In October, three months before Junkanoo began, tension was already high in the air of neighbourhoods in Nassau, Bahamas, such as McCollough Corner and Mason's Addition where many Junkanoo Shacks-what in T&T are called mas camps-can be found.
When the T&T Guardian visited the Gaza Strip/One Family shack, designer and band leader Gary St Louis, 38, was a little guarded before he found out we weren't Bahamian. He needed to be sure we weren't from rival shacks such as the Saxons or Music Makers trying to spy on his production.
Gaza Strip, a nearly 1,000 strong group, will be portraying Hurricane in the country's traditional Boxing Day parade. St Louis said competition in the annual street parade of colourful costumes, choreographed dance and live music was not only tight but strict. If the band scheduled to cross the stage at 1 am is late, they can be disqualified. And this is just one regulation from the guiding 90-page rule book for judging Junkanoo.
At the shack in Mason's Addition, St Louis was busy pasting blue ribbon to his massive individual costume dedicated to Hurricane Katrina. The theme for this year's band was proposed by painter Stanley Burnside-who is a household name in Junkanoo along with his brother Jackson. At the centre of St Louis's creation, which he's building from his own sketch, is Mother Nature.
Decorations alone for these large costumes can cost as much US$2500. When you add man power, the cost of base materials the final products can reach into the thousands. The making of the costume might not even sound as gruelling as "rushing", however.
Rushing is to the Bahamas what playing mas is to T&T. And to rush you need an instrument or knowledge of a choreographed dance to participate. "Yet the time, money and hours of strenuous dancing on the road are no deterrents to Junkanoo. It seems that everyone involved was "born into Junkanoo" and that kept their spirits up year after year.
St Louis related that he too had been participating and creating all his life. His entire family from wife, to children, to aunts, uncles and cousins, are active participants. "Junkanoo is a spirit. You have to be in it to love it. You can describe junkanoo in many different forms and fashions," he said. According to St Louis every year has been his best.
Junkanoo groups come highly sectioned. At the front you have flag bearers or banners. Then there are free dancers which are further broken down into off the shoulders, jumpers and naked dancers. After that there's the choreographed or showtime section, which must have a minimum of 12 dancers, all female. Following the women is the brass section and then tom tom or rhythm drum section. The final section and perhaps most important consists of large bass drums.
"Bass drums are at the core of the band and are the original drums which can be traced all the way back to Africa. Those are the pulse of the entire thing. Everything else is like a garnish," said Tamara Bullard, 32, lead choreographer at Gaza Strip. Bullard is an accountant by day and still grapples sometimes with the stereotypes associated with Junkanoo. "Its like some of the taboo stuff related to Carnival that says a young lady shouldn't be in the street shaking up, but its breaking now because you have an influx of all types of people coming in."
The ideas about decency may also be linked to lingering class divisions found in Junkanoo. Most of the shacks are found in what Bullard calls the inner-city and she is fully aware of her Bailloo Hill Estates suburban background.
"I feel my participation is to some extent self affirming and advocacy because I try to show them that the so-called outsider who went to the private school and the university and has the white collar job can still come and contribute and that doesn't change who I am as a person."
Bullard also believes that attitudes towards Junkanoo are changing seeing that the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas hosted the first exhibit ever dedicated to the art of Junkanoo in January. Work from the Burnsides was featured in the exhibit and their pieces also make up part of the permanent collection speaking to the influence Junkanoo costuming has on the Bahamian artistic consciousness.
For the upcoming visual artist, Jeffrey Meris, 21, who's also a Gaza Strip designer and builder, his art and Junkanoo are intrinsically linked. "My art and Junkanoo work very cohesively. Junkanoo influences my artwork because without Junkanoo I wouldn't be where I am today creating work and stuff like that. Junkanoo opened up doors for me to meet artists and become a part of the local conversation when it comes to art," he said.
Meris is also a lifer, having been involved in Junkanoo since age 10. Apart from learning from the artists he admires such as the Burnsides, the shack has become a home away from home for Meris and much more. "This has become almost like a religion something that you faithfully follow. There's no grand cash compensation to say if you wanna be rich for the rest of your life do this but it's almost like Christianity.
"Like the way Christians believe that when you die you'll go to heaven. It's just something that you look forward to at the end of the year just something spiritual that you can't really describe."