The Guardian
Whether it’s online or on the streets, women have defined London’s huge celebration of Caribbean culture. We talk steel pans and skimpy costumes with the pioneers who set the tone
Caribbean queens … Allyson Williams, Sister Monica Tywang, Lady Lee Woolford Chivers and Kim WoolfordEngland, United Kingdom - ....“Marrying a Trinidadian was a dream come true,” she says. “I want my children to understand our legacy: the legacy of slavery, where I came from, to understand the culture of steel band and carnival.”
While their involvement with carnival might not stretch quite as far back as that of Tywang or Woolford Chivers, Debra Eden and Debi Gardner are a two-headed driving force behind much of what defines carnival in 2021. “We’re inseparable most of the time,” says housing worker Gardner.
She is an executive officer of the British Association of Steelbands (BAS), a year-round role that involves keeping the various bands that perform at carnival every year “functioning, connected and resourced”. She says each band has a unique identity but hers, Mangrove, understandably maintains a special place. “It’s the way that people associated with Mangrove fought for equality. All the challenges they faced that we’re still facing now … continuing that fight is central to who I am as a black woman.”
....Eden works with autistic children as an SEN teacher but after hours she is a carnivalist, and one who wears a number of hats in relation to the event. She plays with steelpan band Ebony and teaches with Mangrove. She sits on the carnival advisory council as a residents’ representative and performs as solo artist Pan Diva (“that’s my Sasha Fierce”).
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