Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

1.14 The origins of the Notting Hill Carnival can be traced back to the Caribbean island of Trinidad,
which in turn derived its carnival culture from the enduring customs, traditions and beliefs of
Africans who were brought to the island to work on the plantations as slaves. The concept of
carnival had originally been transported to the island during the era of slavery when – at the
invitation of Charles III – French-speaking Catholics flocked to the island from the surrounding
territories of Grenada, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Vincent and Dominica. They brought with
them a European version of the carnival, which was celebrated immediately before Lent. The
main feature of this particular festival was Le Masquerade - daytime concerts, masked fancydress
balls, hunting parties and house-to-house visits in colourful carriages. Prior to the
abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and the subsequent emancipation of the slaves in the
Caribbean in 1834, these celebrations were exclusive ‘high society’ affairs for the white
slave-owning aristocracy. As an alternative, the slaves established their own festivities in the
shape of the Cannes Brûlées, also called Camboulay/Canboulay (or burned canes), which was a
public celebration of the slaves who turned out en masse from neighbouring plantations to help
put out sugar cane fires.
1.15 When freedom eventually came on 1 August 1834 23 , the emancipated slaves took to the streets
and celebrated their liberty through song and dance, reproducing and reinstating the former
Canboulay festival as an anniversary symbol of liberation and freedom from the shackles of
colonialism and the brutal regime that was slavery. They mocked and mimicked their former
slave masters and mistresses by painting their faces and creating costume caricatures of the
garb, pomp and ceremony that had been the hallmark of the wealthy plantation owners. The
carnival therefore became a celebration of their freedom from bondage as well as their
remembrance of it.
1.16 Since its inception, the carnival has developed into a strong Caribbean tradition. The seeds of
the Notting Hill Carnival were sown with the docking of the Empire Windrush in 1948, which
signalled the arrival of Caribbean immigrants who were responding to the post-war labour
shortage in England in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. As members of Britain’s colonial empire,
they settled in the working class London districts of Brixton, Southall and Notting Hill as well as
Moss Side in Manchester and Handsworth in Birmingham. Invited to Britain, the Caribbean
community was greeted with hostility, racism, social intolerance, poor housing and exploitative
working and employment conditions.
1.17 A number of factors conspired to increase social tensions between the minority black and
majority white community in England. Britain’s weakening grasp on its colonial empire and
declining economic fortunes gave rise to an urgent need for some to find a suitable political
scapegoat to take the blame for Britain’s social, political and economic woes. The emergence of
extreme right-wing movements and views became a feature of the day with the formation of,
amongst others, the Union Movement by Oswald Moseley, the White Defence League by Colin
Jordan, the National Labour Party by John Bean and the League of Empire Loyalists by G.K.
Chesterton. Physical attacks on members of the black community became a common occurrence
and this reached its height when in May 1958, a young Antiguan carpenter by the name of Kelso
Cochrane was murdered by six alleged members of the White Defence League in Ladbroke
Grove. No one was ever arrested or convicted.
1.18 The Cochrane murder proved to be a turning point in race relations in Britain. At a community
level, a committee under the chairmanship of Amy Ashwood Garvey (the wife of Marcus Mosiah
Garvey), which included the Trinidadian journalist and political activist Claudia Jones, met at the
23
By virtue of the Abolition of Slavery Act (1833).
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