KAMBULE - The Spirit of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival

Happy Carnival!

KAMBULE - The Spirit of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is the ritual re-enactment of an event that happened on Carnival Monday in 1881, and changed the way Carnival is celebrated in Trinidad.

While Carnival was celebrated by the French upper classes as a pre-Lenten festival, for African people, Carnival became one of the few spaces where they could celebrate their freedom. After Emancipation, August 1st would be observed for three days of celebration, rituals and also protests against the still unfair practices that existed in the society. However in 1849 the Emancipation time celebration was banned.

Kambule takes place in a series of movements that shift between an imagined conversation among the Port of Spain people on the night before the riots and the telling of the story of how we got to this moment. It also features elements of African dance, masking, martial traditions and Yoruba Ifa/Orisa spiritual practice.

Kambule, according to linguist Professor Maureen Warner-Lewis, is a Kikongo word meaning procession. This is indeed what the people did at many times during the year as part of both their spiritual and secular practice.

KAMBULE, A PLAY BY EINTOU PEARL SPRINGER