Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@ccn3.co.tt

Be­fore dawn broke over the cap­i­tal, Pic­cadil­ly Greens in Port of Spain was al­ready ablaze with fire­light, rhythm, and re­sis­tance. Short­ly af­ter 4 am yes­ter­day, the an­nu­al Can­boulay re-en­act­ment, host­ed by the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC), un­fold­ed in dra­mat­ic fash­ion, mark­ing the pul­sat­ing start of Car­ni­val week­end.

The air hung heavy with smoke as flam­beaux bear­ers, their torch­es crack­ling and spit­ting em­bers, carved fiery paths through the dark­ness. Drums thun­dered as African rhythms rolled across the crowd.

The re-en­act­ment vivid­ly re­called the his­toric Can­boulay ri­ots of 1881, when freed Africans and their de­scen­dants re­sist­ed colo­nial at­tempts to sup­press their street pro­ces­sions.

Ac­tors por­tray­ing colo­nial of­fi­cers marched in­to the are­na, at­tempt­ing to halt the drum­ming and dis­perse the rev­ellers. They were met with de­ter­mined re­sis­tance, chants, stick-fight­ing dis­plays, and waves of per­form­ers surg­ing for­ward in sym­bol­ic uni­ty.

Ac­cord­ing to a so­cial me­dia post by Kam­bule 1881, “This is an im­mer­sive the­atre ex­pe­ri­ence, but please make way for our per­form­ers to get on and off the stage. Come pre­pared to sing! We will be re­mem­ber­ing the sac­ri­fices of our an­ces­tors. This is a mo­ment of re­flec­tion and cel­e­bra­tion. Lift your voic­es, clap your hands, and give all your pos­i­tive en­er­gies for a safe and en­joy­able Car­ni­val 2026.”

The por­tray­al cul­mi­nat­ed in the peo­ple’s tri­umph. The re-en­act­ment em­pha­sized that rev­ellers had band­ed to­geth­er to pre­serve their cel­e­bra­tions, ul­ti­mate­ly be­ing recog­nised and grant­ed two days to hold Car­ni­val, pro­vid­ed no dis­rup­tions oc­curred.

Scores of on­look­ers, in­clud­ing cu­ri­ous tourists and lo­cals wrapped in na­tion­al pride, lined the perime­ters of the Pic­cadil­ly Greens. Some stood silent­ly, ab­sorbed in the mo­ment, while oth­ers ap­peared vis­i­bly moved by the his­toric re­mem­brance.