I could remember in the early 1970s as a child, going to watch the carnival parade, along Back Street; there are several mark differences I could identity when compared to today carnival. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I understand the catalyst that triggered the phenomenon, which I am going to share in this article.
The first thing was Carnival was good, clean fun, a big celebration. It was a celebration that was specific. Carnival was the festival where participants celebrated arts, creativity, talent, culture; personal accomplishments, and group achievement. It was having fun with friends and family and an opportunity to make new friends as well as, an opportunity to meet up with friend and family you did not see in quite a while.
The street parade was call jig up and that was actually what happened, the people who participated actually jigged up. At the parade, you find a couple or a group of people, side to side, with one hand around the other and they make a steady advance forward, in order to get verity they went backward, turn around go forward in the opposite direction, the primary objective was to make as many laps around the town as possible and everyone enjoyed themselves and each other’s company doing it. People can be seen whispering into each other’s ears, as they share a private joke, you may see them as they laugh loudly at what was said or the searching eyes trying to get a view of what was brought to their attention. The general facial expressions were sign of happy, smiling people having clean fun.
Third Old mass was a very creative aspect of the carnival, were the mass men and others who made crude floats, and costumes, to parade along the streets, to the delight of the spectators. Each float and or costume told a story, carry a massage or hold some historical or social significant.
And then there were the organized teams of dancers. There were Boozie Back, Monkey Band, the Wining Donkey Man, Babbior Dancing (People on Stilts) Maypole etc. and their respective music bands, which mainly consisted of drummers and flutes players. These were all village oriented and organized folk dance troops. These were dancers that told a story with their music and their dancing. I particularly liked the Monkey band, these dancers had special objectives, that was to scare children while they entertained the grown folks with their dance skill.
The dancers in the Monkey Band tried to imitate the movement of a monkey and therefore their dance consisted of quick sudden move, jumps, flips, and lots of wining (sexual gyration of the hips). I have seen monkey band with up to six performers including children. All of these art form took lots of practice, and the performers were very entertaining. The performers were seen going through the villages, preforming especially inform of a business places who will patronized them with, a little money, and refreshments.
The fourth aspect I will like to address is the music. At this point in our carnival history, we had good clean local music which we all enjoy. Although a lot of the big tunes from the Trinidad and Tobago carnival were played. Our music address topical issues and they told a story everyone could have associated with; topics were based on social events most of which may have made the news or may have appeared in one of the two newspaper the country had: The Vincentian News Paper, which is a privately own printed medium, which still exist today and the Star News Paper (the political medium of the St. Vincent Labor Party). The songs also had structure, melody, balance, and strong lyrics content everyone felt good singing along with. no one blushed or wondered if the children were hearing them sing the song because these song did not have a vulgar content.
And the last aspect of our carnival was the dress code of our females. Carnival was a special occasion and most people who could afford it will try to purchase at lease a new top for Carnival day. The ladies were modestly dressed, in a dress, or a long jeans or a three quarters pants that ended just below their knees. This was a demonstration of the value system, and the level morals that was common within the society back then.
In the late 70s early 80ss something happened that negatively change the face of carnival, the general behavior of revelers, and the overall product of the festival that later became Vincy Mass. If you asked carnival lovers what happened that changed the general appearance of carnival they will not be able to tell you; however, I can.
The change in the primary components of our primary cultural extravaganza was the maturing of a hidden, secret and unspoken occurrence that was a taboo to address publicly. There was a large scale rape of our children, which began to be put on public display, at carnival time; after those child victims grew up.
Our women in their crying for help, began to dress provocatively and act seductively. Their outfits got more sexual and sensual, it was a scream for help that was misinterpreted as an invitation to do business: sex. And our men began to capitalize on their misfortune of the unspoken language and carnival became an opportunity for easy sexual exploits on both side, the homosexual aspect were closely guarded and never seen and or spoken of publicly; but it was there.
We noticed a big change in the Old Mass aspect of Carnival also. The traditional Old Mass floats, Costume making, and primitive bands like the Monkey Band etc. were replaced by awkwardly dressed men, who though wearing female apparel was cool. They dressed in, dresses, skirt, panty and bra etc. The panty wearing males who were often to junk to make any meaningful cultural contributions; did not understand what was happening to them, as they were slaves to their subconscious, a coping mechanism activated by the subconscious. This was also a male cry for help that was also misinterpreted. These young men were putting on public display a life they lived in most cases, a life they lived unwillingly, a life they were forcefully made to live behind closed doors.
This deplorable phenomenon transformed the festival into one big misinterpreted cry for help. Then we stop jigging and we began to asexually wine on the buttocks of our female counterparts this have evolved into what can be considered humanly degrading behaviors, where the carnival dance can be literally termed as having sex while dressed and in full view of the public. The female victims of unreported rape placed little value on themselves and their bodies, so they did not mind the vulgar acts, being performed on them. While in the case of out men, the public somewhat macho sex acts that were demonstrated on the streets at Carnival; in most cases was a desperate efforts to hold onto their manhood which were being stripped away behind closed doors. While others, made a desperate attempt to sow the seeds, which they hoped will be resulted in a happy ending at end of night: carnival sex with someone you were not in a relationship with.
This also led to a change in the music especially the lyrics. The songs that emerged from the change in attitudes, behavior and the product reflected the new behavior. One song that quickly came to mine is a song by Winston Soso; “Come let we go in the back and fool around,” that told the story of recent past experience and current expectations. Up until this point calypsos were being written by writers and sang by singers.
Then the pain in the community began to spilled over into every aspect of our life especially our cultural life. The victims look for new ways to heal the mental trauma; they look for popularity to heal the trauma. Without the necessary skills the plunge head first into the Calypso Soca art form. Without the needed writing skills, without understanding the art of poetry and the form of poetry that one sings and tells a story and the ability to hold a note; they took the art to a new un-creative level of vulgarity, no class and no storytelling, no structure, songs with three, four, five and six words punchlines that is the song; an assault on the ears, the intelligence and on the creative senses.
With this came the violence, now there were more fights and as the years advanced there were serious injuries and even murders; making the carnival a place to stay away from. Today carnival is no longer a celebration of the arts, creativity, culture, personal accomplishments, and group achievement. It is a celebration of sex and violence. One thing that have not change is, the deplorable behaviors is still a victim's cry for help, a cry for help that falls on deft, and unwilling ears.
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