, that followed far too soon to keep reason intact, changed spending habits at all levels.

This national windfall, which helped to fund the rise of disc jockeys and music bands of extraordinary amplification, dramatically changed every aspect of the festival too. Its benefits did not however trickle down to the level of pan research and development, stalling the progress that had been made with the instrument up to that time.

In addition, there was women's liberation, the creation of soca, a runaway cost of living, computer-aided design ad marketing of mas bands, production-line manufacture of costumes, the popularity of synthetic fabrics, emergence of the entrepreneurial producers and performers, the effect of radio and television and the fitness craze.

Applied concurrently, these deceptively unrelated components had the capacity to irretrievably alter the form and content of the Carnival. Slowly at first, but completely by the end of the 20th century, the festival changed from a cutting-edge creative crucible, to a market-driven, manufactured commodity.

Mas dumped traditional themes and elaborate portrayals, opting for minimal clothing and fantasy presentations. Once an integral part of pre-Carnival fetes and the main parade, pan music was sequentially marginalized. Traditional calypso first gave way to soca, and then lost further ground when the Road March became the most lucrative form of a new genre called "festival music".

The most dramatic shift however took place in the very gender of the masquerade, with women moving from a laughably small minority of the costumed revelers back in the 1950s, to what the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) now estimates at fully 85 percent of the annual parade population.

From the lower-class jamettes of the mid-20th century, the streets largely surrendered in the latter-day to the aerobics-oriented lovelies of the middle-class. Consider now that more than 55,000 masqueraders crossed the Queen's Park Savannah stage during the 1999 Carnival."

If you look at these two articles and read what I have already presented on the blog, you begin to see where we've come from, where we have been, where we are going and what a creative and promising future we have ahead. I believe that things move in a circle and we are half way through the circle of our carnival cultural development. I love my culture good or bad because it gives me a clear picture of who I am, where I have been, where I have come from and what a promising future I have.