Goodbye to...

 
There is an old folk tale that tells of Carnival being from the old slavery days.  A Clarion call saying goodbye to flesh, a declaration of a new freedom.

You will note I said an old folk tale because I cannot imagine that any of that is true when i look out at what is passing for Carnival and Mas these days.  The distorted merriment escalating to debauchery with men and women freeing themselves to songs which can in polite terms be described as rubbish.

What is this Carnival culture that many speak of?  What is this beautiful sight that people leave far and wide to come and view?  You are asking the wrong Trini.  I have not seen real Carnival in well over 20 years.  I won't compare it to Brazil, apples and oranges.  Our mas is said to have a history rooted deeply in the days of slavery, a full expression of our desire and further delivery of freedom.  It was a way to speak out our hurts and pains and grievances a way to code our messages so that "massa" would not understand.  This was the backbone of the culture we embrace.

Where is that culture now, first it was relegated to Carnival Monday Morning when people were too busy with revelry to notice but where is it now?  What has become of the traditions of old?  What do we sing of now?  "If yuh know yuh giving a horn raise yuh hand!"..."Advantage!"...."Mash up de speaker box"...yes culture at its best, lyrics to make Lord Kitchener get up and slap somebody.

The beautiful mas we boast about? Where is that?  In any place that sells lingerie and just add on a pack of beads.  Whatever happened to Mas like what Peter Minsahall would produce? Where a clear thought process was evident?  Where a story was being told?  I ask you, what are you trying to tell me when one section of your band is red, the other blue and another green, varying only in the colours of the two feathers and five beads you have sewn on to some piece of underwear?  This is the culture you so happily boast to the world? Really?

As I said much earlier, we get what we allow.  No one will stand for something good and if every mas band brought out fully clothed band sections, it would be a Carnival with only crickets chirping.

Carnival was supposed to be saying goodbye to the flesh, a flesh which has now been totally exposed.  In what sane world does Carnival mean to forget who you are for two days and do all and sundry and then you wonder why the baby and AIDS population exponentially increases around that time.  Why does Carnival now equal a goodbye to sanity?

Where has the art form gone?  Men who can sing about Rum & Water and win two million dollars, men who come back to an art form because the prize money has increased.  We have thrown away passion for the art form so that we can bow down to the almighty dollar and give him full praise and in so doing we have not said goodbye to flesh, not at all; we have said goodbye to standards, sanity, beauty, poetry and real art.