Masquerade to Carnival

Carnival or Masquerade as it was more popularly called in Dominica, was strongly an Afro-French festival. The observance of two days of feasting before lent goes way back to the time when the early Christians meshed the pagan festival of the Roman gods into their pre-lent ceremonies and there it flourished through Roman Catholic Europe. The word masquerade it self probably comes from the Arabic maschara - a mask - and it was the flamboyant Catherine de Medici who introduced grand masked balls to the French Court setting the pattern fro the rest of Society. When this festival was brought to Dominica by the French settlers, it took root and flourished along with the African love for wild colour and rhythm.

In the Protestant British and Dutch islands, the slaves' annual holiday was centred around Christmas and new years, but the French colonies revelled in the bonus of several other religious festivals and the pre - lent feast was prominent among them. The wonderful masques and dances were a feature of the French plantocracy throughout the Antilles. Samedi Gwa through J'ouver to Mardi Gwa were days when the French estate families visited each other for vast creole fetes and the slaves would dance out on the coffee glacé while indoors others played music, served and performed for tips.

With emancipation, the freed people brought the festival out onto the streets. In Roseau and Portsmouth particularly, the labourers, porters, the 'negres bord la mer', fishermen and domestics were joined by hands from the neighbouring villages to flout and teardown the standards set by Society. During the days before Masquerade when the chanteulles were rehearsing with their drummer, the people in the district joined in the chante-mas and learnt the lavway chorus. Masquerade was one chance for a brief annual revolt against a society which for the rest of the year demanded their respect and obedience. The themes of the chante-mas made this clear enough. The best chanson exposed a social scandal or an important personality of a piece of injustice.

The weekend prior to the two days of street running was a whirl of dances and picnics with Sunday evening being the time for Pappy Show Weddings. These came complete with pregnant bride, priest and the strangest guests possible who passed through the streets and performed the marriage ceremony in every house they visited.

From j'ouver the matadors, the bad-johns, darkies, red ochre, jamettes, drummers and singers would be about town. The chanteulle, now in her prime moved backwards facing the band leading the chante-mas to which the band would echo the lav-way.

In the 19th century the darkies and the red - ochre groups covered in soot, boot black or ochre according to their band, would form themselves into regiments on the Newtown Savannah to engage in stick battles or bois bataille. At the beginning of the 20th century the custom died, but the bands of oiled and sooted darkie and red ochre men remained a feature of the street bands.

It was in the streets that the strong African influence could be seen. Many of the costumes were unaltered from those used in the tribal festivals of West African Kingdoms. Most obvious were the huge sensay and cow horn outfits, the stilt men or bwa bwa balancing on tall wooden legs and the straggling groups of jugglers, acrobats and sideshows to be found in the market places.

The sensay costumes were originally of sisal or Lange bef, a species of wild agave. Soon they were also being made of frayed rope, banana trash ( pai fig), cloth and even paper. A sensay outfit was a thing of some value for the original ones required the tedious separation of fibres of the langue bef by pounding, soaking and bleaching. The thick skirts of this fibre were tied around the legs, waist arms and neck. The headpiece consisted of more sisal topped by large cowhorns with the face covered by a mask. This was usually made of fine wire mesh and replaced the carved wooden ones of West Africa. The figure was made even more fearful by wearing high wooden clogs studded with metal discs (later Coca-Cola caps) which made a terrible sound on the streets. Armed with thick sticks, cow whips and batons of varying shapes and sizes, freed by their masks of any identity, the band band mauvais were ready to strike terror in the town. Soufriere, Pointe Michel, St. Joseph and Grand Bay were also centres for the band mauvais.

Meanwhile, the street were lined with sellers of cakes and sweet meats frying baignets and akras on their coalpots and the performers were collecting pennies from spectators on the verandas.

As masquerade grew and flourished a great variety of costumes developed including black dress and corset, the tourists, the hounbayaly, the souswell suwi, indians and red cloaked cowboys, clowns, men as woman, women as men all wearing imported wire masks, (made in Germany...) with pink painted faces, blue eyes and bright red lips. The light and more noticeable one was, the more one ensured that every inch of skin was covered with clothing, stockings and gloves.

Virtually everyone took advantage of this freedom from self and took the two days to "run masked" and escape from their respectability. Masquerade became an official holiday ( it had not previously been recognised by government and the business sector) and some merchants gave la paeu cabrit bands donations to perform for the public or they were hired by society groups. Merchants and government clerks donned the sensay and joined the band mauvais, usually quiet spinsters rolled their waists and married men ran with their wives in one arm and their mistresses in the other without either, (or the wife at least) being aware of the deception. From the twenties to the early 1950's traditional masquerade grew and flourished.

Then in the 1950's, Dominica tried to follow Trinidad carnival by making Masquerade 'respectable'. Soon the old name itself was replaced and well meaning but rather circumspect groups such as the newly formed Jaycees introduced shows, calypsonians, queens and overall organisation. Everything had to be like Trinidad, Carnival had to mean money. Steelbands took over from the small quick footed la peau cabrit bands and the Trinidad-style calypsonian replaced the chanteulle and her chante mas. Calypso had to be written had to be 'meaningful' and had to be subjected to judging at competitions. The chante mas died at the doors of the Carib Cinema. But worse was to come. As steel bands became too expensive and lacked sponsors and as the la peau cabrit band were dependent on people like ageing Sheridan and Jones of Newtown, there have come trucks bearing electrical instruments, "discos on wheels" and the like which hardly moved down the street at all.

While social effects have changed the bands and music, it was the law which in one sweep changed the costumes. During the carnival of 1963, three popular young men , tied into their highly flammable outfits, were burned to death. The inquiry which followed was made more complicated because of the writhing masked faces which surrounded the flames. Identity of certain masked persons were impossible and the case remains a mystery. That year the legislative council banned the use of masks, sensay, grease paint and fibrous materials. But, already, expensively costumed bands and tidily dresses revellers had taken over the streets and the taunting satire and sarcasm of Masquerade was gone.

What remained most were the powerful old songs and these popular ballads live not only because of their lasting quality but as records of folk history.