THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CARNIVAL

In that July 4 interview with Von Martin on Caribbeana (WPFW 89.3F FM), President Frederick lamented the loss of the once flourishing Washington DC Caribbean Carnival, especially because of the significant contribution the festival made to the humanities. Out of modesty, I suppose, Von did not reference his own essay, “Going Back Home to Take Home Back,” published in the watershed work on the festival edited by Ian Isidore Smart and Kimani S. K. Nehusi, Ah Come Back Home: Perspectives on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival (Washington DC: Original World Press, 2000). In his essay Von insightfully affirmed: “In order to be equipped to give full expression to the Carnival tradition, many Trinbagonians go back home to bring home back to the Carnival in their respective cities [throughout North America and Europe]” (page 194). President Frederick is one of those thousands of Trinbagonians who make the trek home every year for the Carnival.