Taking the Caribbean Community Back to the Slave Days….
On August 8, Edmonton Sun published a letter critical of the hugely successful Cariwest Festival that took place on August 5-7, as shown on the screenshots.
The author of the letter attempts to take members of the Caribbean community back to the 18 century, deprived of their freedom to celebrate, the very foundation on which the festival was founded when French plantation owners organizing masquerades (mas) and balls before enduring the fasting of Lent, did not include the slaves. The slaves, who could not take part in the Carnival, formed their own, parallel celebration called “Canboulay”.
It has now become a festival and celebration tied to freedom and the emancipation of slavery. It’s very colourful too, the most colourful in Edmonton, displaying a lot of creativity in costume design, dance, and music.
Cariwest like all related Caribbean festivals, is one of the most unifying events, celebrating cultural and creative extravaganza in Alberta. It’s an expression of culture that encapsulates music, dance, costumes, pageantry, and performance.
It was nice to connect with people from the entire spectrum of the Black community and non-Black community members from Edmonton, and beyond at Cariwest 2022.
One of the first words I heard from some members of the community in Calgary is, “…I heard Cariwest was packed this year…”
Indeed surely too successful for its own good.
Supremerevellers, one of the makers of the colourful costumes described the comments on Instagram as, “….disrespectful, discouraging, disheartening, and disgusting…”
See you all in 2023 for yet another exciting and captivating colourful festival on the streets of Edmonton, reminding us of the freedom that slaves sought when they started their own carnival.
