CARIB POLITICS 500
YEARS LATER
Tracy Kim Assing
Sunday Guardian
January 30, 2000
Page 12
Removed 500 years from their ancestral cultural and
traditions, is the Carib community in Arima clinging to an already lost
heritage? The death of Carib Queen
Justa Werges on January 16, at the age of 73, left a void in the community
as it seeks to locate a new queen. But
as Tracy Kim Assing discovered when she trekked to the foothills of
Arima last week, there are many other gaps in the administration of the Carib community.
The
relationship between the late Carib Queen Justa Werges and the
Carib community was 'strained,' admitted community president Ricardo Barath in
an interview last week at the Carib Community Centre on Paul Mitchell Street.
Although
he would not go on record with the specifics of what caused the strained
relationship, Barath said this was behind the lack of special Carib elements in
the queen's burial. He said the Werges
family made all the arrangements and chose to not involve the Carib community.
Barath
has been the president of the Carib Santa Rosa community for over 24
years. He has also been a councilor for
the People's National Movement on the Arima Borough Council for the past six
years. He lists the organizational
structure of the Carib community as "queen, chief/captain, council of
elders (consisting of seven to nine persons), then members." The active members, mostly elderly men and
women, amount to about 200, but it is believed that there are 500 to 600
descendants living in Arima and environs.
Barath,
who lives in a modest but well-furnished apartment near the community centre,
explained that there were now three contenders for the position of Carib queen,
Valentina Medina, Julie Calderon and Norma Stephen. A queen, he said, was selected based on her knowledge of
traditions. She was usually someone who
was 'settled in life' or who had 'plenty experience in life.'
But
that was up for revision, Barath said, and he 'might seriously consider'
changing the choice from an elder person in order to get the youth involved,
and to allow for youths to participate in forums that call for Carib
representatives.
Yet,
the Carib queen concept is not traditionally part of Carib culture. It was influenced by the Roman Catholic
Church, although within Carib culture there is always a community
matriarch. Caribs were traditionally
led by a chief.
This
chief was chosen after a series of tests designed to ensure that he was able to
lead his people in battle and at peace time, that he was an exceptional hunter
and that he had some knowledge of traditional medicine.
In
his explanation of the organizational structure of the Carib community Barath
likened the president to a 'chief or captain.'
As for how he became chosen he said: "I was instrumental in getting
the majority of descendants to function on a regular basis and revived the
festival. We still live on church
lands. To own lands we had to be
registered. In order to be registered
we needed a structure. We still don't
own any land.
Barath
is peeved about the fact that the community has no land to call its own. He said he has presented a proposal asking
for the land to be handed over tot h community and for financial assistance to
develop it. He is also asking for a day
of recognition (Amerindian Heritage Day).
In
1993 he began agitating for Caribs to be given a parcel of land on the
Blanchisseuse Road, so members of the community could relocate and exist in as
real a Carib village, "planting corn, cassava and having access to
wildlife and indigenous plants when they need it."
He
said the community also intends to ask government for a review of their annual
$30,000 grant, as well as a stipend for the queen.
"In
the beginning the money was spent principally on the festival, but over the
years it has gone all ways, and then sometimes we only get part (of the
$30,000)," Barath said.
Without
elaborating further than the fact that the money was spent on the festival and
the upkeep of the Carib community centre, Barath said a review was now necessary
for "upgrading the centre for information, as there are regular visits
from schools and foreigners."
But
to all appearances it seems that the physical structure of the community centre
has changed little in the past 15 years.
And the photographs of old Carib men and women performing various tasks
that adorned the interior walls seem to have disappeared. There is no sign of the gifts brought to the
community over the years by visiting indigenous people.
Barath
said in order to really handle the visitor traffic someone would have to be
hired to be at the centre to greet visitors and educate the curious.
Although
a few community members claimed that the food is prepared in large quantities
all year round and that they get paid "a little $200 for their labour
sometimes," Barath said the community makes a small but
"unreliable" income by selling some of their indigenous foods and
handicraft.
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A ONCE GREAT TRIBE
FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL
Manuel Adrian Pantin
Sunday Guardian
January 30, 2000
Page 12
Just
south of the land where the Muslimeen erected their mosque and school the
Caribs used to launch raids on Spanish settlements.
Mucurapo
is an Amerindian name and it was the site in western Trinidad of ferocious
battles between the Indians and the Spanish colonists who had established
military bases there.
The
Caribs lived mainly along the banks of the Orinoco River in southeastern
Venezuela and built canoes, which they used to travel to Trinidad and other
islands in the Caribbean.
The
Spanish named the entire region after the Indians. They found the Caribs as far north as Hispaniola (today, divided
between the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and as far south as northern Brazil.
The
Caribs were the dominant Indian tribe in Trinidad when Christopher Columbus
arrived on the island in 1498. They had
conquered the other Indian clans, including the more pacific Arawaks.
They
had settlements at Mucurapo and the Chaguaramas peninsula and various parts of
south Trinidad. They also settled in
various areas of northern Trinidad, particularly Arima and Lopinot.
The
Spanish, armed with the sword and the cross, eventually subdued the
Caribs. Those who did not succumb in
battle or become enslaved were converted into tame Christians who were taught
to be humble and submissive in the hope of everlasting eternal reward in the
hereafter.
But
not before the Caribs had put up fierce resistance, raiding Spanish army camps
at Mucurapo from their settlements in south Trinidad and from neighbouring
Venezuela.
Today,
the descendants of the Caribs number just a few thousand on the island in which
they once reigned supreme. They have
lost all their land, language, customs and tradition and their descendants now
speak and practise the conquerors' language and religion.
One
of the largest groups of Carib descendants resides today in Arima.
After
the British ousted the Spanish from Trinidad about 200 years ago, the remaining
Caribs were already set in their imitation of the Iberian colonists. Many took Spanish surnames and spoke that
language.
In
an interview with Sunday Guardian's Tracy Assing, Carib community leader
Ricardo Barath lamented that the Carib language was lost and the upkeep of
tradition is in decline.
He
also complained that he "has a real problem" with how the Catholic
Church treats the Carib community: "The Church was instrumental in killing
Carib traditions, and in the early days when there was no one else in Arima,
the Church depended on the Amerindians.
Now the community is insignificant to the Church."
He
suggested that Church authorities ensure that any priest who comes to the
parish is made aware of Carib traditions and pledges to uphold them.
Today,
the Caribs of Arima speak mainly English, practise the Catholic religion, and
are as destitute as the Spanish had left them.
They
are remembered mainly for their annual Santa Rosa festival in Arima and for the
coronation of their Carib Queen. The
last one, Justa Werges, died recently.
Active members of the community number 200, but up to 600 Carib
descendants live in and around Arima.