Canboulay 2020: Recommitting to Carnival

Although Winfield Bishop lives in the US, he returns to TT for Carnival. For the past ten years, one of the stops on his Carnival itinerary is the re-enactment of the 1881 Canboulay Riots.

Bishop was among hundreds of people who packed stands at Piccadilly Greens, Port of Spain to witness the re-enactment.

Still under the cover of darkness, drummers made their way to the Greens. At 3.53 am the stands were already filled with largely standing room left for those coming after.

At 4 am drummers took their seats in front of the stands hosting people including Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts. The re-enactment began with the cleansing of the space. Port of Spain mayor Joel Martinez also attended the event.

It tells the story of the people’s resistance to police’s attempts to ban revellers in 1881, but more pointedly tells the story of resistance to British rule.

Characters like captain Arthur Baker, the chantwells, stick fighters, pierrot grenade-like Egunguns and traditional Carnival characters like the baby doll starred in the recounting of the 1881 riots.

Rawle Gibbons, a part of the Idakeda group responsible for the event's production, paid homage to the leaders of the Haitian revolution: Francois Makandal; Toussaint L’Ouverture; Jean-Jacques Dessalines; Dutty Boukman and Henri Christophe.

He said the revolution gave “us the space for freedom; equality and empowerment of people.”

Gibbons added the characters represented in the Canboulay “defended their rights for freedom and the rejection of oppression.

“These people had no inheritance, no property, no return passage, no links to their past. What they had was their bodies which they refused to submit to oppression. They had the will and determination to fight and the imagination to create a space in their own image and likeness and dreams.”

He said the Egungun pierrot grenade characters were used to recall the past and to connect to the past.

Gibbons said the Canboulay establishes TT’s link to history, establishes the spiritual groups of the Carnival and establishes and consolidates community. “It reminds us of who we are and what we are about. It allows us to recommit to the ideals of Carnival: which were essentially, the right to be human.”

He recalled that this year was the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Black Power Movement and celebrated those who took part in the 1970 Carnival. He invited the audience to participate in the commemorative march for the Black Power revolution on Ash Wednesday.

On a raised platform, the re-enactment began with the governor at his ball and moved along to show the revellers in the barrack yard.

Reminiscent of things often heard today, some of the characters with bois in hand pointed at the police saying “Me ain’t fraid no police.” In the dance of the Canboulay, issues of power and the interaction between men and women were also shown.

As the sun slowly rose, the re-enactment ended with traditional Carnival characters like the blue devils, moko jumbies and the bat engaging the audience.

Like the rising sun, the Canboulay signalled that Carnival 2020 is here.