In Trinidad, there is a long
tradition of “bacchanal” connected to a festival or holiday. Anil Sookdeo from
the John Hopkins University, Baltimore, in his paper “Festivals and
Plantations: The Misrule of Carnival and Hosay” explains why.
In the years of their
popularisation, both Carnival and Hosay were lower class festivals. Carnival
had not started out as such, when it was brought to Trinidad by the French
plantocrats. However, after the abolition of slavery in 1834, the former slaves
started to participate in the festival and soon take it over completely. The
“jamette” Carnival dominated the pre-Lenten festivities towards the end of the
19th century, leaving out the middle and upper classes completely.
Hosay, on the other hand, was
limited to the Indian indentured population. As such, it was - similar to the
Carnival celebrations of the second half of the 19th century - not a festival
that was participated in by middle and upper class creoles and the British
administrators. The latter had a mighty lot of difficulties with the raucous
festivals in Trinidad! Both Carnival and Hosay were oftentimes occasions of
clashes between lower class behaviour and higher class ideas of how citizens
should behave.
Anil Sookdeo puts forward two
reasons for these clashes. Firstly, the two festivals were “used as surrogate
vehicles for ‘organised’ action in the interests of those excluded from power
and privilege”. The borderlines between feteing and protesting got blurred. Secondly,
Sookdeo argues that there was a general atmosphere of contesting of the British
administration in those years, which was vented in upheavals during the festivals.
Much research has been done on
the misrule and non-conformist behaviour during Carnivals all over the world.
Trinidad is certainly not alone in this. In fact, the success of Carnival
throughout the centuries and its continuing attractiveness to people is its
bacchanalian nature. It seems to always have been an occasion of expressing
oneself against an established social or political order. This is, according to
sociologists, necessary to actually upkeep and maintain a healthy community
along those very lines that are being criticised in Carnival.
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