During Trinidad’s traditional Carnival, all roles were reversed – men and women, children and adults, and enslavers and enslaved. The oppressors called it “the world turned upside down,” but for many Trinidadians, it was “the world turned right side up.”
From 1783 to 1838, French and English colonizers in Trinidad celebrated Carnival from Christmas to Lent. Africans and mixed-race people were banned from the festivities, but this didn’t stop them from celebrating.
Africans celebrated Canboulay, or Cannes Brulées (the burning of sugarcane fields in protest), a food, song, and dance festival. It was the only time they could get away with ridiculing their enslavers. After emancipation took effect in 1838, Carnival became an event that honored both Canboulay’s history and the freeing of Trinidad’s African slaves.
In 1969, the celebration resumed on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway. Every year since then, people of all Caribbean cultures have jammed the Parkway.
NYC Carnival honors our Caribbean ancestors. Let’s continue to turn the world right side up, with Black communities coming together to walk a unified path to liberation.