Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

1.29 The Mangrove trial and the emergence of a robust black community movement served to not
only ignite greater political activity, but also spawn a number of creative endeavours in the fields
of art, literature, drama, music, dancing and religion. The Notting Hill Carnival became an
important vehicle for the promoting and showcasing the black community’s unique cultural and
creative identity. The writer, filmmaker and musician, Kwesi Owusu once described the Carnival
as an “annual mecca” at which the “revellers came to re-enact a powerful cultural and political
symbolism which was essential to daily black existence, survival and struggle” 35 .
1.30 Subsequent years saw increased Caribbean participation in the Notting Hill Carnival whilst that of
other ethnic groups declined. Cohen has argued that this was partly due to the construction of
the Westway flyover through Ladbroke Grove, which resulted in what many people saw as the
‘preferential’ re-housing of much of the white community on the one hand and the growing
importance of Carnival to Notting Hill’s black community. Allegations of police harassment,
brutality and institutionalised racism continued to politicise the black community, which
responded in kind with the formation and strengthening of grassroots organisations. New
community mobilisation strategies and political ideologies employed by the Black Power and Civil
Rights movements in the United States were studied and where possible, applied by black groups
in Britain to their own community circumstances. At the same time, these forms of political and
community protest augmented and provided inspiration for the growing popularity of black
musical genres of ‘lyrical protest’ such as reggae, which served to strengthen the community’s
sense of identity, unity and purpose.
1.31 Cecil Gutzmore has observed that it was at this point that the Notting Hill Carnival began to be
viewed as a ‘threatening culture’ 36 . With the introduction of large sound systems and the
concentration of large crowds of young black people, the Carnival began to be perceived as a
‘problem’ by the local authorities and the police. In the lead up to the 1976 Carnival, the
Notting Hill Black Information Centre wrote a letter to The Times and The Guardian newspapers,
warning of a potential disturbance if extra provision for the growing number of Carnival revellers
and participants was not made. The first major Carnival disturbance occurred in 1976 when
10,000 policemen accompanied 250,000 revellers down the Ladbroke Grove. The policing
strategy that year divided the Carnival area into six sections, but prevented any crowd movement
between sectors. Helicopters and police cameras were used to survey and monitor the Carnival
crowd, which in response reacted violently. The rioting continued well into the next day.
1.32 Some critics have argued that the police chose to interpret the 1976 Carnival as a protest march
and that the real problem lay in the inability of local officials and the police to view the Carnival
as a cultural event. Police-community conflict at the Notting Hill Carnival was to be a recurring
feature, with serious confrontations in 1977, and again in 1981 and 1989. There have been
various attempts to control the Carnival and contain its social and political impact over the years.
1.33 The transformation of a traditional English fair into a significant manifestation of popular black
and traditional Caribbean culture is doubly significant. It demonstrates the resilience of a
marginalised community, but it has also bequeathed an institution that is an integral part of the
history and heritage of the black community. It is clear that somewhere along the way, this
understanding of the history, relevance and wider social and cultural meaning of the Notting Hill
Carnival has been lost. Certainly there appears to be a significant disparity between what the
Carnival is meant to communicate and how new generations interpret and understand the event
today. The Carnival’s history and heritage is, in many respects, all the more relevant, not least
35
Kwesi Owusu, “The Struggle for Black Arts in Britain: What Can We Consider Better Than Freedom”, p7, Comedia Publishing Group
(1986)
36
Cecil Gutzmore, ‘Carnival, the State and the Black Masses in the United Kingdom’, Black Liberator, 1.
40