I am writing this on Ash Wednesday, normally associated with cooling down after the bacchanal of Carnival. Trinbagonians have been suffering true ‘tabanca’ over the loss of Carnival this year due to the pandemic. For weeks now, the radio DJs and TV announcers have been expressing their sorrow and even disbelief at this reality. The pain has been palpable. I feel it too, even though I haven’t played ‘pretty ‘mas’ for a few years now, preferring the liberation of j‘ouvert. Bunji Garlin expresses it well in his hit song “Carnival Tabanca“.
Last year I wrote about How to Avoid Carnival in Trinidad . It seems heart-wrenching that I deliberately missed the festivities at that time while planning to definitely take part this year. However, Trinis still must express their seasonal art in some form or another. There have been a number of Carnival-themed art shows, such as PANdemic, a current tribute to the steelpan, at the Art Society of T&T.
I really enjoyed seeing the Carnival murals and sculptures presented by renowned local artist, Jackie Hinkson, along a street in St. Anns. Unfortunately, it was raining when I passed so I observed it from the window of a car. At least there were no people obscuring the show. I also loved the surprise of seeing the banners across Ariapita Avenue displaying Carnival-themed artwork by new and established artists.
Of course, there have been innumerable soca concerts, all live streamed with some in-house patrons, in keeping with COVID-19 protocols. I’m still seeing virtual events being advertised and there have been a number of television shows and films produced about Carnival. A Soca Monarch, Farmer Nappy, was crowned (he also won the virtual Road March competition) for “Backyard Jam” as well as there is a 2021 Chutney Soca Monarch and Queen.
Moko Jumbies made appearances on our streets https://twitter.com/i/status/1359613871640739851 and also other traditional Carnival characters. On Carnival Monday and Tuesday (normal work days) people went about their business in old costumes or just pranced on the street to loud soca music. Some wore black to mourn the loss of Carnival (I did). Many took to the Savannah to party, but were turned back by the COVID police. Even my Monday aquarobics class featured a calypsonian belting out past hits while we jumped and wined in the pool. You can’t stop the Carnival spirit!
This year we also mourned the loss of a young woman, snatched, violated and murdered by apparent serial killers, two of whom mysteriously died in police custody. This touched the hearts of the nation, resulting in marches protesting violence against women, vigils, prayers, etc. Suddenly, the use of pepper spray is to become legal and the Opposition actually supported the passing of an anti-crime bill. Will things change? Who knows, but I prophesied a grim future (as well as salvation) for this country in my short story “The Dream”.
Today also, we witnessed the first COVID-19 vaccinations being administered to front-line health care workers, courtesy of a batch of 2,000 doses kindly gifted to us by Barbados. Barbados is fighting an outbreak of the virus, even implementing a total lock-down over this coming weekend, because of foreigners escaping from quarantine. Thankfully, soon they will be getting almost as many vaccines as they have citizens, and can afford to be generous in sharing with other Caribbean countries.
T&T is also due to receive 100,000 to 120,000 Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX within the next couple of weeks. This presents hope for a turnaround in our fight against the Coronavirus. The Director-General of WHO has praised our Prime Minister for his leadership in successfully managing the COVID-19 outbreak in T&T. It’s good to get that validation.
