CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 4

The Name, “Trinidad”

     Columbus renamed our island with a term which reflected Europe’s religious fundamentalism. The three peaks of the Southern Range were the first thing that the European mariners sighted. It reminded them of the central mystery of Christianity, the three persons in one God, the Trinity. In Spanish the term Trinity is expressed as La Trinidad, precisely the name of our island.

     The religious fundamentalism of Christendom prevented, and indeed still prevents, the vast majority of Christians from realizing that it was in the Nile Valley where human beings first formulated the idea of a Supreme Being who is One but Three at the same time. The doctrine of the Trinity which Africans from the Nile Valley elaborated thousands of years before Christianity is to be found in a hymn to Amen contained in a papyrus now housed in the Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (Allen 182). The following is a contemporary English of the version of the hymn reproduced in Egyptian hieroglyphs in Allen’s text (183):

          There are three gods:

          Amen, Ra, and Ptah. There is no god like unto them.

          He is Amen in so far as He is distinct from the universe.

He is Ra in so far as He is visible in and rules over the universe.

He is Ptah in so far as He created everything that exists. (My translation)    

    

     We are, then, especially blessed to live in an island named after the Trinity, a truth about the nature of the Supreme Being first revealed to Africans thousands of years ago. The Spanish conquerors intended to use the name of the Supreme Being as a mechanism for stealing other people’s property. Now that we know the truth, we can be set free from the limitations of Eurocentric religious fanaticism.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” PART 3—WHO (continued)

     As it turns out, many people believe that the major contribution to the festival was made by Europeans of French extract. But this theory does not make much sense. French-speaking Europeans and Africans only began coming to Trinidad and Tobago after 1783, the year of the famous treaty known as the Cédula de Población [The Population Accord]. According to this accord, Spanish-speaking Europeans, who controlled our island at the time, facilitated large-scale immigration from the Caribbean islands controlled by the French.

     On 31 July 1498, Columbus, on his third voyage, arrived at the island known as Iere [VERIFY]. Columbus was the lead man of a wave of ruthless conquerors who had been authorized by the Treaty of Tordesillas to take possession of everything and everyone they found in the “New World.” In order to lay claim to the land of the native peoples, the Caribs, the conquerors had to rename the island. Now, the conquerors were agents of Christendom, the political arm of Christianity. And it must be recalled that, at the time of the contact between Europe and the Western Hemisphere, Christendom and Islam were ferociously contending for control of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

TO BE CONTINUED

CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” PART 2

Who

     As we have seen in the last chapter, human beings can be divided into only three “races”: Africans, Asiatics, and Europeans. More than any other “race,” Africans have been associated with Carnival. Indeed, Carnival is the ultimate pan-African festival.

     The continent of Africa is the original homeland of Africans. However, it is also the original homeland of all human beings, and it is the cradle of all human civilization. Even though civilization was invented in Africa, it clearly belongs to all human beings. The same can be said of Carnival to some extent. However, as we look around the world today, wherever we find a good Carnival, we will find that Africans have left their influence in a very special way.

     If there had not been any Africans in Trinidad and Tobago, there would not have been a Carnival as we know it. What about those people from Trinidad and Tobago who are not Africans; have they contributed anything to “we thing”? Well, most assuredly they have. Europeans of French extract and East Indians have added to the festival and helped to make it what it is today.

TO BE CONTINUED

Carnival Is “We Thing”

      

PART 1—THE INTRODUCTION

                                       It would be hard to find a Trinbagonian who does not think of Carnival as our (we) thing. We all believe that the festival known as Carnival is special to Trinidad and Tobago and that our version of the festival is the best in the world. In a chapter, “Carnival Is “We Thing” of a forthcoming book we examined this proposition to see if there is any truth to it.

     The best way to proceed would be to try to get a more complete understanding of Carnival by asking fundamental questions about it: who? what and how? when? where? and why? After we have looked into Carnival following the lead of these key questions, we will be in a better position to see if we Trinbagonians are right in laying claim to having the best Carnival in the world.

I HAVE DIVIDED THE CHAPTER INTO 22 PARTS WHICH WILL BE POSTED SERIALLY

THE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CARNIVAL, HOWARD UNIVERSITY AND ITS CURRENT PRESIDENT

Eighteen years ago, the Howard University administration took the position that it would be improper for me to travel to Trinidad at Carnival time because: 1) Trinidad is the land of my birth; 2) My trips to Trinidad at Carnival time stir up the envy of my colleagues who view them as an annual winter vacation; 3) Trinidad is English speaking and I am a professor of Spanish. I intend to travel to Trinidad for Carnival 2016. However, this should not pose any problem, since, as of July 2015, the Howard University administration has placed me on leave with pay.

While in Trinidad for the 2015 Carnival, I saw a report on a local TV station about a visit to the country by President Wayne A. I. Frederick and his family. I subsequently discovered that President Frederick frequently “comes back home” for the Carnival. It has been brought to my attention that some Howard University faculty members have expressed their discontent at the appointment of a “foreign Black” as president of the University.

It will surely not be long before the position taken by the University administration 18 years ago resurfaces as a criticism of President Frederick. Since I have earned the respect of the national and international academic community for my work on Carnival, I wish to offer a series of scholarly reflections on the major significance of Carnival, “The Ultimate Pan-African Festival.”

ALL OF MY POSTS FROM NOW UNTIL ASH WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2016 WILL FOCUS ON THIS ISSUE

THE DONALD’S LATEST OUTRAGE

Everyone is horrified by the Donald’s latest outrage, and rightly so. However, please let’s not get into any pie-in-the- sky talk about how the Donald violates the very spirit and values on which this country was founded. Let’s not forget that the Declaration of Independence describes the First Nations people as “the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” Let’s not forget that the U.S. Constitution declares that Black people are three-fifths human.

Donald’s call for blocking all Muslims from entering the nation is, indeed, unspeakably unprincipled. The Donald is horribly out of touch with the values that we have come to identify as American, but he is not that much out of touch with those who deemed Blacks to be three-fifths human. 

SEE www.ianismart.com

ARE TRUMP’S LIES REALLY THAT BIG OF A DEAL?

What about this big fat lie? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

You all remember that one? And what about this other one from the same document, referring to the First Nations people as: “the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

Who was doing the “undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions” at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890?