What Carnival Is?

Artist, researcher and cultural practitioner Pat Bishop discussed this question at the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago's (MATT) luncheon on Monday. Bishop was introduced by Judy Raymond (vice president of MATT, as well as editor of Caribbean Beat).

Bishop asserted that Carnival has to be written in big history, with no one person, clan, tribe or ethnicity being able to claim it: it is fundamental to the human condition. She argued that the headhunter in New Guinea is no different to the Hollywood star who paints her face with Max Factor, since it changes how she behaves and how she wants to be perceived; the ability to take the mask on and off allows you to become different people.

Bishop contended that, as we became more civilised, we used prayer, dance, theatre and music to approach that which we can't understand and that which keeps us alive. And as the global village swallows us, she posits, we risk being placed into boxes from which we can't expect to escape, since we are all afraid we'll lose our jobs if we speak out.

Rex Nettleford (who died on February 3 and who will be interred on Carnival Tuesday) on the other hand, spoke out for the Caribbean, as he recognised we are citizens of a wider world than we're prepared to acknowledge.

She reminisced how Nettleford commented at one time: "What a shame Trinidad has more dollars than cents (sense)". Instead, she said, we are very much part of a consumer world, ruled by "ah want, ah must have, you must gimme".

Today's Carnival resembles a Las Vegas show girl, according to Bishop, as we search for foreign validation. While she admits some of her concerns may simply be "of her generation", she agrees things change but at no point should Trinidadians and Tobagonians be factored out of the equation.

During the brief Q&A, Bishop, when asked her opinion on designers importing costumes from China and India, she said: "If you see Carnival as a business, go through hard, we may be poorer as for the state of our souls, but there are priests".

Photo: Former Miss Universe (1998) Wendy Fitzwilliam as captured by Martin Farinha and published by MEP in Discover Trinidad & Tobago 2010. 

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• T&T Carnival Calendar (meppublishers.blogspot.com)