short essays:
introduction 66 CARIBBEAN INTRANSIT
Suelin Low Chew Tung
Grenada Traditional Mas: Fragmented Transmissions, An artist’s study Keywords: ShortKnee, carnival, carnevale, jab jab, moko jumbie, grenada, traditional mas
ABSTRACT Grenada’s annual carnival celebration is distilled from fragmented transmissions of African and European culture, history, tradition and religion. Reassembled in an island environment, our Traditional Mas portrayals of the ShortKnee, Jab Jab, Vecco and Moko Jumbie and others are in essence avatars of resistance, rebellion and survival. My current practice eavesdrops on that African-European conversation. Using historical documents to support an ongoing project of original and reinterpreted artworks tracing the transmission of elder knowledge from Old World to Grenada, my Traditional Mas oeuvre searches out present-day ancestral ‘impersonators’, in the guise of existing players in the annual carnival – the ShortKnee, Vecco, Jab Jab, and Moko Jumbie - and seeks to resurrect dormant characters like the Pizané, Matador and the sculptural grotesques of the Long-Mouth animal masque, legacies from our colonial plantation era. BACKGROUND TO CARNIVAL Pre-Lenten Carnavale (farewell to meat) exists wherever there are Catholic populations. French Roman Catholic priests - Franciscan Capuchin, Dominican and Jesuit – were documented on La Grenade, Grenada’s name under French rule, since it was first settled for France in 1649. No records exist of the first carnavales here, but it is reasonable that under French rule, variations on this pre-Lenten tradition of revelry preceeding the prescribed period of penitence leading up to Easter were observed (Martin 2012). Once the island changed hands, there seems to be little documentation of carnevalesque revelry, though a 1770 legislation targeted to the enslaved, punishes disorderly behaviour (Smith 1808). Sugarcane played a minor agricultural role in French Grenada, until British planters introducing a sugarcane monoculture (Niddrie 1966). This new labour-intensive monoculture system employed thousands of African slave labourers, who were exported from major ports including Senegambia, the Bights of Benin and Biafra, and West Central Africa. Interestingly, as rum exports from Grenada were on the rise, in 1789 legislation was passed, ‘for prevention of sale of rum and other spirituous liquors to slaves’ (Smith 1808). Again evidence is as yet uncovered to link this to carnevalesque revelry. The end of forced labour on August 1, 1838 presented opportunity for the former ‘enslaved subjects of the Queen in the West Indies’ baptised in Christian ritual, to enjoy greater revelry to express their newfound freedom. However, the 1897 Grenada Handbook states that ‘the conduct of the liberated people in Grenada on that day was most exemplary. They spent the early part of the day in their several churches, and then united in festive gatherings, but there was no drunkenness or disorderly conduct.’ There are no descriptions as to what occurred at
these gatherings, festivities were probably toned down as it appears that the 1794 Vagabond Act (Smith 1808) was still in force. And, as it turned out, Christian missionaries, chapels, churches and places of worship were ordered to be open on August 1 and to hold at least two services, as part of the official thanksgiving celebrations, as per a July proposal put forward by Governor Smith (Kerr-Ritchi 2007) - in practice, maintaining control. Within a few years, Emancipation and Prepenitence carnavales became one secular carnival festival on the Catholic calendar. British occupation was unable to uproot many French influences language, culture, religion and political insitutions entrenched among the slaves, free blacks and free coloureds. Little is recorded about the impact on carnival by the indentured labourers from Malta and the Portuguese from Madeira, but the religious and cultural impact of the next immigrants to Grenada is still evident. Hundreds of Yorùbá arrived as indentured servants in 1850, (Warner-Lewis 1991, McDaniel 1998), and settled in the villages of Rose Hill, Concord, Munich, Chantimelle, La Fillette, Mount Rodney, Hermitage and Mount Rich. To ensure the African soul was not extinguished (Karade 1994), a conscious masking behind Catholic patron saints and social-ritual performance developed (Warner-Lewis 1991). As late as 1852, French religious influence existed in Grenada with an Act passed to naturalize Francis de Casta, a Roman Catholic priest. This special Christian interpretation based on surviving elements of African spirituality (Thompson 2010) ensured survival of African traditions which would later become recognised as an important part of Grenadian carnival culture (Steele 2003). The pre-Lenten celebration of carnival continued more or less unchanged. Post WWII saw the beginnings of officially organised series of masquerade events, moving out from the countryside and into the main town, and becoming increasingly popular. Just as the newlyfreed celebrated in the streets from as early as daybreak, ‘jour ouvert’ became standard practice to open the annual carnival. In 1974, carnival in Grenada was celebrated in May because the date conflicted with February 7 celebrations for the newly independent tri-island nation. In 1984, the date was removed to the second week in August (Payne 1990), not to commenorate Emancipation but to satisfy the need for an economic summer attraction postRevolution-Intervention/Invasion, and far from the extensive shadow cast by neighbouring Trinidad’s carnival machinery. This change of date permanently
1 This paper is derived from Chapter 3, titled “Public Art and Controversy,” of my doctoral dissertation Between Nation and Market: Art and Society in 20th Century Jamaica (Emory University, 2011) An earlier version of the section on the Emancipation monument also appeared in Jamaica Journal 28:2&3 (2004) 2 This artist’s surname is also spelled as Gonzales. 3 At present, there are seven National Heroes: Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, Alexander Bustamante, Norman Manley, Sam Sharpe, and, the sole female, Nanny.
