"Out of pain this culture was born"Stick fighting at the Canboulay By Gerry Kangalee August 21, 2008 Page I | Page II | Page III In the 1840's the British governor attempted to forbid masking in public. The masses responded with organised resistance which was put down by the military. The masses had begun to develop the forms that are still familiar to us, Red Indian bands, pierrot grenades, jab molassi. For the next forty years there was a more or less persistent struggle to suppress and/or change the direction of the mas'. Carnival was condemned as being an immoral and obscene outrage. There were attempts to suppress the festival through legislation and police action. African drumming was subject to restrictions and, at times, to outright banning. This was the origin of the laws dealing with "noisy instruments" which steelbandsmen had to endure in the late forties and early fifties, in particular, and which, if memory serves me well, are still on the books. Attacks were made on certain types of dancing, especially that associated with stick fighting (kalinda). Yet in the face of these attacks, Canboulay became established, starting at midnight on Sunday. The withdrawal of the "respectable classes" from the carnival was all but complete by the late 1860's. The carnival at this time took on a distinctive tenor, despite, or maybe, because of the concentrated attacks of the colonial state. It became the jamette carnival, referring to those who lived below the diamètre or line of respectability, something akin to the underworld, people of the underclass. This period saw massive migration into the urban areas, particularly Port of Spain, the growth of the barrack yards and barrack yard culture, massive unemployment, petty crime, gambling, prostitution. The shift was beginning away from Patois toward English. There were English bands, "French" bands, bands organised according to island of origin in rivalry with one another. Clashes between bands at Carnival were not infrequent. Some of the territorial bands in Port of Spain were: True Blue, Black Ball, Golden city, D'jammettres, Maribones, Bakers, Corail, and S'Amandes. David Trotman, in his study of crime and violence in nineteenth century Trinidad states: "Unemployed youths in their prime, condemned to a life of marginality because of the color of their skin and their refusal to be subjected to unrewarding employment on the plantation, were the major perpetrators of this violence. They used their untapped energies and endless time to focus on what they considered to be invasions of their territory, insults to their manhood, and alienation from the favors of their women by those whom they designated as rivals. Minor insults became major reasons for strife. They found many areas of activity in which they competed, and this activity resulted in numerous violent clashes." It does sound eerily familiar, doesn't it? David Rudder describes it thus: "the tribes they re-grouped again for their wars on a brand new plain." The jamette bands expressed their rivalry through the kalinda, at once a martial art/stickfighting and a dance. The bands, with their sticks, torches and drums were led by a chantwell, who eventually evolved into the modern Calypsonian, and a chorus. They performed boastful songs of their fighters' abilities and challenged rivals to fight. They used the call and response form which is ever-present in African-derived music and also used the extempore/freestyle/toasting form. In 1858 the governor decided to stop the masquerade. Troops were ordered into town from St. James and there were clashes on the streets. In 1859, the masses routed the police on Prince Street. During the 1870's the proponents of the mardi gras grew increasingly strident. They attacked the Canboulay for its "degeneration" and "obscenity"; its violence. One description of the Canboulay in La Brea by a Roman Catholic priest captures the fear and the loathing with which the upper classes held the carnival of the people: "At midnight I was woken up by the sound of several horns and numerous cries coming from all sections of La Brea. It was the beginning of Carnival. On Sunday everything is quiet. Carnival starts by what they call the Cannes Brûlées. From the time of slavery fire was often started in the fields of cane by the slaves who had complaints against their masters or the overseers. It is a fact of this kind which they want to recall. Some negroes place themselves at a certain distance one from the other at different entrances to the area. These are the ones who have the horns with which they sound the alarm.In 1868 legislation was introduced to make the carrying of lighted torches an offence. Something had to give and during the 1880's the Canboulay gave. The mardi gras went into the ascendancy and, at least on the streets maintained that ascendancy for decades after, though not quite being able to snuff out the Canboulay. In 1878 and 1879, the infamous police chief captain Baker had strictly controlled the carnival and made stickfighting very difficult. The police made pre-emptive arrests of known band leaders. In 1880, Baker went for the jugular. He called for the surrender of sticks, torches and drums. Catching the bands by surprise the carnival passed peacefully. The Port of Spain Gazette, an upper class newspaper, had this to say: "The Carnival of 1880, as of the past few years, unlike the Saturnalia of former times, brings back with it the agreeable duty of congratulating the Police upon the gradual success with which their efforts are being attended each year towards the entire extinction of all that is most objectionable and shocking in our Shrovetide orgies.It is instructive that the columnist used words like "enemy's stronghold" and "savage hordes" to describe the masses and yet there are those who claim not to see the pursuit of class struggle as being central to the attitude towards Canboulay. The upper classes thought that the Canboulay had been suppressed, but there was life still left as 1881 would prove. The masses organised for the 1881 carnival. The leading bands in Port of Spain united and agreed not to fight one another, but to organise against the police. Poui sticks were prepared and houses in Duke, Charlotte, George, Duncan, Queen and Prince Streets were prepared as depositories for bottle and stones. The barrack yards of East Port of Spain prepared for the battle. Individuals and bands from outside of the city were drafted in to strengthen the mass forces. By Carnival Sunday tout moon knew that a great battle was in the offing. In the words of the historian of the French Creole, Roman Catholic priest, Anthony De Verteuil,"...the people felt that if their traditional right to play was thwarted then they had a right to fight against the alien authorities." That famous figure in the labour, political and cultural history of Trinidad and Tobago, Lennox Pierre said in an interview with Tony Hall: J.D. Elder and I were fortunate to meet an old lady [Frances Edwards] in 1954 at 87 years of age, and she gave us this eyewitness account of the Canboulay Riots. What had, in fact, happened was that Captain Baker, who was the Superintendent of Police at the time, had attacked the Canboulay revelers in 1880 and taken away their torches. And in 1881 the Canboulay revelers prepared for Baker. According to the eyewitness account Edwards gave, the Canboulay revelers from districts outside Port of Spain came into Port of Spain. And you had a Neg Jardin stickband that took the length from Medical Corner at the corner of Park Street and Tragarete Road, [i.e.] Park Streets and St Vincent Streets, right down St Vincent Street into Park Street. When twelve midnight struck that year, 1881, the Canboulay revelers moved out from the Medical Corner and the band moved in darkness and without drums. And the old lady told us how there was an old patois woman at the front of the band. And she called out "Mssrs, Captain Baker et tout I'homme" (and all his men), "au cour de la rue" (at the corner of the street, just about where All Stars steel orchestra have their headquarters now. And at that signal the fellows light their torches and start up the drums and went for Baker. The story that she gave...was that the Canboulay revelers swept the ground with the police.The authorities beat a tactical retreat and the people celebrated the rest of the carnival in triumphalist spirit. While Port of Spain celebrated Tuesday in peace, there were disturbances in Couva. But it was the beginning of the end. In 1882, while no attempt was made to suppress the Canboulay, two Warships were stationed in the harbour; troops and volunteers were on full alert; the fire brigade was ready; plans for evacuating the governor were made; special magistrates had to stay at their posts; government officials were under arms and surgeons were ready to deal with the wounded. There was no violence. Bandleaders called for peace and the carnival passed peacefully. In 1883, Canboulay reverted to type and there were clashes in Port of Spain between bands representing English speaking West Indian immigrants and Patois speakers. It is said that the police protected the immigrants and instigated attacks on the Patois speakers. In 1884, an ordinance was passed giving the Governor power to prohibit public torch processions, drum beating, any dance or procession and any disorderly assembly of ten or more persons armed with stick or other weapons and the playing of musical instruments before 6:00 in the morning of carnival Monday. This was the death knell of the Canboulay. Heavy military preparations were made involving the mobilisation of special constables, the calling up of volunteers and the military. Police were issued with firearms and British marines were on call on the HMS Dido in the harbour. Squads of men were located throughout the city. The Carnival was locked down in Port of Spain, but in San Fernando, Couva and Princes Town there were great battles against the colonial police and masqueraders were shot and killed. The historian Bridget Brereton summed up the aftermath as follows: "The purging of carnival proceeded slowly in the years after 1884. The general consensus about the government's new policy was that it had succeeded, despite the bloodshed in the south. Canboulay was for ever abolished, and so were the large stick bands and the band fighting. In 1890-1 the control over the festival was extended by a proclamation prohibiting the throwing of missiles, including flour, at onlookers. Another new regulation in 1893 was that persons intending to mask as Pierrots had to register with the police in advance. Steelband players on the road today still have to register with the police. ... The Daily News quoted approvingly the words of the Chief Justice that the carnival was a disgrace, and that 'in two days the whole year's work of the clergy and the schoolmasters was destroyed' ... the carnival regulations for 1895 added a new clause: it was illegal for persons to appear masked in the dress or costume commonly called and known as Pisse en Lit. As a result there was none of the grosser obscenity in the 1895 carnival, very little transvestism, and only a handful of obscenity arrests. The way was clear for the respectable classes to re-enter carnival, and for the festival to develop slowly into a 'national' event. Clear signs of this movement can be seen between 1885 and 1900. In the former year a "relatively large number" of respectable persons felt safe enough to mask and play in the streets. Citizens of worth were seeing people they knew playing masked. Three years later there was a small band of courtiers whose 'propriety and reserve stamped them gentlemen in the midst of the surging mass of coarser masqueraders. There was a lady among them.'The Canboulay, it seemed, had suffered a decisive defeat. But appearances can be deceptive! Page I | Page II | Page III |