Caribbean Beat — January/February 2018 (#149)

But these are the newcomers. Other pioneers have been
training moko jumbies for decades, in some of Trinidad’s
poorer communities. In the north, it is Glen de Souza,
better known as Dragon, who in 1986 founded a cultural yard in
Cocorite, west of Port of Spain, to offer local kids a place to come
after school, free from crime and drugs. Initially, Dragon’s focus
was on dancing and drumming, but he soon noticed it was stilts
that got the kids excited. As one parent commented, “The kids
never want to come back to the ground.”
Over the years, Dragon’s Keylemanjahro School of Arts and
Culture has trained thousands, and his yard has become the safe
haven for a generation of young people. Singlehandedly, he is
the person who really paved the way for many others to take the
moko jumbie in different directions.
German photographer Stephan Falke became fascinated with
Dragon’s work in the mid-1990s, and for seven years he travelled
to Trinidad from New York City to document it. The resulting
oversized book, Moko Jumbies: The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad
(2004), is full of stunning colour photos of the young people who
answered Dragon’s call.
Overlapping with Falke’s time, Mexican-American artist
Laura Anderson Barbata spent five years coming to Dragon’s
yard to make costumes and help with the band in various ways.
Singlehandedly, Glen “Dragon”
de Souza is the person who really
paved the way for many others to
take the moko jumbie in different
directions
Prior to her arrival, the band wasn’t able to afford any level of
costuming, and often relied on body paint, especially bright
reds and blues, to stand out at Carnival. Anderson Barbata’s
work with the Keylemanjahro band created stunning narratives
and new possibilities, such as horse jumbies, scarlet ibis, and
portrayals inspired by the Dogon of Mali.
A 2007 documentary by German director Harald Rumpf, Up
and Dancing: The Magical Stilts of Trinidad, features the drama
of young members of Dragon’s group as they struggle against
family challenges to perform for Carnival. Keylemanjahro moko
jumbies have even made an appearance on Sesame Street. All this
outside support added to the exposure and interest in Dragon’s
work and in moko jumbies themselves. Over the years, Dragon
has faced various challenges, but he perseveres.
In south Trinidad, meanwhile, the moko jumbie catalyst is
Junior Bisnath of San Fernando. After receiving some initial
training from Dragon, Bisnath has gone on to train hundreds
himself with his Kaisokah moko jumbie group, running since
1995. Kaisokah has an active small group hired for numerous
corporate or government events. They’ve travelled to St Lucia,
Zimbabwe, the UK, and Panama to perform and train. Bisnath
even took a contingent of moko jumbies to the 2006 FIFA World
Cup competition in Germany, with the Trinidad and Tobago
national team.
Last year, Bisnath set his eyes on a new milestone. The
Guinness Book of World Records includes several stiltwalkers’
exploits. In June 2009, a total of 1,908 participants got on stilts
across the globe, from the US and Canada to Brazil, Russia, and
Macau, to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Cirque
du Soleil. And in 2011, 957 primary students in the Netherlands
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