Cultural Expression

1. CARIBBEAN
CULTURAL
EXPRESSION
Part 1 - Festivals

2. Culture and Caribbean Festivals
• The Caribbean region can be described as a
sphere of cultural variety.
• According to John Campbell, Caribbean culture
and cultural expressions are transmissible and
always evolving.
• Much of what we recognise today as Caribbean
culture is the legacy of our history of colonialism,
slavery and migration.

3. Definitions of Culture
 The most important characteristic of culture is that it is
learned
 It is NOT innately, biologically or physiologically
acquired.
 As society evolves, so does culture,
 Therefore culture is not static.

4. Definition 1
• Sociologists Michael Haralambos and Martin Holborn
define culture as the whole way of life found in a
particular society.
• They contend that culture is learned through
socialization and is shared by members of a society.
• There are different components to culture, including
norms and values.
– Norms are specific guides to action which define
acceptable and appropriate behaviour in particular
situations.
– Values are more general guidelines and are defined as a
belief that something is good and desirable.

5. Definition 2
• John J. Macionis and Ken Plummer note that culture is
the values, beliefs, behaviour and material objects that
constitute a people’s way of life.
• Culture is composed of non-material and material
culture.
– Non-material culture is the intangible world of ideas created
by members of a society.
– Material culture constitutes the tangible things created by
members of a society.

6.  Caribbean culture can be viewed as a body of learned
behaviours common to the Caribbean region, passed on
from one generation to another.
 Caribbean culture possesses it own norms, mores,
symbols, values, and customs.
 Oftentimes, culture, by itself is regionally specific.

7. Festivals
Carnival
 Carnival comes from the Latin for ‘Farewell to
meat’.
 Carnival varies from place to place as to
season, size and lavishness, but it is
essentially a street celebration in honour of
particular holidays.

8. • Carnival is widely celebrated in the Caribbean, including,
Antigua, Grenada, Dominica and St. Lucia.
• The best known carnival celebration is the Pre-Lenten
one in Trinidad.
• The Trinidad carnival brings together different faucets of
Trinidad’s society.
• It is also a mixture of African, European and Asian
influences.
• According to Errol Hill:
The Trinidad carnival has been called the ‘outstanding folk
festival of the Western World.’ It has given birth to new
music and song, to language, and dance, to costumes and
masks...

9. • Calypso is the most popular Carnival music played and
steel pans and street parades are also featured.
• The Trinidad Carnival is famous for its calypso tents and
the annual climatic road march.
• Costumes are elaborate and vibrantly coloured.
• Many tourists attend the carnival annually and as the
attraction of carnival grew, so did its budget which
eventually featured lavish displays.
• As such, many complain that it is now so commercialised
that their culture might be slowly eroding.

10. Historically, the Trinidad carnival was possessed of two
social streams, the upper classes with their masked balls
and the lower classes with their street parades.
Pre- emancipation Carnival was a highly stratified and
segregated affair, with the planters and free coloureds
keeping to themselves.
Early Trinidad carnival, particularly that by the upper
class, featured masquerade balls, fetes and house to
house visiting.
The enslaved took advantage of the temporary break to
indulge in the street parades.
The enslaved had their own celebration called Dame
Lorraine masque, which partly featured caricatures of
the planters.

11. Most writers agree that the Carnival commenced in
Trinidad and Tobago in the late 18th century.
According to Carlton Ottley (1974):
Carnival had come to Trinidad sometime in the 1780’s with
the arrival of the flood of French immigrants. It is true that
the Spaniards did celebrate with disguise balls before that,
but, the beginning of the festival such as known today, may
be said to be a product of those early French men and
women who sought refuge here towards the close of the
[18th] century.
These French immigrants came to Trinidad to escape
the unrest in Grenada and the unsettled state of affairs
in Martinique, Guadeloupe and San Domingue.

12. • There are those who argue that Carnival has religious
significance that has much to do with French Catholicism
and is thus tied to Easter-Lenten observances.
• However, Corey Gilkes (2003) contends that the Trinidad
Carnival emerged from West African festivals.
• On emancipation day August 1, 1838, the enslaved
people celebrated with their festival of Camboulay which
features torchlight processions, loud music, drumming,
reinterpretations of African masking and representations
of their treatment under slavery.

13. Maureen Warner-Lewis points out that the word Camboulay is
derived from the Congo kambule meaning procession.
In a few years, Camboulay was made to coincide with the
pre-Lenten Carnival.
African Trinidadians appropriated the street Carnival adding
to it traditional masquerades such as the moko jumbie,
derived from the African memory.
Reinterpretations of European characters were also featured.
The African presence caused whites to street carnival.
Anti-Carnival legislation came to bear on the celebrations.
However, they were vociferously protested.
The Camboulay element of Carnival was suppressed but
returned with the celebration of J’Ouvert which featured
characters drawn from folklore.

14. Carnival was organised into competitions in the early
1920s.
The upper class then returned to participate in Carnival.
Race and class differences were perpetuated in the
centres where the competitions were held, the Queen’s
Park Savannah and Marine Square.
Eric Williams’ added legitimacy to the celebration in the
1950s as he saw it as being a celebration of all things
Creole.
Carnival changed, possessing larger and more
sophisticated bands. Costumes became expensive and
intricate, forcing many of the poorer persons away from
the celebration.
In reaction, they embraced J’Ouvert which was
converted to a celebration of mud.

15. • The Trinidad Carnival changed meaning overtime.
• It was originally a celebration of nostalgia for the French
Creole immigrants.
• It became a celebration of emancipation for the freed
Africans.
• It finally became a secular ceremony of the celebration
of life and sexuality.
• However, according to L. Regis,
Carnival has never integrated its participants as fully as is
believed and race-ethnicity-class divisions are still in
evidence in the organisations of the masquerade bands...

16. Hosay/Hussay: Moharram in India
• During the 14th and 15th centuries an influx of Iranian
Shiite Muslims into India introduced the observance of
Moharram into the sub-continent.
• It retained Persian characteristics of displaying personal
mourning in public by marching in processions, recalling
the names of Hasan and Hosain to the music of drums,
and self-flagellation.
• The Shias start building the tazias (taziya, tadjah) on the
first day of Moharram after holding special consecration
prayers.

17. • In India, both Sunni and Shiite Muslims participated in
Moharram. By the end of the 18th century the dominant
Hindu culture also began to penetrate Moharram.
• This led to the introduction of the float tazia – an
artistically designed replica of imaginary tombs of Hasan
and Hosain, as an integral part of Moharram processions
on the final day of mourning.
• The tazia is built over nine days. The men participate in
the building while a mixed congregation retells the story
of the battle and sings mercia (mourning songs).

18. • Incense (loban) is burnt and fanned towards the “graves”
inside the tazia.
• In the mornings, small bands of Shia mourners with flags
parade in the streets playing nagaras (double ended
drums hung from the neck and shoulders) and tassas
(small top-ended drums tied to the waist).
• On the evening of the ninth day, the tazias are brought
out of the shed where they are built and carried to a few
homes in the neighbourhood where the faithful provide
all-night vigil by drumming, reading of scriptures, singing
or mercia and burning of loban.

19.  The 10th day is the climax: there is a procession with the
tazias at the back, led by tassa drummers, sword and
stick fighters.
 There is drumming and music and cries of “Hai Hosain”
and self-flagellation.
 Late in the afternoon, the processions reach river banks,
sea coasts or burial grounds where the whole tazia or
the paper covering are thrown away or buried.

20. Hosay/Hussay in the Caribbean
• Observance of Moharram in the Caribbean was initiated
by the early indentured workers as they tried to establish
homes away from home.
• Hosay was celebrated in Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica,
Belize, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Guadeloupe.
• Until the 1940s, Hosay invoked general religious
sentiments and devotion among the participants of either
religion who would avoid alcohol, sex and other
pleasures during the 10 days.
• In the nineteenth century, Moharram was observed
strictly according to the Islamic calendar and Indian
rituals and traditions.

21. • There was the belief is that the martyred brothers
reappear and grant wishes.
• The building of the Hosay, special acts of sacrifice during
the festival period, and contributions of food or money
are considered acts of merit and will bring good fortune
to the worshipper. Construction of the tazia started on
the first day of Moharram after a simple religious
ceremony at the craftman’s shed which was regarded as
a holy shrine for the next 8 days.
• There were evening assemblies dominated by Muslim
men and women who would sing until early morning. On
the ninth night, tazias were assembled and it was
displayed to the public amidst drumming and singing of
mercias.

22. • The activities of the tenth day were heralded with the
playing of music on nagaras (also called dholaks – which
are beaten with curved sticks called dankas) and tassas.
• From this point, the tazias moved in an organized
procession along the pre-determined route to a “fair-ground”
at a river bank or sea shore.
• The procession is led by alamdars (mourners with flags)
and drummers, followed by the sword and stick (gutka)
fighters, the main body of mourners signing “Hai Hosain”
and then the tazia.
• At dusk, the tazias were sunk one by one in the river or
sea amidst sounds of the tassa, nagara and shouts of Hai
Hasan, Hai Hosain.
•

23.  Despite its significance, Olive Senior argues that Hosay
has lost most of its religious significance as, in countries
such as Jamaica, “Hosay features the active
participation of many different religious and ethnic
groups other than Muslims, especially non-Indian
Creoles”. Most celebrants use the opportunity to recall
their ancestors who came to the Caribbean rather than a
religious affirmation of Islam.

24. The Creolisation of Moharram Explored
The creolisation of Moharram occurred because:
Many Indians projected their ethnic identity on other
members of Caribbean society
The Muslim community in the Caribbean was initially
small.
Inter-marriages among Indian Muslims and Hindus.
The formation of close bonds between Indians and Afro-
Caribbean people.
Working together on sugar and banana plantations, Afro-
Caribbean and Indian people came to better understand
each other
Indians in time recognised that they had more in
common than with Afro-Caribbean people

25. Thus, the creolised Moharram involves:
Nomenclature or a name change from Moharram to
Hosay
Though Trinidad still adheres to the Muslim calendar,
secularisation has affected the date of the observance in
Jamaica.
Entire communities became involved in Moharram.
The rituals became creolised.
The significance has shifted from a religious event to a
festive one.
The style of drumming has changed.
Dancing has been altered.
Drinking now features prominently.
Many have argued that creolisation means
commercialisation.

26. Jonkonnu
• It arguably at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
Jonkunnu (John Canoe, Jon Canoe and John Canou).
• Jonkunnu celebrations can be traced to the Christmas
holidays when the enslaved were technically given ‘free’
time to celebrate. Oftentimes, this celebration featured
music – drumming, dance and costume/masks as well
as some satirical mimicry.
• Though Jamaica had a strong culture of Jonkunnu,
today, it is in Nassau, Bahamas that it is most celebrated
where it is popularly called Junkanoo. The festival also
occurs in Belize (called Jankunu) and North Carolina
(John Canoe). It is celebrated also in Guyana, Bermuda
and St. Kitts-Nevis.

27. • In general, the celebration occurs anywhere between
Christmas day and New Year’s Day. In Belize, it is
performed on Christmas and Boxing Day while in the
Bahamas it is celebrated between December 26th and
January 1.
• According to Richard Burton, Jonkunnu is first mentioned
in passing by in 1707 by Hans Sloane and later by name
by Edward Long in his History of Jamaica in 1774. In
Jamaica, Jonkunnu had three clearly define phases:
– The early period of introduction and adaptation
– The addition of the set girls in the 1770s
– Post emancipation period with high British influence

28. • According to Burton, Jonkunnu’s origins are certainly
African and until the latter eighteenth century, it
developed unimpeded by European culture.
• Cassidy and Le Page contend that the term is a
combination of two Ewe words, dzono for sorcery and
kúnu for something deadly.
• Burton cedes as he writes:
– “An African cultural form rapidly indigenised in Jamaica and
only belatedly subject to surface creolisation, Jonkonnu
functioned as the core of the oppositional culture of
Jamaican slaves, at first in isolation then increasingly as
part of a much wider cultural phenomenon: the
extraordinary “Negro Carnival” that was Christmas in
Jamaica during the last thirty or forty years of slavery.”

29. • There are also arguments that Jonkunnu, with its
completely African dance, possessing elements of
creolisation, incorporated the European tradition of
masquerade balls.
• Of note in Jamaica were the ‘set girls’ characteristic of
the European influence on the festival.
• Creolisation is a feature of the festival since it twinned
African elements such as dance with European ones
such as the celebration of Christmas, masquerades,
dancing and mumming. African slaves retained their
music, dance and masquerade traditions.

30. • Most Jonkunnu performers are male. Participants
frequently take to the streets and with music, mime and
dance.
• In Jamaican Jonkunnu the main characters include
Pitchy-patchy, Actor Boy, Cow Head, Horse Head and
Devil.
• Other participants include Policeman, Belly-woman and
Wild Indian. Occasionally, a Bride and House Head also
feature.
• In Jamaica, participants would be attired in head
dresses, masks, pitchforks, batons, fans and other items
depending on the character. Shiny material such as
mirrors was often added to give costumes more oomph!

31.  Jonkunnu would be incomplete without the dance of
each character.
 Musical bands feature rattles and the gumbay drum – an
African instrument and the fife a European instrument.
This demonstrates the Creole nature of the celebration –
it as neither African nor European but a synthesis of
both.