Popular Culture and the Aesthetization of Politics: Hegemonic Struggle and Postcolonial Nationalism in Trinidad Carnival

Abstract

This paper has twin objectives: one, to interrogate the conjuncture of culture and power within the Trinidad carnival; and two, to explore the relationship between the carnival and the project of postcolonial nation‐building in Trinidad and Tobago. It accomplishes this by historicizing the trinity of the modern carnival: mas, calypso, and pan. Addressing the role of popular culture in the construction of hegemony, it traces the long, serpentine process of struggle over control of the festival. Elite balls gave way to the carnival of the underclass, after the abolition of slavery in 1838. As Trinidad's population became more culturally diverse, class conflict over the carnival escalated. This paved the way for the gradual appropriation of carnival by the Creole middle class. Middle‐class hegemony was further consolidated during World War II by "American Occupation," which facilitated its commodification and commercialization. Although calypso has retained its character as protest music, it too, has been commoditized since the turn of the century, enhanced by the American presence. New forms of resistance in song have emerged, such as Rapso. The steelband movement (pan) emerged in the pre‐war years as a revolution both in the soundscape and social landscape of Trinidad, but acquired legitimacy through political patronage. In the post‐independence era, carnival has been constructed as official "national culture," a performance of solidarity powerful enough to constitute a sense of brotherhood in a population fractured by competing racial, ethnic, and class loyalties. But, as a symbol, carnival cannot be "owned," and remains the stage on which conflicting ideas and values are contested.