It would be a grave error to see the debate surrounding the placement of the Foreday Morning jump-up on the Barbados Crop Over calendar as merely an administrative disagreement over the dating an event. Instead, it is symptomatic of a far wider problem of Barbadian social life. Its essence lies in the failure to develop Crop Over as genuinely a “people’s” festival, which allows sufficient space for the free, spontaneous and unregulated involvement of the majority.
Instead, the Crop Over Festival is very much a commercial operation, interested more in the profits of the “stakeholders” than the celebration of grassroots culture, the expression of individual creative eccentricity, and the psychic escape from the drudgery and oppression of daily life. Even the University of the West Indies carnival has been co-opted by the moneychangers.
It is no accident that the glaring omissions of Crop Over include two of the most genuinely people-based aspects of carnival: the last lap and the early morning jouvert.
Whilst the authorities have not granted a second day or even a “free for all” last lap, they have only reluctantly and recently agreed to the Foreday jump-up. In its current incarnation, however, the Foreday is run as an organised T-shirt band festival, in which “bandleaders” provide a for-profit service. It is not without irony that the main complaint with the Foreday jump-up is its “competition” with the more traditional bands.
A real problem, however, is that the Foreday has never fulfilled the spirit of what a foreday jam should be. Like the last lap, the Foreday should allow for persons who would not normally join a formal band to “take a jump” and enjoy the carnival.
Relatedly, Crop Over has no space for ‘ole mass’ in which creative citizens express their individuality, engage in some form of artistic social commentary, and are indeed judged as a specific category of the festival. Similarly, the kind of social intermingling which the last lap allows (as the evening darkens) is missing in Crop Over. Instead, the majority are excluded by rope and paid security.
An interesting contrast can be seen with the St Lucia Jazz Festival which, though essentially a tourist-driven middle class party, deliberately offers “free” shows and creatively selects venues to make it a genuine “national” festival.
Sadly, the non-reveller is excluded in Barbados.
This instinct of exclusion is exacerbated with the removal of the Cavalcades. Indeed, the continuing discomfort with the Foreday arises precisely because there is no consensus on the desirability of its existence.
Sadly too, there is no philosophical debate on transforming Crop Over into a popular celebration. Narrow technical and economic considerations prevail.
Instead of debating the timing of the Foreday, the real debate should be on making Crop Over a genuine people’s festival and a true celebration of freedom. Forward ever!
• Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, specialising in regional affairs.
