Carnival Music in Trinidad - Week 2

Violence in Carnival

Throughout the history of Carnival, there has been an aspect to this festive time and celebration that has a dark past.  Most of the performers who make up Carnival are the steel band players.  When the steel bands were first organized, the bands were designated by the area of the Hill the band members lived in.  These bands that were formed were more like gangs.  They were similar to gangs because one band never affiliated with another and the bands were extremely violent towards each other. In the 1950’s, the bands were extremely rooted in the streets and were “uncontrollable and symbolic of disorder” (Steumpfle).  This chaos and violence is truly shown through the character Fisheye in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance.  This character was involved in the steel bands around the 1950’s when violence was a large part of life in the poor communities of the Port of Spain.  The novel states that those were the “war days” and all of the members of the band were warriors.  With these titles in place, there is already a sense of violence and hate associated.  There were many different gangs depending on what part of the Hill one associated with. Their battles were not only with their drums during Carnival, but also with car brakes, knives, clubs, or whatever trash was lying around to fight with, as the character Fisheye explains.  This violence and war continued for many years.  Yet, in the mid-1960’s, the steel bands decided that a truce was in order.  So multiple organizations were created to maintain that peace between the steel bands all throughout the Hill.  This truce also allowed groups to form such as TASPO, which is the Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra.  Specifically the first orchestra formed, had band members from all over the Hill, there were members from the Invaders, Casablanca’s, Crossfire’s and many more steel bands.  This new social structure of the steel bands reflects what many people see of Carnival today.  

While steel bands are more cooperative today than they were in the 1950’s, there are still traces of this violent past in Trinidad. Barbara Ehrenreich has studied festival traditions that entail street dancing. She described her experience attending Carnival in an article: “Banners flying over downtown streets advised, for safety's sake, to ‘stay with your lime,’ your lime being the friends you came with. Newspapers offered front-page reports of bitter rivalries in the pre-carnival soca music competition.” These pieces of information show that there is still violence in Carnival. In fact, one activity almost appears to promote violence. Ehnrenreich described that, “When a Blue Devil approached and stabbed his finger at you, you had to give him a Trinidadian dollar (worth 16 U.S. cents), or he would pull you up against his freshly painted body.” This aggressive, hostile, tradition of Carnival shows that while some performers aim to release stress by partying and dancing, others find this an appropriate time to riot and be violent. Throughout history, European cultures have feared large gatherings of people, because they often lead to violent ends. This is why in 1884, the British government banned drums in Trinidad.  In its place, tamboo bamboo was created. Kalenda stick fighting often accompanied tamboo bamboo. Nowadays, tamboo bamboo is accompanied by dancing. Here is a video on the art of tamboo bamboo:

People who are wealthy have tried to make Carnival a more respectable, safer tradition and festival. “According to the historian (and soca star) Hollis Liverpool, "pretty mas grew out of the upper classes' efforts to tamp down the African-derived aspects of traditional mas, which they saw as vulgar and unruly” (Ehnrenreich). It is interesting to note that the many beautiful traditions of carnival came about over or during hostile moments of Trinidadian history.
 

Logan Kropp researched and wrote of the Blue Devils and the history of Europeans in Trinidad. 

Sierra Marsh researched and wrote on The Dragon Can’t Dance and the history of the rivalries. 

 

Works Cited

Dudley, Shannon. Carnival Music in Trinidad: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. "Up Close at Trinidad's Carnival." Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution, Feb. 2009. Web. July 2015.

Lovelace, Earl. The Dragon Can't Dance: A Novel. New York: Persea, 1998. Print.

Nanthie, Daina. Finding an 'Equal' Place: How the Designation of the Steelpan as the National Instrument Heightened Identity Relations in Trinidad and Tobago. p. 85. Florida State University, Oct. 23, 2015. Print. 

Stuempfle, Stephen. The Steelband Movement: The Forging of a National Art in Trinidad and Tobago. p. 109. University of Pennsylvania. Oct. 23, 2015. Print.