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?

THE MECCA V HOWARD AS INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

I was born in 1944 in Belmont, Port-of-Spain. Wayne A. I. Frederick, the current president (#17) of Howard University was born at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital in 1971 but spent the first few months of his life at a home in Belmont. It was in 1971 that I first “came to America” to begin doctoral studies at UCLA. Ta-Nehisi Coates, the celebrated author of Between the World and Me and recipient of a MacArthur genius award for 2015, was born in Baltimore in 1975, the very year I earned the Ph.D. in Spanish. In 1977, I joined the Howard University faculty as assistant professor of Spanish.

Coates makes an important clarification: “I was admitted to Howard University, but formed and shaped by The Mecca. These institutions are related but not the same. Howard University is an institution of higher education, concerned with the LSAT, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. The Mecca is a machine, crafted to capture and concentrate the dark energy of all African peoples and inject it directly into the student body . . . The history, the location, the alumni combined to create the Mecca—the crossroads of the black diaspora” (40).

There was a period in the 1990s when Wayne Frederick, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ian Isidore Smart were fellow members of the Howard University community. Coates asserts that Howard limited his potential because: “It was still a school, after all. I wanted to pursue things, to know things, but I could not match the means of knowing that came naturally to me with the expectations of professors.” Howard University, the institution of higher learning, failed young Ta-Nehisi. He could not be more clear: “The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books. I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests.” Whereas Coates withdrew from Howard University without completing any degree, President Frederick completed the B.S. / M.D., his specialization in surgery, and the MBA at the institution of higher learning.

            In my nearly four decades as a faculty member, I have had as my major goal the bridging of the gap between the library and the classroom, between the Mecca and the institution of higher education. It was with this goal in mind that I founded the Afro-Hispanic Institute Press, the Afro-Hispanic Review and Original World Press. For this would, beyond doubt, facilitate the adoption of textbooks which enable students to experience “the vastness of black people across space-time,” thereby almost ensuring that every class would be an adventure.

            The University has entered a critical phase of its existence; and its board of trustees has taken the bold step of placing the reins of the presidency for the first time in the hands of a “foreign Black.” Indeed, not only is the 17^th president a “foreign Black,” but so too are his provost and the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. As the president moves to chart a course through these troubled waters, he will surely seek to ensure that The Mecca and Howard University, the institution of higher learning, become one and the same, an indivisible union. 

Can this man adequately represent the interests of African Americans?

“Will Howard University’s TV Station Be Auctioned Off to the FCC?” This is the title of an article by Todd Steven Burroughs. (posted: Oct. 19 2015 9:54 AM www.theroots.com). The article opens with the following paragraph: “Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick is considering auctioning WHUT—the university’s public television station, and for 35 years the only black-owned public television station in the United States—to the Federal Communications Commission for anywhere between an estimated $100 million and $500 million, according to a universitywide memorandum released Friday.”

               The station is, in fact, a major part of the African American heritage. Its value ranges from 100 million to half a billion. Is President Frederick adequately prepared to enter into hardball negotiations of this caliber? This is no joke! We’re talking about 400 million dollar range! Can this man adequately represent the interests of African Americans?

IS HOWARD UNIVERSITY ANTI-BLACK?

The Afro-Hispanic Institute, the Afro-Hispanic Review, and Original World Press represent significant strides to “do for self,” “to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery,” and to achieve financial well-being. White supremacy cannot exist in the face of Black self-confidence, Black financial independence, Black self-emancipation from mental slavery. It defies common sense that the Howard University administration would be so set on nullifying the positive effect and influence of the Afro-Hispanic Institute, the Afro-Hispanic Review and Original World Press.