Culture bandits

In 1891, a proclamation declared it was illegal to “throw or cause to be thrown upon any person or resident, lime, flour or any other substance liquid or solid.” By this time, the stickfight had been pushed underground and other elements of the Jamette Carnival were now the focus of the legislators and upper classes.

After the 1881 Canboulay Riots, the colonial government passed law after law, intent on crushing the Carnival of the working classes.

The legal onslaught meant that by 1888, just seven years after the stickfighters led by Joe Talmana had successfully defended their culture, one of the elitist newspapers could write that “the Carnival may be considered now as having been successfully divested of its coarser, more revolting and dangerous features.” Persistent legislation had shoved the stickfight underground, suppressing the potency of the art form to the festival.

More than 100 years after that proclamation, and almost 200 after the 1834 Carnival celebrations of the African began, we are still uncomfortable with this festival.

Every Ash Wednesday statistics are trotted out to bemoan “absenteeism” in schools and offices.

This week, there was even an entire analysis in the press about the impact of Carnival on “lower productivity levels” for business. If cultural tourism is considered one of the important paths to economic diversity, why haven’t we developed that partnership instead of complaining about Carnival? Is it logical to expect that the same people who create our festival would flip a switch on Ash Wednesday as if nothing happened? What does this say to the hundreds of children, young people, parents and teachers in the panyards till early in the morning, bending wire, sticking on feathers, writing and performing music and showcasing their creations all day Monday and Tuesday? And why do we describe it as going back to “normal”? The people wringing their hands, saying that we need to “fix” this problem must understand that their cause is already lost. As long as we continue to treat Carnival as separate from society, there will never be synergy.

Carnival is not just a party. It is time we entrust it to people with vision, philosophy, sensitivity and respect. It is time we integrate it into our education system and our social structures. It is time to stop letting business interests dictate its direction.

Twenty-first century attitudes towards our festival are only slightly less than the contempt and repulsion of 19th century elites. Happily, the potential for resistance by the culture bandits is as strong now as it was then.

How will this latest struggle be told? Read your history or go ask Bunji and Machel. As the stickfighter says, “Send them by the thousand, I go meet them by the junction!” Dara Healy is a performance artist and founder of the N G O , the Ind i g e - n o u s Creative A r t s N e t - work – ICAN