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NOVEL CARIBBEAN TRAVELLERS HEALTH ASSURANCE STAMP AND MOBILE APP The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), through its innovative Tourism/Traveller’s Health Program (THP), funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is committed to protecting the health and safety of travellers coming to the Caribbean. CARPHA, partnering with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) continues to elevate Caribbean tourism by building traveller’s confidence and reinstating healthy and safer travel to the Caribbean during COVID-19 through:
Proactive COVID-19 Health Measures for Reopening Tourism
Caribbean’s Travellers Health Assurance stamp for Healthier Safer Tourism (HST) Caribbean travellers now have the added assurance of a healthier, safer option when trying to use tourism facilities that have the HST stamp. The HST stamp is a unique, measurable and verifiable travellers health assurance and recognition award for tourism facilities that are implementing the recommended, proactive COVID-19 health measures.
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A MESSAGE From OUR CEO The arrival of 2021 brought new hope for better times, and the expectation of a gradual transition from the different life imposed on the world by the relentless virus, to what we would have recognised as normality just twelve months ago. Throughout it all, Caribbean Airlines has been meeting the human desire and need to travel wherever possible, whether that was our service between Trinidad and Tobago, repatriation flights for a number of Caribbean nations, or the measured reopening of scheduled international air services. While we were operating at just ten per cent of our normal volumes by January, we were still serving more than twelve destinations, with many more to be added as circumstances allow, re-enabling essential business travel and reconnecting the Caribbean people with their loved ones. To give our passengers additional peace of mind we have partnered with sherpa˚ for international travel. Using the sherpa˚ travel guide, you can get up to date information on entry requirements, travel restrictions, quarantine policies, visa and e-visa conditions, and also access various health declaration forms to all Caribbean Airlines destinations, in one convenient virtual location. This innovative tool is your virtual travel advisor to make planning your trips easier and offer greater peace of mind. You can access the sherpa˚ travel guide at www.caribbeanairlines.com. Simply enter your destination to get the results you need. While we prepare for the return of more passenger services, our cargo
As a reminder, Caribbean Airlines adheres to all current international guidelines, using multiple layers of protection to ensure your safety and well-being. Specifically: • Customers must wear face masks at check-in, at the gate, and on board the aircraft • Aircraft are cleaned daily at all ports and the disinfectants used are approved as effective against COVID-19 business continues apace. Through a new partnership, we are increasing our coverage of the United States, now connecting to hundreds of freight forwarders. This makes it easier for customers to ship between the US and several Caribbean destinations at affordable rates. Customers who select our freight collect option may make payments in their local currency and benefit from our loyalty programme to earn travel rewards. Meanwhile, our Cargo team has developed a transportation plan to distribute COVID-19 vaccines throughout the Caribbean, including temperature-controlled shipments between Miami and the Caribbean. We’re proud to play this pivotal role in our region’s recovery. Your safety is our first priority, and air travel remains one of the safest forms of transport. Research carried out by organisations such as the International Air Transportation Association and Harvard University show that aircraft cabins offer a much safer environment than indoor public spaces.
• Our 737 fleet is equipped with stateof-the-art high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters that capture 99.97 per cent of particles • All customers (including children) may be subject to temperature checks • Depending on the destination country, a negative virus test may be needed before being accepted to travel Check the sherpa˚ tool on our website for the latest information! I hope 2021 brings you renewed hope, restorative joy, and the opportunity to safely reconnect with friends, family, and the wider world.
Garvin Medera Chief Executive Officer
Contents January/February 2021 • Digital Issue
36
EMBARK
10 Wish you were here
Soufrière Bay, Dominica
12 Need to know
Make the most of January and February, even during the time of COVID-19
20 Bookshelf and playlist
Our reading and listening picks ARRIVE
22 Portfolio
The photo I can’t forget February brings T&T’s annual Carnival, and 2021 — with the physical festival cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — is a year to reminisce about Carnivals past. We asked three photographers — Jason C. Audain, Maria Nunes, and Shaun Rambaran — to choose one favourite image from their respective Carnival archives, and tell us the story behind it. As it turns out, the photos they chose all had something in common
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22 28 Backstory
Carnival is love T&T Carnival is tradition and originality, ritual and rebellion, the sacred and the profane — and a million love stories. Here are three of them, from Attillah Springer, Amanda Choo Quan, and Georgia Popplewell
36 destination
Green Grenada It’s known around the world as the Spice Island and famous for its stunning beaches — and Grenada is also a lush natural paradise of mountains, forests, and rivers, full of outdoor eco-adventures
50 DID you even know
Think you’re the ultimate music buff? How much do you really know about the Caribbean’s diverse musical traditions? Let our trivia column put you to the test
CaribbeanBeat CaribbeanBeat An MEP publication
Editor Nicholas Laughlin General manager Halcyon Salazar Design artist Kevon Webster Production manager Jacqueline Smith Web editor Caroline Taylor Editorial assistants Shelly-Ann Inniss, Kristine De Abreu
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Business Development Manager, Tobago and International Evelyn Chung T: (868) 684 4409 E: evelyn@meppublishers.com Business Development Representative, Trinidad Tracy Farrag T: (868) 318 1996 E: tracy@meppublishers.com
Media & Editorial Projects Ltd. 6 Prospect Avenue, Maraval, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago T: (868) 622 3821/5813/6138 • F: (868) 628 0639 E: caribbean-beat@meppublishers.com Website: www.meppublishers.com
Cover We love T&T Carnival — and it will be back next year Photo TeamDWP Studios by Dwayne A. Watkins
Read and save issues of Caribbean Beat on your smartphone, tablet, computer, and favourite digital devices! Caribbean Beat is published six times a year for Caribbean Airlines by Media & Editorial Projects Ltd. It is also available on subscription. Copyright © Caribbean Airlines 2021. All rights reserved. ISSN 1680–6158. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. MEP accepts no responsibility for content supplied by our advertisers. The views of the advertisers are theirs and do not represent MEP in any way. Website: www.caribbean-airlines.com
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We are steadily changing the narrative Popular book blogger Cindy Allman explains how contemporary authors are changing the way we understand Caribbean realities through their writing
T
here is something about opening a book and seeing yourself or your family and friends represented in its pages. Over the past five years, I have been reading more contemporary Caribbean literature, and it is so refreshing when the author “gets it” — when they capture what it is truly like living in the contemporary Caribbean. As a Caribbean book blogger and “Bookstagrammer,” I have been using my platform to spread awareness of Caribbean writers, because their books make me feel so seen, and it is a way for me to understand other Caribbean people. Readers constantly send me messages of shock and surprise that there are so many new Caribbean books published each year. People from the Caribbean diaspora say whenever they pick up a book like Zalika Reid-Benta’s Frying Plantain, Ingrid Persaud’s Love After Love, or Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land they instantly feel less alone, and also feel as though they are transported back to their homeland. As someone who reads over a hundred books a year, I cannot describe to you the feeling of reading a book that transports you to your home, makes you revisit your history, and leaves you with a greater appreciation of your heritage. Contemporary books have been flipping the conventional Caribbean narrative on its head, and I’ve been cheering from the sidelines. I’ve also seen the emergence of more diverse characters who have not been historically and accurately represented in Caribbean literature. Ten years ago, we may have encountered characters heavily hinted as queer, who were described as “friends” or in hiding. Today we have authors who are boldly writing the stories they would once not have been able to tell or get published. When I pick up a contemporary book and I find the author questioning society’s standards, and what we are taught as Caribbean nationals about what we should and should not do, I cannot help but share it on my platform. There are things we are often told are “family business” and should be kept secret, including mental illness, sexuality, trauma, and generational challenges, which are now being explored openly in Caribbean literature. In Krystal A. Sital’s Secrets We Kept, she gives us a personal account of what happened to her grandmother, mother, and herself at the hands of her grandfather. Sital’s deeply moving account in this debut memoir unpacks so many of the “things we do not say” — it was beyond refreshing
to read a Caribbean author writing and declaring so boldly. Growing up, I always felt a bit jealous of my friends whose parents were living abroad and would send them barrels of goodies on a regular basis. It was only while reading Nicole Dennis-Benn’s sophomore novel Patsy that I got a deeper appreciation for the other side of the story. Dennis-Benn gives us an alternate look into the lives of “barrel children” and the opportunity cost paid by their parents, leading me to revisit my younger jealousies. In an effort to share my passion for reading and create a community of readers, I launched a book club that meets locally in Trinidad and Tobago, and internationally online. I can confidently say that with the increase in Caribbean contemporary writing, we are steadily changing both the narrative and the literary landscape. I have seen Caribbean nationals deeply moved by these texts after seeing themselves represented and their struggles written about. It means a greater appreciation for the Caribbean and its impact on the world. More people are reading Caribbean, more debut Caribbean authors are being published, and the Caribbean continues to represent itself authentically in an impactful way that is beautiful to behold. A Jamaican living in Trinidad and Tobago, Cindy Allman is a popular “Bookstagrammer,” sharing her passion for books online at www.bookofcinz. com and @bookofcinz on Twitter and Instagram. This essay is part of a series reflecting on the Caribbean Identity and what it can be.
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wish you were here
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Soufrière Bay, Dominica Near the island’s southern tip, the broad, sheltered expanse of Soufrière Bay is the most popular dive site in Dominica — and one of the best in the Caribbean. A volcanic crater submerged in pristine sea, the bay is home to exciting rock formations, pinnacles and walls, plus dozens of fish species and delicate sea fans. It’s overlooked by the peninsula of Scotts Head, with a hiking trail leading to its peak. From here, the view stretches for miles along Dominica’s southwest coast — and as far as Martinique on the horizon.
Photography courtesy the Discover Dominica Authority
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11
NEED TO KNOW
Courtesy TeamDWP Studios by Dwayne A. Watkins
Essential info to help you make the most of January and February — even in the middle of a pandemic
Don’t Miss T&T Carnival, virtual edition
Carnival tunes escape our speakers, and close by, rhythms from a neighbour’s steelpan vibrate in our eardrums. We promise to behave, but promises offer no comfort when they are broken. Year after year, we come together as devout masqueraders confessing our bad behaviour. Our waistlines turn to rubber, and our feet beat the pavement while we fill the atmosphere with vibes. With the COVID-19 pandemic dragging on, an unprecedented version of Carnival is being served up in 2021, but one thing is certain: the road is wherever we are — even on our computer screens as we scroll through photos and videos of festivals past, and reminisce. And the silver lining? Imagine the energy and excitement of the first postCOVID Carnival. Mash it up, shell it down, and tun it over! Shelly-Ann Inniss
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Castara Bay, on of the gems of Tobago
Top Five Tobago escapes If you’re a Trini, and a serious Carnival jumbie, February 2021 will be a tough month. You could console yourself with the various virtual online events in the works. But if you feel like it needs to be the real thing or nothing, you could also follow the lead of all those people — yes, they exist! — whose annual Carnival plan is an escape to the sister isle. Tobago’s magnificent natural beauty is balm to the soul. Birdsong fills the air with playful melodies and harmonies, rainforest trails beckon, and captivating beaches mesmerise. This serene island has something for everyone, and might just be the distraction that saves you from the COVID Carnival blues.
Beach hopping
Start with the obvious. Tobago boasts enough beaches for every unforgettable day of your trip. A coastal tour is an easy way to explore these sweet spots along the thirty-byten-mile island. Some treasures, like Batteaux Bay, Pirates Bay, and Bloody Bay, are unspoilt, charming, and have the allure of private beaches. Snorkel on the sublime reefs, dive among the teeming sea life, or simply relax in a beach chair and enjoy the fresh sea breeze — some of the best things in life are indeed free.
Little Tobago
You may have visited Main Ridge Forest Reserve and encountered 14
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many bird species there. Another birder’s paradise is a boat ride away. The sanctuary on Little Tobago offers a day of natural indulgence, and the chance for some outdoor exercise: there’s quite a climb to the top of the trail. Look out for tropicbirds, boobies, shearwaters, frigate birds, and more. Snorkelling at Tyrrel Bay and spotting the abandoned villa on Goat Island are a great end to the day.
Fort seeking
Have you already been to Fort King George Heritage Park? Overlooking Scarborough, Tobago’s largest fort is one of the island’s most popular, but there are others to explore, and picturesque views are just one of the
rewards on this historical adventure. Did you know Tobago changed colonial hands more than any other Caribbean island?
The Mystery Tombstone
A tombstone with an abstruse inscription rests in Plymouth, on the leeward coast of the island. If you like brainteasers, this one is for you. Can you solve the riddle of Betty Stiven? “She was a mother without knowing it, and a wife without letting her husband know it, except by her kind indulgences to him.” There are many folktales in Plymouth — maybe some of the others will help you figure it out.
Bioluminescent Bon Accord
Under starry skies, when conditions are right, nightlife takes on new meaning at Bon Accord Lagoon. Tiny marine creatures called dinoflagellates emit a greenish-blue iridescent light in the water when it is disturbed. These bioluminescent micro-organisms glow to scare or confuse predators. A guided tour via kayak is the best way to experience this natural magic, as every stroke of the paddle creates ripples of light in the sea around you. SAI
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need to know
Word of Mouth Jamaica’s Reggae Month In Jamaica, February — the birth month of both Bob Marley and Dennis Brown — is dedicated to reggae music. It’s an opportunity to bring the genre into sharp focus and examine where it came from, where it is now, and where it might go next. For Jamaican entertainment journalist Richard Johnson, who has a reputation as a spotter of new talent, Reggae Month is a chance to take the temperature of the island’s music scene. He shares his tips with Shelly-Ann Inniss.
What makes a good musical artiste?
It’s a combination of things. These days, talent gets shoved to the back burner, and things like look and international appeal are brought to foreground. For me, talent is still very important. Lyrical content — whether it’s just a catchy hook or deep lyrics which cause you to think — there should be something for your audience to hold on to. Being able to connect with an audience is high on my list, too.
Tell us about a reggae artiste you predicted was destined for success.
Lila Iké, born Alica Grey, comes to mind. I read something about this young girl performing at an underground show with Chronixx as the headliner. Protoje was also on the bill, and he brought her on stage. She did her breakout hit, “Biggest Fan”. I was blown away. I had to interview her. For the next few days, until I got the interview, my co-workers were 16
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sick of hearing the track in the office. Something about her voice, delivery, and overall vibe just made you know greatness was in her future. She now has an international record deal, a new EP, and has been making a name for herself.
Do you think you have a knack for identifying rising stars?
I know what I like, but as a journalist you must develop the ability to step outside yourself and see what also moves others. Sometimes you don’t understand it, simply because it’s not your speed, but you must see it. If anything, I have developed the ability to step outside myself and see who and what is moving the audience.
What’s your most memorable reggae experience?
It was possibly the summer of 1991. I was at Reggae Sunsplash in Montego Bay. It’s the final day of the festival and patrons are battle-weary. The July sun is beating down on the open field with all its fury, but thousands, including
me, are standing our ground. The closing act is Dennis Emmanuel Brown, the Crown Prince of Reggae. Out of nowhere his voice comes through the giant speaker towers: “Here I come, with love and not hatred.” And the crowd erupts. Over the years I have experienced many moments with reggae acts, but that moment always does it for me.
Which Reggae Month events do you recommend?
Among my favourite events are those organised by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association, JaRIA. These include Reggae Wednesday, a free public concert each week. I recall veteran British broadcaster and reggae lover David Rodigan remarking how honoured he was to see the calibre of reggae acts performing for free in a park in the heart of the city. JaRIA also stages Reggae Open University, which is a biweekly panel discussion covering a range of topics dealing with the music. The panellists are often some of the music’s insiders, who offer a trove of information. So, if this is your thing, it’s definitely something to check out. Lastly, if you can, attend JaRIA’s honour awards at the end of Reggae Month. This event recognises some of the stalwarts of the music, including those who work behind the scenes, such as producers, engineers, and session musicians.
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need to know
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Jahfari Joseph-Hazelwood of Antigua and Barbuda, at left, performs his composition Stuck in Quarantine with his ensemble
Listen In Songs of the Commonwealth Launched in 2019, the Commonwealth International Composition Award seeks out new musical talent in the form of school-age composers around the world. As the judges prepare to select the latest winner, Shelly-Ann Inniss learns more about the competition and its Caribbean participants Some people record their feelings in a journal, while others turn to music for consolation. The COVID-19 pandemic granted many children and teenagers their wish to stay home from school, but the price was lockdown boredom. For young people of school age — up to approximately eighteen — who are passionate about music, the Commonwealth International Composition Award offered a creative challenge. Presented for the first time in 2019, the award is organised by UK-based Commonwealth Resounds, in partnership with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and the Purcell School for Young Musicians. Young composers from the fifty-four countries in the Commonwealth of Nations are eligible to submit original pieces: compositions up to three minutes long, written for one to five performers. For 2020, the pandemic offered a timely theme. The eleven finalists, ranging in age from ten to seventeen, came from 18
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Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. Their pieces, delivered via video recordings posted to YouTube, show remarkable confidence and flair, in a variety of styles. They offered musical tributes to volunteers and professionals helping people affected by COVID-19, dedications to those who suffered from the virus, and meditations on the experience of being locked down at home. The creative responses to the pandemic were comforting yet almost fantastical, especially as it seemed like these young people emerged from the womb as talented musicians and composers. The award brings more than just visibility. Prizes for the Audience Vote, Young Adjudicator’s Award, and Overall Award for the Commonwealth sweeten
the project, in addition to opportunities for training, mentorship, and development. Each entry is evaluated by young adjudicators and given thoughtful and encouraging feedback. Reuben Bance, one of the adjudicators, was inspired by the testament to people’s courage, talent, and achievements during the pandemic’s tough times. “These pieces of music are a memento of this era. The quality of music is astounding,” he said. He believes there’s a lot to learn from how people can turn trauma into the most beautiful works of art. Take, for example, the piece by seventeenyear-old Jahfari Joseph-Hazelwood, the finalist from Antigua and Barbuda. His composition Stuck in Quarantine made him the only Caribbean representative among the 2020 finalists. In the 2019 competition, Trinidadian Aliyah Ramatally won the Audience Award with a piece titled Mundo Nuevo — New World. She took the audience on an imagined journey through the Caribbean’s first contact with Europe, colonisation, and independence, juxtaposing her country’s national musical instrument — the steelpan — with traditional classical instruments like the violin, cello, and flute. It’s a perfect distillation of the value of the award, bringing together musical traditions from across the world. For the grand finale of the 2020 award, the eleven finalists were each commissioned to write a new piece. The commissions will then be performed by professional musicians at a concert on 1 February, 2021, at the Royal Over-Seas League in London, and broadcast online. Viewers will have the chance to participate via the Audience Award. And for the talented young composers, this experience shows how music can cross all boundaries — including the isolations of COVID-19.
For more information on the Commonwealth International Composition Award, and to hear the pieces by the finalists, visit www.cicompositionaward.com
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bookshelf The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree Press, 190 pp, ISBN 9781845234577) The mermaid we meet in TrinidadianBritish Monique Roffey’s seventh novel is more feral than Ariel, and that’s entirely by design. Here is new-wave feminism in scales and tangled sargassum that reaches back to antiquity to explain itself: to do no less than frame the face of embattled mystic womanhood. The site of this modern-mythological mapping is Black Conch, a fictional small Caribbean island where fishing, family, and gossip grease the mill of everyday living. Aycayia, the mermaid dredged up as brutal commercial sport by two white anglers, is a creature more ancient than anyone on Black Conch can comprehend. It’s David, humble resident with a huge heart, who tries to keep the sea siren safe. To do this, he must risk himself in ways he cannot fully comprehend. Don’t typecast this as a fanciful fish tale. Roffey’s fabulist subtlety is on fine display here, as she navigates ardent
Tea by the Sea
romance with small village superstition. Aycayia’s handling, in the mercenary and misogynistic clutches of those determined to both ill treat and possess her, is difficult reading: Roffey’s lush and immersive prose demands that we bear witness. In this fairytale, the heroine bleeds. In this landscape, there is no gallantry, only complex desire and the consuming demands of the sea. Not all is allegorically bleak in The Mermaid of Black Conch : when Aycayia speaks to us, we hear her tangled thoughts in verse, not prose. This is a genius stroke from Roffey’s arsenal: of course a mermaid thinks in poetry. “I have swum with slow steel canoa / I have swum everywhere in this archipelago,” she tells us, inviting us deeper and darker into her power. How willingly you will find yourself submerged, trailing on this unforgettable woman’s speech.
The Assassination of Maurice Bishop
by Donna Hemans (Red Hen Press, 256 pp, ISBN 9781597098458)
by Godfrey Smith (Ian Randle Publishers, 226 pp, ISBN 9789768286239)
“But the one thing I know for sure, this is the one life you have and you have to make it work.” Some novels make the meat and bones of their plot out of one shining secret; Tea by the Sea feasts on a profusion of furtive mysteries. In Jamaicaborn Donna Hemans’s second novel, winner of a Lignum Vitae Una Marson Award for Adult Literature, the search for answers salts a trail through Plum Valentine’s life. Where is her daughter? What will Plum do when the truth or some tessellated version of it walks into her life, after her hopes of reuniting with her child have faded? Don’t expect a facile morality play: Hemans writes with precision about the most private bacchanals of the heart, the utter vexations of the spirit. Read with a rum-soaked handkerchief.
Revolutions, failed or successful, only fade for those not touched by their parades of bullets and tears. Indisputably, Maurice Bishop was killed by firing squad on 19 October, 1983. What of the narrative foliage surrounding this fact? What siege of events led to this assassination, and at whose feet must ultimate responsibility be laid? Answering these questions in non-fiction is an industry in fording off the river of fact before it escapes into the open ocean of speculation. An attentive biographer, Godfrey Smith examines existing interviews and travels across the region to conduct interviews of his own. The results are compelling, certainly, and they are also dangerous: they pose a threat to anyone interested in stifling the truth. Smith’s results galvanise us against indifference, against inaction, and ultimately against a repetition of such bitter infamy.
Reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan, Bookshelf editor 20
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playlist Bridges Jesse Ryan (Fwé Culture) As world fusion in jazz continually moves one away from the primary centre defined by the blues and swing, global musicians take up the challenge of improvisation over a sonic bed of native and ethnic rhythms and melodies. Jesse Ryan, a Trinidad-born saxophonist now based in Canada, joins a group of Caribbean musicians seeking ways to successfully commercialise the “West Indian accent in jazz.” On half of Bridges, his debut album,
Tender Touch Riddim Various Artists (Fox Fuse) 2020 saw the decimation of Caribbean Carnivals, and this trend is set to continue at least through the first half of 2021. Trinidad and Tobago’s annual Carnival is signalled to become virtual, but the music that drives live revellers on stage and on the road continues to be produced. The shift in the experience so far has brought a greater inclusion of global beats and rhythms that mark an evolution in the rhythmic template for this
Viento y Tiempo: Live at Blue Note Tokyo Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Aymée Nuviola (Top Stop Music) Cuba is an enigma for many travellers in the Americas. Its music salvages its imposed reputation as an outlier. Performance and its recording in global cities fortify a notion, widely recognised in the Caribbean, of the supremacy of the canon and artistry of Cuban musicians. Afro-Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and singer
Caribbean Moscato The Teddyson John Project (238 Square Miles) St Lucian singer Teddyson John has introduced on this recording an innovative twist to island soca. With a crack band of island musicians, he delivers an acoustic live recording of his soca hits that does not miss the energy of these party anthems, but suffuses the tunes with the sophisticated aura of an elegant island R&B groove that is easy on the ears of listeners elsewhere. Nylon string guitar, bass, piano, and congas are all that are needed to transform a
he explores the rhythmic pulse of Tobago’s native tambrin band music. Modern jazz interpolation with the sound of the tambourine drum creates a soundscape for another interpretation of New World African music. With a subdued sound mix, sublime conversations between guitar, piano, sax, and percussion become epic in intention, effective in interpretation. This brilliant album, three years in the making, is an opening statement of a new jazz artist in the diaspora reconnecting with his roots to seal the idea of Caribbean music beyond a dance accompaniment. music called soca. Afrobeat, now popular worldwide, infuses this new six-track EP of songs produced by Advokit with input from music aggregator Julianspromos, with a bounce that makes hips roll, DNA be damned. How many ways can one sing about love? Sacred, romantic, lusty, cheeky, and devout: it’s all here with contributions, respectively, from Melly Rose with Nigerian rapper Skales, Patrice Roberts, Nailah Blackman, Hey Choppi, and Olatunji. Soca music’s conversion to popular world music can be aided by this new riddim. Aymée Nuviola, “La Sonera del Mundo” — both Grammy winners — performing before an audience in Japan, offer “a tribute to the music that flows through the streets of Havana which we grew up with.” Rumba and jazz, classic son montunos and danzonetes, boleros and ballads, and other tropical rhythms are mixed with call and response singing, jazz improvisation, percussive breaks, and dynamic piano playing to recorded elation from a Tokyo crowd. The collaboration of these childhood friends, and others, suggests Cuba’s musical history is manifestly rich. party jam to a smooth crooned ballad. In this time of Carnival tabanca (that melancholy brought on by COVID-19 restrictions), as noted by John himself, the melody is pleasantly brought to the forefront, instead of the energy of the festival road march. His 2016 hit “Allez” is metamorphosed to a seductive sing-along with female background harmonies that work. “Crème de la crème”, wow! Acoustic soca sans the Carnival jump and wave instructional barking puts John in a league of his own as island festivals pivot. Romantic revelry represented. Reviews by Nigel A. Campbell WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM
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portfolio
The photo I can’t forget As we think back to Carnivals past, and anticipate the festival’s future, three photographers share favourite images from their archives, and tell the stories behind them
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as, the performance artform at the heart of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, is essentially fleeting: after months of preparation and anticipation, the moment comes with all its energy and passion, colour and fire, and then is gone, leaving traces in our memory — and in photographs. “As the years pass, photographs become our memories of Carnival”: so we wrote back in the January/February 2007 issue of Caribbean Beat, where we asked six noted Carnival photographers to each select a specially meaningful image from their respective archives, and tell us its story. Fourteen years later, in a year when the COVID-19 pandemic means the Carnival season is imbued with nostalgia, we asked three more photographers to do the same thing. Independent of each other, and entirely by coincidence, all three — Jason C. Audain, Maria Nunes, and Shaun Rambaran — chose photographs of moko jumbies, the traditional mas character derived from West Africa which has enjoyed a major revival in the past decade. There’s a story in that, too.
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“A photo is a story” Jason C. Audain remembers photographing Peter Minshall’s Carnival King The Dying Swan — as told to Shelly-Ann Inniss 2016 was my first time photographing the Carnival Kings and Queens competition at the Savannah. I wouldn’t have gotten the photo if it wasn’t for Maria Nunes. I was taking pictures all night, and right before I left I saw Maria and she said, “You can’t leave, The Dying Swan is coming on.” I told her my memory card was full, I couldn’t take any more photos. She pulled out a card and said, “Use that — whenever we meet up again you can give it back.” That’s how I ended up taking photos of Minshall’s Dying Swan [portrayed by Jha-whan Thomas].
Almost everything that night was magical to me, because I’d never experienced Kings and Queens before. A friend of mine asked me to photograph the competition, and that’s how I ended up there that year. Something about the Swan was just different. I was snapping pictures like a madman. I don’t know how it didn’t win the competition — the performance, the execution. Trinidad Carnival is art. To me, traditional mas has an artistic aspect. Every costume that I’ve seen is not just a costume, it’s art. It’s an exhibition by itself. People see the costume, the
end product, but they don’t see the process behind it. It’s just like a photo, people don’t see the effort in capturing the image. Photographing mas is a whole waiting process. Most people are just snapping, snapping, snapping. I hold the camera to my eye and wait till I see something special. I have shots in my head that I plan on capturing. I see the photo before it happens. For me, a photo is a story. If you can’t tell a story in the photo, it makes no sense. If there’s no story, it’s just a pretty snapshot, in my opinion.
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“Like a kind of meditation” Maria Nunes recalls a pre-dawn walk through east Port of Spain with Alan Vaughan’s moko jumbie portrayal The Sun Rises and Overwhelms the Sinnerman
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For me, this image is a reminder of the deeply spiritual and ritual core of Carnival
This photo was taken on Observatory Street in Belmont, east Port of Spain, at about 5 am on Carnival Friday morning in 2019. Alan Vaughan, the designer of the mas band Moko Somõkõw, who is portraying The Sun Rises and Overwhelms the Sinnerman, had said to me that he was going to walk from Erthig Road to the Kambule re-enactment on Piccadilly. I thought it would be very special to photograph him moving through the quiet streets. I admired that Alan had delved into the profound literary work of Wilson Harris’s novel Palace of the Peacock to inspire Moko Somõkõw’s presenta-
tion that year. I wanted to document and witness his quiet commitment. One of the biggest challenges for a moko jumbie out in the street is navigating the constant crisscross of telephone wires and other cables that run from lamppost to lamppost. There was an added challenge with this costume because of the height of the headpiece, so Alan needed help from his colleague Danielle to guide him safely as he walked. The streets were so desolate at that hour. There was a real sense of the quiet before the unleashing of all the Carnival energies. The walk felt like a kind of meditation. It was beautiful to experience the majestic presence of The Sun Rises Over the Sinnerman literally as the sun emerging out of the darkness of the night. It was so quiet you could hear the swoosh of the fabric in the costume as he walked. I can remember that sound. I took a lot of photographs that morning. It was very hard to choose one to share. In the end, I chose this one because of all the details in the surroundings — the vine on the wires, the old stone wall with barbed wire on top, the sense that the street was full of history, and most especially because of the gesture of Danielle’s arm guiding Alan. For me, this image is a reminder of the deeply spiritual and ritual core of Carnival. So much of the imagery of Carnival we see is thick with the energy of lots of people bathed in bright sunshine. This photo portrays a very real aspect of our Carnival that is often unseen, unnoticed. That morning was the first time I used a mirrorless camera. It was all a bit of an experiment and learning curve for me to see if I could get the results I’d grown accustomed to with my DSLR. There was no flash involved. Generally speaking, I walk with at least two cameras and multiple lenses and a flash when I’m out in the street for Carnival. You have to be prepared for any eventuality. So much is happening all around you. It’s constantly making split-second decisions. What I’m striving for in my Carnival photography is simply to be present in a way that doesn’t get in the way — to not get too involved in orchestrating the moment. The photographs I love the most are the ones when the person is lost in their mas and not aware of the camera. Sometimes magic happens.
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“It was a real gift” He doesn’t quite know how it happened, says Shaun Rambaran of photographing Shynel Brizan’s moko jumbie queen Mariella, the Shadow of Consciousness
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Standing with my camera aimed into the darkness, I could sense the audience’s anticipation
What a year was 2019. By the time I took this photo, I’d been photographing stick-walking for dozens of months — beginning with the 1000mokos project out of Alice Yard, then the birth of Alan Vaughn’s band Moko Somõkõw in 2018. How ignorant I was, not knowing those were only the preludes to a coming crescendo. For Carnival 2019, the surreal theatre of Wilson Harris’s novel Palace of the Peacock was portrayed through the genius of Alan Vaughn by Moko Somõkõw’s moko jumbies. I’d been photographing the band behind the scenes, witnessing the humble
beginnings of each costume, and slowly coming to know the main performers: Tekel “Salti” Sylvan, Russell “Rusty” Grant, and Shynel Brizan, the band’s young queen, who all turned their hands to the making of their costumes. Cardboard boxes, recycled bits, natural materials, dried leaves, scraps of cloth — simple resources, skilfully worked through the sewing machine of Alan, an artist who paints with fabric just as a painter layers oil paint. Shynel Brizan’s Mariella, the Shadow of Consciousness was an enormous mas — so large that only small segments of her costume could be seen at once inside the band’s mas camp on Erthig Road in Belmont. Eventually the day came for her debut, at the Prelims of the 2019 Carnival Queens competition. To secure a favourable place in the photographers’ zone, I didn’t spend that evening with the band, but instead went directly to the Savannah Grand Stand, using my media pass for access. As I waited for our queen, I watched the other competitors cross the stage. They were loud, bright, colourful, all fitfully jamming to the crashing cacophony of thunderous soca. Then the brightness died. The lights went out. The Savannah went silent. The air was cold. Quiet. Standing with my camera aimed into the darkness, I could sense the audience’s anticipation all around me. Out of the darkness, ethereal African drumming arose. As the rhythms took hold, pale blue light revealed Mariella, as she rapturously glided on stage. I slipped into a trance. My fingers worked on their own, changing settings to allow for the darker stage, timing Shynel’s movements to trigger the shutter, as my mind drifted deeper and deeper into the spell she cast. I felt my pores raise and my hairs standing in awe of this first-ever moment of seeing the full costume, all put together, drifting across my view. As Shynel floated off stage, I awoke and found myself kneeling in the pit before the place she’d once stood, several metres away from where I began. I looked down and discovered this photograph sitting inside my camera, not quite knowing how it happened. It was a real gift. What did this moment say to me about Trinbago Carnival? It demonstrated the power of art to probe deeply into one’s soul. With so much of Carnival today so commercial and sterilised, it’s heartening to know that true Art can still exist. And, moreso, that it can be justly recognised. Moko Somõkõw was ecstatic one week later when Shynel Brizan was officially crowned the 2019 Carnival Queen. n
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backstory
Carnival is love Trinidad and Tobago’s 2021 Carnival — the physical festival, as managed by various official authorities, manifested in concerts, performances, competitions, and the Monday and Tuesday street parade — is yet another casualty of COVID-19. Social distancing can’t realistically happen in a fete, a calypso tent, a mas camp, or a panyard, where proximity to others, whether friends or strangers, is the whole point. But even if there’s no Road March or Carnival King or Queen or Band of the Year, that indefinable thing people call the spirit of Carnival — a mix-up of tradition and originality, ritual and rebellion, the sacred and the profane, and a powerful emotion that can only be called love — can’t be suppressed. It’s as urgent and willful as ever in our hopes for the future, and our memories of Carnivals past. Carnival is a million love stories. Here are three of them 28
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Jason C. Audain
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Maria Nunes
What love sounds like A love letter to pan, by Attillah Springer
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T
he first time I got lost was one Sunday at Panorama, just after my second birthday. My mother says it took me longer than normal to learn to walk. But that Sunday in the Savannah, walking finally seemed to make sense. Who knows how I got away. Who knows how I managed to match my unsure footing to that purposeful shuffle. They eventually found me. I was happily crossing the stage in the middle of a steelband. I did not know how much I loved pan until I lived in other places. In the sleepless times, my ears would strain to hear a tenor pan floating dreamlike on the wind. Pan is what calls you to a safe place. Pan is what follows you
Waiting to take the stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah at the annual Panorama competition
Pan is the moment when the plane dips over the Gulf of Paria to land in Piarco, and you look down just in time to see a flock of scarlet ibises flying in formation into the mangrove. Pan is coming home and finding it still loves you. We made pan. People who look like me. People who walk and laugh and grieve like me. Ogun took possession of us and gave us this technology. Pan is the place behind your heart that hurts so sweet. Pan is the people raucous and joyous in the face of their power. I never had the urge to learn to play. I only ever just want to seek out pan’s many tones and flavours. I want to leave town and find a random village steelband made up of children who can barely see over the rims of their instruments. Their parents in the corners bursting with pride. Their parents who met in this same panyard. The arrangement is not the greatest, the tone is
Pan is what follows you into your sleep, the careful repetition growing more sure as the night progresses
into your sleep, the careful repetition growing more sure as the night progresses, the song emerging from the discordant notes just as you fall asleep. And by morning, when the azan calls to you to chase away the djinns that gather just before dawn, there is a song in your head and your heart. Carnival is frequently a cause for disillusionment, a deep despair as we watch the greatest show on earth become this absurd and substandard spectacle. Aside from J’Ouvert, pan is the other thing that saves Carnival. Where you can still see love, where you can still see a fanatical devotion to a way of being in the world and making sense of all the mundane ridiculousness of everyday life.
shrill, but there is a shining in the eyes of these children who arrive at this panyard having not ever held two pan sticks before, and by the end of the night they are playing a verse and chorus of a song. I want to be going home from a long day and a longer night and pass and hear that Phase 2 is still practicing, and arrive just in time to see Boogsie in the midst of changing the whole arrangement and the eyes of the players struggling to keep open, but their hands and bodies keep the rhythm of the notes he is singing into the cool night air. I want another victory pilgrimage up Laventille Hill to take Desperadoes home where they belong. I want to find myself in the middle of that crowd again, in absolute awe that this thing called pan exists, and I get to be born here where it was made. We made pan. We made a home for ourselves where we could be sacred and joyful. We made a place to remind ourselves that there is nothing normal or ordinary about us. We made pan to know what love sounds like.
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A road is a path A love letter to J’Ouvert, by Amanda Choo Quan
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I
stood, cold and damp and faintly anxious, on the corner of Colville Street and Ariapita Avenue. Already, you could feel the stirring of the great beast, the thick-wheeled music trucks and the smaller trolleys of steel pans traversing Port of Spain’s grid-like veins. I spotted my friend walking towards me from the other end of Colville Street, his shadow seeming to dance by lamplight against the dull grey of Lapeyrouse Cemetery wall. I realised that I myself had also been moving, but not to soca. I’d been bouncing on the balls of my feet, lightly off-rhythm, to an internal hum that had become increasingly discordant. I’d had a fraught relationship with Carnival always, and an even tenser one with Trinidad and Tobago at large when I
3Canal revellers on J’Ouvert morning
held towards them, I became exhausted and reclusive. But someone, gently, had told me that 3Canal’s J’Ouvert band was a divine experience. And in the way that a road is a path, and a curb is an edge, when my friend approached, I stepped off one into the other, and joined him. We made our way through a thickening crowd that seemed always to spit forth someone I recognised — a noted poet with a penchant for partying, a designer disguised by a costume made of palm fronds, a friend I hadn’t seen in forever in a long, swishing black coat, almost too elegant for the entire affair. Then the drums started, played by the Natural Culture Drummers alongside the Laventille Rhythm Section on a big truck, whose pounding insistence cut to the core of me. I scrambled to keep up with it as though we were wedded, or it the gown and
Elliot Francois FOTOGRAPHY
In the way that a road is a path, and a curb is an edge, when my friend approached, I stepped off one into the other, and joined him
returned from living overseas. My mother, an immigrant from Jamaica, had always drilled respectability into me. These days, she will not hesitate to make fun of the way I dance, berating me for my lack of Trinidadianness, as though it is not directly related to her insistence that I refrain from wining. I suppose my soul comfort remains the fact that she can’t wine, either. That had slowly changed when I moved to Jamaica and then to Los Angeles, seeking every party reminiscent of home that I could. And once I came back, I’d tried to reconnect, but it had been difficult. With a job that involved working with refugees, and deciphering the cruel and complicated feelings Trinidadians
I the train, bobbing and weaving and laughing and avoiding the strangers who ran up to me like family in an attempt to dump cold paint on my head. Somehow, shuffled by the crowd, I found myself at the front of the band, drinking in the sheer freedom of the paint-smeared, headwrapped woman at the very top who commandeered and commanded her space by swinging a broad flag, a wide berth between her and the rest of us. When the sun came up and the truck hit the Savannah, the little group of friends I had formed contentedly, tiredly went their separate ways. But I was determined to stick with the band to the very end of its journey, and so I did. And somewhere, halfway up the avenue I had walked so trepidatiously only a few hours before, it happened. In this moment, the band thinning, the sun beginning to scorch, I realised how badly I had been using other people’s feelings as cues for my own. I realised that my own companionship was enough, and had been enough all along. And in the middle of the J’Ouvert, paint flaking off my body, I stretched my hands to the heavens, and cried.
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Peter Minshall's 2020 mas band Mas Pieta at the Piccadilly Greens judging point
Jumbie magic A love letter to mas in downtown Port of Spain, by Georgia Popplewell
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I
was offered up to the jumbie spirits of Carnival one J’Ouvert morning several decades ago, when my brother and I were bundled into the car by my parents and grandmother, driven into downtown Port of Spain, and installed in the ramshackle wooden stands on South Quay. Taking small children out of their beds in the early hours of the morning to watch a parade of costumed characters from society’s underbelly is probably the equivalent of the tradition, in certain countries, of allowing kids small doses of wine or coffee: considered irresponsible by some, but seen by others as necessary acculturation. J’Ouvert, the early-morning celebration that inaugurates the
Maria Nunes
There is one place there where the jumbie magic I first experienced that J’Ouvert morning decades ago can still be felt
two official days of Carnival, started those days at 2 am, and even if we had fallen back to sleep in the darkness, we would have been startled awake by the mayor of Port of Spain’s declaration, over the loudspeaker, of the official start of Carnival; then enraptured — and perhaps slightly traumatised — by the antics of the procession of characters that trooped past along the weakly lit section of road designated as the stage. Terrifying Jab Molassie devils beating biscuit tins, Midnight Robbers and Pierrot Grenades speechifying, various types of Indian, minstrels in whiteface crooning and strumming guitars, people in random old garments carrying placards with slogans both topical and obscene. For years, I remained convinced that some of these
characters might not be human, and the sound of a rhythmic tattoo rapped on a biscuit tin still fills me with a sort of delicious dread. When I became old enough to go to J’Ouvert with friends, the moment I most looked forward to was when the steelband we were following turned down St Vincent Street at Green Corner and started heading south into the heart of downtown, just as the dawn sky was lightening over Laventille Hill, the air a bit chilly (by tropical standards), the band starting to shed some of its revellers and acquire new ones, and things beginning to get a little edgy, as by that hour anyone in the crowd who was prone to chemically induced misbehaviour was starting to get just a bit out of hand. Over the years, the once fairly unified Carnival parade route has splintered, and the nature of Carnival misbehaviour and the locations it takes place in have changed. The outfit I follow for J’Ouvert these days goes not south towards downtown but north towards the Queen’s Park Savannah, which, as the location with the largest arena, is often considered the epicentre of Carnival activity. The largest bands in the daytime parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday now avoid downtown altogether, and for those of us who still go there, the journey from Woodbrook to South Quay is punctuated by stretches where we’re the only band in sight for blocks. There’s still a stage at South Quay and the stands now have sturdy steel frames, but as portions of the parade have left downtown, so have many of the spectators. But my love for parading through downtown Port of Spain remains, and there is one place there where the jumbie magic I first experienced that J’Ouvert morning decades ago can still be felt — Piccadilly Greens. This roughly triangular portion of Piccadilly Street that sits sandwiched between the bottom of Laventille Hill and the East Dry River is the final stage on the downtown parade route, and it’s the only of the Carnival arenas — if its modest scale would allow it to be called that — where, when I parade across the stage with my fellow masqueraders, I feel like our costumes and our performance matter to the people watching from the stands. This is largely due to the attention paid to the proceedings by the Uptown Carnival Committee and their long-standing MC Thora Best, who ensures that bands are properly announced and described, placards are read out loud, and masqueraders are allowed ample time to show off on stage for the benefit of the spectators. Also, perhaps, for the spirits of the people from the surrounding streets and communities of east Port of Spain, where the culture and ethos of Carnival were born. n
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destination
Green Grenada The Caribbean’s Spice Island is famous for its stunning beaches, world-class diving, thrilling Carnival, and delectable chocolate — and it’s also a lush natural paradise, perfect for eco-adventures, from the rainforests of Grand Etang to the protected lagoon at Levera 36
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Mauritius images GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
A small mountain river plunges into a perfect pool at Annandale Falls
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Courtesy Pure Grenada Tourism Authority
Taking in the view at Grand Etang
Into the hills One tale — whether concocted to entertain schoolchildren or credulous tourists — says Grenada’s Grand Etang Lake is bottomless, and home to mysterious creatures unknown to science — perhaps even to a mermaid, though good luck finding someone who’ll admit to actually seeing her. The truth is, the lake has indeed been properly surveyed — it sits 1,800 feet above sea level, and averages twenty feet deep — but it does hold its own secrets. The crater lake of an extinct volcano, Grand Etang has still uncharted geological connections, and has been observed bubbling gases when Kick ’em Jenny — the famous undersea volcano, just fifteen miles away — is active. Given the rarity of such episodes, you’re most unlikely to experience any odd geological phenomena at Grand Etang. But you’re practically guaranteed an exhilarating encounter with Grenada at its wildest, especially if you combine a visit to the lake with a hike through the lush surrounding rainforest. Protected by a national park, this area near the island’s geographical centre is crisscrossed by trails maintained by forest reserve staff, ranging from easy strolls to more strenuous hikes. For the less intrepid, Grand Etang Lake itself is ringed by a gentle (if muddy) hiking trail, a ninety-minute loop that starts and ends at an interpretation centre
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where you can learn more about the island’s flora and fauna. Most memorable is the climb up nearby Mount Qua Qua — a six-mile round trip on a clearly marked trail. Though occasionally challenging, the ascent through elfin cloud forest requires no technical skills, and the reward at the summit — topped by a giant boulder — is the extraordinary 360-degree view across all of Grenada, with the Caribbean Sea to the west, the Atlantic to the east, and St Vincent to the northeast on a clear day. Along the way, look out for Mona monkeys — introduced from West Africa in the eighteenth century — and ample birdlife, from hawks and hummingbirds to the Grenada tanager, an endemic subspecies of the Lesser Antillean tanager, with its turquoise wings. If you’re heading back to St George’s, the capital, from Grand Etang, the turnoff for Annandale Falls is on the way. Grenada’s most popular waterfall makes a forty-foot plunge into a pool perfect for a bracing swim, its natural rock walls covered with mosses and ferns. Annandale’s sheer accessibility — with a paved path, flower beds, and nearby visitor parking — means it can get crowded, so for a more adventurous excursion slightly off the beaten path, try the Seven Sisters hike, starting at the village of St Margaret. The trail through shady forest, bamboo groves, and a nutmeg plantation takes you past seven different cataracts, most with pools to cool off in.
One of two crater lakes in Grenada, Grand Etang is such an icon, it’s even featured on the national coast of arms. The volcanic history which created Grenada’s steep mountain peaks is also responsible for the fertile soil that supports the island’s famous nutmeg and cocoa plantations.
Hugh Whyte courtesy Unsplash.com
The Lagoon at La Sagesse is a natural sanctuary for bird spec ies
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For the birds For serious birders, the half-hour drive from St George’s to La Sagesse on Grenada’s south coast is obligatory. This mangrove estuary with a nearby small salt pond and thorny scrub forest offers enough habitat diversity to attract one of the island’s most impressive concentrations of birdlife. Waterfowl dominate here — from several species of heron to jacanas, whistling ducks, and Caribbean coots. Bring your binoculars and field guides, and don’t forget your swimming suit: there’s a stunning beach here with a restaurant that will serve you a delicious lunch and many refreshing beverages after a morning out on the birding trail. La Sagesse may be the easiest mangrove habitat to visit, but you can also experience the mangrove forests of Grenada’s southeastern coast on a kayak tour. This is also a chance to visit the coral reefs and seagrass beds of this protected area — home to turtles, sea urchins, and sponges.
Grenada’s rarest bird is the critically endangered Grenada dove, with some estimates suggesting there may be as few as a hundred remaining in the wild. Declared the national bird in 1991, the dove favours areas of dry forest. Ornithologists know relatively little about its habits — only one nest has ever been documented by researchers.
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Hugh O’Connor/Shutterstock.com
Sugar Loaf Island lies just off Levera Beach
LEVERA BEACH LEVERA POND
GRENADA
Grand Etang Lake
St George’s La Sagesse
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Wild coast Near Grenada’s northern end, Levera Beach is a remote, windswept, wildly beautiful stretch of sand. The distinctive conical profile of Sugar Loaf Island lies just offshore, and Levera Pond, a forty-five-acre mangrove lagoon, is a haven for waterfowl. But the beach here is best known as a major nesting site for endangered leatherback turtles, who come ashore at night during the annual nesting season (from March to August) to laboriously excavate the pits where they lay their eggs. To protect these rare and gentle creatures, in 2010 Grenada enacted a closed beach policy that restricts access to Levera at night during nesting season. That doesn’t mean it’s totally off-limits: St Patrick’s Environmental and Community Tourism, a local organisation, offers tours with experienced guides trained to help visitors encounter the leatherbacks without disturbing them. Witnessing a female leatherback lay her eggs is an experience you won’t forget — and the tour fee helps fund conservation efforts.
Courtesy Pure Grenada Tourism Authority
Adventure afloat on one of Grenada's many rivers
Considering the sheer fertility of Grenada, it should be no surprise that among the island’s tourism sites are at least half a dozen private botanical gardens, all of them bursting with native flora, colourful ornamentals, and — of course — nutmeg trees. A short drive east of St George’s, along winding mountain roads, Palm Tree Gardens boasts a lily pond on a terraced lawn and a population of tortoises. Nearby Laura’s Herb and Spice Garden will introduce you to the diverse aromatic flora of Grenada, as you
stroll along paths of crushed nutmeg shells. At Sunnyside Gardens, you’ll find more varieties of hibiscus than you knew existed, plus a pond of red-streaked koi. And on the edge of St George’s, with a view over the city, Hyde Park Tropical Garden has an extraordinary collection of orchids, some of which make their way each year to the famous Chelsea Flower Show in London — but here you can see them in their natural surroundings.
Caribbean Airlines operates several flights each week to Maurice Bishop International Airport in Grenada from Barbados and St Vincent, with connections to other destinations in the Caribbean
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Music to your ears Courtesy Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc
Are you a serious music aficionado, or a casual listener? Ready to test your knowledge of Caribbean musical traditions, old and new? Think you know your kompa from your kadens? Try our trivia quiz, and check your score in the answers below!
1. Bouyon — Kwéyol for “soup” — is a musical genre that emerged in the 1980s in what territory? Guadeloupe Dominica
Martinique Haiti
2. Traditional Barbadian tuk bands include all the following percussion instruments except one — which? Snare drum Triangle
Cymbals Bass drum
3. Calypso Rose become the first woman ever to win T&T’s Calypso Monarch title, in 1978 — who was the second? Calypso Rose, again Singing Sandra
Denyse Plummer Tigress
4. In 1965, Guyanese-British musician Eddie Grant formed one of the UK’s first multiethnic rock bands — called what? The Pioneers The Electrics
The Equals The Pyramids
6. Dennery Segment, the soca genre that emerged in the 2010s, is named for a community in what island? St Lucia Grenada
St Kitts Anguilla
7. What genre provides the official soundtrack for Curaçao’s annual Carnival? Tumba Salsa
Soca Zumbi
8. Who is the youngest-ever winner of a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album? Ziggy Marley Sean Paul
Chronixx Koffee
9. T&T’s Sundar Popo, considered the founder of chutney music, had his first major hit with what song?
5. What was the name of the backyard studio built
“Nani and Nana” “Scorpion Gyal”
The Starship The Black Ark
Answers: 1 Dominica 2 Cymbals 3 Singing Sandra, in 1999 — a whole twentyone years after Rose 4 The Equals 5 The Black Ark 6 St Lucia 7 Tumba 8 Koffee, nineteen years old when she won in 2020 — also the first woman to win the award, founded in 1985 9 “Nani and Nana”
by famed — and eccentric — Jamaican producer Lee “Scratch” Perry?
50
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