Gerald Besson comments on the origins of Carnival and the Steel Drum with Dr. Edward Largo in the documentary The Rhythm of Steel with an audio clip of Mansa...
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I wish I could hear the entire interview as Besson says some disturbing things and one does not want to accuse him of saying what he did not mean to say.
For example, he seems to be saying that the 'prescription against drums' had more to do with a fear of the French influence than in a concern re the potential threat that lay inherent in the power of the culture of the black masses (some of which seemed to lie in the drum). Hinkson's statement seems to make the action more benign and less significant, and the Canboulay riots that followed, more mindless.
His statement re Carnival seeming to be dying out because of its being 'disreputable' and the black middle class, wanting to be 'respectable', losing interest, is also curious. He seems to belong to the group of historians that sees Carnival as a 'French Creole' thing into which blacks were slowly integrated. There is a strong, and more defensible, reading of the situation, where the blacks had developed masquerade 'traditions' of their own and these were only permitted to be 'shown' during the 'relaxed' period of the year when the whites celebrated their Carnival. It is these traditions that are the backbone of Carnival as we know it. This is why 'respectability' is still anathema. Part of Carnival has always been the urge to be 'disreputable', its origins being in the rebellious urge.
An atavistic urge pushes us to be 'grimee', to 'galavant' and to be not 'respectable' at Carnival time.
Finally AN MOST DANGEROUS, is his glib statement of a 'point of view that should be mentioned' that the blacks needed to "create their own god(s)". What is he talking about? Orisha? What?
Is he being a good Catholic? Or am I taking him out of context? (as I may be doing as the interview is truncated.)
Comments
Is the topic "Middle Class Blacks"?? I totally agree with Noel.
I wish I could hear the entire interview as Besson says some disturbing things and one does not want to accuse him of saying what he did not mean to say.
For example, he seems to be saying that the 'prescription against drums' had more to do with a fear of the French influence than in a concern re the potential threat that lay inherent in the power of the culture of the black masses (some of which seemed to lie in the drum). Hinkson's statement seems to make the action more benign and less significant, and the Canboulay riots that followed, more mindless.
His statement re Carnival seeming to be dying out because of its being 'disreputable' and the black middle class, wanting to be 'respectable', losing interest, is also curious. He seems to belong to the group of historians that sees Carnival as a 'French Creole' thing into which blacks were slowly integrated. There is a strong, and more defensible, reading of the situation, where the blacks had developed masquerade 'traditions' of their own and these were only permitted to be 'shown' during the 'relaxed' period of the year when the whites celebrated their Carnival. It is these traditions that are the backbone of Carnival as we know it. This is why 'respectability' is still anathema. Part of Carnival has always been the urge to be 'disreputable', its origins being in the rebellious urge.
An atavistic urge pushes us to be 'grimee', to 'galavant' and to be not 'respectable' at Carnival time.
Finally AN MOST DANGEROUS, is his glib statement of a 'point of view that should be mentioned' that the blacks needed to "create their own god(s)". What is he talking about? Orisha? What?
Is he being a good Catholic? Or am I taking him out of context? (as I may be doing as the interview is truncated.)