THE CARNIVAL STORY
POLICE AND PRESS
INTERVENE
By Terry Joseph
Episode Three
Express
Section 2
Pages 12 & 13
Steelbands were the major 20th century targets of expatriate
police officials, but hardly the first Carnival component to experience such
treatment at the hands of the authorities.
Back
in the 1830s, the slaves had turned the canboulay (cannes brulles) into a kind
of second Carnival, as they completed the absolutely hazardous task of putting
out raging fires, deliberately set by the planters to remove unwanted trash
from sugar cane stalks.
Upon
attaining their freedom, the slaves took this re-enactment/celebration to the
French-creole pre-Lenten festival and simulated the original canboulay event,
by carrying lighted torches through the streets.
This
major infusion of the lower classes, comprising persons who threw the European
definition of elegance to the wind when interpreting the drum-rhythms, had now
added a fresh dimension to the Carnival.
Now,
apart from the free blacks, there were also predictably disgruntled people with
open flames at their disposal, dancing through the city.
Fears
among planters and merchants that this ritual could result in fires that would
level Port of Spain manifested as severe criticism of the black Carnival,
giving rise to the first utterances of negative comments about wining.
It
remains a widely held view that the Carnival is degenerating into little more
than "a virtual orgy, with some of the scenes parading in the streets
really indecent, offensive and disgraceful to the community."
That
quote, incidentally, first appeared in the San Fernando Gazette in
February 1850. The press of the day did
not unduly distress itself with reporting the majority position (or even the
facts) about Carnival, once the wishes of the landowners had previously been
made clear.
And
because the police force perceived its social responsibility as a kind of
mission to protect and serve just the rich, masqueraders from the lower classes
were routed at every opportunity and the canboulay re-enactment suppressed.
The
only respite from this continued harassment came when a new head of the
constabulary, Inspector Lionel Fraser, took office in 1875.
He was,
however, sacked two years later for allowing a resurgence of eh canboulay
processions.
The
officer who replaced him, Captain Arthur Baker, was not of similar
persuasion. Baker immediately set about
establishing that he was serious about policing the Carnival.
In 1881,
he attempted to ban the canboulay. Defiant
processions came onto the streets at midnight on Carnival Sunday anyway, but so
did Captain Baker and all the police force he could muster.
A riot
ensued, with neither side even contemplating retreat until sunrise of Carnival
Monday, by which time casualties littered the streets making February 28, 1991
the darkest day in the history of Trinidad Carnival.
The
people appealed to the empathetic Governor, Sir Sanford Freeling, who rode into
the heart of Port of Spain and spoke with them at the Central Market.
He explained
the fire hazard presented by the lighted torches (and it is useful to remember that
the city was then largely built of wood).
In exchange
for their understanding, he promised to confine the police to barracks, if the revelers
would be mindful of the danger their kind of mas posed.
In 1882,
as a mark of respect for this demonstration of trust, the grateful revelers deliberately
avoided conflict with police.
However,
the truce was short-lived.