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Caribbean Beat — January/February 2018 (#149)

A calendar of events; music, film, and book reviews; travel features; people profiles, and much more.

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Contents<br />

No. 149 <strong>January</strong>/<strong>February</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />

76<br />

42<br />

EMBARK<br />

19 Datebook<br />

Events around the <strong>Caribbean</strong> in<br />

<strong>January</strong> and <strong>February</strong>, from Bahamas<br />

Junkanoo to Guyana’s Mashramani<br />

to Carnival celebrations up and down<br />

the islands, plus St Lucia’s Nobel<br />

Laureates Festival, a marathon in<br />

Haiti, and the world-famous Havana<br />

Book Fair<br />

26 Word of Mouth<br />

It’s Carnival time! Come on a<br />

panyard lime with Barbara Jenkins,<br />

experience the thrilling, shapeshifting<br />

ritual of J’Ouvert in a poem<br />

by Shivanee Ramlochan, and discover<br />

Carriacou’s unique Shakespeare mas.<br />

Meanwhile, Jamaica celebrates its<br />

musical heritage at Reggae Month<br />

34 the game<br />

Superhero moves<br />

Inspired since childhood by the<br />

Power Rangers TV show, Jamaican<br />

taekwondo champ Akino Lindsay<br />

uses martial arts to change his life<br />

and inspire other young people in<br />

Kingston’s toughest communities,<br />

writes Kellie Magnus<br />

36 Bookshelf, playlist, and<br />

screenshots<br />

This month’s reading, listening, and<br />

film-watching picks, to keep you<br />

culturally up-to-date<br />

IMMERSE<br />

42 closeup<br />

Walk tall<br />

It’s one of the oldest masquerades<br />

in T&T’s Carnival, brought across<br />

the Atlantic from West Africa. The<br />

moko jumbie tradition once seemed<br />

to be dying away, but in recent<br />

years a handful of enthusiasts have<br />

created a moko jumbie revival,<br />

training hundreds of young people<br />

in the art of stilt-walking. Ray Funk<br />

investigates, and explains the power<br />

of these towering figures<br />

57 backstory<br />

How to win the road<br />

T&T’s Carnival is full of rivalries and<br />

competitions, and none is more fierce<br />

than the annual Road March battle.<br />

Mark Lyndersay traces the history of<br />

the musical title that reflects the will<br />

of masqueraders on the street <strong>—</strong> and<br />

we dare to share our picks for the top<br />

ten Road March songs from the 1930s<br />

to the present day<br />

72 own words<br />

“I’m unfinished”<br />

Tobago-born actor Winston Duke,<br />

appearing in the eagerly awaited<br />

Black Panther movie, on his love of<br />

stories and magical realism, how his<br />

village childhood shaped his ethos,<br />

and his love of soca music <strong>—</strong> as told to<br />

Caroline Taylor<br />

ARRIVE<br />

76 Destination<br />

Escape to Tobago<br />

Even at the height of Carnival season,<br />

Trinidad’s sister island maintains its<br />

laid-back, tranquil vibe. Need to<br />

escape from the fetes and frenzy?<br />

Welcome to Tobago’s beaches and<br />

bays, forests and waterfalls <strong>—</strong> a<br />

natural vitamin shot for the soul<br />

94 Neighbourhood<br />

Gustavia, St Barthélemy<br />

The picturesque capital of St Barts<br />

took a beating during Hurricane Irma<br />

<strong>—</strong> but was soon ready to welcome<br />

visitors again, to enjoy its Gallic<br />

charms with a Scandinavian twist<br />

96 round trip<br />

Art in the open<br />

Year-round, across the <strong>Caribbean</strong>,<br />

you can experience art in the street,<br />

in public spaces, out in the open <strong>—</strong><br />

no need to buy a museum ticket.<br />

Here are murals, monuments, and<br />

even an impromptu art gallery in<br />

Port-au-Prince<br />

ENGAGE<br />

106 green<br />

what follows the storm<br />

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria<br />

devastated Dominica’s houses,<br />

businesses, and infrastructure. But the<br />

10 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


<strong>Caribbean</strong><strong>Beat</strong><br />

An MEP publication<br />

96<br />

Editor Nicholas Laughlin<br />

General manager Halcyon Salazar<br />

Design artists Kevon Webster & Bridget van Dongen<br />

Web editor Caroline Taylor<br />

Editorial assistant Shelly-Ann Inniss<br />

Business Development Manager,<br />

Tobago and International<br />

Evelyn Chung<br />

T: (868) 684 4409<br />

E: evelyn@meppublishers.com<br />

Business Development<br />

Representative, Trinidad<br />

Mark-Jason Ramesar<br />

T: (868) 775-6110<br />

E: mark@meppublishers.com<br />

storm also took a toll on the Nature<br />

Isle’s forests and wildlife <strong>—</strong> a major<br />

blow for an economy that depends on<br />

eco-tourism. Paul Crask reports<br />

Business Development Manager<br />

Yuri Chin Choy<br />

T: (868) 460 0068, 622 3821<br />

E: yuri@meppublishers.com<br />

108the deal<br />

Seaweed for sale<br />

For St Lucian Johanan Dujon,<br />

sargassum-covered beaches are’t just a<br />

problem <strong>—</strong> they’re an opportunity. As<br />

Erline Andrews learns, Dujon has his<br />

eye on a regional market for his Algas<br />

Organics line of fertilisers<br />

110 On this day<br />

A distant light<br />

A small speck of land at the northern<br />

end of the Leewards, Sombrero<br />

Island is known to few <strong>—</strong> but has a<br />

surprisngly colourful history. James<br />

Ferguson tells tales of shipwrecks,<br />

guano mines, and the 150-year-old<br />

lighthouse that saved countless sailors’<br />

lives in the dangerous Anegada<br />

Passage<br />

112 puzzles<br />

Enjoy our crossword, sudoku, and<br />

other brain-teasers!<br />

Media & Editorial Projects Ltd.<br />

6 Prospect Avenue, Maraval, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago<br />

T: (868) 622 3821/5813/6138 • F: (868) 628 0639<br />

E: caribbean-beat@meppublishers.com<br />

Website: www.meppublishers.com<br />

Read and save issues of <strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Beat</strong> on your smartphone,<br />

tablet, computer, and favourite digital devices!<br />

Printed by Solo Printing Inc., Miami, Florida<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Beat</strong> is published six times a year for <strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines by Media & Editorial Projects Ltd. It is also available on<br />

subscription. Copyright © <strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines <strong>2018</strong>. All rights reserved. ISSN 1680–6158. No part of this magazine may be<br />

reproduced in any form whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. MEP accepts no responsibility for<br />

content supplied by our advertisers. The views of the advertisers are theirs and do not represent MEP in any way.<br />

Website: www.caribbean-airlines.com<br />

118 onboard entertainment<br />

Music and movies to keep you busy<br />

in the air<br />

120 parting shot<br />

On Union Island, colourful produce<br />

makes a still life of a vendor‘s stall<br />

The <strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines logo shows a hummingbird in flight. Native to the <strong>Caribbean</strong>, the hummingbird represents<br />

flight, travel, vibrancy, and colour. It encompasses the spirit of both the region and <strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines.<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 11


Cover Stephanie Kanhai<br />

of the Touch D Sky moko<br />

jumbie group on the road<br />

at T&T’s Carnival 2017<br />

Photo Maria Nunes<br />

This issue’s contributors include:<br />

Born in Britain and resident in Dominica since<br />

2005, Paul Crask (“What follows the storm”, page<br />

106) is an independent writer, photographer, and<br />

magazine publisher. He is the author of two Bradt<br />

travel guides and the creator of Dominica Traveller<br />

magazine: www.dominicatraveller.com.<br />

Ray Funk (“Walk tall”, page 42) is a mostly retired<br />

Alaskan trial judge who has been passionately<br />

researching Trinidad Carnival arts for two decades.<br />

He writes regularly for the Trinidad Guardian.<br />

Barbara Jenkins (“Pan jumbie”, page 26) immerses<br />

herself in reading and writing, visiting children and<br />

grandchildren, cooking, tending weeds, and in the<br />

calm citrine waters of Macqueripe Bay. Her novel De<br />

Rightest Place will be published in <strong>2018</strong>.<br />

Mark Lyndersay (“How to win the road”, page 55)<br />

is a Trinidadian photographer and journalist. His<br />

BitDepth is the longest running newspaper column<br />

reporting on technology in the country.<br />

Kellie Magnus (“Superhero moves”, page 34) is a<br />

Jamaican author who writes primarily for children.<br />

She also runs the Jamaica Safer Communities<br />

Programme for Fight for Peace International,<br />

an NGO that uses martial arts combined with<br />

education to realise the potential of young people<br />

in communities affected by violence.<br />

Attillah Springer (“How to win the road” page 55)<br />

is a Trinidad-born writer, DJ, and flag woman. She<br />

is one of the conveners of Say Something, a media<br />

advocacy group working on issues of gender-based<br />

violence, and a director of Idakeda, a collective of<br />

women in her family creating cultural interventions<br />

for social change.<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 13


A MESSAGE From OUR CEO<br />

HELLO CARIBBEAN!<br />

delpixel/shutterstock.com<br />

Havana, Cuba <strong>—</strong> <strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines’<br />

newest destination<br />

Hello <strong>Caribbean</strong>, and Happy New Year!<br />

I am delighted to have joined <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

Airlines at the end of 2017. Leading this<br />

passionate team inspires me, as I see<br />

our tremendous potential to connect the<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> and beyond. As a company,<br />

we are looking forward to executing<br />

the transformation that the airline must<br />

embrace to compete successfully.<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines is an authentic<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> airline, and we provide a<br />

genuine <strong>Caribbean</strong> experience on all our<br />

services. Our professional teams offer<br />

you the warmth of the islands both on<br />

and off the aircraft, and we will continue<br />

to share <strong>Caribbean</strong> culture and energy<br />

with you.<br />

As the airline which knows the region<br />

best, our vision is to connect the <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

by sharing more of it with you,<br />

and to bring our beautiful islands closer<br />

together. The airline business is about<br />

providing the service that our customers<br />

want, and we have listened to your<br />

feedback. Based on what you have told<br />

us, our campaign to connect the region<br />

more closely begins on 13 <strong>January</strong>, with<br />

the launch of service to Havana, Cuba,<br />

our twentieth destination.<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines will fly twice<br />

weekly from Piarco International Airport<br />

in Trinidad, every Tuesday and Saturday,<br />

with easy connections to and from<br />

Barbados, Grenada, and Guyana. Now<br />

business, leisure, and other travellers<br />

can easily connect to Cuba and enjoy<br />

all that this charming country offers.<br />

Cuba is the <strong>Caribbean</strong>’s largest<br />

island. It is rich in history and culture, with<br />

a captivating mystique. Vintage cars still<br />

cruise the streets, and the beautiful old<br />

buildings of Cuba’s colonial cities evoke<br />

the feel of a country frozen in time. The<br />

island is almost eight hundred miles from<br />

end to end, and it abounds in natural<br />

beauty, with some of the <strong>Caribbean</strong>’s<br />

most dazzling beaches. Cuba’s depth<br />

and diversity make it one of the world’s<br />

most fascinating countries.<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines is also looking<br />

inward, with a laser focus on customer<br />

experience and a view to growing our<br />

business. To enhance our commercial<br />

planning, we will concentrate on<br />

research, route development, and<br />

developing a schedule based on your<br />

needs. You can look forward to new and<br />

exciting developments in key areas as<br />

<strong>2018</strong> unfolds.<br />

<strong>January</strong> and <strong>February</strong> are busy<br />

months in the <strong>Caribbean</strong>, and you<br />

can fly with us to many of the events<br />

taking place. The Mustique Blues Festival<br />

runs from 25 to 31 <strong>January</strong>, at an<br />

exclusive venue overlooking the majestic<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Sea. You can fly with us<br />

to St Vincent and connect from there.<br />

Grenada Sailing Week takes place<br />

from 29 <strong>January</strong> to 3 <strong>February</strong>: this<br />

regatta is becoming increasingly popular,<br />

and is now a signature event on the<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> calendar.<br />

Other events include the Holetown<br />

Festival in Barbados (11 to 18<br />

<strong>February</strong>) and Mashramani in Guyana<br />

(23 <strong>February</strong>), which is billed as the<br />

most colourful festival of the year<br />

and celebrates Guyana’s becoming a<br />

Republic on 23 <strong>February</strong>, 1970. With<br />

several daily flights to and from Guyana,<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines will certainly get you<br />

there! You can see a detailed <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

calendar in the Datebook section of this<br />

magazine. Please take a copy home<br />

with you, with our compliments.<br />

At <strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines, it is our<br />

privilege to serve you. Please visit our<br />

website at www.caribbean-airlines.<br />

com; become a fan by liking us on<br />

Facebook at www.facebook.com/<br />

caribbeanairlines; and follow us on<br />

Twitter and Instagram @iflycaribbean.<br />

Best wishes to you and your families<br />

for <strong>2018</strong>!<br />

Garvin Medera<br />

Chief Executive Officer<br />

14 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


datebook<br />

Your guide to <strong>Caribbean</strong> events in <strong>January</strong> and <strong>February</strong>, from<br />

Junkanoo in the Bahamas to Carnival across the region<br />

Don’t miss . . .<br />

Carnival<br />

11 to 14 <strong>February</strong><br />

Martinique<br />

Colour, spontaneity, extravagance, and<br />

wild energy jam through Carnival parade<br />

routes across the French <strong>Caribbean</strong>,<br />

following weeks of events leading up<br />

to the big masquerade. Biguine music,<br />

creole dance moves, and general antics<br />

will put a spring in your step.<br />

T photography/shutterstock.com<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 19


datebook<br />

If you’re in . . .<br />

JAMAICA<br />

MIAMI<br />

St Lucia<br />

PAUL ATKINSON/shutterstock.com<br />

Accompong Festival<br />

6 <strong>January</strong><br />

Marcus Garvey said “a people without<br />

the knowledge of their past history,<br />

origin, and culture is like a tree<br />

without roots.” That isn’t the case<br />

below the wide-spreading Kindah<br />

Tree in Accompong, the headquarters<br />

of the Maroon community in<br />

St Elizabeth, Jamaica. Every year,<br />

hundreds of Maroons and non-<br />

Maroons gather to observe their<br />

independence from the British, and<br />

the honoured Kindah Tree is the main<br />

stage. Storytelling and traditional<br />

dances go down under this sacred<br />

mango tree <strong>—</strong> a symbol of unity.<br />

Before 1739, Captain Cudjoe, the<br />

fierce Maroon leader, held important<br />

meetings and ceremonies there.<br />

Today, in the spirit of<br />

remembrance, the abeng horn <strong>—</strong><br />

once used for communication among<br />

isolated settlements <strong>—</strong> is blown to<br />

commence the festivities. Women<br />

chant and men beat the drums in<br />

procession towards the tree. Prepare<br />

for libations of white rum flicked<br />

into the crowd, to fend off evil spirits<br />

and bring luck. But what good is a<br />

rum shower without food? To end<br />

the ceremony, the crowd gathers for<br />

a meal of unsalted and unseasoned<br />

pork with yams. And, of course, a<br />

sound-system party that continues<br />

until dawn.<br />

holbox/shutterstock.com<br />

Art Deco Weekend<br />

12 to 14 <strong>January</strong><br />

artdecoweekend.com<br />

In downtown Miami, skyscrapers<br />

embrace the horizon, and<br />

architectural elements from various<br />

cultural influences abound. But if you<br />

appreciate the historical phenomenon<br />

of Art Deco, head over the bay to<br />

Miami Beach, which boasts one of the<br />

world’s most celebrated collections<br />

of Art Deco buildings <strong>—</strong> described<br />

as a “modern take on neoclassical,<br />

one that is equally historic, retro,<br />

and fabulous.” Over eight hundred<br />

structures built between 1923 and<br />

1943 make up the Miami Beach Art<br />

Deco Historic District <strong>—</strong> including a<br />

row of lavishly refurbished, rainbowhued<br />

hotels with prime views of the<br />

Atlantic.<br />

And even if you’re not into the<br />

architecture, but just want to shake a<br />

leg and be entertained, the Miami Art<br />

Deco Weekend programme will keep<br />

you on your feet.<br />

“Art Deco Around the World” is<br />

the <strong>2018</strong> festival’s theme, and over<br />

150,000 people will be on Ocean<br />

Drive in Miami Beach for educational<br />

events organised by the Miami<br />

Design Preservation League. There’s<br />

something for everyone <strong>—</strong> theatre<br />

shows, Hollywood movie tours, classic<br />

car shows, dog shows, fashion shows,<br />

culinary delights, and activities for<br />

children. Arrive early, as many of the<br />

events are free.<br />

Nobel Laureate Festival<br />

Last two weeks of <strong>January</strong><br />

Venues around St Lucia<br />

Hear ye, hear ye, all devoted<br />

followers of <strong>Caribbean</strong> literature:<br />

St Lucia’s highly anticipated Nobel<br />

Laureates Festival has returned, and<br />

as usual it coincides with the shared<br />

birthdate of St Lucia’s two luminaries:<br />

Sir Arthur Lewis and Sir Derek<br />

Walcott. In 1979, Lewis won the<br />

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics,<br />

while Walcott received his Nobel<br />

Prize in Literature in 1992. A year<br />

later, a captivating and prestigious<br />

festival celebrating the achievements<br />

of these achievers was launched, and<br />

has been a significant literary affair<br />

in St Lucia’s calendar ever since.<br />

Music, theatre, and visual arts<br />

events always feature on the<br />

programme, with distinguished<br />

lectures dedicated to Lewis and<br />

Walcott being popular highlights.<br />

Academics and cultural luminaries<br />

such as the late Professor Rex<br />

Nettleford from Jamaica, Barbadian<br />

author George Lamming, Haitian<br />

filmmaker Raoul Peck, and many<br />

others have delivered the featured<br />

address at the annual lectures <strong>—</strong><br />

impressing audiences and forming<br />

loyal returnees. This is the first year<br />

of the festival since Walcott’s death in<br />

2017. Expect the organisers to pull out<br />

all the stops.<br />

Event previews by Shelly-Ann Inniss<br />

courtesy farrar, straus and giroux<br />

20 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


@eldoradorums<br />

eldorado_rum<br />

@eldoradorums


datebook<br />

Jump into <strong>January</strong><br />

New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade<br />

Downtown Nassau, Bahamas<br />

bahamas.com<br />

Join the “rush” as large groups parade along<br />

Bay Street in Nassau with elaborate costumes,<br />

dances, horns, bells, and whistles<br />

[1 to 2]<br />

jo Crebbin/shutterstock.com<br />

The Next Stage Theatre Festival<br />

Venues around Toronto, Canada<br />

fringetoronto.com<br />

The best of the fringe festival performers<br />

return to the Factory Theatre, giving<br />

new life to hit shows and artists from<br />

previous years<br />

[3 to 14]<br />

30 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15<br />

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31<br />

22 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


courtesy bequia mount gay music fest<br />

Bequia Mount Gay Music Fest<br />

Venues around Bequia<br />

bequiamusicfestival.com<br />

The most anticipated music festival on<br />

the island is back, featuring a thrilling<br />

lineup making you groove to the<br />

blues in a cozy, intimate atmosphere<br />

[18 to 21]<br />

Cayman Cookout<br />

Venues around Grand Cayman<br />

visitcaymanislands.com<br />

Tastings, tours, dinners, pairings,<br />

and unique epicurean experiences<br />

in a relaxed setting of fun,<br />

friendship, and barefoot elegance<br />

[10 to 14]<br />

Port-au-Prince Half Marathon<br />

Haiti<br />

lghmarathon.org<br />

Shoe drives, fitness expos <strong>—</strong> and, of<br />

course, marathon day <strong>—</strong> unite runners<br />

from over sixteen countries in the<br />

Haitian capital<br />

[20 to 25]<br />

KSK Imaging/shutterstock.com<br />

30 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15<br />

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 23


datebook<br />

<strong>February</strong> fever<br />

Mashramani<br />

Venues around Georgetown, Guyana<br />

Guyana’s rich cultural heritage and<br />

diversity are celebrated on a grand scale<br />

by people from all walks of life<br />

[30 Jan to 23 Feb]<br />

DigiClicks/istock.com<br />

Antigua Superyacht Challenge<br />

Off the coast of Antigua<br />

yachtcharterfleet.com<br />

Excitement and unpredictability are in the air, as incredible<br />

yachts vie in four daily races along Antigua’s south coast<br />

[31 Jan to 4 Feb]<br />

Started 30 <strong>January</strong><br />

Havana International<br />

Book Fair<br />

Havana, Cuba<br />

Authors, publishers, and avid<br />

readers gather for an exciting<br />

festival of poetry, readings, art<br />

exhibitions, and concerts<br />

[1 to 11]<br />

3 14 15<br />

30 31 30 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15<br />

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24 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Admiral’s Cup Pro-Am Golf Tournament<br />

Golf courses in St Kitts<br />

golfstkittsandnevis.com<br />

A PGA club professional and three amateurs pair<br />

up to compete against other teams from golf clubs<br />

across the US, Canada, UK, and the <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

[3 to 8]<br />

COURTESY angostura<br />

KaiMook Studio 99/shutterstock.com<br />

Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge<br />

Trinidad<br />

angosturaglobalcocktailchallenge.com<br />

The world’s best bartenders compete to become the House<br />

of Angostura’s next global ambassador. Skills, charm,<br />

cocktail knowledge, and unbridled talent will be on show<br />

[11]<br />

30 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14<br />

12 13 14 15<br />

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3<br />

29 30<br />

31<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 25


word of mouth<br />

Dispatches from our correspondents around the <strong>Caribbean</strong> and further afield<br />

Desperadoes, 2016 Panorama<br />

champions , rehearsing for<br />

the finals<br />

Every night I lie down in mih bed<br />

Ah hearing a Bass Man in mih head.<br />

<strong>—</strong> The Mighty Shadow<br />

maria nunes<br />

Pan jumbie<br />

In T&T, Carnival is the season of<br />

steelpan music, and the truest<br />

devotees <strong>—</strong> like Barbara Jenkins<br />

<strong>—</strong> haunt the panyards in the<br />

weeks before the Panorama<br />

competition<br />

A<br />

bassman. A woman on the<br />

bass. Tenor man, double<br />

seconds woman, guitar-pan<br />

man, cello-pan woman. Engine room.<br />

Haunting you, pan jumbie, when you lie<br />

down in your bed, in those last weeks<br />

before Carnival.<br />

Christmas come. You not taking<br />

that on. Itching for New Year’s to hurry<br />

up. Because. Next is Epiphany. Feast of<br />

Kings. The royalty of your music world<br />

come out to play theyself, and you, into<br />

a frenzied state of distracted joy.<br />

Gillian B quickens to early summons.<br />

You concede a Woodbrook<br />

childhood might have some benefit.<br />

“Belmont You” already take win for<br />

Ken Morris, Jason Griffith, Harold<br />

Saldenah, Dixieland, Burrokeets,<br />

Wayne Berkeley, Wendell Manwarren,<br />

David Rudder . . .<br />

She, camel shawl and Egyptian hat<br />

<strong>—</strong> 22 degrees Celsius is winter here <strong>—</strong><br />

and you, off to Phase II. Park easy on the narrow gap between<br />

modest houses and upscale towers. Next week, week after, is<br />

way-way down Taylor Street. Walk slow. The ground don’t<br />

remember your foot yet. You hearing something. Ting. Ting.<br />

Careful, hesitant notes. Floating beyond. Speed up now. Take<br />

sharp right.<br />

Before you, a shallow basin. Staid Fatima College, looming<br />

One Woodbrook Place frame distant views of Fort George,<br />

Cumberland Hill, Lady Chancellor. Metal pan racks lie scattered.<br />

Banners bearing the faded name of last year’s tune.<br />

Panyard low buzz. Sprinkle of people. The season early still.<br />

You here for the feeling, the vibe <strong>—</strong> confirmation that you<br />

reach where you supposed to be.<br />

Gillian taking a mental roll call. Look Mackie. Shortsleeved<br />

shirt, short pants, polished sockless loafers,<br />

backwards baseball cap. The feller with the walking stick?<br />

Not here yet. Over early weeks, a gradual gathering.<br />

Arrivals noted with nods, brief exchanges, the peculiarly<br />

Trinidadian nonchalant affirmation of a certain class, a<br />

certain generation, who never doubt they belong, be they<br />

foreign-based annual Christmas-to-Carnival returnees or<br />

us, the never-left.<br />

26 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Early pannists already putting down the tune. Stage side<br />

of thirtyish eventually swelling to the Carnival hundred. The<br />

Man, legendary Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, Phase II founder,<br />

composer, arranger, emerges, circulates, greets. You relish<br />

this fleeting time. When practice really begins, the tune<br />

rounding, this gentle energy will be gone. Diluted and distracted,<br />

amplified and augmented.<br />

Natasha will be drilling down the sections, mannersing<br />

them with quiet authority. The Chuckaree boy, the Japanese<br />

girls, the brother and sister, still in primary school, the Couva<br />

girl, wee hours heading home, asleep as head hit pillow, waking<br />

up, doing whole day’s work, coming back, eager to take<br />

on this. You bear witness to one of the most adventurous steel<br />

orchestras rehearsing, shaping a tune from scratch to polish.<br />

“Jump High”. All yours. No questions. No entrance fee. No<br />

secret handshake.<br />

Come next week, week after, this yard, every panyard in the<br />

country, will be brightly lit, bleachers overflowing, bar open,<br />

t-shirts selling, people drifting in and out. Groupies, floaters,<br />

musicologists, sightseers, filmmakers. Cognoscenti and ignoranti<br />

all giving voluble opinion on music choice, arrangement,<br />

level of pannist skill. By the way, where the bearded Alaskan?<br />

Pat Bishop, late great pan icon, used to say that Laventille<br />

would not calm down until her Despers, the Desperadoes<br />

Steel Orchestra, returns home up Laventille Hill. Now<br />

nomadic, its pan racks like clean-picked bones of mastodons,<br />

strewn among razor grass fringing the Foreshore, the band<br />

temporarily lodged where a recently razed historic church<br />

stood. In that hallowed space, Despers builds their visceral<br />

music. Dispossessed, itinerant, defiantly brilliant: sell-out<br />

performances in international concert halls, eleven Panorama<br />

titles, latest 2016, “Different Me”. In the belly of this<br />

kind of rebellious beast, pan was conceived. Fire forging<br />

hammer with steel.<br />

Despers beats pan. Into submission. Music exposing scars.<br />

Telling of pain, insults, prohibitions. Hardship endured and<br />

overcome. Revelling in the triumphs of recognition, acclaim,<br />

the fanatical zeal of community supporters. Turfed out again.<br />

Landowner building a mall. Where to find Despers this year?<br />

Must call Chantal.<br />

Night before Prelims, Behind the Bridge relaxes its<br />

edginess for the season. The navel string of your pan passion<br />

buried in All Stars. The Blonde Terror, riding partner,<br />

squeezes her jeep into bare air near Hell Yard. Humanity<br />

solid in the yard. Crush past Jackie. His sketchbook busy.<br />

Come Lent, you will lust after another of his panyard scenes<br />

<strong>—</strong> players, regulars, bar, food booths, merchandise store,<br />

Laventille Hills backdrop, moonlight softening precariously<br />

perched house clusters. Shove forward. Wedge yourself<br />

between man in muscled merino and woman in shapedefying<br />

leopard-print leggings.<br />

Ping, ping, ping-ping-ping-ping. The “Full Extreme” tsunami<br />

of sound rushes towards you, swallows you alive into its<br />

tossing depths, invades every orifice, every pore. You are the<br />

sound and the sound is you. This is what you live for. Why you<br />

persist in being here. In this complex, crazy, extraordinary<br />

little island.<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 27


word of mouth<br />

At Jouvay, it eh matter if you play yourself<br />

or somebody else.<br />

Play your dead eighty-year-old granny,<br />

who had tongue like scorpion pepper,<br />

two foot like twinned fishtail in Caura River,<br />

a smile like a butterknife cutting through hot sada.<br />

Play your living mother,<br />

who made of more parts glitter than flour,<br />

who teach you softness have more than enough space<br />

to leave a cutlass waiting,<br />

glistening between fat folds,<br />

ready to chop yuh from a bed of ample waist.<br />

Play all the dead and all the living in you,<br />

in yuh shortpants,<br />

in yuh badjohn drawers,<br />

in yuh ragged fishnets and curry-gold battyriders,<br />

in yuh half-top, in yuh no-top,<br />

breasts swinging under electric-tape nipples,<br />

panty forgotten in a culvert overflowing with holy water and hell liquor,<br />

your own perspiration sliding between bodies at play<br />

like the wetness from your body is purgatory-unction.<br />

All the<br />

dead, all<br />

the living<br />

Poet Shivanee Ramlochan<br />

on the mystical, carnal,<br />

pre-dawn ritual that begins<br />

T&T’s Carnival<br />

Illustration by Shalini Seereeram<br />

Play yuhself.<br />

Clay yuhself.<br />

Wine en pointe and wine to the four stations of the cross,<br />

dutty angel,<br />

bragadang badting,<br />

St James soucouyant,<br />

deep bush douen come to town<br />

to make a killing in mud and mudder-in-law<br />

on fresh doubles, after.<br />

Play like you eh playing in your public servant office on Ash Wednesday,<br />

calves aching and twitching in sensible slingback heels,<br />

a pulse in your lower back blossoming<br />

each time you bend down to file a papers,<br />

salute a clerk,<br />

say grace before ashes.<br />

You know where you are, really.<br />

Just how you know the clerk is a chantwell,<br />

the office is a concrete antechamber before the final mas,<br />

the pavement is a busshead-convergence,<br />

the parking lot is a gayelle,<br />

the savannah is a arena where paint and abeer might wash,<br />

but spirit does linger.<br />

You eh waiting til next year.<br />

Where you plant yourself this Jouvay<br />

is where your spectral, midnight lagahoo rattling she coffin,<br />

turning wolf<br />

to woman<br />

to wolf again.<br />

28 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


word of mouth<br />

Shakespeare mas in<br />

Hillsborough<br />

Bard vs bard<br />

Paul Crask visits Carriacou and experiences<br />

the unusual spectacle of Shakespeare mas<br />

On the morning of Shrove Tuesday,<br />

people from two villages on the<br />

diminutive island of Carriacou<br />

set off on foot towards the main town of<br />

Hillsborough. One group meanders down<br />

the hillside from the north, the other from<br />

the south.<br />

Some of the men and boys in the<br />

group are dressed in gaudily patterned<br />

flowing cloaks and pantaloons, costumes<br />

that are vaguely reminiscent of<br />

English medieval court jesters. They also<br />

wear hand-painted face masks and wield<br />

wooden sticks. On their slow journey<br />

to town, they recite passages of Shakespeare’s<br />

verse and drop into roadside<br />

rumshops for a fortifying drink or two.<br />

These incongruous processions are the<br />

start of one of the most unusual cultural<br />

customs of the entire <strong>Caribbean</strong> region,<br />

Carriacou’s Shakespeare mas.<br />

Celebrations begin the day before<br />

at J’Ouvert, the traditional opening<br />

of Carnival. By the time the sun rises,<br />

Hillsborough’s Main Street is jampacked<br />

with revellers. Many arrive over<br />

the preceding weekend from Grenada,<br />

filling the Osprey ferry and mail boat,<br />

then squeezing into any and every free<br />

corner of the island’s budget hotel rooms.<br />

J’Ouvert in Hillsborough is bohemian,<br />

wild, and sometimes downright bizarre.<br />

It’s also great fun.<br />

Covering themselves from top to toe<br />

in thick black engine oil, jab-jabs <strong>—</strong> a<br />

name derived from the French patois<br />

for devil <strong>—</strong> often sport a pair of horns<br />

on their head and are loosely fettered<br />

with chains and shackles. Some jabjabs<br />

carry animal skulls, or drag them<br />

around on ropes or in carts. Others<br />

spend J’Ouvert with a fish or octopus<br />

tentacles held half in, half out of their<br />

mouths. For travellers on the morning<br />

ferry from the luxury resorts of<br />

Grenada, these devilish figures might<br />

create a rather unsettling first impression<br />

of a tranquil little island.<br />

paul crask<br />

In stark contrast to the engine oil,<br />

bright paint in either powder or liquid<br />

form is daubed on face, body, and<br />

clothing, and tossed up into the air with<br />

abandon. The music is loud, the jump-up<br />

is frenzied, and the rum is constantly<br />

flowing. Carriacou is an Amerindian<br />

word meaning “land of reefs,” and<br />

J’Ouvert morning comes to a fitting close<br />

with grilled lobster and fish breakfasts,<br />

all prepared street-side.<br />

Hillsborough is a small coastal town,<br />

and the afternoon costume parade fills<br />

up most of it, by the time it’s completed<br />

a first circuit of the two thoroughfares.<br />

It is a colourful, family occasion that<br />

continues into the evening with spontaneous<br />

singing, drumming, and the<br />

kind of string band performances that<br />

are usually associated with the island’s<br />

traditional boat launching ceremonies.<br />

By lunchtime on Carnival Tuesday,<br />

the two groups of villagers who have<br />

been making their way down to Hillsborough<br />

finally meet on Main Street,<br />

where they face off. Women brandish<br />

sticks, ring bells, and bang on pots.<br />

Then battle commences. In turn, men<br />

from each village square up to each<br />

other, stick in hand, and begin quoting<br />

passages from Julius Caesar. If their<br />

opponent hears a mistake, they receive<br />

the swift blow of a stick. Fired up with<br />

village pride and local rum, the contest<br />

often ends up in a brawl, with sticks and<br />

punches flying.<br />

No one seems to have any firm idea<br />

about how Shakespeare mas came<br />

about, but the most common theory is<br />

that English planters of past centuries<br />

forced it upon their enslaved labourers<br />

as a form of entertainment. Wherever it<br />

came from, it has evolved into a unique<br />

and unusual custom on an island that is<br />

rich in cultural heritage <strong>—</strong> including a<br />

Carnival festival that should be on every<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> traveller’s bucket list.<br />

30 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


word of mouth<br />

Catch a fire<br />

There’s nothing like hearing reggae<br />

music performed live in the island of<br />

its birth, says Nazma Muller <strong>—</strong> and<br />

<strong>February</strong> is the month to celebrate<br />

that cultural heritage<br />

The year was 1995, and the place was Priory, St Ann. It was<br />

the opening night of Reggae Sunsplash, and my life would<br />

be changed forever.<br />

For five nights I listened, spellbound, to the sonic history of<br />

the wild child of music <strong>—</strong> from its birth in the form of mento and<br />

its growth and evolution, through the decades, to become ska,<br />

rocksteady, lovers’ rock, and conscious reggae. Thousands of<br />

devotees, local and foreign, were all united in ecstasy under that<br />

star-studded sky, as the high priests of reggae blessed us with<br />

hit after hit. There is something magical about hearing reggae<br />

performed live in the ganja-perfumed air of Jamaica that cannot<br />

be described or replicated. It’s as if the very trees and sky hum<br />

along with this mystical vibration.<br />

On 24 <strong>January</strong>, 2008, the then governor-general of Jamaica,<br />

Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, read an official proclamation declaring<br />

the month of <strong>February</strong> as Jamaica’s Reggae Month. It was<br />

a signal moment in the history of reggae. The time had come<br />

to analyse and reflect on what reggae had done globally and<br />

for Jamaica, and for the island that gave the world this most<br />

beautiful sound to celebrate its pioneers and progenitors. And<br />

peeterv/istock.com<br />

<strong>February</strong> was the ideal month, as two of Jamaica’s<br />

most revered musical sons <strong>—</strong> Dennis Brown, the<br />

Crown Prince of Reggae, and Bob Marley, the<br />

undisputed King <strong>—</strong> were born on 1 and 6 <strong>February</strong>,<br />

respectively.<br />

Jamaica’s Ministry of Culture has led the way in<br />

marketing Reggae Month and making it an international<br />

phenomenon. Activities in that inaugural<br />

year, a decade ago, included the hosting of the<br />

Reggae Academy Awards, the Bob Marley Photographic<br />

Exhibition, an Africa Unite/Smile Jamaica<br />

Youth Symposium, the first annual Bob Marley<br />

Lecture, an African Film Festival, a Reggae Film<br />

Festival, the annual Irie FM Reggae Music Awards,<br />

and the Bob Marley Creative Expression Day.<br />

In 2009, under the theme “Reggae to Di Worl,”<br />

an NGO called the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association<br />

(JaRIA) was given the task of coordinating<br />

events and activities for Reggae Month. That<br />

year, eleven of Jamaica’s music veterans were<br />

honoured and celebrated for their contributions,<br />

including Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation<br />

of Rastafari, who were given a Lifetime Achievement<br />

Award. Pam Hall and Dennis Brown were<br />

also honoured. Other legends celebrated over the<br />

years include John Holt, Gregory Isaacs, Nadine<br />

Sutherland, George Nooks, Sugar Minott, Ernie<br />

Smith, Pablo Moses, and the Heptones.<br />

The Reggae Month Committee has always<br />

emphasised the importance of the reggae music<br />

industry to Jamaica’s economy. Education is<br />

crucial also: every year the committee organises<br />

symposia for high school students in collaboration<br />

with the Bob Marley Foundation and the Jamaica<br />

Cultural Development Commission, to improve<br />

public awareness about the island’s musical<br />

heritage. The committee also works with the Ministry of Education<br />

to host seminars with fifth- and sixth-formers to educate<br />

them about career opportunities available in music, and for<br />

musicians and stakeholders to learn where reggae music fits into<br />

the global music industry.<br />

Most Reggae Month activities are free. And the proceeds of<br />

events with admission fees go towards buying musical instruments<br />

for schools, supporting industry players, and setting up a<br />

music industry foundation. As Reggae Month hits the ten-year<br />

milestone, the <strong>2018</strong> programme <strong>—</strong> its details being confirmed<br />

as this magazine went to press <strong>—</strong> promises to be spectacular,<br />

with the Jamaica Tourist Board and the Ministry of Culture<br />

adding their strength to a planned mega-event, which will no<br />

doubt bring together some of the biggest names in reggae. And<br />

maybe some lucky person in the audience will find her life being<br />

changed <strong>—</strong> as mine was, all those years ago. n<br />

For updates on the <strong>2018</strong> Reggae Month programme,<br />

visit www.jariajamaicamusic.com<br />

32 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


The game<br />

Superhero<br />

MOVES<br />

Jamaican taekwondo champ Akino Lindsay channels the Power<br />

Rangers to change his life and inspire youth in Kingston’s<br />

toughest communities. Kellie Magnus finds out more<br />

Photo by Nickii Kane<br />

“<br />

Who<br />

doesn’t want to be a superhero?”<br />

Akino Lindsay, the reigning<br />

International Sport Kickboxing<br />

Association (ISKA) World Champion,<br />

is defending his love for the<br />

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.<br />

“That show had me. I liked the suits, the fighting, the action.<br />

Everything they did was so cool. I wanted to be the black Power<br />

Ranger.”<br />

The twenty-one-year-old’s love for the TV show may not<br />

be surprising, given its popularity in 1990s Jamaica. The liveaction<br />

superhero series was in heavy rotation, featuring a team<br />

of teenagers with the ability to morph into Power Rangers with<br />

superhuman capabilities.<br />

For Lindsay, the show had a special place in an otherwise<br />

challenging childhood. He grew up in Drewsland, an economically<br />

disadvantaged area in Kingston, where his mother raised<br />

him and his siblings on her own, after his father was killed<br />

violently when Lindsay was only five years old.<br />

“Drewsland wasn’t a place for kids,” says Lindsay. “It was<br />

where my father died, and that put me in a constant state of<br />

unease. I acted out a lot and got into a lot of trouble. Taekwondo<br />

literally saved my life. If I hadn’t started taekwondo, I’d be dead<br />

or in prison.”<br />

The transition from watching small-screen action to participating<br />

in real-life martial arts happened when taekwondo<br />

was introduced at his high school, St George’s College. Initially<br />

attracted to the flips and kicks he’d seen on television, Lindsay<br />

fell in love with the sport’s discipline and camaraderie, and<br />

found in its competitive environment a safe channel for his<br />

energy, anger, and resentment.<br />

“Taekwondo is a way of life,” says Lindsay. “The thrill of competition<br />

pushes me. I want to go all out and give one hundred per<br />

cent. If somebody does something better than me, I want to do<br />

it ten times better.”<br />

There were other moments off the mat that cemented his love<br />

for the sport. “The best experience I’ve ever had in taekwondo<br />

was when my first coach, ‘Sir’ Herbert Stewart, carried me out<br />

for my birthday. He kept calling me son, and that felt good to<br />

me. I had a male figure in my life looking out for me, and I felt<br />

well blessed.”<br />

From his first competition at age seventeen <strong>—</strong> which<br />

resulted in a loss he describes as spectacular <strong>—</strong> Lindsay has<br />

rolled out an impressive string of performances at the national,<br />

regional, and international level. He holds the 2017 ISKA<br />

World Champion title, which he first won in 2015. Last year,<br />

he also won the Jamaica Taekwondo National Invitational<br />

and placed second in the US Open ISKA World Martial Arts<br />

Championship. He’s won gold and silver, respectively, at the<br />

2014 and 2016 Pan American Championships, and was the<br />

2014 International Taekwondo Federation World Champion.<br />

He trains in both the International Taekwondo Federation and<br />

World Taekwondo Federation disciplines, and enters nearly a<br />

“If I’m doing something, I want to<br />

take it all the way”<br />

dozen local and international championships each year.<br />

Lindsay competes in both light contact continuous sparring<br />

and point sparring categories, with a competition schedule that<br />

can include three or more fights a day for consecutive days.<br />

“As an athlete, Akino is very dedicated,” says Michael Rose,<br />

taekwondo black-stripe and long-time friend. “In sparring, he’s<br />

always excited. I try to emulate him and learn from him.<br />

“As a fan, if you’ve ever seen him fight, you’d want to do taekwondo,”<br />

Rose continues. “It’s exciting, dramatic, over the top.<br />

It’s like watching the Power Rangers. The techniques you’d see<br />

in the movies are the things he executes. He does all the moves<br />

that aren’t easy to do, and makes it look fun.”<br />

34 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Five questions for Akino Lindsay<br />

What’s your superhero name?<br />

Shringo, my alter ego. Shringo can block out all<br />

tiredness and pain. But so far I haven’t needed<br />

him to show up yet.<br />

What are your favourite moves?<br />

A tie. Tornado kick (360-degree turning kick):<br />

it’s really cool when you execute it properly.<br />

Reverse turning kick: it’s really hard, but if you<br />

do it properly you can counter most kicks.<br />

What do you do for fun?<br />

Play Pokemon GO, text my girlfriend, play<br />

football.<br />

What’s your training routine?<br />

Taekwondo training for four hours a day, four<br />

days a week. Run once a week.<br />

And your biggest fears?<br />

Planes, elevators, getting old, flying<br />

cockroaches, and getting kicked in the teeth.<br />

Lindsay’s ultimate prize is Olympic gold. “If I’m doing<br />

something, I want to take it all the way,” he says. “It would be<br />

huge for Jamaica.” Kenneth Edwards, who represented Jamaica<br />

in taekwondo in the 2012 Olympics, is the only athlete to do so<br />

to date. Lindsay trains with Edwards on Jamaica’s combined<br />

martial arts team, and is motivated to increase the recognition<br />

of Jamaica’s success in the sport.<br />

But that longstanding dream is now rivalled by a more<br />

personal project: using his skills and talents to transform<br />

the lives of young people in circumstances similar to those<br />

he grew up in. On hiatus from the University of the West Indies<br />

for a year, Lindsay is currently a coach in the Safer Communities<br />

Programme, a multi-partner effort to reduce youth violence in six<br />

volatile communities in Kingston.<br />

The programme is led by Fight for Peace International, a<br />

global NGO that uses boxing and martial arts to transform<br />

young people’s lives. (Full disclosure: I run the Jamaica country<br />

programme.) The SCP communities are<br />

like Drewsland in income levels and levels<br />

of violence, and it’s not hard to see why<br />

Lindsay sees himself in the faces of his<br />

young charges.<br />

“Taekwondo changed my life. It’s<br />

more than the training and the fancy<br />

kicks. Now I see it as a way to help other<br />

people,” he explains. “We’re keeping<br />

children off the street. We’re giving them<br />

a family away from family. My most<br />

important role is to be there for them.”<br />

Lindsay’s dedication as a coach in the SCP earned him a<br />

nomination to the Michael Johnson Young Leaders Course, a<br />

coaching development programme for young coaches around<br />

the world. The programme is now providing funds and coaching<br />

support for Lindsay to develop Math Ninjas, an innovative<br />

approach to integrating math instruction into his taekwondo<br />

lessons, which Lindsay designed when he recognised many of<br />

his young athletes needed help with math.<br />

“I love math and I love taekwondo. I’m fusing the things I<br />

love to solve a big problem in Jamaica. Getting this right is as<br />

important to me now as the Olympics.”<br />

Balancing his commitment to the project with his Olympic<br />

dreams is a challenge, but one that Lindsay is fully ready to take<br />

on. “One thing I’ve learned from ISKA is you always have to find<br />

a way to keep advancing,” he says. The person backing up is the<br />

person losing.<br />

“You never, ever stop fighting.” n<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 35


Bookshelf<br />

The Light in Paint: 50 Years of Watercolours, by Jackie Hinkson<br />

(202 pp, ISBN 9789768244260)<br />

“To get the images I wanted<br />

for this book,” writes Jackie<br />

Hinkson in his acknowledgements,<br />

“I had to borrow,<br />

photograph, and return<br />

scores of paintings.” No<br />

more immediate testament<br />

to Hinkson’s enduring<br />

reputation as a visual artist<br />

need be found. If artists<br />

truly begin to perish when<br />

their paintings fade into<br />

obsolescence, The Light in<br />

Paint proves that Hinkson<br />

is here to stay. These works<br />

adorn staterooms and living<br />

rooms, ampitheatre foyers and art galleries, kitchens and<br />

embassies: they are lived with, observed, pored over. They<br />

are, even in the generous cross-section afforded us in this<br />

book, but a sample of Hinkson’s fifty years of watercolours.<br />

Unsentimental, devoid of florid self-praise, Hinkson<br />

is perhaps well known in T&T circles for getting on with<br />

the business of painting. It is that business on which<br />

this publication trains its<br />

eye: apart from a revelatory<br />

essay by the artist,<br />

and a sensitively wrought<br />

contribution from art historian<br />

and curator Timothy<br />

Wilcox, the book suffuses us<br />

in images.<br />

Ordered both by a basic<br />

chronology of the artist’s<br />

life and by movements in<br />

his career, the pieces in<br />

The Light in Paint command<br />

their own subtle and<br />

magnanimous vocabulary.<br />

That is, they contain in their<br />

depictions of seascapes, Carnivals, still lifes, architecture,<br />

human subjects, and street scenes all they need to make<br />

their multiple meanings seen. No further essays, reviews,<br />

or verbal dissections are required. In washes of colour on<br />

canvas, Hinkson’s The Light in Paint speaks the <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

world to us all: vibrant, versatile, forever moving between<br />

darkness and its radiant opposite.<br />

Grounds for Tenure, by Barbara Lalla<br />

(University of the West Indies Press, 361 pp,<br />

ISBN 9789766406219)<br />

When a mysterious offer of a<br />

post at an offshore Jamaican<br />

campus crops up, Candace<br />

Clarke seizes it. Clinging to<br />

part-time employment at UWI,<br />

St Augustine, has long lost<br />

even a faint shimmer of appeal.<br />

To the non-academic mind, the<br />

halls of campuses and the<br />

trimmed hedges of university<br />

quadrangles seem like paltry<br />

settings for real drama: yet<br />

Grounds for Tenure teems with<br />

intrigue, fascination, and more than a few outlandish<br />

professors. Clarke is the narrative lynchpin in this subtle,<br />

anecdotally seductive novel from Lalla. We do more than<br />

feel for Candace: we are invited to think alongside her.<br />

“What really occupied her thoughts was how it was possible<br />

to word the wind howling Heathcliff’s anguish, and<br />

whether the letters Man-man inscribed on Miguel Street<br />

were a sign of his madness or some part of the cause.”<br />

Into Candace’s mind of novels, nuisances, and novelties<br />

we go, entering a world of vast imaginations and venial<br />

sins, spun in Lalla’s gently magnetic prose.<br />

The Tryst, by Monique Roffey<br />

(Dodo Ink, 198 pp, ISBN 9780993575860)<br />

Chaste and virginal? Beware:<br />

The Tryst might send you<br />

spiralling straight out of your<br />

demure cocoon, with riveting<br />

results. In this new erotic<br />

novel from the winner of<br />

the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize<br />

for <strong>Caribbean</strong> Literature,<br />

the stakes for a passion-dry<br />

marriage’s survival are high.<br />

Britons Bill and Jane pick<br />

up Lilah, a woman cloaked<br />

in intrigue, whose origins<br />

are far more ancient than the couple know. Lilah, a<br />

character study nonpareil in archetypal, predatory<br />

female divinity, captivates in every scene. Roffey draws<br />

her with bold, unapologetic strokes, revelling in Lilah’s<br />

capacity to raze tepid domesticities. Ripe segments of<br />

this novel read as poetic riffs: “In the mirror I sparkled<br />

and radiated evil. I was lit up by all the loving horrors of<br />

my deeds.” The Tryst encircles you at the wrist, leading<br />

you down the garden path of darkly-tinctured pleasure:<br />

this is ferocious fiction, in any genre.<br />

36 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Collected Poems, 1975–2015, by John Robert Lee<br />

(Peepal Tree Press, 212 pp, ISBN 9781845233518)<br />

In “Line”, written for Derek<br />

Walcott, the St Lucian poet John<br />

Robert Lee asks, “When have I<br />

not measured this land by your<br />

lines? When have I not tracked<br />

blue-smoke pits to their riverstone<br />

roots by your metaphor?”<br />

Lee’s Collected Poems assembles<br />

forty years of his own poems<br />

that lead without calamitous<br />

disharmony, with the steadying,<br />

solid weight of attention, to<br />

the land of St Lucia. Everywhere, light pierces darkness,<br />

waters trouble ships and souls, “mythology parses into<br />

facts,” and the verses do their own careful, robustly<br />

considered mapmaking. What Lee invokes for us is both<br />

a devotion to the St Lucian landscape and an ardent<br />

contemplation of what that landscape might resemble,<br />

if we watered it with deeper, stronger loves. Of the<br />

love that exists, Lee also writes words that compel us to<br />

follow: “all that is left us now is careful patience, that<br />

stubborn heart of love, hope, faith, of the ordering line,<br />

of the turning word.”<br />

The Greatest Films: A Poem, by Faizal Deen<br />

(Mawenzi House, 80 pp, ISBN 9781927494837)<br />

A powerful anti-hymnal to cultural<br />

assimilation, The Greatest<br />

Films explores the brown queer<br />

body’s survival in a post-9/11<br />

world. Faizal Deen <strong>—</strong> author<br />

of the first Guyanese LGBTQI<br />

poetry collection, Land Without<br />

Chocolate <strong>—</strong> leaps and vaults in<br />

experimental flourishes while<br />

never succumbing to careless<br />

indulgence. Rather, the work in<br />

The Greatest Films ricochets to<br />

the percussive power of memory: by summoning movies<br />

and songs, Deen gifts us a personal world of rich meaning.<br />

Gliding suggestively and smoothly between real vistas<br />

and reconstituted dreamscapes, these verses are at their<br />

best when they startle, unsettle, and prompt reflection in<br />

the reader. In these worlds of motion and fusion, Edgar<br />

Mittelholzer brushes up against Christopher Isherwood;<br />

“raleigh’s guiana dabbles in alchemy”; roots of boyhood<br />

origin relocate betwixt Guyana, Canada, and India. The<br />

effects are revivifying: here is a long poem unafraid to<br />

bare its bold, revisionist face.<br />

Reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan, Bookshelf editor<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 37


playlist<br />

R.A.W. Angela Hunte (The Hunted Group/<br />

Therapist Music)<br />

Brooklyn-born Angela Hunte<br />

has receded from her Trinidadian<br />

roots, and her recent<br />

inventions and collaborations<br />

with soca, to rediscover<br />

her other <strong>Caribbean</strong> voice as<br />

a reggae songstress. On her<br />

debut solo album R.A.W. <strong>—</strong><br />

an acronym for “reasoning<br />

and words” <strong>—</strong> she uses the<br />

sound of roots reggae, dub music, and rockers to convey<br />

songs of love beyond the traditional pop music schmaltz<br />

that dominates the global charts. As a Grammy-winning<br />

songwriter, Hunte knows how to create a memorable<br />

hook and an earworm that lives beyond a temporary<br />

listen. With lyrics and production values that resonate<br />

with a digital native generation, this album sparkles as<br />

a daring experiment to move <strong>Caribbean</strong> music forwards.<br />

Collaborations with reggae star Tarrus Riley on “King<br />

& Queen” and reggae DJ and producer Taranchyla on<br />

“Rub Dub” give this album both an island vibe and an<br />

urban feel that suggest that it has cross-genre appeal<br />

beyond borders.<br />

Glass World Rudy Smith Quartet (Stunt Records)<br />

Trailblazing steelpan jazz<br />

virtuoso Rudy Smith has<br />

been fusing the sound of<br />

the pan with bebop and<br />

progressive jazz for nearly<br />

fifty years, premiering the<br />

sound of native invention<br />

and “creole imagination” in<br />

the wider world. Europe has<br />

been his stomping ground<br />

for all those years, and with his eleventh full-length<br />

album Smith serves as a bona fide symbol of music<br />

excellence. Glass World finds Smith back fronting his<br />

Danish jazz band, re-inventing the idea of the steelpan<br />

as a solo instrument for jazz without the feeling of it<br />

being too avant garde. “Plangent” was the word used by<br />

a reviewer to describe the sound of the double second<br />

steelpans used by Smith, but a more apt descriptive<br />

would be “euphonious.” That tone juxtaposes beautifully<br />

within the songs, mainly written by his long-time<br />

collaborator and pianist Ole Matthiessen, to serve up a<br />

new standard in a diminishing marketplace for unique<br />

jazz. Traditional jazz is best served with originality, and<br />

this album delivers.<br />

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now available<br />

across T&T,<br />

and online<br />

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38 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Single Spotlight<br />

Plaisance Eddy Grant (Ice Records)<br />

Guyanese singer and songwriter<br />

Eddy Grant returns<br />

to his native “land of many<br />

waters” <strong>—</strong> and specifically his<br />

birthplace village of Plaisance<br />

<strong>—</strong> to contemplate his life<br />

and how that place impacted<br />

his musical and personal<br />

career. The village’s history<br />

highlights the story of its<br />

purchase by sixty-five newly freed Africans in the immediate<br />

post-emancipation period <strong>—</strong> one of the first of several<br />

predominantly African villages in Guyana purchased by<br />

the formerly enslaved with their savings. In this context<br />

of real independence, Plaisance represents a return to<br />

the original unfettered aesthetic of the young Eddy Grant<br />

who successfully blended rock, pop, R&B, and <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

music tropes to carve a pioneering international career.<br />

Using his trademarked Ringbang <strong>—</strong> more an all-inclusive<br />

philosophy than a genre <strong>—</strong> to elucidate this album, the<br />

songs have a directness unparalleled in <strong>Caribbean</strong> songcraft.<br />

The standout track “Now We’re All Together” lets<br />

Grant’s voice dramatically emote the story of overcoming<br />

and homecoming.<br />

Bodyline Olatunji and System32 (self-released)<br />

With a cheeky stride piano<br />

introduction, Olatunji<br />

Yearwood blows the lid off of<br />

what can be expected in soca<br />

this year, as the genre and the<br />

players make a determined<br />

turn in the direction of global<br />

appeal. “Shake your bodyline,<br />

shake your bodyline,”<br />

the lyrical hook, has Olatunji<br />

singing and scatting over it like a Cab Calloway clone or,<br />

more contemporarily, Kid Creole, to drive party folk and<br />

crowds to the dance floor. Producer System32 has made<br />

magic with the vocals that spit rapid-fire wordplay in<br />

pleasing tones. Add the freewheeling jazz aesthetic of a<br />

Cotton Club big band, and we’re in a new chapter in the<br />

continuing fusion exercise that has been soca in search of<br />

the ultimate crossover. A driving rhythm and synth horn<br />

line says soca, but when that clarinet solo comes in near<br />

the end, we know we are onto something big that begins<br />

and ends with a bang. Tadow!<br />

Reviews by Nigel A. Campbell<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 39


SCREENSHOTS<br />

Woodpeckers<br />

Directed by José María Cabral, 2017, 106 minutes<br />

Love literally knows no bounds in Woodpeckers, an inventive,<br />

at times enthralling prison drama from the Dominican<br />

Republic’s José María Cabral. A precocious filmmaker<br />

(he made his first feature at<br />

twenty), Cabral <strong>—</strong> still shy of<br />

thirty <strong>—</strong> achieved notice in<br />

2012 with Check Mate, a slick,<br />

formulaic thriller. Woodpeckers<br />

<strong>—</strong> which has been submitted to<br />

the upcoming Academy Awards<br />

for best foreign-language film<br />

<strong>—</strong> sees him grappling with<br />

more interesting material, and<br />

for the most part wringing<br />

from it successful results.<br />

Inspired by true events, Woodpeckers was shot on location<br />

in adjacent men’s and women’s prisons, a catastrophe<br />

waiting to happen if ever there was one. Julian (Jean<br />

Jean, wiry and compellingly intense) is sent to the men’s<br />

penitentiary after being convicted of a robbery charge.<br />

Here he encounters an astonishing phenomenon: men<br />

communicating with women in the yard across the way<br />

through a form of sign language known as pecker talk,<br />

the men’s hands when grasping the prison bars mimicking<br />

woodpeckers grasping a tree branch.<br />

Deputised by Manaury (Ramón Candelario), a<br />

convicted murderer temporarily in solitary confinement,<br />

Jean Jean quickly learns this unique language of love in<br />

order to trade messages with Manaury’s girlfriend Yanelly<br />

(a fiery Judith Rodríguez, with<br />

a hairstyle to match). It isn’t<br />

long before Jean Jean and<br />

Yanelly are attracted to one<br />

another, and the film must<br />

contrive ways of bringing the<br />

couple into physical contact<br />

with each other. It also isn’t<br />

long before Manaury begins<br />

to suspect something’s amiss,<br />

and the lovers’ idyll is in<br />

jeopardy.<br />

Woodpeckers has a novel core idea, the director dramatising<br />

it with the panache it deserves. The attendant<br />

plotting might still be rather formulaic, but Cabral is able<br />

to create a tragic denouement of almost Shakespearean<br />

proportions. And the crafty final shot will make you want<br />

to watch the film again.<br />

For more information, visit facebook.com/<br />

carpinterosmovie<br />

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami<br />

Directed by Sophie Fiennes, 2017, 115 minutes<br />

Predictable and conventional<br />

are not words<br />

associated with Grace<br />

Jones. Shot over nearly<br />

a decade by British<br />

documentarian Sophie<br />

Fiennes, Bloodlight and<br />

Bami is an engrossing<br />

portrait of the provocative Jamaican disco icon that<br />

is appropriately neither of those things. Not for the<br />

uninitiated, the film forgoes the usual trappings of<br />

the biographical profile (there isn’t a single archival<br />

photograph or bit of file footage), instead presenting<br />

an intimate, vérité-style look at the current life of the<br />

virtually ageless Jones, in locations ranging from Paris to<br />

Jamaica to New York.<br />

The unvarnished observational sequences are punctuated<br />

by polished concert performances, Jones giving<br />

redoubtable renditions of dance-floor anthems like<br />

“Slave to the Rhythm” and “Pull Up to the Bumper”. Yet<br />

it’s in the often-unguarded moments when Jones is out<br />

of the spotlight that the film attains its power, becoming<br />

a witness to her tenacity, vulnerability, and simple,<br />

affecting humanness.<br />

For more information, visit westendfilms.com<br />

The West Indies Gang<br />

Directed by Jean-Claude Barny, 2016, 90 minutes<br />

Based on actual events,<br />

The West Indies Gang<br />

recounts the deeds of<br />

a group of men from<br />

the French Antilles <strong>—</strong><br />

victims of poverty and<br />

racism <strong>—</strong> who robbed a<br />

string of post offices in<br />

Paris in the 1970s. The protagonist, Jimmy (a sympathetic<br />

Djedje Apali), is a single father to a young daughter.<br />

When Jimmy returns to mainland France after obtaining<br />

weapons from a separatist militia in Martinique, the<br />

gang prepares for its final and most ambitious heist, a<br />

bank job.<br />

Sadly, what could have been a bracingly political crime<br />

thriller flounders amid unreconstructed Blaxploitation<br />

tropes (a scene where a woman is savagely beaten is<br />

particularly disturbing) and a literal lack of firepower.<br />

The film also lacks the courage of its anti-colonial convictions,<br />

when at the end an incarcerated Jimmy puzzlingly<br />

declares that “Our struggle isn’t racial, it’s societal.”<br />

For more information, visit facebook.com/<br />

Legangdesantillais<br />

Reviews by Jonathan Ali<br />

40 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Immerse<br />

Ron Burton / hulton archive / getty images<br />

42 Closeup<br />

Walk tall<br />

57 Backstory<br />

How to win the road<br />

72<br />

Own Words<br />

“I’m unfinished’<br />

With ten wins, the late calypsonian Lord KItchener is T&T’s all-time Road March champion


CLOSEUP<br />

With Port of Spain’s Central<br />

Bank towers in the background,<br />

a member of the Keylemanjahro<br />

School of Arts and Culture shows<br />

off his stiltwalking skills<br />

42 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Walk tall<br />

Towering above the crowds,<br />

striding majestically or dancing<br />

in acrobatic defiance of gravity,<br />

moko jumbies are one of the<br />

most impressive sights in T&T’s<br />

Carnival. A performance art<br />

derived from West Africa, moko<br />

jumbies once seemed to be a<br />

dying tradition <strong>—</strong> but, as<br />

Ray Funk explains, the efforts<br />

of an enthusiastic few have<br />

led in recent years to a bona<br />

fide moko jumbie revival, with<br />

hundreds of young people<br />

learning the art of “getting<br />

high” on stilts<br />

Photography by Maria Nunes<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 43


“<br />

Are you coming up?” they ask you at classes and workshops all over<br />

Trinidad. That’s the question <strong>—</strong> are you joining them up on sticks<br />

today, or just watching?<br />

There is a moko jumbie revolution building momentum in T&T,<br />

with growing numbers of young people <strong>—</strong> and some parents <strong>—</strong> learning<br />

the art of stiltwalking behind this traditional Carnival masquerade.<br />

Even as other forms of traditional mas seem in decline, young people are taking to<br />

stilts and striving to touch the sky.<br />

Almost any public event in Trinidad <strong>—</strong> from government ceremonies to corporate promotions<br />

to tourist shows <strong>—</strong> now has at least a couple of moko jumbies. During Carnival,<br />

they join every competition and every parade. In the past decade, creativity in costuming<br />

and growing acrobatic skill have led to more and more enthusiasm from the public.<br />

A moko jumbie needs to perfect a nimble athleticism. Getting and remaining aloft<br />

require constantly shifting weight and attention. A graceful dismount is also a necessary<br />

skill. No wonder the young and limber are drawn to this revelry.<br />

Like the eager participants in #1000mokos, a group formed by artist Joshua Lue<br />

Chee Kong and designer Kriston Chen. Since early 2017, they have met every Sunday<br />

at the Alice Yard arts space in Woodbrook, west Port of Spain. Free classes strive to get<br />

students up and comfortable on sticks, progressing to increasing heights as they leave<br />

the yard and walk through the streets to practice in local parks.<br />

Artist and architect Michael Lee Poy, who works closely with #1000mokos, has<br />

been smitten with the moko jumbie bug for many years, having previously worked<br />

with them in Peter Minshall’s mas band and at the Cleveland Art Museum. Lee<br />

Poy builds all the #1000mokos stilts himself, experimenting with various woods<br />

and different designs and connectors. For him, moko jumbies are not just about<br />

individual athleticism and performing tricks, but about creating new possibilities in<br />

mas narratives.<br />

Members of the #1000mokos<br />

group performing in downtown<br />

Port of Spain<br />

A moko jumbie needs<br />

to perfect a nimble<br />

athleticism. Getting<br />

and remaining aloft<br />

require constantly<br />

shifting weight and<br />

attention<br />

44 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


But these are the newcomers. Other pioneers have been<br />

training moko jumbies for decades, in some of Trinidad’s<br />

poorer communities. In the north, it is Glen de Souza,<br />

better known as Dragon, who in 1986 founded a cultural yard in<br />

Cocorite, west of Port of Spain, to offer local kids a place to come<br />

after school, free from crime and drugs. Initially, Dragon’s focus<br />

was on dancing and drumming, but he soon noticed it was stilts<br />

that got the kids excited. As one parent commented, “The kids<br />

never want to come back to the ground.”<br />

Over the years, Dragon’s Keylemanjahro School of Arts and<br />

Culture has trained thousands, and his yard has become the safe<br />

haven for a generation of young people. Singlehandedly, he is<br />

the person who really paved the way for many others to take the<br />

moko jumbie in different directions.<br />

German photographer Stephan Falke became fascinated with<br />

Dragon’s work in the mid-1990s, and for seven years he travelled<br />

to Trinidad from New York City to document it. The resulting<br />

oversized book, Moko Jumbies: The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad<br />

(2004), is full of stunning colour photos of the young people who<br />

answered Dragon’s call.<br />

Overlapping with Falke’s time, Mexican-American artist<br />

Laura Anderson Barbata spent five years coming to Dragon’s<br />

yard to make costumes and help with the band in various ways.<br />

Singlehandedly, Glen “Dragon”<br />

de Souza is the person who really<br />

paved the way for many others to<br />

take the moko jumbie in different<br />

directions<br />

Prior to her arrival, the band wasn’t able to afford any level of<br />

costuming, and often relied on body paint, especially bright<br />

reds and blues, to stand out at Carnival. Anderson Barbata’s<br />

work with the Keylemanjahro band created stunning narratives<br />

and new possibilities, such as horse jumbies, scarlet ibis, and<br />

portrayals inspired by the Dogon of Mali.<br />

A 2007 documentary by German director Harald Rumpf, Up<br />

and Dancing: The Magical Stilts of Trinidad, features the drama<br />

of young members of Dragon’s group as they struggle against<br />

family challenges to perform for Carnival. Keylemanjahro moko<br />

jumbies have even made an appearance on Sesame Street. All this<br />

outside support added to the exposure and interest in Dragon’s<br />

work and in moko jumbies themselves. Over the years, Dragon<br />

has faced various challenges, but he perseveres.<br />

In south Trinidad, meanwhile, the moko jumbie catalyst is<br />

Junior Bisnath of San Fernando. After receiving some initial<br />

training from Dragon, Bisnath has gone on to train hundreds<br />

himself with his Kaisokah moko jumbie group, running since<br />

1995. Kaisokah has an active small group hired for numerous<br />

corporate or government events. They’ve travelled to St Lucia,<br />

Zimbabwe, the UK, and Panama to perform and train. Bisnath<br />

even took a contingent of moko jumbies to the 2006 FIFA World<br />

Cup competition in Germany, with the Trinidad and Tobago<br />

national team.<br />

Last year, Bisnath set his eyes on a new milestone. The<br />

Guinness Book of World Records includes several stiltwalkers’<br />

exploits. In June 2009, a total of 1,908 participants got on stilts<br />

across the globe, from the US and Canada to Brazil, Russia, and<br />

Macau, to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Cirque<br />

du Soleil. And in 2011, 957 primary students in the Netherlands<br />

46 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


smashed the record for most stiltwalkers to walk one hundred<br />

metres together.<br />

So the Kaisoca crew issued a call throughout Trinidad and<br />

Tobago to beat the record. On Sunday 10 September, 2017, they<br />

assembled over five hundred moko jumbies, including a small<br />

contingent from Grenada, at Skinner Park in San Fernando.<br />

Bisnath hopes to make this gathering an annual event, and<br />

is confident he will break the record soon, given the growing<br />

numbers of children and adults taking classes. He does hold the<br />

record, he believes, for the youngest person on stilts: his son at<br />

eleven months.<br />

Moko jumbies from the Touch D Sky<br />

group join the Canboulay Riots<br />

re-enactment at Piccadilly Greens on<br />

the Friday before Carnival<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 47


Jhawan Thomas portrays Peter Minshall’s<br />

controversial moko jumbie king, The<br />

Dying Swan<br />

In 2012, Kaisokah members Adrian Young<br />

and Jonadiah Gonzales started their own<br />

moko jumbie group, Touch D Sky, based<br />

in their home village of Tarodale. They were<br />

joined by British artist Alan Vaughan, who<br />

had been coming to Trinidad for many years,<br />

and had designed Young’s king costume, The<br />

Crow, for Kaisokah earlier that year, placing<br />

fourth in the national competition. Together,<br />

they wanted to deepen and extend the<br />

traditional masquerade art form. Vaughan’s<br />

designs for the band find their inspiration in<br />

the richness of Afro-Atlantic culture, and have<br />

proven consistently stunning. He believes the<br />

costumes and characters portrayed by the<br />

moko jumbies should reflect each individual’s<br />

athletic agility, and also express an aspect of<br />

their personal qualities.<br />

In 2015, Touch D Sky’s Stephanie Kanhai<br />

won the national Carnival Queen title, the<br />

first moko jumbie ever to do so. Since then,<br />

the band has become a force at Carnival,<br />

relocating in the weeks before the festival to<br />

temporary quarters near the Savannah stage<br />

at Granderson Lab, an arts incubation space<br />

run by the founders of Alice Yard. Individual<br />

Touch D Sky members have increasing<br />

opportunities to perform around T&T and<br />

even internationally. Young also leads and<br />

trains a new youth team, Future Jumbies,<br />

and he, Vaughan, and other members of<br />

the band have gone to teach in St Martin,<br />

Montserrat, and Dominica, to revive and<br />

strengthen the art in those islands.<br />

But perhaps the best known individual<br />

moko jumbie performer in T&T is Jhawhan<br />

Thomas. He was one of those who grew<br />

up spending every day at Dragon’s Keylemanjahro<br />

yard, and eventually helped train<br />

younger kids. He also joined several dance<br />

companies and worked in Peter Minshall’s<br />

mas camp, and later on in designer Brian<br />

Mac Farlane’s studio. In 2007, in what many<br />

consider Mac Farlane’s finest Carnival band,<br />

India, Jhawan portrayed a stunning moko<br />

jumbie elephant. The following year he<br />

48 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


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won the King of Carnival title for Mac Farlane’s band Earth,<br />

with an abstract costume called Pandemic Rage, engineered by<br />

Michael Lee Poy.<br />

Then in 2016, just a few weeks before Carnival, Minshall <strong>—</strong><br />

Trinidad’s most celebrated mas man <strong>—</strong> called on Thomas to<br />

dance a solo moko jumbie king controversially titled The Dying<br />

Swan: Ras Nijinsky in Drag as Pavlova. Minshall had featured<br />

various moko jumbies in past bands, and indeed his 1988 band<br />

was called Jumbie, with both king and queen on stilts. But this<br />

new Carnival king created a storm in the press and social media:<br />

Thomas performed costumed as a ballet dancer, all in white, with<br />

the stilts themselves carved to look like ballet shoes en pointe.<br />

The Dying Swan is considered a turning point in Russian<br />

ballet. It is a short piece about the end of life, choreographed in<br />

1905 for ballerina Anna Pavlova, to a cello solo from composer<br />

Camille Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals. It became her<br />

signature piece, which she performed over four thousand times.<br />

Pavlova’s equally celebrated contemporary, Vaslav Nijinsky, was<br />

never known to have done The Dying Swan.<br />

On stage, Thomas performed ballet moves on stilts, imagining<br />

one of the great male Russian ballet dancers in the most<br />

famous role of one of his female contemporaries, with the<br />

addition of Rastafarian dreads, and the transfer of the music to<br />

steelpan. It was unlike anything ever seen at Trinidad Carnival.<br />

Filmmaker Christopher Laird’s short film of it is a remarkable<br />

record of a tradition turned on its head.<br />

Around the world, stiltwalking has been going on for<br />

thousands of years, and its origins are shrouded in the<br />

mists of history. Stiltwalkers are depicted on ancient<br />

Greek and Pre-Colombian pottery, and reports from Asia and the<br />

Central American Popol Vuh narrative go far back as well. In some<br />

places, stilts were simply an efficient mode of transport, especially<br />

in hilly or swampy terrain. In nineteenth-century France, sheep<br />

herders used them to keep track of their flocks. From these<br />

practical uses, stiltwalking became a standard feature in circuses<br />

and other public entertainments around the globe.<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> moko jumbies are traced to West African roots that<br />

stretch back centuries, brought over the Atlantic in slave ships.<br />

(Or, as some say, the moko jumbies walked across the Atlantic<br />

following the ships.) The masquerade’s<br />

very name has West African origins.<br />

Scholar Robert Nichols has recorded the<br />

history of moko jumbies across Africa,<br />

largely in sacred functions, often secret<br />

societies. They were completely covered<br />

in masks, hats, and gloves, so their identities<br />

remained hidden.<br />

Stiltwalking has<br />

been going on for<br />

thousands of years,<br />

and its origins are<br />

shrouded in the mists<br />

of history<br />

Touch D Sky moko jumbies heading<br />

through Belmont to the Queen’s Park<br />

Savannah<br />

50 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


A moko jumbie from the Kaisokah group<br />

shows off on Port of Spain’s Ariapita<br />

Avenue<br />

There are historical reports of moko jumbies<br />

throughout the <strong>Caribbean</strong>, and they survive in<br />

limited numbers in many countries. Nichols<br />

reports the earliest known <strong>Caribbean</strong> reference<br />

at a 1791 Christmas event with “a masked moko<br />

jumbie roaming the streets accompanied by<br />

musicians.” In Trinidad, John Cowley notes<br />

a newspaper report from the 1890s of stilt<br />

dancers stalking “through the streets to the<br />

strains of drum and fife.” In 1956, Dan Crowley<br />

described Trinidad moko jumbies as having<br />

brightly painted skirts and satin or velvet jackets,<br />

and peaked hats with feathers <strong>—</strong> but they<br />

were “virtually extinct.” And Trinidad’s great<br />

dancer and choreographer Geoffrey Holder,<br />

who used moko jumbies in his 1978 Broadway<br />

musical Timbuktu, recalled: “I will never forget,<br />

as a child, being frightened and awed by these<br />

gigantic, masked spectres wandering the<br />

streets after the parade.”<br />

In many parts of the <strong>Caribbean</strong>, moko<br />

jumbies survive primarily as part of folklore<br />

Moko jumbies to<br />

the world<br />

Like many other element of culture, moko jumbies have followed<br />

the T&T diaspora around the world. In New York City, a<br />

few individuals and small groups have performed at Labour Day<br />

Carnival and related events for decades. In recent years, the primary<br />

band has been the Brooklyn Jumbies formed in the 1990s<br />

by Ali Sylvester, inspired by Dragon in Trinidad, and working<br />

with Najja Codrington from Barbados, who had gone to Senegal<br />

for moko jumbie training. The Brooklyn Jumbies worked hard to<br />

develop a batch of dancers from all over the <strong>Caribbean</strong> diaspora.<br />

Now that Sylvester has moved to Orlando, Florida, he’s starting<br />

a new troupe there. They explore both African and <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

traditions, and have performed and trained in Singapore, Japan,<br />

China, the UK, and Costa Rica. Not long ago, a contingent went<br />

with the Something Positive dance troupe to Morocco.<br />

Laura Anderson Barbata, after her experience in Trinidad,<br />

sought out the Brooklyn Jumbies, and has been working closely<br />

with them in a series of projects that have taken them beyond the<br />

NYC West Indian community. In 2007, Anderson Barbata launched<br />

the exhibition Jumbie Camp at an art gallery in<br />

Chelsea in Manhattan. Moko jumbie costumes<br />

were transformed into sculptures for the show,<br />

and the Brooklyn Jumbies paraded on the nearby streets.<br />

The following year, Anderson Barbata and Najja Codrington<br />

of the Brooklyn Jumbies went to Oaxaca, Mexico, where they<br />

connected with a traditional stiltwalking group there, Los Zancudos<br />

de Zaachila. In 2011, when the Occupy Wall Street protests<br />

were at their height, Anderson Barbata staged her Intervention:<br />

Wall Street, for which she created giant oversize business suits<br />

for the Brooklyn Jumbies. Together they rambled through New<br />

York’s Financial District handing out gold-foil-covered chocolate<br />

coins, drawing worldwide press attention.<br />

Another recent project in September 2016, Anderson<br />

Barbata’s Intervention Indigo was a Carnival-style performance<br />

that combined dance, music, costuming, procession, and protest.<br />

Moko jumbies hit the streets of the Bushwick neighbourhood<br />

of Brooklyn dressed in traditional indigo-dyed fabric, echoing<br />

African traditions from the Dogon culture. Anderson Barbata has<br />

also worked closely with choreographer Chris Walker at the University<br />

of Wisconsin, who had a number of solo pieces on stilts at<br />

his October 2017 show Unmasked.<br />

San Fernando’s Kaisokah also has a US branch, founded by<br />

Trinidadian Jason Edwards, who trained under Junior Bisnath,<br />

Continued on page 54<br />

52 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


presentations and tourist shows. Beyond Trinidad,<br />

they currently have a strong presence in the<br />

Virgin Islands, with Wilfred John of St Croix as<br />

a missionary in their cause for forty years. John<br />

runs the Guardians of Culture moko jumbies, who<br />

appear weekly at local hotels, and made a 2009<br />

documentary called Mokolution tracing the roots<br />

of the tradition in the Virgin Islands. John notes<br />

a long tradition of male jumbies dressing in skirts<br />

with petticoats or bloomers, which changed in the<br />

1960s when teacher Ali Paul moved to welcome<br />

women as jumbies, leading to costumes in other<br />

styles. John continues to work with schools to get<br />

more young people to take up the art, exploring<br />

ever more adventurous choreography.<br />

Today’s moko jumbie practitioners, in T&T and<br />

elsewhere, are working not just at preserving cultural<br />

heritage, but broadening and deepening what<br />

is possible, from choreography to design. They are<br />

offering young people, from both under-served<br />

communities and more middle-class backgrounds,<br />

opportunities to develop athletic ability and<br />

artistic skills, while building confidence and selfesteem.<br />

Junior Bisnath’s motto <strong>—</strong> painted on the<br />

side of his home <strong>—</strong> summarises the ethos: “Say yes<br />

to life, get high on stilts!” n<br />

Trinidad, and seeing moko jumbies as part of a<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> aesthetic that could be universal, Pinheiro<br />

has been involved in two decades of Carnival<br />

and other performances, major theatre events, and<br />

lots of workshops.<br />

A Keylemanjahro moko jumbie On the other side of the Atlantic, there is little<br />

ties on his stilts history of moko jumbies at London’s Notting Hill or<br />

other West Indian Carnival celebrations in Britain,<br />

but that is gradually changing. Touch D Sky’s popularity<br />

in T&T has led to an offshoot based in Newcastle-upon-<br />

and two friends. Since 2010, they have run after-school programmes<br />

in Brooklyn and Newark, New Jersey. They have participated<br />

in Kiddies Carnival in Brooklyn (last year, with all the dadian team. They run workshops and now perform with the<br />

Tyne run by Alan Vaughan, together with some of the Trini-<br />

girls costumed as butterflies and all the boys as dragonflies) and Elimu Mas Academy for Notting Hill. This year, Vaughan and<br />

the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. They’ve performed at Adrian Young developed performances working with contemporary<br />

dancers, an art performance called The Isle Is Full of Noises<br />

events of all kinds <strong>—</strong> birthday parties, weddings, political rallies,<br />

and even the funeral of a prince from Nigeria.<br />

(based on Shakespeare’s play The Tempest), and, in collaboration<br />

with choreographer Martin Hylton, the performance work<br />

The Universoul Circus, which started in 1994 and travels the<br />

United States, reflects black culture through circus arts. For many My Knowledge Increase, My Memories Reflect, a celebration of<br />

years, it has featured both limbo dancers and moko jumbies Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Civil Rights Movement.<br />

from Trinidad, offering perhaps the only full-time professional In 2016, Zak Ové, a British artist of Trinidadian heritage, was<br />

work available for practitioners. They hold auditions in Trinidad commissioned by the British Museum to build two moko jumbie<br />

to get the most accomplished from various groups.<br />

sculptures, seven metres tall, mounted in the museum’s entrance<br />

Meanwhile, in Toronto, Canada, moko jumbies have featured hall in conjunction with an African art exhibit. It was timed with<br />

in the work of the Swizzlestick Theatre, formed back in 1997, Notting Hill Carnival, and members of Touch D Sky performed<br />

growing out of the theatre and performance work of<br />

at the opening. The sculptures were ultimately chosen for the<br />

Christopher Pinheiro. Having worked in Minshall’s mas camp in museum’s permanent collection.<br />

54 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


ADVERTISEMENT


snapshot<br />

There’s no T&T Carnival without music<br />

<strong>—</strong> or without competition. From calypso<br />

monarch to extempo champ, the Carnival<br />

season is full of opportunities for calypso<br />

and soca artistes to match their composition<br />

and performance skills, and rivalries can<br />

persist for lifetimes. But there’s one musical title<br />

that reflects the will of ordinary masqueraders,<br />

and for some performers it’s the ultimate accolade.<br />

Mark Lyndersay looks back at the eight-decade history of<br />

the Road March competition <strong>—</strong> and we share our picks for<br />

the top ten Road March songs of all time<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 57


On Ash Wednesday 2017, MX<br />

Prime <strong>—</strong> the performer formerly<br />

known as Maximus Dan and<br />

christened Edghill Thomas <strong>—</strong><br />

along with his production and<br />

performance team, Ultimate<br />

Rejects, were announced as the winners of Trinidad<br />

and Tobago’s Carnival Road March competition.<br />

Their song, “Full Extreme”, was played 556<br />

times at competition venues around Port of Spain.<br />

The second-place winner, Machel Montano’s<br />

“Your Time Now”, trailed with seventy-two plays.<br />

The Road March competition isn’t like most<br />

popularity contests or talent competitions judged<br />

by the public. Nobody sits at home to make a call<br />

or send a text. To win the Road March, a composer<br />

has to write a song that makes people get up<br />

and dance <strong>—</strong> to be specific, all the people<br />

who celebrate T&T’s Carnival every<br />

year <strong>—</strong> and keep them on their feet for<br />

two days of prancing. To stand any<br />

chance of succeeding,<br />

the modern<br />

Road March must<br />

be the anthem of wining, that rhythmic gyration<br />

of the waist, often done in concert with a partner<br />

or two, that found wider international notice in a<br />

distinctly corrupted form as twerking.<br />

Each year’s Road March and its contenders are<br />

consigned to history along with the masqueraders’<br />

costumes, and it’s a rare song that earns a<br />

play on the road after its year of glory. The first<br />

Road March title was recorded in 1930, Inveigler<br />

(MacDonald Borel)’s “Captain Cipriani”, and a<br />

song has won the accolade every year since then,<br />

even between 1942 and 1945, when Carnival was<br />

officially suspended during the Second World War.<br />

There were, of course, enormously popular<br />

songs before then, songs so entrancing<br />

that they jumped from band to band in<br />

an environment that was quite different from the<br />

mechanised, industrially driven Carnival of today.<br />

Back then, a Carnival band took to the road with<br />

its own live music, the earliest form of which<br />

were long sticks of bamboo rhythmically beaten<br />

to accompany the chantwell <strong>—</strong> the singer leading<br />

the costumed group <strong>—</strong> who considered life, love,<br />

politics, and the bacchanal of the barrack yard in<br />

his composition.<br />

“The first song sung by almost every band on the<br />

road was probably ‘Sly Mongoose’,” says Professor<br />

Gordon Rohlehr, the eminent literary scholar<br />

with a lifelong personal and academic interest<br />

in the genesis of calypso. The song came to<br />

Trinidad and Tobago in 1919, and was<br />

sung in a tent by Houdini in 1921,<br />

becoming popular on the road<br />

in 1923. “It was likely to have<br />

been a Jamaican folk song, but<br />

melodies travelled throughout<br />

the islands and became<br />

songs with different lyrics and<br />

Michele Jorsling courtesy ultimate rejects<br />

The Road March<br />

competition isn’t<br />

like most popularity<br />

contests judged by the<br />

public. Nobody sits at<br />

home to make a call<br />

MX Prime (centre) and Ultimate<br />

Rejects, 2017 Road March champs<br />

58 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


David Rudder, whose<br />

“Bahia Girl” won the 1986<br />

Road March<br />

mark lyndersay/lyndersaydigital.com<br />

arrangements. ‘Captain Cipriani’ was most likely a<br />

melody we know as ‘Ambakaila’.”<br />

That music would evolve along with Carnival<br />

itself. Popular chantwells would host visitors to<br />

their yards as they rehearsed, and eventually a<br />

small fee was asked, beginning a tradition that<br />

would eventually become the calypso tent. In<br />

search of louder rhythms and smoother melodies,<br />

the bands would beat biscuit tins, paint<br />

cans, and eventually steel drums, which would<br />

be shaped and refined to create the modern<br />

steelpan instrument.<br />

In parallel, musicians would accompany the<br />

bands, first bringing small woodwind instruments,<br />

flutes, clarinets, guitars, and violins. These<br />

were eventually joined by full-throated brass,<br />

as saxophones and trumpets provided a path of<br />

influence for big-band jazz music to flow into the<br />

calypsonian’s repertoire.<br />

Railway Douglas (Walter Douglas), who won<br />

the Road March in 1934 with “After Johnny Drink<br />

Meh Rum”, was a key personality in the evolution<br />

of this stage of the calypso as the favoured voice<br />

of the people. “Inveigler was Railway Douglas’s<br />

assistant,” explains Rohlehr, “but Douglas thought<br />

that picong calypsoes were demeaning and a<br />

throwback to slavery days. He would sing topically<br />

about social issues and the scandals of the day.”<br />

Calypso would emerge as a narrative form of<br />

storytelling and commentary, the structure of the<br />

words in balance with the melody, even as live<br />

band music entered a long period of jousting with<br />

the steelband as the preferred soundtrack to drive<br />

bands along the parade route.<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 59


After Sparrow won in<br />

1956, the Road March<br />

competition belonged to<br />

him and his career-long<br />

rival Lord Kitchener for<br />

the next decade<br />

Kingsley LYNDERSAY/lyndersaydigital.com<br />

With eight Road March<br />

wins over three decades,<br />

the Mighty Sparrow is tied<br />

for third place in the overall<br />

Road March rankings<br />

“Rum and Coca-Cola”, Lord Invader (Rupert<br />

Grant)’s 1943 hit, would characterise the sentiments<br />

of the male calypso fraternity, who chafed<br />

at the presence of the American military on the<br />

island and the response of local women to the<br />

prized “Yankee dollar.” That response to the social<br />

circumstances of the day would find their apotheosis<br />

in the Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco)’s<br />

1956 Road March “Jean and Dinah”, a song he later<br />

admitted was created as an advertisement for a<br />

local store that he repurposed into groundbreaking<br />

social commentary, and the first Calypso King<br />

crown of his career.<br />

Sparrow’s emergence was preceded by one of<br />

the oddest Road Marches of the twentieth century,<br />

1955’s “The Happy Wanderer”, a German march<br />

sung by the Obernkirchen Children’s Choir <strong>—</strong><br />

better known by its catchy chorus, “Val-de-ri,<br />

Val-de-ra.” The song, says Rohlehr, “was larger in<br />

structure than a traditional calypso and may have<br />

influenced the form of ‘Jean and Dinah’, which also<br />

had a long chorus.” This was a very different era<br />

for the Road March, one in which any song with<br />

a catchy melody might be popular on the road.<br />

Advertisements for Tisane de Durbon and Nagib<br />

Elias’s lumber business were cheerfully sung<br />

alongside performances by calypsonians.<br />

It wasn’t until 1976 that the popular “Tourist<br />

Leggo” by Antiguan Lord Short Shirt would annoy<br />

calypso’s establishment so much that it would be<br />

banned from official competitions, beginning an<br />

unfortunate era of Road March insularity. Since<br />

then, only performers from T&T have been eligible<br />

for the competition <strong>—</strong> though Short Shirt’s song<br />

went on to win the Antigua and Barbuda Road<br />

March title.<br />

60 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


His ten Road March titles<br />

make the late Lord Kitchener<br />

the all-time champion of the<br />

competition<br />

courtesy rca victor<br />

After Sparrow won in 1956, the Road March<br />

competition belonged to him and his career-long<br />

rival Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts) for the next<br />

decade <strong>—</strong> interrupted only by Lord Christo and<br />

Nap Hepburn, who won a twin competition in 1957<br />

with “Chicken Chest” and “Doctor Nelson”, by<br />

Lord Caruso in 1959 with “Run the Gunslingers”,<br />

and Lord Blakie’s plaintive 1962 “Maria”.<br />

Sparrow and Kitchener’s second ten-year<br />

stretch of Road March dominance, starting in<br />

the 1960s, was interrupted only once by Shadow<br />

(Aldwyn Bailey)’s 1974 “Bass Man”, but that was a<br />

change that fundamentally refocused the competition<br />

on music. The Mighty Shadow was a Tobagoborn<br />

calypsonian who had been working for years<br />

to break into the big times. It happened with “Bass<br />

Man”, which told of a melody gifted to him as he<br />

was about “to give up calypso and go plant peas in<br />

Tobago.” That melody, anchored by a “poom pittity<br />

poom” sung deep from his chest, was nothing less<br />

than a bass run on a steelpan in a song, anchored<br />

by a surprisingly funky bass line.<br />

Shadow <strong>—</strong> an unabashed fan of Teddy Pendergrass<br />

who titled one album If Ah Woulda, I Coulda,<br />

I Shoulda <strong>—</strong> launched a career of songs anchored<br />

by soulful beats and empathic, often psychedelic<br />

lyrics that drifted some distance from the more<br />

commonplace topics favoured by his calypsonian<br />

peers. He dropped the traditional calypsonian’s<br />

superlative soon afterward, shedding a “Mighty”<br />

that was now demonstrably superfluous.<br />

Three years later, Calypso Rose (McCartha<br />

62 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Sandy-Lewis)’s 1977 hit “Tempo” forever ended the<br />

Sparrow-Kitchener axis with a Road March that<br />

was all about melody, and a chorus that echoed<br />

the percussiveness of “Bass Man”. Rose became<br />

the first female champion of the road, singing<br />

triumphantly over a music bed that made liberal<br />

use of modern synthesiser technology.<br />

Kitchener, who understood music in a particularly<br />

deep and profound way, would put his stamp<br />

on the young people’s soca music, by then the<br />

dominant form in play at Carnival parties and on<br />

the road, with 1978’s “Sugar Bum Bum”, but would<br />

have greater success developing complex musical<br />

ideas for the steelband, most notably with “The<br />

Bee’s Melody” and “Pan in A Minor”.<br />

The “revenge”<br />

Road March<br />

The story of the Road March after “Bass<br />

Man” and “Tempo” is a narrative of conflict<br />

between the traditional calypso art form<br />

and soca, its funk-influenced derivative, alongside<br />

the rising importance of the disc jockey as the<br />

preferred delivery mechanism for the music of the<br />

road, eventually overwhelming the role of the live<br />

performing band.<br />

Soca’s hypnotic beat was cemented as the<br />

commanding presence in the Road March between<br />

1977 and 1990, but in 1991 the freshly rechristened<br />

Superblue <strong>—</strong> born Austin Lyons, and formerly<br />

known as Blue Boy <strong>—</strong> would introduce the lyric-ascommand<br />

to the road mix with the urgent chorus<br />

of “Get Something and Wave”. In the twenty-seven<br />

Shadow’s 1974 Road<br />

March, “Bass Man”, was<br />

a game-changer for<br />

Carnival music<br />

The Calypso Monarch<br />

competition once<br />

required finalists to sing<br />

two songs for a marking<br />

system that encouraged<br />

the performance of a<br />

“serious” calypso and<br />

a party number. In<br />

1974, Sparrow won the<br />

competition with a pair<br />

of songs tailor-made<br />

for the requirements of<br />

the competition, “We<br />

Pass that Stage” and<br />

“Miss Mary”. That year,<br />

Shadow performed<br />

“Bass Man” and “I Come<br />

Out to Play”, two songs<br />

popular in parties. From<br />

J’Ouvert on Carnival<br />

Monday, it was clear<br />

that masqueraders were<br />

intent on redressing the<br />

Calypso Monarch judges’<br />

verdict, demanding “Bass<br />

Man” for two days and<br />

making Shadow’s vertical<br />

prance the dance of the<br />

festival.<br />

“That wasn’t revenge<br />

as much as it was<br />

pure street justice,”<br />

recalls Gordon Rohlehr.<br />

“There is an element of<br />

mischievous fun in the<br />

Road March.”<br />

mark lyndersay/lyndersaydigital.com<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 63


The first woman ever to win a Road<br />

March title, Calypso Rose has enjoyed<br />

a long career breaking barriers<br />

Soca’s hypnotic beat was<br />

cemented as the commanding<br />

presence in the Road<br />

March between 1977 and<br />

1990<br />

Frans Schellekens / redferns / getty images<br />

years since then, the explosive, post-curfew release<br />

of the song, which followed the attempted coup of<br />

September 1990, still echoes in soca dance music.<br />

Younger performers <strong>—</strong> including Superblue’s<br />

daughter Fay-Ann Lyons, twice winner of the Road<br />

March title <strong>—</strong> have taken that song and its successors<br />

as the baseline for their own successful songs<br />

for the road.<br />

As Blue Boy, Lyons had already registered two<br />

successive Road March wins in 1980 and 1981<br />

with “Soca Baptist” and “Ethel” when he changed<br />

the pace and focus of the Road March forever with<br />

“Get Something and Wave”. He would infuse that<br />

formula into three more winners, “Jab Jab”, “Bacchanal<br />

Time”, and “Signal to Lara”, characterising<br />

them with sharp chord changes across melodies.<br />

These were songs with music enough for three<br />

tunes, eccentric and easy-to-shout lyrics, and a<br />

profoundly intuitive sense of what makes people<br />

go crazy at Carnival time. Gordon Rohlehr sees<br />

a parallel in the relationship between Superblue’s<br />

interaction with crowds and the long-ago chantwell’s<br />

management of his Carnival band.<br />

The Road March as zeitgeist<br />

There’s an argument to be made that the celebration of<br />

Carnival on Monday and Tuesday has been influenced<br />

deeply by the music of each era of its development. The<br />

shuffling march of the earliest Carnivals proceeded to the<br />

staccato, almost military beat of bamboo percussion. As the<br />

music grew louder and more melodic with the entry of the<br />

steelband, the words of the songs became less of a chant<br />

and more of a sing-along. The celebratory blast of horns<br />

from big bands added the miming of brass playing and the<br />

celebratory raising of arms to mostly sunswept skies.<br />

In this heated competition, what made one song the<br />

Road March and the others merely popular?<br />

The earliest recorded road marches are distinguished<br />

by a subversive wit and topical humour. Between 1935 and<br />

1941, the Roaring Lion (Rafael De Leon) won four of the<br />

six competitions with calypsoes that managed to be both<br />

bawdy and socially concerned. Lord Kitchener’s return<br />

from England was formally heralded with “The Road”, a<br />

song that remains, to this day, the unofficial anthem and<br />

reference point for summarising the annual street party. It<br />

was also a gauntlet thrown down to Sparrow, and for the<br />

next two decades the pair would battle for the attention of<br />

revellers on the road.<br />

Kitchener’s melodies were wildly successful on the<br />

steelpan, and he would increasingly turn his attention to<br />

that instrument as the decisive interpreter of his compositions,<br />

with unparalleled success. His last Road March, “Flag<br />

Woman” in 1976, was both a final coda to the supremacy<br />

of the steelband as the driving force for music on the<br />

road, and a paean to the woman charged with bearing<br />

the band’s standard and clearing a path for the heavy steel<br />

drums as they rolled through crowded streets.<br />

The next year, Calypso Rose would win with “Tempo”, a<br />

song crafted for brass bands, beginning an era that would<br />

run from 1977 to 1990 <strong>—</strong> upbeat songs for dancing that<br />

increasingly abandoned commentary for catchy hook lines<br />

Continued on page 66<br />

64 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Meanwhile, as the beat has grown faster, the<br />

lyrics have largely abandoned narrative for pop<br />

song hooklines, phrases that can be shouted as<br />

you leap forward on the tips of your toes, twirling<br />

a handy cloth over your head. Several popular soca<br />

hits have lifted chord progressions from well-known<br />

pop songs and layered them into their music, and<br />

the Road March winners of the last seven years<br />

have been influenced by the style and<br />

structure of international electronic<br />

dance music (EDM).<br />

Since the late 1990s, Machel<br />

Montano has emerged as<br />

the most successful architect<br />

of the modern Road<br />

March, blending an<br />

understanding of the<br />

lyric as supporting<br />

framework for the<br />

music with a<br />

master’s touch<br />

in the production of the final work. Montano has<br />

won eight of the Road March competitions since<br />

1997, five of them since 2010.<br />

In <strong>2018</strong>, the traditional calypso tent, once the<br />

stamp of artistic approval for a calypsonian, has<br />

shrunk almost into insignificance, subsisting on a<br />

lifeline of state support. Local radio and the Carnival<br />

party are now where music is auditioned for<br />

public consumption, and the range that’s offered<br />

represents only a fraction of the music actually<br />

created for the festival.<br />

The calypsonian now finds himself in the<br />

position of the chantwell he replaced more than<br />

a hundred years ago, losing ground in Carnival<br />

to a more popular music with aggressive, focused<br />

practitioners. But, as the recent success of Calypso<br />

Rose in Europe demonstrates, the form still has a<br />

lot of life to it. The Road March and the creators<br />

who compose for it once more look to all the music<br />

that makes people dance <strong>—</strong> whatever its origins <strong>—</strong><br />

for its influences.<br />

mark lyndersay/lyndersaydigital.com<br />

Currently tied with Sparrow at<br />

eight Road March wins, Machel<br />

Montano conceivably has decades<br />

ahead of him to break Kitchener’s<br />

record<br />

and tip-of-the-toes prancing.<br />

That trend would go to another level in 1991 with a<br />

resurgent Blue Boy, now singing as Super Blue. His astonishing<br />

troika of winners, “Get Something and Wave”, “Jab Jab”, and<br />

“Bacchanal Time”, put down a template for dance-focused<br />

soca that fundamentally changed the pace and approach of<br />

composers, arrangers, and musicians who would find the fast<br />

time and heated pitch of the songs difficult to maintain on<br />

the road.<br />

It was here that two things happened in the Road March<br />

competition. First, the gulf between the songs that got played<br />

on stage to stoke the bands and the music played on the actual<br />

road grew wider. Then it became clear to bandleaders that<br />

the music, now prepared in special “road mix” recordings, was<br />

more easily played by disc jockeys, who also happened to be<br />

cheaper than full live bands.<br />

That opened the door to more multi-tracking, sharper<br />

cutting on chord changes, and deeper use of electronics in<br />

creating the songs, just when it became possible for almost<br />

anyone to create music on their computer at home.<br />

On its surface, at the level of the lyrics, Road Marches<br />

became instructions to revellers. “Moving to the left,” sang<br />

Nigel Lewis. “Hold on to the big truck,” urged Machel Montano.<br />

“Footsteps . . . on the ground,” demanded the late<br />

Wayne Rodriguez.<br />

On a deeper level, this was music that did more<br />

than invite the listener to get up and dance <strong>—</strong> it was<br />

designed to take people already committed to prancing<br />

to another level of euphoria and excitement.<br />

It isn’t surprising, then, to find elements of electronic<br />

dance music (EDM) showing up in recent Road March<br />

contenders, and to see the influence of dance soca<br />

bleeding back, as it did in 2014’s “Antenna”, the<br />

breakout single by Fuse ODG (Richard Abiona).<br />

66 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Ten for<br />

the road<br />

Of the eighty-plus songs that have won the official Road March<br />

title, some are little remembered, some have become “back-intimes”<br />

favourites, and a few are considered landmarks <strong>—</strong> whether<br />

for their musical qualities or for trends they ushered in. Here are all<br />

the recorded Road March winners up to 2017 <strong>—</strong> and our picks* for<br />

an all-time Road March top ten.<br />

1930<br />

Lord Inveigler<br />

Captain Cipriani<br />

1931<br />

King Houdini<br />

Mr Huggins<br />

1932<br />

King Radio<br />

Tiger Tom Play Tiger Cat<br />

1933<br />

King Radio<br />

Wash Pan Wash<br />

1934<br />

Railway Douglas<br />

After Johnny Drink Me<br />

Rum<br />

1935<br />

Roaring Lion<br />

Dingolay Oy<br />

1936<br />

Roaring Lion<br />

Advantage Could Never<br />

Done<br />

1937<br />

Roaring Lion<br />

Netty Netty<br />

1938<br />

Roaring Lion<br />

No Norah Darling<br />

1939<br />

King Radio<br />

Mathilda<br />

She take meh money and run<br />

Venezuela . . . With a perfect<br />

combination of plaintive<br />

lyrics and jaunty melody,<br />

King Radio (Norman Span)<br />

lamented the unfaithfulness<br />

of a wife or girlfriend who<br />

stole the cash hidden in his<br />

mattress and headed for<br />

the mainland. Nearly eight<br />

decades later, it remains one<br />

of the most immediately recognisable<br />

calypso choruses,<br />

and not just for Trinbagonians.<br />

Harry Belafonte’s 1953<br />

recording became an international<br />

hit, later covered by<br />

performers as unlikely as the<br />

Greatful Dead. Needless to<br />

say, King Radio never saw a<br />

cent in royalties.<br />

1940<br />

Lord Beginner<br />

Run Yuh Run<br />

Philip Sander<br />

1941<br />

Roaring Lion<br />

Whoopsin Whoopsin<br />

Though there were no official<br />

Carnival celebrations from 1942<br />

to 1945, at the height of the Second<br />

World War, informal “Road<br />

March” titles are recognised<br />

for the most popular songs in<br />

calypso tents in those years.<br />

1942<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Lai Fook Lee<br />

1943<br />

Lord Invader<br />

Rum and Coca-Cola<br />

1944<br />

King Radio<br />

Brown Skin Girl<br />

1945<br />

Roaring Lion<br />

All Day All Night, Mary-Ann<br />

1946<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Jump in the Line<br />

1947<br />

King Pharaoh<br />

Portuguese Dance<br />

(Vishki Vashki Voo)<br />

1948<br />

Lord Melody<br />

Canaan Barrow<br />

1949<br />

Roaring Wonder<br />

Ramgoat Baptism<br />

1950<br />

Mighty Killer<br />

In a Calabash<br />

1951<br />

Mighty Terror<br />

Tiny Davis<br />

1953<br />

Vivian Comma / Spit Fire<br />

Madeline Oye / Bow Wow<br />

Wow<br />

Two separate Road March<br />

competitions this year produced<br />

rival winners.<br />

1952<br />

Spit Fire<br />

Post, Post Another Letter<br />

for Thelma<br />

1954<br />

Lord Blakie<br />

Steel Band Clash<br />

1955<br />

Obernkirchen Children’s<br />

Choir<br />

The Happy Wanderer<br />

(German pop song)<br />

1956<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Jean and Dinah<br />

The greatest calypsonian of all<br />

time? The Birdie would certainly<br />

agree. It’s a reign that<br />

started with a bang in 1956,<br />

with the song that won him<br />

both the Calypso King and<br />

Road March titles. Sixty-two<br />

years later, “Jean and Dinah”<br />

is more than a calypso classic<br />

<strong>—</strong> it’s a cultural touchstone<br />

and a symbol of that brash,<br />

confident era between the end<br />

of the Second World War and<br />

Independence in 1962.<br />

Above all, it tells a story of<br />

social evolution. Well, the girls<br />

in town feeling bad, no more<br />

Yankees in Trinidad . . . As US<br />

troops withdrew from the<br />

bases around Port of Spain, a<br />

surging sentiment of nationalism<br />

culminated in the general<br />

elections of September 1956,<br />

which returned Eric Williams<br />

of the PNM as premier and<br />

cleared the path to Independence<br />

negotiations. But Sparrow<br />

portrayed this moment<br />

of change in more personal,<br />

down-to-earth terms. With<br />

the Americans out of the<br />

way, Sparrow and his fellow<br />

“glamour boys” were “back<br />

in control” of Port of Spain’s<br />

nightlife scene. “Jean and<br />

Dinah, Rosita and Clementina,”<br />

the good-time girls who<br />

68 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


had reserved their favours<br />

for the US servicemen, now<br />

had to make do with local<br />

trade. In for a penny, in for a<br />

pound. A tide was turning, in<br />

personal relations as much<br />

as in politics, and Sparrow’s<br />

preening delivery suggested<br />

who he thought would end up<br />

on top.<br />

“Jean and Dinah” was oral<br />

history and penetrating social<br />

commentary, cocky and<br />

risqué, with lyrics deserving<br />

literary analysis and an unforgettable<br />

tune: a calypso to<br />

engage listeners’ wits as much<br />

as their waists. For most<br />

Trinbagonians, it’s as familiar<br />

as the National Anthem, a<br />

song of similar vintage and<br />

asserted confidence. And the<br />

famous last line of the chorus<br />

<strong>—</strong> “Sparrow take over now”<br />

<strong>—</strong> was an accurate prediction<br />

of the Birdie’s calypso dominance<br />

of the coming decades.<br />

Philip Sander<br />

1957<br />

Lord Christo / Nap Hepburn<br />

Chicken Chest / Doctor<br />

Nelson<br />

As in 1953, separate Road<br />

March competitions produced<br />

rival winners.<br />

1958<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Pay As You Earn<br />

1959<br />

Lord Caruso<br />

Run the Gunslingers<br />

1960<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Mae Mae<br />

1961<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Royal Jail<br />

1962<br />

Lord Blakie<br />

Maria<br />

1963<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

The Road<br />

1964<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

This Is Mas<br />

1965<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

My Pussin<br />

1966<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Obeah Wedding<br />

1967<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Sixty-Seven<br />

1968<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Miss Tourist<br />

1969<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Sa Sa Yea<br />

1970<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Margie<br />

1971<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Madison Square Garden<br />

1972<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Drunk and Disorderly<br />

1973<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Rainorama<br />

Only once in the past century<br />

has Carnival’s traditional<br />

connection with the start of<br />

Lent been severed. In 1972,<br />

faced with a polio outbreak,<br />

the government threatened<br />

to cancel the festival <strong>—</strong> then,<br />

faced with public outcry,<br />

postponed it from <strong>February</strong><br />

to May, and from the dry to<br />

the rainy season, so that masqueraders<br />

were predictably<br />

drenched. A year later,<br />

Kitchener’s “Rainorama”<br />

recounted the drama <strong>—</strong> and<br />

won the Grandmaster his<br />

ninth Road March title.<br />

The song’s laid-back<br />

rhythm and sweet melody<br />

almost disguise the fact that<br />

“Rainorama” is an uncompromising<br />

defence of Carnival<br />

and its place in T&T’s national<br />

life, a riposte to those “so and<br />

so hypocrites” who call it an<br />

unneeded distraction or waste<br />

of time. This is calypso as<br />

history lesson and as protest,<br />

but so seductively composed,<br />

it allows no resistance. And<br />

for Kitchener it was such a<br />

big hit that when he built his<br />

dream house in Diego Martin,<br />

on Port of Spain’s western<br />

outskirts, he named it “Rainorama”<br />

<strong>—</strong> proudly declared<br />

in an illuminated sign on the<br />

front lawn.<br />

1974<br />

Shadow<br />

Bass Man<br />

Philip Sander<br />

It was the song that broke the<br />

Sparrow/Kitchener monopoly<br />

on the Road March title.<br />

I wasn’t even born when<br />

“Bass Man” won the Road<br />

March <strong>—</strong> but, growing up in<br />

a house with Shadow being<br />

played constantly, I decided<br />

early on that he is the greatest<br />

thing that ever happened to<br />

music in Trinidad and Tobago.<br />

Although he’s won the Road<br />

March title only twice in his<br />

long career, Shadow’s skill<br />

at storytelling and the way<br />

he plays with melody, his<br />

bizarre vocal range and the<br />

sweet sadness of his musical<br />

arrangements, make him<br />

the most avant-garde street<br />

philosopher we’ve ever had.<br />

In “Bass Man”, Shadow<br />

manages to capture the<br />

frustration of the calypsonian<br />

who can’t make a living from<br />

his art, yet the impetus to create<br />

is greater than the frustration.<br />

I don’t know how this thing<br />

get inside me. Which artist<br />

doesn’t know that truth? This<br />

song is the strong foundation<br />

on which Shadow has created<br />

an entire universe of feeling<br />

in his music: a different<br />

language and energy, a way<br />

to channel all the pain, all the<br />

sadness, all those feelings of<br />

inadequacy into the ability to<br />

have hope and dance in spite<br />

of it all.<br />

Attillah Springer<br />

1975<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Tribute to Spree Simon<br />

1976<br />

Lord Kitchener<br />

Flag Woman<br />

1977<br />

Calypso Rose<br />

Tempo<br />

Port of Spain too small for the<br />

Carnival . . . T&T’s capital<br />

considers itself ground zero<br />

for the festival, but Calypso<br />

Rose dared sing this infectious<br />

tune about heading<br />

south to San Fernando, and<br />

took her first Road March<br />

title. It was history-making:<br />

for the first time ever, the<br />

Road March was won by a<br />

woman, and Rose successfully<br />

defended the title a year<br />

later, when she also became<br />

the first woman ever to<br />

win the Calypso King title,<br />

which immediately had to<br />

be renamed. After Rose, it<br />

was twenty-one years before<br />

another woman, Sanelle<br />

Dempster, won Road March,<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 69


and only two others <strong>—</strong> Fay-<br />

Ann Lyons and Patrice<br />

Roberts (duetting with Machel<br />

Montano) <strong>—</strong> have taken the<br />

title.<br />

Some say Rose’s Road<br />

March breakthrough should<br />

have come a decade earlier,<br />

with “Fire in Me Wire”. For<br />

years, rumours have had it<br />

that the 1966 Road March<br />

invigilators fudged the<br />

figures, unready for a woman<br />

calypsonian to win. Whatever<br />

the truth, if longevity is the<br />

best revenge, Rose has come<br />

out on top, enjoying a huge<br />

surge of international success<br />

in recent years with her Far<br />

From Home album.<br />

1978<br />

Calypso Rose<br />

Come Leh We Jam<br />

Philip Sander<br />

1979<br />

Poser<br />

A Tell She (Smoke Ah<br />

Watty)<br />

1980<br />

Blue Boy<br />

Soca Baptist<br />

Almost any Road March by<br />

nine-time winner Superblue<br />

<strong>—</strong> formerly known as Blue<br />

Boy <strong>—</strong> could make a top ten.<br />

But his first-ever Road March<br />

does something extraordinary.<br />

Without a single<br />

historical reference, Blue tells<br />

the story of how we masked<br />

our spiritual traditions in<br />

our popular artforms, as his<br />

observation of the Spiritual<br />

Baptists “bacchanal” brings<br />

him to the conclusion that the<br />

ecstatic nature of the doption<br />

is the same as what happens<br />

in the soca fete.<br />

Some loved it for the<br />

music, and some thought<br />

it was another example of<br />

the trivialising of non-mainstream<br />

modes of worship.<br />

But if you’ve ever seen or<br />

heard a gathering of Spiritual<br />

Baptists on a street corner, or<br />

observed that moment in an<br />

Orisa feast when the repetitive<br />

nature of the drumming<br />

and the call and response<br />

of the chants propel some<br />

dancers into a state of possession,<br />

then you understand<br />

that “Soca Baptist” speaks<br />

deep truths about the ecstatic<br />

nature of Carnival music.<br />

When I hear it now, I think<br />

it is a classically non-Western<br />

way of not seeing a distinction<br />

between what is sacred<br />

and what is profane. Indeed,<br />

beyond the perception of the<br />

profanity of jam and wine,<br />

soca is a spiritual encounter.<br />

1981<br />

Blue Boy<br />

Ethel<br />

1982<br />

Penguin<br />

Deputy<br />

1983<br />

Blue Boy<br />

Rebecca<br />

1984<br />

Mighty Sparrow<br />

Doh Back Back<br />

1985<br />

Crazy<br />

Soucoyant<br />

1986<br />

David Rudder<br />

Bahia Girl<br />

Attillah Springer<br />

In his breakthrough year,<br />

David Rudder won it all,<br />

taking the title of Calypso<br />

Monarch with “The Hammer”<br />

and both Young King and<br />

Road March with “Bahia<br />

Girl”. So simple and pure in<br />

its sweetness, this is a classic<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> love song, the<br />

chipping pace perfect for the<br />

road. But the secret to why<br />

“Bahia Girl” is so significant is<br />

in the last verse: Ile Ife Ile Ife,<br />

she make me to understand. Ile<br />

Ife, the mythical home of the<br />

Yoruba people of Nigeria, is<br />

the reason Rudder shares so<br />

much in common with “this<br />

girl from Bahia.” It’s no accident<br />

this was the same time<br />

scholars and spiritual leaders<br />

of the Orisa community were<br />

starting to share information<br />

on shared spiritual retentions<br />

in Brazil, Trinidad, and Cuba.<br />

In the post–Black Power<br />

era, when T&T’s black middle<br />

class started reconnecting<br />

with African spiritual forms<br />

that had been shamed into<br />

secrecy, music became a way<br />

to reclaim what was lost. It<br />

was common to hear stories<br />

of people “ketching power”<br />

when Rudder was on stage,<br />

then ending up in an Orisa<br />

yard soon after to consult<br />

with an elder. It terrified<br />

many and delighted many<br />

more. Still others missed it<br />

completely, distracted by the<br />

infectiousness of the music.<br />

1987<br />

Mighty Duke<br />

Thunder<br />

1988<br />

Tambu<br />

This Party Is It<br />

1989<br />

Tambu<br />

Free Up<br />

Attillah Springer<br />

1990<br />

Tambu<br />

We Ain’t Going Home<br />

1991<br />

Superblue (formerly Blue Boy)<br />

Get Something and Wave<br />

1992<br />

Superblue<br />

Jab Jab<br />

1993<br />

Superblue<br />

Bacchanal Time<br />

1994<br />

Preacher<br />

Jump and Wave<br />

1995<br />

Superblue<br />

Signal to Lara<br />

1996<br />

Nigel Lewis<br />

Movin’<br />

1997<br />

Machel Montano<br />

Big Truck<br />

It was the coming-of-age<br />

song for the generation of<br />

Trini xennials: too young to<br />

remember Black Power, too<br />

young to attend curfew parties<br />

in 1990, but old enough<br />

to remember the disappointment<br />

of 1989’s World Cup<br />

football defeat <strong>—</strong> all defining<br />

moments in T&T history. The<br />

popularity of dancehall in<br />

the 1990s had led to a kind of<br />

apathy towards mainstream<br />

soca and calypso. That<br />

apathy was challenged by<br />

the advent of Kisskidee<br />

Karavan, which advanced a<br />

new frontline of local rapso,<br />

ragga, and hip-hop artists<br />

unfraid of articulating their<br />

reality in their own language,<br />

and also made you want to<br />

dance. What Machel Montano<br />

<strong>—</strong> who himself had grown up<br />

with us <strong>—</strong> was able to do was<br />

take soca and turn it on its<br />

head again, pull it away from<br />

the establishment and open<br />

the way for a whole new era<br />

70 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


of celebratory defiance. “Big<br />

Truck”, the first of eight Road<br />

March titles for Montano<br />

over the next two decades,<br />

set the pace and defined a<br />

generation. The nostalgia<br />

the song evokes for a time of<br />

innocence, adventure, and<br />

experimentation is bittersweet,<br />

hardened by the cynical<br />

jump-and-wave formula<br />

for winning prizes and fete<br />

money. It remains to be seen<br />

if the direction soca has been<br />

going since “Big Truck” is<br />

what the music needs or what<br />

the Carnival deserves.<br />

1998<br />

Wayne Rodriguez<br />

Footsteps<br />

1999<br />

Sanelle Dempster<br />

River<br />

Attillah Springer<br />

2000 (tie)<br />

Superblue / Iwer George<br />

Pump Up / Carnival Come<br />

Back Again<br />

2001<br />

Shadow<br />

Stranger<br />

2002<br />

Naya George<br />

Trinidad<br />

2003<br />

Fay-Ann Lyons<br />

Display<br />

2004<br />

Shurwayne Winchester<br />

Look de Band Comin’<br />

2005<br />

Shurwayne Winchester<br />

Dead or Alive<br />

2006<br />

Machel Montano and Patrice<br />

Roberts<br />

Band of de Year<br />

2007<br />

Machel Montano<br />

Jumbie<br />

2008<br />

Fay-Ann Lyons<br />

Get On<br />

2009<br />

Fay-Ann Lyons<br />

Meet Superblue<br />

2010<br />

JW & Blaze<br />

Palance<br />

It was a song that seemed<br />

to come out of nowhere and<br />

rampaged over all opposition.<br />

Radio DJs Jason “JW”<br />

Williams and Ancil “Blaze”<br />

Isaacs <strong>—</strong>the former skinny<br />

and antic, the latter stocky<br />

and serious <strong>—</strong> looked like a<br />

classic odd couple on stage<br />

and in the wildly popular<br />

video (which inexplicably<br />

featured a man in a Cookie<br />

Monster costume, a triumphant<br />

touch of the absurd<br />

and a reminder that a whole<br />

generation of young Trinbagonians<br />

grew up watching<br />

Sesame Street twice a day on<br />

the state-owned TV station).<br />

“Palance” took its title from<br />

a Trinidadian word meaning<br />

“have a good time,” a concept<br />

exhaustively represented in<br />

our vocabulary. Repeated<br />

endlessly in the chorus,<br />

“palance” was the cue for<br />

fete-goers and masqueraders<br />

to fling themselves from side<br />

to side, arms outstretched, en<br />

masse. It was totally senseless,<br />

and resistance was futile.<br />

2011<br />

Machel Montano<br />

Advantage<br />

2012<br />

Machel Montano<br />

Pump Yuh Flag<br />

2013<br />

Superblue<br />

Fantastic Friday<br />

2014<br />

Machel Montano<br />

Ministry of Road<br />

2015<br />

Machel Montano<br />

Like ah Boss<br />

Philip Sander<br />

2016<br />

Machel Montano<br />

Waiting on the Stage<br />

2017<br />

Ultimate Rejects, featuring<br />

MX Prime<br />

Full Extreme<br />

On the Wednesday before<br />

Carnival 2017, a building<br />

caught fire in downtown Port<br />

of Spain. Pedestrians and<br />

office workers stopped to gape<br />

as firetrucks wailed through<br />

the city. Two blocks to the<br />

west, another crowd gathered,<br />

taking part in a company’s<br />

giveaway game. The speakers<br />

blared as the flames rose<br />

higher: the city could bun down,<br />

we jamming still. Was MX<br />

Prime <strong>—</strong> formerly known as<br />

Maximus Dan and the main<br />

voice of Ultimate Rejects’ “Full<br />

Extreme” <strong>—</strong> poking fun at<br />

Trinbagonians’ inability to take<br />

anything seriously? Maybe.<br />

Undeniably, the song<br />

was the biggest of last year’s<br />

season. Like all great Road<br />

March songs, it captured the<br />

desires and fears of the people<br />

in the most straightforward<br />

language. Ultimate Rejects<br />

sang the ultimate jammette<br />

song <strong>—</strong> a song of defiance<br />

and also a sad understanding<br />

that the systems that exist<br />

in our society are not really<br />

made to benefit the people<br />

anyway. We wine as the city<br />

burns: a prophecy fulfilled.<br />

I stormed Panorama champs<br />

All Stars’ band on Carnival<br />

Tuesday afternoon as they<br />

chipped through town playing<br />

their “Full Extreme”. All<br />

those people, all that rum,<br />

all that choking in the cloud<br />

of talcum powder in a sea of<br />

sailors. It was the most beautiful<br />

non-J’Ouvert Carnival<br />

experience I’ve had in years.<br />

Carnival is the mirror that<br />

reflects that Trinbagonian<br />

ability to seek joy and beauty<br />

even in the worst situations. It<br />

is as much a blessing as it is a<br />

curse.<br />

Attillah Springer<br />

* So how did we choose our ten standout Road Marches? By the not very scientific method of polling all the members<br />

of the <strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Beat</strong> team, plus a handful of the magazine’s past and present music writers. Disagree with our picks?<br />

Have your say at www.caribbean-beat.com/roadmarch.<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 71


Own words<br />

“ I’m<br />

unfinished”<br />

Tobago-born actor Winston Duke, appearing in the<br />

upcoming Black Panther movie, on his love of stories, his<br />

sense of being a work in process, and why returning to T&T<br />

keeps him grounded <strong>—</strong> as told to Caroline Taylor<br />

I<br />

left Tobago when I was about ten<br />

years old. My memories of Tobago<br />

are of running up and down on the<br />

beach, exploring my neighbourhood<br />

with friends, and a strong community<br />

of family. Family that always cooked<br />

and laughed together, family that supported<br />

each other, and came over any day they<br />

chose to. I remember freshly baked bread<br />

and sweet bread which my cousin, who<br />

lived about ten miles and four villages away,<br />

would have her teenage son deliver to us<br />

via bicycle. I really remember being part<br />

of something and somewhere <strong>—</strong> knowing<br />

I belonged.<br />

Something in particular which is etched<br />

in my memory is my village’s annual<br />

harvest festival. There was nothing, and<br />

has been nothing in my life ever since,<br />

that compared to that kind of familial<br />

and community interaction <strong>—</strong> my entire<br />

village cooking and opening their homes<br />

for others, including complete strangers,<br />

to freely eat, drink, dance, and converse.<br />

Then I moved to Brooklyn, New York,<br />

and the transition for me was incredibly<br />

hard. It was a huge culture shock. I came<br />

from an extended family in Tobago that<br />

easily spans at least two hundred and fifty<br />

people. So emigrating to a place where<br />

it’s just your mother and sister and little<br />

to no support systems was hard. I think I<br />

retreated deeply within myself.<br />

Brooklyn wasn’t a safe space for me. I<br />

remember our first year living at our new<br />

studio apartment, it was broken into and<br />

all we had was stolen. I often wanted us<br />

to come back home, but I also knew it just<br />

was not the plan. The plan was to build <strong>—</strong><br />

to achieve <strong>—</strong> to gain something different<br />

and valuable.<br />

I wanted to become an actor because<br />

I love stories and I wanted to be a part of<br />

telling great stories to as many people as I<br />

could. I figured out early on that I wanted<br />

to be a part of stories that reflect the lives of<br />

people who don’t always get to have a voice.<br />

My love for storytelling started back<br />

home in Tobago. I would listen to the<br />

older people in my village tell folklore<br />

stories about a gold-toothed donkey that<br />

they believed was a person who could<br />

shape-shift. Or of the douens which were<br />

supposedly the souls of children who died<br />

before they were christened. Or of this old<br />

man, Papa Bois, who lived in the forest<br />

and would protect it from hunters. I would<br />

always ask for those stories to be told to<br />

me every time older family and friends<br />

dropped by our house or restaurant. And<br />

let me tell you, they loved telling me those<br />

stories as well. This, I think, created my<br />

love for the genre of magical realism to<br />

this day.<br />

Landing the role of M’Baku in<br />

Black Panther was incredible. I just<br />

wanted to get in the room. I told my<br />

representation to just get me an audition<br />

and I’d do the rest. I loved [director] Ryan<br />

Coogler’s work <strong>—</strong> I remember being<br />

incredibly moved by Fruitvale Station and<br />

knowing that’s the kind of storyteller I<br />

wanted to work with one day. One with a<br />

clear and distinct voice.<br />

Being on set was something I never<br />

experienced before. Working with my<br />

own personal heroes in that superhero<br />

setting was something poetic and epic.<br />

To be able to meet and work alongside<br />

Angela Bassett, Forest Whittaker, Martin<br />

Freeman, and Chadwick Boseman, to<br />

name a few of this incredible ensemble,<br />

and not end up feeling out of place, was<br />

something I had only ever dreamed of<br />

before this movie. The knowledge that I<br />

was part of something that would allow<br />

people of colour all over the world to<br />

see themselves represented was surreal.<br />

What helped me to stay grounded was<br />

being careful to constantly check in with<br />

who M’Baku was <strong>—</strong> I wanted viewers<br />

to see a strong and impassioned leader<br />

willing to do whatever he has to for the<br />

betterment of his people.<br />

Hollywood is going through a period<br />

where a lot of people are advocating for<br />

inclusion and representation, and I think<br />

that directly correlates to the opportunities<br />

I am getting. Also, people are crying<br />

out for transparency, equality, and equity,<br />

so it’s a space that is empowering artists<br />

72 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Kwaku Alston<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 73


©Marvel Studios <strong>2018</strong><br />

Winston Duke (at centre) as M’Baku in Black Panther<br />

such as myself <strong>—</strong> who, perhaps, do not<br />

fit some of the previously held notions<br />

of leading male or female actor. I am sixfoot-five,<br />

two hundred and thirty pounds,<br />

and I think now is the time when the possibilities<br />

are higher for me to play people<br />

with depth. Not just goons and muscle,<br />

but layered and thinking individuals who<br />

have complex motivations.<br />

I figured out early on that I wanted to be a part<br />

of stories that reflect the lives of people who<br />

don’t always get to have a voice<br />

I believe this creates a huge market<br />

for strong stories that can come from the<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>—</strong> our folklore, our knack for<br />

great drama and storytelling has its place<br />

now. We just have to create the work. It’s<br />

not like it hasn’t been done before <strong>—</strong> just<br />

think of Euzhan Palcy and Sidney Poitier<br />

as zenith examples. We have beautiful<br />

sub-cultures which can and should be<br />

explored <strong>—</strong> our relationship to the sea<br />

and our fishermen, our mixed, blended<br />

cultures and the trials that come with<br />

that, our richly mixed and painful history<br />

of rebellion, revolution, and discovery<br />

<strong>—</strong> all of these stories are present in our<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> culture, and I would say the<br />

time is now. The world is “smaller” due to<br />

the internet and social media. People are<br />

craving their reflection.<br />

I would like my career to go into<br />

writing and producing stories about the<br />

immigrant experience. I love stories<br />

about outsiders who, through sheer will,<br />

create their own path. I would love to<br />

explore more magical realism, and follow<br />

my personal mission of depicting people<br />

who usually don’t get seen or given the<br />

opportunity to be visible.<br />

I<br />

try to return to Tobago at least once<br />

a year. Most recently I was in T&T<br />

briefly in the days before Carnival<br />

2017, but then had to rush back to set<br />

to complete shooting for Black Panther.<br />

It never works out perfectly to be there<br />

for Carnival, but I try every year. I fail<br />

because Carnival usually falls at one of<br />

the busiest times of year for me. That said,<br />

I love coming home. It charges me up.<br />

There are still a lot of things in process.<br />

Homes get built by people with their bare<br />

hands, with their blocks and cement and<br />

PVC pipes, and things aren’t finished, and<br />

it always feels like me. I’m in process <strong>—</strong><br />

I’m unfinished.<br />

Film, and my current life, are all about<br />

the product and the end result <strong>—</strong> but,<br />

to me, it’s the story in the process that<br />

makes everything worthwhile. So my<br />

focus tends to stay there, and coming<br />

home always reminds me of that. It keeps<br />

me grounded.<br />

I want to say a big shout-out to Bunji<br />

Garlin and Machel Montano <strong>—</strong> because<br />

I listen to their music almost every day.<br />

“Buss Head” <strong>—</strong> I listen to their lyrics of<br />

artistry, patience, process, and integrity.<br />

It reminds me that I come from a place<br />

with beautiful people who create and<br />

know themselves. It makes me further<br />

interrogate who I am and why I do what<br />

I do. n<br />

Black Panther will be released on 9 <strong>February</strong> in the UK, and 16 <strong>February</strong> in<br />

the US. For a longer version of this interview, visit discovertnt.com<br />

74 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


ARRIVE<br />

Photostravellers/shutterstock.com<br />

76 Destination<br />

Escape to Tobago<br />

88 Neighbourhood<br />

Gustavia,<br />

St Barthélemy<br />

96<br />

Round trip<br />

Art in the open<br />

Despite the ravages of Hurricane Irma, St Barthélemy is ready to receive visitors


Destination<br />

The beach is usually a place to relax, but there<br />

are also options to get your blood racing <strong>—</strong> like a<br />

shoreline canter on horseback. As co-founder of the<br />

Buccoo-based NGO Healing with Horses, Veronika<br />

Danzer-La Fortune introduces differently-abled<br />

youngsters to a gentle equine herd for fun and<br />

therapeutic play<br />

76 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Carnival season is bacchanal time in T&T. But<br />

although Tobago has its share of the intense<br />

action, Trinidad’s smaller sister island still manages<br />

to hold on to its tranquil vibe year-round. If<br />

Carnival isn’t your thing, and you’re looking for an<br />

escape option, Tobago’s lush hills and clear, warm<br />

waters beckon <strong>—</strong> as you can see in this photo<br />

essay. Prepare for a dose of true natural beauty<br />

piotrandrewsphotography.com<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 77


The numerous small rivers tumbling down<br />

Tobago’s hillsides create an abundance of<br />

waterfalls <strong>—</strong> some of them popular tourist<br />

spots, others known only to locals. Getting<br />

to Parlatuvier Falls <strong>—</strong> near the village of the<br />

same name on the island’s Leeward Coast<br />

<strong>—</strong> requires an arduous scramble over giant<br />

boulders, but the reward is a pristine pool<br />

surrounded by emerald green foliage<br />

marianne s. hosein<br />

78 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Villas Are Us<br />

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We specialize in seaside villa rentals, so call to let us<br />

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WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 79


Tobago has no shortage of pristine blue<br />

bays <strong>—</strong> but, for many locals, Pirate’s Bay near<br />

the island’s northern tip may be the most<br />

treasured of all. On the outskirts of the village<br />

of Charlotteville, it’s accessible only by boat or<br />

footpath, making it an oasis of quiet<br />

‘Life is always Sweeter at the Sugar Mill Suites, Tobago Plantations’<br />

Contact us: (868) 631-1054/639-8000 | E: rentals@tobagoplantations.com<br />

Or visit our website: www.sugarmilltobago.com<br />

80 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


joanne husain<br />

Luxury<br />

Villa Rental<br />

Experience the Grandeur of<br />

Old-Fashioned Nostalgia<br />

Situated on a majestic cliff overlooking Bacolet Beach, Blue Haven<br />

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BLUE HAVEN HOTEL<br />

Bacolet Bay, Tobago | Tel: 868 660 7400<br />

E: reservations@bluehavenhotel.com<br />

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124 Anthony Charles Crescent,<br />

Bon Accord<br />

info@tomasvillas.com<br />

(868) 765 8602<br />

www.tomasvillas.com<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 81


Over two hundred and forty bird species<br />

have been recorded on Tobago <strong>—</strong> from<br />

shy manakins to gregarious parrots,<br />

impressively large tropicbirds to tiny<br />

hummingbirds, their iridescent plumage<br />

catching the light as they flit among<br />

nectar-filled flowers<br />

DebraLee Wiseberg/istock.com<br />

ADVERTORIAL<br />

Barcode<br />

This Carnival season, Barcode continues to bring premier<br />

entertainment in our “I Love Soca” series. Every Tuesday,<br />

from 2 <strong>January</strong> to 13 <strong>February</strong>, <strong>2018</strong>, Barcode showcases<br />

the best soca artistes from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados,<br />

Grenada, St Vincent, and beyond. Situated on the<br />

Scarborough Waterfront, our bar/club hybrid is unique as<br />

the island itself. Our newly extended outdoor decking is fully<br />

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with the extraordinary feel of the southern Atlantic breeze.<br />

Blue Haven<br />

Experience the grandeur of old-fashioned nostalgia!<br />

Situated on a majestic cliff overlooking Bacolet Beach,<br />

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its retro-charm, Blue Haven combines the ambiance and<br />

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Guys Autozone<br />

When visiting beautiful Tobago, why not optimise your<br />

exploring by renting a vehicle from Guys Autozone? What<br />

can you expect from this family-owned company? We offer<br />

the most affordable rates on the island and individualised<br />

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to remain the best in the auto rental industry, we ensure a<br />

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Island Investments<br />

Leading real estate and villa rentals, established for over<br />

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vacation home rentals in Tobago. Our standards exceed the<br />

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personalised, knowledgeable service.<br />

Peeping Fish<br />

“Where beach meets street.” The one-stop shop for the<br />

trendiest local and international brands of swimwear,<br />

resortwear, footwear, and accessories. Our eclectic mix of<br />

specially curated pieces celebrates the individuality of the<br />

adventurous spirit, on or off the beach.<br />

82 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


WE specialize in<br />

• intimate weddings ,<br />

• every day floral arrangements<br />

• bridal bouquets<br />

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(o) 1 868 639 8828/660 8828 | (m) 1 868 360 0179<br />

eyefordesignflowershop@gmail.com<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 83


Viewed from beach level, the jetty at<br />

Pigeon Point and its thatched shed may be<br />

Tobago’s most instantly recognisable and<br />

most photographed landmark. But from<br />

high above it’s barely a speck in the broad<br />

expanse of shallow blue water extending<br />

all the way out to Buccoo Reef<br />

tarique eastman<br />

84 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


An Oasis of Serenity<br />

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info@plantationbeachvillas.com<br />

Tel: (868) 639-9377<br />

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• Warm friendly service<br />

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Come home to yourself… come home<br />

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(868) 660 7748/395 8330<br />

Black Rock • Tobago • Tel: 868-639-0361<br />

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reservations@stonehavenvillas.com<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 85


As any Tobagonian can tell you, the island’s<br />

Main Ridge is home to the oldest legally<br />

protected forest reserve in the world, dating<br />

to 1776 <strong>—</strong> an early milestone in the history<br />

of conservation. The reserve is home to<br />

hundreds of species of wildlife, and protects<br />

Tobago’s watershed <strong>—</strong> and is criss-crossed<br />

by hiking trails that can take you to the very<br />

heart of the island’s natural splendour<br />

DebraLee Wiseberg/istock.com<br />

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Just twenty-five miles long and six wide,<br />

Tobago can feel bigger than its size on<br />

the map, thanks to its rugged terrain<br />

and winding mountain roads<br />

DebraLee Wiseberg/istock.com<br />

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Among villages of modern concrete<br />

houses, a few Victorian-era wooden<br />

gingerbread cottages still survive. Even<br />

the most modest boast hints of elaborate<br />

fretwork, and high-pitched roofs<br />

designed to repel tropical downpours<br />

chris anderson<br />

88 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Bambú<br />

GIFT SHOP<br />

Rare & exotic arts and crafts<br />

made in the <strong>Caribbean</strong><br />

Lovely <strong>Caribbean</strong> wear, collectibles,<br />

accessories and much more...<br />

#199 Milford Road, Crown Point, Tobago<br />

T. 868-639-8133<br />

E: mariela0767@hotmail.com<br />

Tobago<br />

Resort wear<br />

Coco Reef Resort and Spa<br />

(868) 631 5244<br />

Magdalena Grand Beach Resort<br />

(868) 631 0960<br />

Tobago Plantaons, Lowlands, Tobago. Tel: 868 660 4411<br />

Open: Wed to Mon 10am-11pm. Closed on Tuesdays.<br />

GOOD<br />

food<br />

GOOD<br />

prices<br />

Cnr Crompstain & Milford Rds, Crown Point, Tobago<br />

Tel: (868) 639-8660 goodeatstobago<br />

*Across the road from the ANR International Airport<br />

Crown Point, Tobago<br />

Casino/Bar: 868 631-0044/0500<br />

Jade Cafe: 868 6398361<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 89


Goats <strong>—</strong> like these, heading home on a<br />

rural lane <strong>—</strong> are staple livestock in Tobago.<br />

They also become the star attraction at<br />

Easter, when traditional goat-racing brings<br />

out the island’s competitive instincts<br />

chris anderson<br />

ADVERTORIAL<br />

Shaw Park Complex<br />

Home to stunning local art and a stellar events team who<br />

ensure an exceptional and tailored experience for every<br />

guest. The 5,000-capacity Shaw Park Complex is a modern<br />

centre for the arts which features both theatre and<br />

conferencing capabilities.<br />

Skewers<br />

One of the island’s gems, Tobago’s number one Arabic<br />

restaurant, providing a consistently exquisite menu of unique<br />

Middle Eastern food infused with a local flavour, for over ten<br />

years. There’s only one Skewers. 100% Halal.<br />

The Sugar Mill Suites<br />

Nestled in the unsullied Tobago Plantations Beach &<br />

Golf Resort, you can choose between our comfortable<br />

luxurious modern “homes,” our elegant old-fashioned<br />

condo-style units, and our cozy bungalows. These types of<br />

accommodation offer you the convenience and excellent<br />

service you’d expect from a top class-resort. Find out more<br />

about Sugar Mill Condos, Bungalows, and Villas to better<br />

accommodate you.<br />

Tomas Villa<br />

This luxurious villa, recently renovated, is located in the Bon<br />

Accord Development, five minutes from the A.N.R. Robinson<br />

International Airport and the popular beaches of Store Bay<br />

and Pigeon Point. Restaurants, nightlife, and supermarkets<br />

are only minutes away. Tobago is known for its green,<br />

clean, and serene atmosphere. You’ll be enthralled by its<br />

tranquility, diverse cultures, beautiful beaches, and dive sites.<br />

Tropikist Beach Hotel & Resort<br />

Tropikist offers a stunning panoramic view, an ideal location<br />

close to the airport, plus easy access to beaches, local<br />

attractions, and activities. Bask in the sun, then enjoy a<br />

cocktail as the sun sets! Tropikist <strong>—</strong> your tropical destination.<br />

Villas Are Us<br />

We are a small full-service rental agency, offering effortless<br />

vacations and villas which are among the most beautifully<br />

appointed and ideally situated on the island. Our caring staff<br />

is committed to seeing that your every need is met.<br />

90 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 91


Sunset at Mt Irvine Bay, Tobago’s most<br />

popular surfing site<br />

welmoet photography<br />

Spacious, Comfortable, Rustic Community Lane,<br />

Tasty local lunches [from $25]<br />

Mt Pleasant,<br />

Delicious Fireside Curries<br />

Tobago<br />

Well Stocked Bar<br />

(868) 313 2917<br />

(868) 298 5249<br />

Happy Hour Fridays<br />

See our reviews<br />

After-work Specials<br />

on Google Maps,<br />

10 Minutes from Crown Pt Tripadvisor & Facebook.<br />

Steak & Seafood Dinners For more information visit<br />

[from $120]<br />

www.honeysrestaurants.com<br />

92 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Little Tobago<br />

Charlotteville<br />

Tobago Main Ridge<br />

Forest Reserve<br />

Black Rock<br />

Buccoo Reef<br />

Speyside<br />

Pigeon Point<br />

Store Bay<br />

Scarborough<br />

Crown Point<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines operates numerous flights each day between<br />

Trinidad and Tobago<br />

<br />

<br />

Roosserie & Grill PLUS<br />

Roosserie Chicken<br />

Pork Chops | Baby Back Ribs<br />

Garlic Chicken | BBQ Pigtail<br />

Grilled Fish | Jerk Wings<br />

Buffalo Wings<br />

and more<br />

Located at Pelican Plaza,<br />

Milford Road, Crown Point,<br />

Tobago, W.I.<br />

Tel. (868) 639-8563<br />

Sister outlets<br />

ANR Robinson airport<br />

639 5000<br />

Shirvan Plaza<br />

631 1000<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 93


NEIGHBOURHOOD<br />

cdwheatley/istock.com<br />

t:mtcurado/istock.com<br />

Gustavia,<br />

St Barthélemy<br />

The postcard-perfect capital of St Barts<br />

looks like a small French harbour town<br />

transplanted in the Antilles <strong>—</strong> with a<br />

Swedish twist to its Gallic charms<br />

After the storm<br />

Although battered by Hurricane<br />

Irma in September 2017, the<br />

residents of Gustavia got to work in<br />

the immediate aftermath, cleaning<br />

up and rebuilding their town.<br />

By the end of October, St Barts<br />

authorities reported that the island<br />

was ready to receive visitors for<br />

the traditional start of the tourism<br />

season in November.<br />

Streetscape<br />

Gustavia’s U-shape is determined by the<br />

contours of its harbour, hemmed in by<br />

the hills to the east, and watched over<br />

by three Swedish-era forts. Swedish<br />

influence is also evident in the town’s<br />

historic architecture, with its redroofed,<br />

white-painted stone houses, now<br />

scrupulously restored. Look out for the<br />

clock tower on Rue Gambetta, shaped<br />

like a slightly squat obelisk, with an<br />

upper-section of blue-painted timber<br />

<strong>—</strong> the remnant of a church destroyed<br />

long ago in a hurricane. The bell, dated<br />

to 1799, is still rung to mark municipal<br />

celebrations and other momentous<br />

events. Another town landmark is a huge<br />

eighteenth-century anchor discovered<br />

by accident in 1981, thought to have<br />

belonged to a ship of the Royal Navy.<br />

mtcurado/istock.com<br />

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History<br />

When St Barthélemy was claimed by France in 1648, Le Carénage <strong>—</strong> the small,<br />

narrow bay on the island’s west coast, sheltered by volcanic hills <strong>—</strong> was the natural<br />

site for a harbour. In 1784, St Barts was ceded by France to Sweden, beginning a nearcentury<br />

of Scandinavian rule. The Swedes renamed the capital after King Gustav<br />

III, and declared Gustavia a free port, opening an era of highly profitable trade (and<br />

smuggling). Repurchased by France in 1878, the island declined into an economic<br />

backwater until the 1960s, when electricity finally arrived and the construction of<br />

a small airport encouraged the first tourist resorts. High-end tourism is now the<br />

mainstay, as St Barts has developed a reputation as a playground of the international<br />

jet-set, who converge here in their yachts for New Year’s celebrations <strong>—</strong> when locals<br />

retreat to their homes, awaiting the return of the low season.<br />

leonard Zhukovsky/shutterstock.com<br />

Elvira Sa/shutterstock.com<br />

Time for a swim<br />

St Barts’s beaches are deservedly<br />

famous, and the island’s compact<br />

size <strong>—</strong> less than ten square miles <strong>—</strong><br />

means they’re all within easy reach of<br />

Gustavia. Nearest to hand is popular<br />

Anse de Grands Galets, better known<br />

as Shell Beach, just over the hill from<br />

the harbour and below Fort Karl. (As its<br />

name suggests, the beach is strewn with<br />

pink seashells underfoot.) Further out<br />

along the coast, you can take your pick:<br />

does your dream beach have trendy bars<br />

and restaurants like St-Jean on the north<br />

coast, or do you prefer a more isolated<br />

locale, like Gouverneur to the south (with<br />

its view of St Kitts) or rugged Colombier<br />

at the island’s western tip, accessible<br />

only by a hiking trail?<br />

Souvenir<br />

Given the extremely well-heeled<br />

demographic of most St Barts visitors,<br />

it’s no surprise that Gustavia boasts<br />

some of the <strong>Caribbean</strong>’s poshest<br />

boutiques, including branches<br />

of designer shops from the most<br />

fashionable Paris streets. You’ll have<br />

no trouble replacing your Louis Vuitton<br />

luggage, your Hermès scarf, your<br />

Cartier necklace. In a somewhat<br />

less ruinous price range,<br />

you can also find boutiques<br />

with locally made jewellery<br />

and straw hats, and beauty<br />

products from Ligne St Barth,<br />

made with indigenous herbs<br />

and ingredients like mango butter,<br />

frangipani, and pineapple.<br />

Fort to fort<br />

Gustavia is small enough to explore<br />

by foot in a morning, and the town’s<br />

three forts make ideal guideposts.<br />

Start on the eastern side of the harbour<br />

entrance, where the Quai Jeanne d’Arc<br />

is overshadowed by the remains of<br />

Fort Gustav and its almost comical<br />

lighthouse. From here, you can scope<br />

out your entire route: south along the<br />

waterfront to St Bartholemew’s Anglican<br />

Church, then west to Fort Karl, then<br />

north again along the harbour to Fort<br />

Oscar and the Municipal Museum in the<br />

eighteenth-century Wall House, home<br />

to everything from historic artifacts<br />

to natural history specimens and local<br />

craft. Should your stroll rouse a thirst,<br />

you’ll have your pick of chic little cafés<br />

where the atmosphere ranges from<br />

French to very French.<br />

Gustavia<br />

Co-ordinates<br />

17.9º N 62.9º W<br />

Sea Level<br />

St Barthélemy<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines operates regular flights to Princess Juliana International<br />

Airport in Sint Maarten, with connections on other airlines and via ferry to<br />

St Barthélemy<br />

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Round Trip<br />

It’s a common sight in Port-au-Prince:<br />

informal outdoor galleries set up by<br />

working artists like Baptiste Jonas, who<br />

displays his paintings in the Petionville<br />

neighbourhood, hung salon-style on<br />

a chain-link fence. All are available<br />

for sale, or simply to catch the eyes of<br />

passing traffic<br />

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Across the <strong>Caribbean</strong>, Carnival brings astonishing artistry out into the<br />

streets. But all year round there are ample opportunities to experience<br />

art in public spaces, out in the open <strong>—</strong> en plein air, as a painter might<br />

say. From murals to monuments, here’s a regional roundup of outdoor<br />

art that doesn’t require you to set foot in a museum<br />

Hemis / Alamy Stock Photo<br />

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Born in Ciudad Bolívar, the Venezuelan<br />

artist Jésus Soto (1923–2005) is<br />

famous for his interactive Penetrable<br />

sculptures, in which flexible hanging<br />

tubes create geometric forms that<br />

viewers can enter. Like this red sphere,<br />

which floats along the Francisco<br />

Fajardo highway in Caracas<br />

paolo costa/shutterstock.com<br />

98 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


imagebroker/alamystockphoto<br />

Officially known as the 1763<br />

Monument, towering above<br />

Georgetown’s Square of the<br />

Revolution, this sculpture by<br />

pioneering Guyanese artist Philip<br />

Moore (1921–2012) depicts the<br />

rebel leader Cuffy, mastermind of<br />

a rebellion against slavery in the<br />

colony of Berbice. The statue’s<br />

intricately carved surfaces include<br />

West African and Amerindian<br />

symbols of strength and power<br />

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Devised by the Fresh Milk art centre in 2014, the Fresh Stops<br />

project commissioned six young artists to produce original artworks<br />

to be incorporated into roadside benches across Barbados. Works<br />

by Simone Padmore (above) Matthew Clarke (right), Mark King<br />

(below right), Versia Harris (below), and others put provocative<br />

imagery literally behind the backs of commuters across the island<br />

courtesy fresh milk<br />

courtesy fresh milk<br />

COURTESY fresh milk<br />

courtesy fresh milk<br />

100 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


A landmark of the<br />

University of the West<br />

Indies Mona campus in<br />

Jamaica, the mural by<br />

Belgian artist Claude Rahir<br />

(1937–2007) <strong>—</strong> completed<br />

in 1979 <strong>—</strong> adorns the<br />

façade of the Assembly<br />

Hall. Three stories high,<br />

it depicts the university’s<br />

eight faculties alongside<br />

images of children at<br />

school and at play<br />

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Jeff Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images


On Martinique’s southwest coast,<br />

the Anse Cafard Slavery Memorial<br />

is an unforgettable reminder of the<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong>’s tragic past. Created by<br />

sculptor Laurent Valére in 1998, the<br />

memorial’s hulking concrete figures<br />

<strong>—</strong> each eight feet tall and staring out<br />

to sea <strong>—</strong> depict a group of Africans<br />

drowned nearby in 1830, shackled<br />

together in the hold of a slave ship. The<br />

figures’ posture suggests a powerful<br />

sorrow, while their rough-hewn faces<br />

project a determination to survive<br />

hemis/alamy stock photo<br />

104 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


ENGAGE<br />

arun madisetti/images dominica<br />

106 Green<br />

What follows the storm<br />

108<br />

The Deal<br />

Seaweed for sale<br />

110<br />

On This Day<br />

A distant light<br />

Recent sightings of Dominica’s national bird, the Sisserou parrot, prove that the endangered species survived Hurricane Maria


Green<br />

WhAT follows<br />

the storm<br />

When Hurricane Maria tore through Dominica<br />

in September 2017, lives were lost, homes<br />

destroyed, and businesses crippled. But the<br />

storm also took a toll on forests and wildlife <strong>—</strong><br />

with major implications for an economy that<br />

depends on eco-tourism. Paul Crask reports<br />

Photography by Paul Crask<br />

In the silent, misty morning after the<br />

hurricane, it both felt and looked<br />

like the end. With sustained winds<br />

recorded at 220 miles per hour, and<br />

gusting off the scale, the devastation<br />

wreaked by Hurricane Maria was so brutal<br />

and stark that it brought me to my knees.<br />

Lush forests were transformed to<br />

naked hillsides of leafless, skeletal shards<br />

that were once trees but now looked more<br />

like ghosts. Some had even had been<br />

stripped of their bark. Around eighty<br />

percent of Dominica’s 25,000 homes<br />

were damaged, with most losing at least<br />

the roof. Businesses were destroyed and<br />

wantonly looted, lives had been lost, and<br />

others were declared missing. A stunned<br />

silence reigned.<br />

While the socio-economic and infrastructure<br />

damage, clean-up, and repair<br />

became the immediate focus of the collective<br />

recovery efforts, the effect of the<br />

storm on the island’s natural heritage was,<br />

understandably, of secondary concern.<br />

It was not until the fourth week of the<br />

aftermath that I happened to hear a local<br />

radio broadcast discussing the impact of<br />

the hurricane on nature.<br />

“Nature takes care of itself,” said one<br />

expert, urging us not to worry about it<br />

too much, yet acknowledging that the<br />

revival of the island’s nature and wildlife<br />

was important for tourism. Increasingly,<br />

Dominica’s natural and cultural heritage<br />

are linked to tourism revenue, rather than<br />

something that ought to be preserved<br />

and celebrated in its own right. With<br />

the advent of destination marketing,<br />

nature has, rather unfortunately, become<br />

regarded as an eco-tourism product.<br />

Dominica’s habitats range from dry<br />

and littoral woodlands on its coasts to<br />

cloud forest atop its many volcanic peaks.<br />

But the predominant habitat, covering<br />

around eighty percent of the island, is<br />

rainforest. The island’s rainforest is home<br />

to a diverse and fragile ecosystem that<br />

includes around two hundred species of<br />

fern and rare birds such as the regionally<br />

endemic rufous-throated solitaire (or<br />

mountain whistler), four species of hummingbird,<br />

twelve species of bat, and the<br />

locally endemic and endangered red-neck<br />

(Jaco) and imperial (Sisserou) parrots.<br />

Hiking trails, often developed from<br />

historic traces used by Kalinago and<br />

Maroons, weave through this habitat in a<br />

vast but hidden network, and have become<br />

a draw for independent travellers with<br />

a love of the outdoors and unexplored<br />

places. Waterfalls, countless rivers, crater<br />

lakes, and one of the densest clusters of<br />

volcanoes beyond the Pacific Rim have<br />

earned the Morne Trois Pitons National<br />

Park UNESCO status, and Dominica<br />

has long branded itself the <strong>Caribbean</strong>’s<br />

“Nature Island.” With most hotels describing<br />

themselves in some shape or form<br />

as eco accommodation, and with many<br />

people employed in the eco-tourism<br />

service sector, nature has indeed become<br />

inextricably linked to earnings.<br />

Nature does take care of itself,<br />

and, thankfully, there’s been no<br />

suggestion anyone should interfere<br />

with its recovery in Dominica. But the<br />

leaves that were beginning to reappear on<br />

trees four weeks after the hurricane were<br />

far from a canopy. And a rainforest really<br />

needs a canopy.<br />

Without a full leaf canopy, the forest is<br />

exposed to full sunlight, and plants that<br />

are opportunistic and sun-loving will tend<br />

to occupy the spaces on the forest floor<br />

that were previously the domain of those<br />

that prefer the shade, and upon which<br />

other plants, mammals, reptiles, birds,<br />

insects, amphibians, and invertebrates<br />

are dependent. Without a canopy, birds<br />

such as the two endemic parrot species<br />

have no natural source of food, and will<br />

seek fruits elsewhere, usually in gardens<br />

or citrus plantations. In the weeks following<br />

the hurricane, people observed the<br />

Jaco parrot foraging in such places. In late<br />

November, there was finally a confirmed<br />

sighting of the Sisserou. Given that it<br />

exists only in Dominica <strong>—</strong> and is the<br />

national bird, appearing on the country’s<br />

flag <strong>—</strong> there is real concern that the species<br />

could be pushed closer to extinction.<br />

Recent studies of the effect of hurricanes<br />

on forests have been made in Brazil,<br />

Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Conclusions<br />

are varied, as are estimates of how long it<br />

takes for a forest to fully recover <strong>—</strong> ranging<br />

from fifty to four thousand years. But<br />

106 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Dominica’s Trafalgar Falls, a popular<br />

attraction for visitors, before and after<br />

Hurricane Maria<br />

in this kind of habitat are dependent on<br />

animals and birds to disperse seeds. If those<br />

creatures are not there to do that, or their<br />

numbers have been adversely impacted,<br />

new tree growth is reduced, along with<br />

future food sources.<br />

From my porch on the western slopes<br />

of the Morne Anglais volcano, I saw the<br />

landscape transition from brown to green<br />

within four weeks of the hurricane and,<br />

even though I know it is just thin new foliage<br />

painted over much deeper cracks, I see<br />

it as a promising beginning, and no longer<br />

an end. Nature may well recover better<br />

than its dependent eco-tourism sector,<br />

Nature may well<br />

recover better than its<br />

dependent eco-tourism<br />

sector, which has been<br />

very badly hit<br />

none of the studies followed a hurricane<br />

as severe as Maria, and even Dominica’s<br />

own experience after Hurricane David in<br />

1979 is not really comparable, as David<br />

was a weaker storm and predominantly<br />

affected the south of the island. Category<br />

five (plus) Hurricane Maria tracked<br />

through the middle of the island, and so<br />

all habitats were affected.<br />

Having hiked all over Dominica, and<br />

written about it for more than ten years, I<br />

am concerned, but not without hope. I do<br />

fear for the survival of the Sisserou, but<br />

I also know how fertile this island is and<br />

how quickly plants and trees grow. Also<br />

the sheer number of deep valleys and steep<br />

mountain slopes means that leeward-facing<br />

and other slightly more protected sections<br />

of forest perhaps did not suffer quite as<br />

much as those that are more exposed. In<br />

these largely inaccessible habitats, I would<br />

like to imagine the mountain whistler still<br />

sings and the Sisserou finds nourishment.<br />

But around eighty percent of tree species<br />

which has been very badly hit. It is estimated<br />

that around fifty per cent of hotels<br />

in Dominica will require a partial or total<br />

rebuilding period of a year or more, and<br />

(unsubstantiated) estimates of the scale of<br />

migration from the island by people who<br />

need to find a life and an income elsewhere<br />

are already quite disturbing.<br />

As time passes, I am hopeful that the<br />

shade-loving plants will out-muscle the<br />

sun-loving opportunists in Dominica, and<br />

that nature will thrive. But this has to be a<br />

time for fresh, new, creative thinking, and<br />

not simply more of the same. “The same”<br />

doesn’t exist any longer <strong>—</strong> and, with the<br />

obvious effects of climate change, more<br />

extreme weather events like Maria seem<br />

inevitable. The future is not what it used<br />

to be. n<br />

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THE DEAL<br />

Seaweed<br />

When the beaches of St Lucia<br />

were inundated with sargassum,<br />

Johanan Dujon didn’t see a<br />

problem <strong>—</strong> he saw an opportunity.<br />

Under the Algas Organics label, the<br />

young entrepreneur manufactures<br />

a sargassum-based fertiliser, and<br />

his eye is on a regional market.<br />

Erline Andrews learns more<br />

Back in 2011, sargassum seaweed <strong>—</strong> a greenishbrown<br />

mass of vegetation that usually originates<br />

from the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic <strong>—</strong><br />

began piling up on beaches across the <strong>Caribbean</strong>.<br />

It’s not unusual for the seaweed to appear<br />

seasonally, but scientists speculate that because<br />

of warmer temperatures due to climate change <strong>—</strong> plus the effect<br />

of man-made fertilisers and sewage contaminating the sea <strong>—</strong><br />

quantities grew dramatically, becoming a serious challenge for<br />

the <strong>Caribbean</strong>’s tourism and fishing industries, the mainstay of<br />

many islands.<br />

In 2014, the seaweed problem reached a peak. Twentyone-year-old<br />

Johanan Dujon was at a friend’s house when the<br />

conversation turned <strong>—</strong> as it likely did at many gatherings in<br />

St Lucia <strong>—</strong> to the sargassum, which was clogging the engines of<br />

fishing vessels, killing fish and crabs, and emanating a sickening<br />

odour as it rotted on beaches.<br />

“Her mom was mentioning that seaweed can be used as<br />

fertiliser, [and asking] why was nobody doing anything about<br />

it,” Dujon recalls. “That is where the thought came from. If this<br />

material is coming here and we can make something out of it,<br />

then we’d be solving two issues. We’d be creating a product that<br />

we could make money off of, that [also] kept the beaches clean.”<br />

Dujon, by his account, hadn’t been a brilliant science student.<br />

After graduating from the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College<br />

<strong>—</strong> where he studied literature, Spanish, and business <strong>—</strong> he was<br />

a primary school physical education teacher and ran a fishing<br />

supplies business. But he had the foresight to see an opportunity<br />

in the sargassum influx, and the drive and the family support to<br />

carry it out.<br />

For Sale<br />

“When I first came up with the idea, I couldn’t sleep. It was<br />

like a tugging <strong>—</strong> get up and go try something with the seaweed!”<br />

says Dujon. “I finally said to my father, Dad, let’s go and collect<br />

some seaweed to experiment. The average person who said that<br />

to their parents, their reaction would be, What are you doing?<br />

His reaction was <strong>—</strong> he has a pickup that we still use to move the<br />

products around <strong>—</strong> he says to me, OK, let’s go.<br />

“He would go out with me to collect the seaweed. My mom as<br />

well,” Dujon continues. “We would dry the seaweed in the initial<br />

instance and try to sell it off in front of supermarkets <strong>—</strong> and<br />

nobody bought one bag. Nobody. But . . . the point is the support<br />

was there from the onset. It’s still there now.”<br />

Today, Dujon is managing director of Algas Organics,<br />

which produces a liquid fertiliser <strong>—</strong> Algas Total Plant<br />

Tonic <strong>—</strong> made from sargassum. Dujon came up with the<br />

product after months of experimenting. He, his family,<br />

and a small team of part-time employees harvest the sargassum<br />

from affected coastlines and manufacture bottles of the fertiliser<br />

with support from international and local public agencies.<br />

After operating for several years out of the Dujon home, a<br />

processing plant will formally open later this year, and after<br />

selling to retailers and corporate clients in St Lucia, Algas has<br />

begun exporting to Barbados. Dujon hopes eventually to export<br />

to other countries in the region and beyond, and expand manufacturing<br />

operations to other parts of the <strong>Caribbean</strong> affected by<br />

sargassum. In <strong>January</strong> 2017, the St Lucia Chamber of Commerce<br />

named him Young Entrepreneur of the Year.<br />

Giles Romulus runs the UNDP’s Global Environment Facility<br />

Small Grants Programme in St Lucia, which helped fund<br />

Algas’s operations after Dujon agreed to share profits with the<br />

St Lucia Fisherfolk Cooperative Society, an NGO that represents<br />

the fishing community. “He got a lot of support,” Romulus<br />

explains, “and the fact that he’s willing to go into partnership<br />

with a civil society organisation that can benefit and also<br />

give him some guidance <strong>—</strong> that helped. Johanan realised he<br />

couldn’t do it alone.”<br />

Romulus points to Microsoft, Dell, and Facebook. “Many of<br />

the biggest companies in the world started in the university bed-<br />

108 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Marc Bruxelle/shutterstock.com<br />

“Being successful as an entrepreneur<br />

comes from you having the latitude<br />

to fail,” explains Johanan Dujon<br />

Courtesy<br />

Johanan Dujon<br />

room,” he says. “You start small and you look for opportunities<br />

for partnerships. [Algas] is an excellent example of a partnership<br />

that has brought results in a short period of time.”<br />

Romulus said he hopes the project will grow if another<br />

injection of funding is approved. In addition to the manufacturing<br />

plant, he’d like to see Algas set up a research lab. “We<br />

want expansion beyond sargassum,” he says. “St Lucia has a<br />

lot of endemic plants that need to be studied. I believe that<br />

there are chemicals in our plants in the <strong>Caribbean</strong> that are yet<br />

untouched.”<br />

Last year, Dujon was a presenter at the Earth Optimism Summit<br />

organised by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.<br />

The inaugural event was intended to celebrate and share successful<br />

ideas in environmental protection. Dujon was selected<br />

after responding to an invitation for submissions, and may have<br />

been the only representative from the English-speaking <strong>Caribbean</strong>.<br />

“We, in all of the environmental challenges that we’re<br />

faced with, have the opportunity to convert them into profitable<br />

ventures,” he told the audience.<br />

He presented test results that show Algas fertiliser performing<br />

better than the big American brand Miracle-Gro, and touted<br />

its organic nature. “Our product reduces the need for synthetic<br />

chemicals, which leach out into our soils and into our waters<br />

and increases your yield,” he told the summit. “If you match<br />

innovation with funding, mentorship, technical support, and<br />

community and environmental conscience, what you’re going to<br />

get is a revolutionary solution which can stand out at the global<br />

scale,” he concluded.<br />

There’ve been other ideas bandied about for making productive<br />

use of sargassum. A team at the University of the West<br />

Indies St Augustine campus has experimented with turning it<br />

into plastic. Barbadian environmental entrepreneur Mark Hill<br />

has made it into food and particleboard. But Dujon’s project<br />

seems to be the first to really bear fruit.<br />

He’s encountered other people who had the idea to convert<br />

the sargassum into salable fertiliser. “They had the idea but they<br />

couldn’t do it,” he says. “Entrepreneurship is about risks. I am<br />

twenty-something. If I leave my job and this doesn’t work, I can<br />

do something else. Being successful as an entrepreneur comes<br />

from you having the latitude to fail. If you have a mortgage and<br />

children and a wife, it’s not OK to fail. The younger you, are the<br />

easier it should be to take risks.”<br />

The region needs more venture capitalists, he says, to put<br />

money into risky but potentially lucrative start-up businesses.<br />

“Once you have that kind of network, then you would see entrepreneurship<br />

really take off.” n<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 109


on this day<br />

A DISTANT<br />

light<br />

For such a tiny, remote place, Sombrero<br />

Island in the Anegada Passage has had<br />

a surprisingly colourful history <strong>—</strong> from<br />

shipwrecks to a guano-inspired international<br />

incident to the crucial lighthouse that began<br />

service one hundred and fifty years ago.<br />

James Ferguson tells its story<br />

Illustration by Rohan Mitchell<br />

As dusk fell on the evening of 1 <strong>January</strong>, 1868,<br />

Europe-bound ships passing warily through the<br />

infamous Anegada Passage <strong>—</strong> the forty-mile<br />

stretch of water separating the British Virgin<br />

Islands from the northern tip of the Leewards<br />

<strong>—</strong> may have been surprised to see the regular<br />

and reassuring flashes of a distant lighthouse on their starboard<br />

side. A white glow appeared directly across the dark water every<br />

sixty seconds before fading away into the night. Some ships, it<br />

is said, sounded their sirens in appreciation as they headed out<br />

of the <strong>Caribbean</strong> Sea into the Atlantic. Once a dangerous place<br />

of hidden reefs and unpredictable currents, the Anegada Passage<br />

was suddenly a great deal safer.<br />

The site of the beacon was a tiny, arid outcrop at the northernmost<br />

tip of the Leeward archipelago, one of the most remote<br />

of the <strong>Caribbean</strong>’s seven thousand islands and a minuscule<br />

outpost of the British Empire. Named Sombrero Island because<br />

it resembled a Mexican hat in shape, this ninety-acre islet had<br />

no fresh water, almost no vegetation, and a large population of<br />

lizards and seabirds. It was considered part of the (relatively)<br />

larger colony of Anguilla and had belonged to Britain since 1714.<br />

The lighthouse, made of steel girders and shipped across<br />

the Atlantic from London, was assembled and situated on<br />

Sombrero’s highest point, forty feet above sea level. An engraving<br />

of 1875 shows an Eiffel Tower–like construction standing<br />

on a base, topped by a lantern room. It burned kerosene<br />

and was operated by a staff of four lighthouse keepers, who<br />

worked shifts at night to keep the light shining before it was<br />

extinguished at dawn.<br />

Sombrero was undeniably isolated, lying thirty-four miles<br />

northwest of Anguilla, but it had known irregular human<br />

habitation since the early nineteenth century. A British sailor<br />

marooned for stealing beer had survived his ordeal by being<br />

spotted by a passing American ship. It was then discovered<br />

by British geologists that vast accretions of seabird droppings<br />

had formed nitrate-rich guano deposits. News of this find<br />

reached the United States, and in 1856 an American company<br />

began extracting the fertiliser and exporting it back to the<br />

plantations of the South. Workers were required for the gruelling<br />

mining operation, and an exclusively black workforce was<br />

recruited from neighbouring islands. In its heyday, the operation<br />

employed two hundred men, accommodated in ramshackle huts<br />

and reliant on supplies brought from St Martin. As there was no<br />

port or beach, the guano had to be shovelled into barges which<br />

then transferred their cargo to boats lying off the island.<br />

Just like the extraction process, the social situation was<br />

unsustainable. A violent dispute over wages broke out in August<br />

1860, and, according to The New York Times, one of the workers<br />

“hurled a tremendous lump of guano at [a white foreman’s]<br />

head, crushed his skull with the blow, and left him for dead on<br />

the ground.” The workers then took over the island, plundering<br />

the stores, until order was finally restored. Seven years later,<br />

an international court ruled that the US company had illegally<br />

occupied the island, and sovereignty <strong>—</strong> together with the guano<br />

mine <strong>—</strong> was restored to Britain. Extraction continued until<br />

supplies ran out in 1890 and the mine was closed. Little remains<br />

of this nitrate mini-boom, apart from a few scattered industrial<br />

ruins, a worker’s tombstone, and the gouged, cratered landscape.<br />

110 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


Little remains of Sombrero Island’s<br />

nitrate mini-boom, apart from a<br />

few scattered industrial ruins<br />

Perhaps understandably for someone who spent thirty-one years<br />

adrift in the middle of the ocean with only four companions, Sam likes<br />

to talk. He was part of a team that consisted of a Principal Keeper, two<br />

assistant keepers and a cook. They would each spend six weeks on<br />

Sombrero and two weeks leave back on Anguilla. According<br />

to Sam, those six weeks flew by. Unless you got to<br />

brooding, that is. “Sometimes it<br />

could get a little boring if you<br />

started to think too much”<br />

. . . For recreation, the keepers<br />

snorkelled and fished.<br />

Once Sam saw a large shark<br />

while snorkelling, which, thankfully,<br />

was not interested in him. They listened<br />

to the radio, played cards or dominoes,<br />

and star-gazed.<br />

For twenty-two years, the lighthouse keepers had shared the<br />

island with a fractious community of miners and overseers,<br />

but now they were left on their own. The lighthouse itself<br />

was administered by Trinity House in London, the organisation<br />

charged with UK maritime safety. In 1931, improvements were<br />

made to its light power and it was given a solid concrete base. This<br />

proved ineffective, however, when Hurricane Donna smashed<br />

into Sombrero in September 1960, and damaged it beyond repair.<br />

It was demolished and replaced by a similar-looking skeletal<br />

structure mounted on a concrete base, inaugurated in July 1962.<br />

It was 126 feet high, requiring the keepers to climb 163 steps to<br />

reach the lantern room at the top.<br />

The lives of the lighthouse keepers from the 1970s are<br />

evocatively recreated in an article entitled “Marooned” by Sarah<br />

Harrison in The Anguillian. Interviewing the recently retired Sam<br />

Richardson in 2013, she captures the strange, lonely existence<br />

of those men:<br />

This way of life was to end, to<br />

Sam’s regret, in September 2001,<br />

when a third, automated lighthouse<br />

was donated to Anguilla’s<br />

government by Trinity House and<br />

installed alongside the now disused concrete<br />

bases of the two previous structures. Looking rather<br />

like a white space rocket ready for take-off, this fifty-foot<br />

unmanned facility emits a white flash every ten seconds, powered<br />

by solar energy.<br />

Sombrero Island continues to provide a vital maritime<br />

service, exactly 150 years after the first London-built lighthouse<br />

began guiding shipping through the feared Anegada Passage.<br />

Today it is uninhabited, visited occasionally for maintenance<br />

checks or by divers or ornithologists, who must climb steep<br />

metal stairs from a dinghy to reach flat ground. The site is eerily<br />

atmospheric, with crashing waves and the noise of breeding<br />

boobies and terns filling the air.<br />

Twenty years ago, in 1998, there were reports that the nowdefunct<br />

Beal Aerospace company wanted to lease the island<br />

as a test rocket launch pad <strong>—</strong> but, thankfully, the plans came<br />

to nothing. And that will probably remain the case, as one of<br />

Sombrero’s distinct disadvantages <strong>—</strong> along with its precipitous<br />

cliffs and lunar appearance <strong>—</strong> is the fact that at only forty feet<br />

above sea level, it is occasionally swamped by large waves during<br />

storms or hurricanes, leaving only the lighthouse standing<br />

above water. n<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 111


puzzles<br />

1 2 3 4 5 6 7<br />

CARIBBEAN CROSSWORD<br />

Across<br />

1 This ultra-hot chilli has a sting [8,6]<br />

9 Magical dexterity [7]<br />

10 Art style newly acquired [7]<br />

11 Something other [4]<br />

12 Borat’s former Soviet Republic [10]<br />

14 A monument, tall and pointy [7]<br />

15 Give generously [6]<br />

18 Apparition [6]<br />

20 Spartan [7]<br />

22 Like some rum barrels [5]<br />

24 Alongside [4]<br />

25 What was borrowed [4]<br />

27 Finish [3]<br />

28 Untruth [3]<br />

29 Like the dodo bird [7]<br />

30 Lord Invader’s most famous calypso hit [3,3,4,4]<br />

9 10<br />

11 12<br />

13<br />

14 15 16<br />

18 19 20<br />

21<br />

22 23 24 25<br />

26<br />

27 28 29<br />

8<br />

17<br />

Down<br />

1 Dominica’s rare national bird [8]<br />

2 When you miss your alarm [9]<br />

3 Books have these [4]<br />

4 Australia’s interior [7]<br />

5 The place to hear steel music [7]<br />

6 Softness and fluffiness [10]<br />

7 Function [5]<br />

8 Bird droppings make good fertiliser [5]<br />

13 Scent to ward off mosquitos [10]<br />

30<br />

16 Jamaican Akino Lindsay is a champ at this martial art [9]<br />

17 Blood feud [8]<br />

19 Blonde child [7]<br />

20 Historic Miami architectural style [3,4]<br />

21 Scandinavian prize [5]<br />

23 Invasive weed [5]<br />

26 Italian volcano [4]<br />

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE<br />

by James Hackett<br />

There are 10 differences<br />

between these two pictures.<br />

How many can you spot?<br />

Spot the Difference answers<br />

Boy on stilts has a different shirt; there is more detail in his head-tie; there is a handkerchief in the boy’s pocket; the left-hand stilts have<br />

grooves; the boy on the ground has a different shirt; there is more grass detail in the right image; the circle on the boy’s cap is bigger on the<br />

right; the boy’s cap has a different bill on the right; the boy on the right has a bandana on his hand; the shadows are different.<br />

112 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM


WORD SEARCH<br />

artist<br />

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Big Truck<br />

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<strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Beat</strong> Magazine<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Beat</strong> Magazine<br />

Sudoku<br />

by www.sudoku-puzzle.net<br />

Fill the empty square with numbers<br />

from 1 to 9 so that each row, each<br />

column, and each 3x3 box contains<br />

all of the numbers from 1 to 9. For<br />

the mini sudoku use numbers from<br />

1 to 6.<br />

Sudoku 9x9 - Puzzle 4 of 5 - Medium<br />

Medium 9x9 sudoku puzzle<br />

2 7 1 5<br />

5 6<br />

8 6 2 3<br />

5 2 7 3 6<br />

8 2<br />

3 4 8 9 1<br />

Sudoku 6x6 - Puzzle 3 of 5 - Medium<br />

Medium 6x6 mini sudoku puzzle<br />

1<br />

2 4<br />

1<br />

2 5<br />

If the puzzle you want to do has<br />

already been filled in, just ask your<br />

flight attendant for a new copy of the<br />

magazine!<br />

1 9 7 5<br />

7 4<br />

6 3 5 9<br />

www.sudoku-puzzles.net<br />

3 4<br />

4 6 1<br />

www.sudoku-puzzles.net<br />

www.sudoku-puzzle.net<br />

Solutions<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> Crossword<br />

Word Search<br />

U M A N D C O C A C O L A<br />

L Z L A C N D T<br />

N D 28 L I E 29 E X T I N C T<br />

Sudoku<br />

www.sudoku-puzzles.net<br />

Mini Sudoku<br />

Sudoku 6x6 - Solution 3 of 5 - Medium<br />

Sudoku 9x9 - Solution 4 of 5 - Medium<br />

6 4 2 3 5 1<br />

1 3 5 2 4 6<br />

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5 1 3 8 9 4 2 7 6<br />

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J S T O R E B A Y N O O R A M<br />

E E B H C I N A G R O M C H O<br />

S<br />

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8<br />

I V A U A L V G<br />

L E I G H T 10 N O U V E A U<br />

1 5 9 2 7 3 4 6 8<br />

4 8 7 5 1 6 9 2 3<br />

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3 4 1 9 6 7 5 8 2<br />

7 9 5 1 2 8 6 3 4<br />

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www.sudoku-puzzles.net<br />

S R E B Y S N A<br />

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5 1 3 4 6 2<br />

2 6 4 1 3 5<br />

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L S E 12 K A Z A K H S T A N<br />

R L 13 C C R I O<br />

B U E H D 26 E O E<br />

B E L I S K 15 D O N A 16 T E<br />

U E T E A 17<br />

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21<br />

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18<br />

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<strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Beat</strong> Magazine<br />

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 113<br />

<strong>Caribbean</strong> <strong>Beat</strong> Magazine


79% (2017 year-to-date: 10 December)


<strong>Caribbean</strong> Airlines<br />

/<br />

Across the World<br />

CARIBBEAN<br />

Trinidad Head Office<br />

Airport: Piarco International<br />

Reservations & information:<br />

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Ticket offices: Mezzanine Level, The Parkade,<br />

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Baggage: + 868 669 3000 Ext 7513/4<br />

Antigua<br />

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Ticketing: VC Bird International Airport<br />

Hours: Mon – Fri 8 am – 4 pm<br />

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Barbados<br />

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1 800 744 2225 (toll free)<br />

City Ticket Office: 1st Floor Norman Centre Building,<br />

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Baggage: + 1 246 428 1650/1 or + 1 246 428 7101<br />

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Grenada<br />

Airport: Maurice Bishop International<br />

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Jamaica (Montego Bay)<br />

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Ticketing at check-in counter:<br />

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St Maarten<br />

Airport: Princess Juliana International<br />

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(toll free)<br />

Ticketing: Terminal 4 – departures level (during<br />

flight check-in ONLY – 7.30 am to 7 pm)<br />

Baggage: + 954 359 4487<br />

Miami<br />

Airport: Miami International<br />

Reservations & information: + 800 920 4225<br />

(toll free)<br />

Ticketing: South Terminal J – departures level (during<br />

flight check-in ONLY – 12 pm to 3.00 pm);<br />

Baggage: + 305 869 3795<br />

Orlando<br />

Airport: Orlando International<br />

Reservations & information:<br />

+ 800 920 4225 (toll free)<br />

Ticketing: Terminal A – departures level<br />

(during flight check-in ONLY – Mon/Fri 11:30 am<br />

– 2.15 pm)<br />

Baggage: + 407 825 3482<br />

New York<br />

Airport: John F Kennedy International<br />

Reservations & information: + 800 920 4225<br />

(toll free)<br />

Ticketing: Concourse B, Terminal 4, JFK<br />

International – open 24 hours (situated at departures,<br />

4th floor)<br />

Baggage: + 718 360 8930<br />

Toronto<br />

Airport: Lester B Pearson International<br />

Reservations & information: + 800 920 4225<br />

(toll free)<br />

Ticket office: Terminal 3<br />

Ticketing available daily at check-in counters<br />

422 and 423. Available 3 hours prior to<br />

departure times<br />

Baggage: + 905 672 9991<br />

SOUTH AMERICA<br />

Caracas<br />

Airport: Simón Bolívar International<br />

Reservations & information:<br />

+ 58 212 3552880<br />

Ticketing: Simón Bolívar International Level 2 –<br />

East Sector<br />

Hours: 7 am – 11 pm<br />

City Ticket Office: Sabana Grande Boulevard,<br />

Building “Galerias Bolivar”, 1st Floor, office 11-A,<br />

Caracas, Distrito Capital<br />

+ 58 212 762 4389 / 762 0231<br />

Baggage: + 58 424 1065937<br />

Guyana<br />

Airport: Cheddi Jagan International<br />

Reservations & information: + 800 744 2225<br />

(toll free)<br />

Ticket office: 91-92 Avenue of the Republic,<br />

Georgetown<br />

Baggage: + 011 592 261 2202<br />

Suriname<br />

Airport: Johan Adolf Pengel International<br />

Reservations & information: + 597 52 0034/0035<br />

(local); 1 868 625 6200 (Trinidad)<br />

Ticket Office: Paramaribo Express, N.V. Wagenwegstraat<br />

36, Paramaribo<br />

Baggage: + 597 325 437


Destination:<br />

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737 onboard Entertainment <strong>—</strong> <strong>January</strong>/february<br />

Northbound<br />

Southbound<br />

J A N U A R Y<br />

Spider-Man: Homecoming<br />

Peter Parker’s attempts to fall back into his normal daily routine<br />

are threatened by the emergence of a new villain.<br />

Logan Lucky<br />

Jimmy Logan leads his siblings, Clyde and Mellie, in an elaborate<br />

scheme to rob North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway.<br />

Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, Jr • director: Jon Watts •<br />

sci-fi, action • PG-13 • 130 minutes<br />

Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig • director: Steven Soderbergh •<br />

comedy, drama • PG-13 • 119 minutes<br />

Northbound<br />

Southbound<br />

Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok<br />

Thor must race against time to stop Ragnarok <strong>—</strong> the destruction<br />

of his world and the end of Asgardian civilisation at the hands<br />

of the ruthless Hela.<br />

Murder on the Orient Express<br />

In the most timeless of whodunits, we follow renowned detective<br />

Hercule Poirot as he attempts to solve what would become<br />

one of the most infamous crimes in history.<br />

F E B R U A R Y<br />

Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett • director: Taika Waititi •<br />

sci-fi, action • PG-13 • 130 minutes<br />

Tom Bateman, Lucy Boynton, Kenneth Branagh • director: Kenneth<br />

Branagh • drama, thriller • PG-13 • 113 minutes<br />

Audio Channels<br />

Channel 5 • The Hits<br />

Channel 6 • Soft Hits<br />

Channel 7 • Concert Hall<br />

Channel 8 • East Indian Fusion<br />

Channel 9 • Irie Vibes<br />

Channel 10 • Jazz Sessions<br />

Channel 11 • Kaiso Kaiso<br />

Channel 12 • Steelband Jamboree


parting shot<br />

ISLAND<br />

bounty<br />

In Union Island, southernmost part of<br />

St Vincent and the Grenadines, the centre<br />

of action is Mulzac Square in the small town<br />

of Clifton. Piles of fruit and vegetables in<br />

vendors’ stalls make a series of colourful<br />

still-life scenes, while the brilliant blue water<br />

of Clifton Harbour glistens nearby.<br />

Photography by Nature Picture Library/Alamy<br />

120 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM

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