CARNIVAL-'Mas Defiance'

Carnival, one of the most enduring legacies of the Windrush generation, draws each year over two million people to the streets of Notting Hill in West London. It’s the second-largest carnival in the world, with Rio de Janeiro the largest. Leading the procession as they do every year are glowing performers decked in costumes inspired by Caribbean, African, and South American mythologies. It's a jubilant celebration of creativity, craftsmanship, and sheer energy, and the participants, decked out in spectacular costumes, adorned in a dazzling array of beads, feathers, glitter, and gold, snake their way in procession, through the three-and-a-half-mile Carnival route, in a brilliant display of culture and unity.

Mas or Masquerade is at the heart of Carnival, and Notting Hill is no different. It is a kaleidoscope of intricate colours, and each Mas has a unique style, with its own costume, music, and sound, all adding to the dynamic sound and atmosphere that is Carnival. Filling the air is the pounding sound of reggae music, and the smell of jerk chicken, curried goat, rice and peas, roti, patties, seasoned fish, attacks the senses, stirs the taste buds, and whets the appetite. It's a gourmet’s delight, and London’s economy benefits to the tune of some £93 million, supporting over 3,000 full-time workers. It requires a considerable police presence to keep it safe- around 9,000 police officers, and it costs around £6 million

Trinidad holds the distinction of being the birthplace of Carnival and at its heart is ‘Mas’, a tradition, originally introduced by the French as masquerade balls in the eighteenth century. They were typically held at the end of the sugar cane season, when the crop in the Caribbean was harvested, and the fields burnt in preparation for the next. Confined to their quarters, and barred from the masquerade balls, the enslaved held their own ‘Canboulay’ or ‘Cannes Bruleés,’ where they danced, wore costumes they made, and joyously expressed themselves in the practices they had brought from Africa.

For the enslaved, Canboulay served a dual purpose, for by creating their costumes and transforming them into caricatures, the enslaves were subtly mocking their master’s without them knowing. It was an ingenious act of resistance, and as the enslaves extended this to their music (calypso), not only was it a powerful way of communicating, it was also another form of resistance. Carnival, therefore, is not only a celebration, it’s also deeply rooted in Black resistance and cultural defiance.

The origins of the Notting Hill Carnival began as a series of local events, including the 1958 race riots, and as a spontaneous and defiant response to the racism West Indians faced in Britain. Today there are conflicting accounts as to its origins, however, most people agree that the tension between white and Black people in the Notting Hill area in 1958, the race riot that began on the August bank holiday and the brutal killing of Kelso, an Antiguan, were the catalysts.

On 25th May 1958, Kelso Cochrane, a 32-year-old Antiguan, and resident of Notting Hill, was on his way home after being treated for a broken finger at his local hospital. He was viciously attacked by a group of white youth and stabbed to death. At Kelso’s funeral, over a thousand Black and white mourners came out in solidarity, showing that they were prepared to stand up against racial intimidation and discrimination. The government even appealed for witnesses to come forward, but none did, and Kelso’s killers were never found.

In the summer of the same year in August, again in Notting Hill, a group of white youths attacked a Blackman and his girlfriend and the response this time was swift, sparking a week of rioting with numerous people injured and multiple arrests. In response, Claudia Jones the editor of West Indian Gazette, responded by organising a carnival.

Claudia, -a Trinidadian- knew what Carnival meant – an act of defiance – and responded in the way she knew best, by boldly organising a ‘in your face’ event in St Pancras Town Hall in North London, as an act of defiance, and as a way of celebrating West Indian culture. In her own words, the aim of the carnival was ‘to wash the riots from the mouths of Black people,’ and celebrate West Indian culture.

For many white Britons, the Notting Hill Carnival is their first exposure to West Indian and Caribbean culture, and it offers a vibrant display of African aesthetics, displayed in the dancing, floats and elaborate masquerades. For Black people, it is a liberating experience, celebrating ‘Blackness’ and cultural pride, and is one of the most famous carnivals, attracting thousands of visitors each year, as well as showcasing Britain’s Black culture and the multicultural society it has become. It’s an unqualified success and an enduring legacy, and its impact on race relations is incalculable. It no longer needs to be prefixed by ‘Notting Hill’; and it’s now known, simply as ‘Carnival,’ celebrated each year as the Summer Bank Holiday Weekend, and it’s hard to imagine a summer in Britain without it.