War rebellion

After the riots, a commission of inquiry was ordered by the Colonial Office in England, led by Lord Hamilton.

Although Hamilton recognised that the actions of Capt Baker and the police force gave the impression that the entire Carnival was going to be stopped, he went on to recommend strict regulation of the festival.

In many ways, the barrack yards were the heart of the Carnival. “The authorities recognised that the barrack yards were the places where the Cannes Brulees bands assembled and planned their routes, masquerades, costumes, assaults and offensives on the police and upper-class enemies.” However, time must not serve to romanticise the living conditions.

Historians have documented the prevalence of crime, alcoholism and drug use as well as “child abuse, juvenile vagrancy” and extremely poor family life. Mental illness, suicide and insanity were also prevalent.

Not surprisingly, physical conditions were also atrocious. One description of the materials that the structures were made of says they were similar to “boxes horses are shipped in. A long line of ten by twelve-feet boxes, nailed together with a window and a door allotted to each. The outward appearance is enough to give one a shuddering sense of repulsion.” Cooking often took place outside and privacy was virtually unheard of.

So, Carnival was more than just an opportunity for cultural expression.

In many ways, it represented an opportunity for the people of the barrack yards to manifest their personhood, and for a time, to exist in another reality where they were in charge, where they had the power.

The systematic and consistent attempts to restrict Carnival were thus resisted at every opportunity. Laws were passed, for instance, moving it from being commemorated in August and the important link to emancipation, to being aligned with the European Lenten season. The length of time for celebrating was reduced to two days. Masking was banned except on the two days of the celebration.

There were objections also to the conch shells, drums and other instruments typical of African cultural forms.

Attention was also directed towards the warring stickfight groups and other manifestations of the Carnival such as dancing or the beating of drums, playing of chac-chacs, blowing of conch shells or other instruments typical of African cultural forms.

In 1884, under the guise of preserving the peace, a proclamation was posted by the governor stopping the celebration of Cannes Brulees from midnight, ordering instead that the Carnival start at 6 am. In that same year, two ordinances were passed; one allowing the governor “the power to prohibit by proclamation dance and torchlight processions,” and the other banning “the carrying of torches, the beating of drums, the blowing of horns, and any assemblage of persons numbering ten or more armed with sticks or other weapons of offence.” No doubt in protest against these new regulations, stickfights resumed in villages such as “Montserrat, Oropouche and Couva.” In San Fernando, the police charged into stickfighters to disperse them, and there were confrontations in Arouca and Princes Town as well. The constant legal and physical attacks meant that the stickfight was forced underground for a time.

In the final part of this series, we will explore the question of the evolution of our Carnival in the face of continued conflicts between elites and those who sustain the traditional characteristics of our festival.

D a r a Healy is a performance artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN.