Canboulay

Thousands of spectators turned up at the venue from 5 am to witness the event, which was organised by the National Carnival Commission (NCC). The re-enactment was traditionally done on Duke Street, but was shifted to the Piccadilly Greens in Port-of-Spain for the first time this year

The Canboulay Riots were riots by the descendants of freed slaves against attempts by the British police to crack down on aspects of the celebration of Carnival. The riots occurred in February 1881 in Port-of-Spain, San Fernando and Princes Town in February 1884

Carnival was brought to Spanish Trinidad by French planters in the 1770s. The festival was transformed when slaves were freed in 1834. The emancipated slaves first celebrated their freedom on August 1, the anniversary of their emancipation but soon participated in Carnival instead.

As part of this transformation, they started carrying burning sugar canes or “cannes brulees” which was soon called canboulay.

The Carnival was often marred by clashes between groups of revellers carrying sticks and lighted torches. While the confrontation started in song duels between the chantwells it often worsened to physical violence. The British authorities banned carrying sticks and torches in 1868 due to a clash between two groups. However, this ban was not enforced for some years.

Captain Arthur Baker became the head of Trinidad’s police force in the early 1880s and was determined to end the canboulay as a threat to public order. In 1881, Trinidad’s police force clashed with the revellers in Port-of-Spain who had banded together against the police. This caused resentment amongst the ordinary people of Trinidad who valued the festival despite the clashes.

Due to the feelings of the population, Governor Sir Sanford Freeling confined police to barracks in order to calm down the situation. However, when Freeling was recalled in 1883, Baker sought to crack down on the canboulay in the southern cities of San Fernando and Princes Town during the carnival of 1884.

In Princes Town, the masqueaders attacked the police station after magistrate Hobson decided to confine the police to barracks because the crowd was too large. After Hobson was felled with a stone, the police opened fire on the rioters killing a youth and seriously wounding two others causing the crowd to flee.

There were also serious clashes between police and rioters in San Fernando during Carnival but the police gradually won the upper hand.