The dazzle of Carnival has enthralled me for years. However, there is more to these celebrations than meets the eye.
Despite being planted by European colonisers, the histories of these festivities tell stories of liberation, solidarity, and the creative expression of Afro-diasporic communities. They are documentations of cultures that have thrived despite interference, in the most festive and celebratory ways.
Here is a list of some of the most famed carnivals across Africa and the diaspora— from the Caribbean to the UK and South America— that you should know about.
Here is a list of some of the most famed carnivals across Africa and the diaspora— from the Caribbean to the UK and South America— that you should know about.
1. Trinidad and Tobago Carnival
The term “carnival” stems from the Latin word “carnelevare”, which means to “remove meat”. This term appropriately relates to the Catholic observance of Lent, the forty days before Easter where Christians pray, fast, and abandon earthly pleasures, such as meat. The pre-Lent feast and celebrations that take place on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the day Lent begins, have been fittingly referred to as “Carnival”.
The Italian Catholics in Europe spread this tradition to the French and the Spanish, who established these festivities when they colonised Trinidad and Tobago in the 18th century. The colonisers reserved the celebrations for themselves. From masquerade balls to house parties and street parades, only the white elite was permitted. Middle-class POC and enslaved Africans could only participate if they were performing. While the colonists were indulging in their pre-Lent activities, the enslaved Africans created their own parallel festival named “Canboulay”, which was a precursor to the Trinidad and Tobago carnival we know today.
During “Canboulay”, the enslaved Africans mocked their colonisers through songs that they sang in French Creole. This music, which incorporated West African Kosia and Steelpan, came to be known as Calypso music.
On 1 August 1834, the enslaved Africans were emancipated, the now-free people took to the streets and re-enacted Carnival to celebrate their liberty.
Trinidad and Tobago was, and remains, a melting pot of cultures and religions, comprising free Black people of Trinidad, Africans, and the British, French, and Spanish that had occupied the land. This resulted in carnival being a more heterogeneous cultural tradition that drew influences from all ethnic groups. Lord Shorty wanted to revive traditional Calypso music with the addition of African and East Indian rhythms. This new genre was called Soca and is a solid part of various Caribbean carnivals today.
Trinidad and Tobago is considered the birthplace of Carnival in the Caribbean.
2. Jamaica Carnival
The University of the West Indies established itself in a neighbourhood few kilometres away from Kingston, Jamaica, in 1948. Students from the Eastern Caribbean, specifically Trinidad and Tobago, recreated a festival on campus similar to carnival from home.
At the time, the concept of carnival was foreign to Jamaica. It was this campus festival at the University of the West Indies that influenced Carnival in Jamaica. In 1989, Jamaican music pioneer, Byron Lee, conceptualised to officially bring the vibe of Trinidad and Tobago’s carnival to Jamaica.
Accordingly, the roots of Carnival in Jamaica stem from the events seen in Trinidad and Tobago. However, Carnival in Jamaica is divorced from the cultural and historic elements that inform Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, instead being solely for fun and entertainment. Furthermore, it takes place at the end of Lent, over the weekend after Easter, rather than the beginning.
Carnival has united Jamaicans socially and musically; it also brings tourism to the island.
3. Notting Hill Carnival
A significant number of people from the Caribbean settled in Britain in 1948. By 1950, Notting Hill and Brixton had the largest West Indian population in the country.
A far-right movement, part of Oswald Mosley’s union, stirred the local white working class to “Keep Britain White”. As a result, there were attacks on the Black communities of Notting Hill, Nottingham, and London. The murder of Kelso Cochrane during these attacks sparked outrage and resistance from these groups. In response to the hate from the white British, Trinidadian-born activist and founder of the West Indies Gazette, Claudia Jones, organised a Caribbean carnival to encourage solidarity within the growing Caribbean collectives, and to relieve the ongoing tension.
The first carnival organised by Jones took place indoors at St Pancras Town Hall at the end of January in 1959. In 1966, Rhaune Laslett and Andre Shervington, community activists, organised a street festival to entertain local children and ease racial tension.
Trinidadian musician, Russell Henderson, played a key role in the transformation of the festival into a carnival through incorporating a procession and Steelpan. This was the beginning of the Notting Hill Carnival.
Gradually, more Caribbean elements were included in the carnival. In 1973, Jamaican reggae, dub, and soca music were added to traditional Calypso and Soca music.
4. Crop Over
The history of Carnival in Barbados began on the sugarcane plantations during slavery in 1687. To mark the end of the yearly harvest, plantation owners would reward their slaves by giving them food and liquor. This harvest festival was initially called Harvest Home.
However, the cane workers created their own unsanctioned party to mark the end of the harvesting season. During this celebration, they made their own music with water bottles, shak-shak (musical instrument), banjos, triangles, fiddles, guitars, and bones preserving their own ancestral cultures in the process. The sugar industry saw a steady decline during World War II, so, during the 1940s, the festival came to an end.
Crop Over was officially relaunched in 1974 as a national festival by local stakeholders with the Barbados Tourist Board to attract tourists and interest in regional folk practices. The culmination of festivities begins on the 1st of June, which marks the start of harvest. On the 1st of August, the celebrations are wrapped up with a huge celebration, known as “Grand Kadooment”.
5. The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club
The celebration of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States of America, is also a pre-Lent Catholic tradition that was established by French fur traders in St. Louis, Missouri. Mardi Gras translated from French means Fat Tuesday and takes place on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.
A marching troupe of the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans initially called the Tramps, which was a group of Black men, went to see a musical comedy in the Pythion Temple theatre in 1909. A skit performed during the musical comedy by the Smart Set entitled, “There Never Was and Never Will Be a King Like Me”, was about the Zulu Tribe and it deeply influenced the Tramps. The characters in the skit wore grass skirts and black makeup. The group traded their baggy pants for grass skirts and renamed their marching troupe to the Zulus. This reorganisation was led by John L. Metoyer.
The first appearance of the Zulus was in 1909, with their king, William Story, who wore a lard can crown and carried a banana stalk as a sceptre. Being King of Zulu was a great honour as you had to be elected by the New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe. The prospects were required to campaign and host parties. In 1948, the krewe had their first Queen of Zulu, Edwina Robertson. The Krewe of Zulu never had any policies of racial discrimination, opposed to other parade organisations. All were welcome, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religion. They were also the largest African-American parade of all the Mardi Gras krewes.
The majority of the group belonged to a Benevolent Aid Society, which was the first form of financial aid and insurance in Black communities. The city was divided into “wards” and each area had their own group called a “club”. In 1916, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club signed their first official document that recognised them as an organisation with officers and members. In the 1960s, the club’s membership dwindled to just 15, due to petitions to boycott the club’s perceived disrespect to Black people, because they wore black face makeup, grass skirts, and threw coconuts. Civil rights activists deemed their presentation resembling white perceptions of Blackness, which was conducive to the plight of Black Americans.
Black Americans were not allowed to wear masks when the Zulu tradition was established. Instead, they were allowed to use black makeup. The induction of two civil rights leaders to the club lifted the tension and Zulu membership started increasing again.
In 1968, the Zulus were seen for the first time on the main parading streets of Mardi Gras, St Charles and Canal streets. Due to segregation, the Zulus were only allowed to appear on “back streets”. Unlike the other parading organisations of Mardi Gras, the Zulus could not afford the handmade glass necklaces that are thrown during the parade. The more affordable option for the group were coconuts. In 1987, they were unable to get any insurance coverage and there was an attempted halt on the throwing of coconuts. But in 1988, the Louisiana State Bill known as the “Coconut Bill'' was placed into law removing liability from injuries resulting from coconut throwing. With this, the age-old tradition resumed.
Initially, naturally plain and hairy, the Zulu coconuts are now hollowed out and painted. The beautifully decorated coconuts are now passed around during the parade and they are the most sought after throw of the Mardi Gras parade.
6. The Rio Carnival
“Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro” is considered the biggest carnival in the world.
The roots of the Rio Carnival also stem from Catholic pre-Lent tradition, this time being brought to Brazil by the Portuguese colonists in 1723. This original festival was called Entrudo— a celebration involving food, music, and a massive water fight. The water fight manifested a sense of equality between the slaves and the colonisers. They would all partake in the throwing of water and mud on each other.
This initial feeling of freedom and disregard of social rules was carried into carnival when Brazil abolished slavery, and Afro-Brazilians were allowed to participate in the full festival.
The Samba movement grew and schools aimed to be showcased at Carnival. Today, a key feature at the Rio Carnival is the Sambadrome, a ticketed exhibition place for Samba schools to parade during carnival.