Latest news with #NatriciaDuncan
The Guardian
05-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Long Wave: Trinidad and Tobago carnival celebrates African roots
Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. In our launch edition, I wrote about how one of the things I missed in the media landscape was the ability to simply meet others across the Black diaspora. In the months since, this newsletter has been that place for me, but never more so than this week, when I spoke to Natricia Duncan, our Caribbean correspondent, about this year's carnival in Trinidad and Tobago. M23 rebels target civilians in DRC | Hospital patients in Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, have described the widespread shooting during the army's chaotic withdrawal days before M23 rebels marched in. 'I heard armed men open my door … that's when they shot me,' said an injured woman. The Rwanda-backed M23 has made rapid advances, stoking fears of a regional war. Guyana hits out at Venezuelan incursion | Guyana's president, Irfaan Ali, has triggered a military response after a Venezuelan coastguard patrol entered its waters and approached an offshore oil facility. The incident is the latest development in a tense, longstanding feud between the neighbouring South American countries over land and maritime borders. US civil rights pioneers on DEI reversal | Donald Trump's recent dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the US has sent shockwaves around the world. But many of those who participated in the 1960s civil rights movement were not surprised by the president's divisive policies. The writer Lottie Joiner hears from activists whose hard-won achievements are being eroded in the country's 'surge backwards'. Adichie returns after 12 years | Nigerian literary enthusiasts have been bubbling with excitement over the release this week of Dream Count, the long-awaited novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Our west African correspondent, Eromo Egbejule, reflects on the award-winning writer's career, and speaks to Adichie's fans about her feminist musings, global impact and 'rich auntie' aesthetic. Brazilian samba star steps down | Neguinho da Beija-Flor, one of the world's best-known samba singers, has retired this week after leading 50 consecutive carnival parades for the Beija-Flor (Hummingbird) school in Rio de Janeiro. The reason for his departure? Exhaustion. 'Being a samba-school singer requires the stamina of a marathon runner,' the 75-year-old said. I was, of course, familiar with Trinidad and Tobago's carnival – heavily marketed by its tourist board as the greatest show on Earth – but the more I learned about its origins and importance, the more I realised how little I knew about such a large part of the nation's fabric and history. The carnival tradition dates to the late 1700s and its origins are a swirl of intersections resulting in an annual celebration before the fast for the month of Lent. But within that is something far richer and layered about enslaved populations using song, dance and costume to assert their own culture and folklore while mocking the pomposity and wealth of plantation owners. As an outsider, it struck me how much of carnival's hallmarks are linked to defiance in the face of oppression – either on the part of enslavers or colonisers – or innovation to circumvent that oppression. Calypso became the way isolated enslaved populations from west Africa communicated and secretly jeered at the authorities. The steel pan evolved out of an attempt to get around a British ban on drumming, and so people began to use biscuit tins to make music, and the idea for using metal was born. Pick a thread of almost any aspect of carnival and it leads to a history of continuous reassertion of identity and the right to mischief and pleasure amid repression and erasure. If there were ever an event that exemplifies the enduring connections in the diaspora, it is carnival. Whether it is in the music, dance, or rituals, west Africa and its culture is embedded in the Caribbean despite attempts to efface it. 'African presence has been the victim of systematic erasure, elision and misrepresentation,' wrote the late Dr Louis Regis, an expert on calypso. 'You can see Africa in everything' Calypso music has roots in kaiso, which originated in west Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. These links are being rediscovered. Natricia, reporting from Port of Spain, has been struck by how much the African connection is clear this year. The presence of African artists is remarkable, she tells me. Machel Montano, long regarded as the the king of soca and a cultural ambassador for Trinidad and Tobago, performed with the Nigerian-American singer-songwriter Davido, while the soca star Nailah Blackman hosted the Nigerian artist DJ Obi. Natricia says: 'There was talk about how there's so much connection with west Africa, even in how we move and we dance.' Randall Mitchell, the minister of tourism, culture and arts said he, too, was struck by the similarities during a recent trip to Ghana. 'The way we dance, it's very west African. They dance from their waist down. In east Africa, they dance with their chest,' Mitchell told Natricia. 'Our ancestral heritage, we trace it to west Africa, and that's where that music is from and there's always been that natural connection.' In the Caribbean, we call it wining, Natricia tells me, referring to the signature lower-body winding movement. 'There is that direct connection,' she says. 'All these soca artists are now looking to Afrobeats. You can see Africa in everything.' Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion What is particularly interesting, she says, is that while this is happening in music, there is also a social geopolitical movement growing between Africa and the Caribbean. It was evident in the African Union summit last month, where the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, called for solidarity. Natricia also notes how African and Caribbean countries are joining forces on issues such as reparations and decolonising the education system in Jamaica, which was working with African organisations to update the curriculum. From politics to education to music, Natricia says she is seeing an alignment between the Caribbean and Africa. Enduring connection and resistance This feels like the start of something exciting, a new centre of cultural and political influence drawing on synergies between the two regions. Natricia agrees and attributes this to the fact that we simply all now know more about each other. She shares a story of how, when she was growing up in St Vincent, she was exposed to mostly American shows. Her experience echoed my own – and inspired the name of this newsletter – listening to the long-wave radio and not hearing anything about Africa or the diaspora. Natricia says: 'Back then, there was little exposure or understanding of what Africa is.' But things have changed. The rise of social media, music and videos going viral through instant messaging and sharing, coupled with the expansion and diversification of sources of entertainment, have made previously remote cultures recognisable and familiar. She describes it as the second stage of a regional coming together that began with Bob Marley and Rastafarianism – key aspects of Jamaican culture that were 'important in building the link between the Caribbean and Africa'. She adds: 'More and more, the average person on the street can see: 'Hang on a minute, they move like us!'' There is something profoundly moving about this long arc of history bending towards people who were fractured and removed from one another, and then, centuries later, finding one another again. It made me quite emotional that carnival has kept a flambeau alive, in its ritual and music and dance, of the places that so many people had been wrenched from. Yet, hundreds of years later, those people still recognised each other. That sense of carnival as a space where people persevere despite adversity endures to this day, Natricia says. Trinidad and Tobago is in a state of emergency after a spike in crime, but on the ground Natricia has found that this year's carnival to be 'a show of resilience and not being held hostage' to escalating violence. Ultimately, it's been a place where people can simply breathe. At the end of our conversation, not only did I feel that I had become immersed in an epic cultural and political event, but that I also had met a people in the diaspora with whom I shared an understanding that despite distance and the often heaviness of life and politics, sometimes you just need to exhale. It was a need that I could recognise, even though I am from east Africa and there we move only the top of our bodies. Ramadan is upon us, and if you observe the month, we would love to hear about your favourite foods, rituals and special moments – wherever you are in the world. Get in touch, or share any other thoughts on this week's newsletters by replying to this, or emailing us at thelongwave@ and we may include your response in a future issue.
The Guardian
05-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Long Wave: Why more countries are ditching the British monarchy
Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, I spoke to Natricia Duncan, our Caribbean correspondent, on the latest moves on behalf of Commonwealth countries to decolonise their national identity. But first, the weekly roundup. Nigerian museum's preservation hopes | The Nanna Living History Museum in Koko, Niger delta, commemorates the exiled merchant prince Nanna Olomu, who escaped Nigeria when the British launched a punitive expedition in Ebrohimi in 1894. However, it is struggling with a termite infestation and poor electricity, and staff are hoping for federal government assistance. Goma suffers after M23 takeover | People living in Goma, on the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern border with Rwanda, have described their hunger and anxiety after M23's insurgency last week. The takeover by the rebel group has severed trade and agricultural supply routes, restricting access to food. Windrush scandal deepens | A man who has been living in the UK for almost 50 years has shared his fears of deportation and homelessness. Samuel Jarrett-Coker, 61, says the Home Office did not respond to requests dating to the 1980s to resolve his immigration status. Sustainable style shines in Kenya | Discarded textile waste continues to create problematic landfills in African countries. But eco-conscious fashion labels have been sourcing such materials to create bold, sustainable designs, many of which took centre stage at Nairobi fashion week this month. Afro-Brazilians look to west Africa | Benin is offering citizenship to descendants of enslaved people snatched from the continent, sparking interest from Black Brazilians who feel a strong connection between the two countries. 'More than 1 million Beninese came to Bahia in north-eastern Brazil during the days of slavery,' says Marcelo Sacramento, Benin's honorary consul in Salvador. In December, Jamaica tabled a bill to become a republic and oust King Charles III as head of state. Weeks later, Belize removed Queen Elizabeth II's images from banknotes. These moves are only the latest in a growing trend: Barbados became a republic in 2022, and several other countries are signalling their intentions to follow suit. As Natricia says, these countries are seeking to 'shrug off the vestiges of colonialism and establish their own identity as a nation – in terms of culture and history, while addressing the colonial overlays that remain in society'. The footprint of colonialism is evident in the region – including in 'our money, the names of roads and some of the laws incorporated from the British legal system at the time'. Belize not only removed images of the late monarch from its paper currency but it replaced them with pictures of national icons, specifically those who played a role in decolonisation. 'Belizeans thought it was important in celebrating their history,' Natricia says. 'The heroes they chose led independence from British rule.' There are broader cultural and linguistic shifts, too. Trinidad and Tobago announced a plan to remove a depiction of three ships used by Christopher Columbus from its coat of arms. And there is a push in Jamaica to make patois its official language instead of English, while St Lucia and Dominica have started to integrate Indigenous languages by adding them to the school curriculum. 'We want to be seen as equals, not ex-colonies' Fourteen Commonwealth countries, eight of them members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), still have the British monarch as the ceremonial head of state. The removal of the British sovereign in that role is the most symbolic act of independence. For some countries, having their own head of state says something about who they are and their autonomy, Natricia says. 'But I don't think they want to sever ties with the UK. They still very much value those political and economic ties but they want to be seen as equals, not ex-colonies.' I wondered if the diminished diplomatic role and death of Queen Elizabeth, a grand and unifying figure, had played a part in accelerating republicanism. King Charles is less popular than his mother at home and abroad, and the new generation of royals who began taking on duties from the queen in her advanced years was not fully embraced. A tour of the Caribbean by the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Catherine and William, in 2022 produced some shockingly misjudged optics, and was met with protests and a storm of demands for apologies and reparations for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade. At last year's biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, a debate loomed over a fractious summit about whether it was time, with the passing of the crown to Charles, to remove the British monarch as head of state. The decolonisation drive predates the death of the queen, Natricia says. The first wave of independence in the region dates as far back as the 1960s, with the first successful overthrow of colonial rule 150 years earlier via the Haitian revolution against French colonial rule. 'I think about my country, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the feeling is that the British did not leave much behind when SVG became fully independent in 1979. The education and health systems, the infrastructure and institutions required to build a strong economy and ensure a fledgling democracy could get on its feet, were not there, and that made it really difficult.' The continued economic reliance on Britain after independence has been calamitous. For example, Britain agreed a quota of tariff-free bananas to be imported from the country, creating an industry that at one time employed approximately 70% of the country's workforce and became the pillar of the economy. 'When those protected market arrangements for former colonies began to fall through, it was disastrous. Over time, I think a view has developed that tethering ourselves to that identity of being a former colony – alongside the narratives and economic architecture that come with that identity – was doing more bad than good,' Natricia says. Distant royal figures then start to seem like not only an irrelevance but an insulting anachronism. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion Global call for repair and restoration After the Windrush scandal broke in 2018, in which members of the British-Caribbean Windrush generation were detained, deported and denied their legal rights to citizenship, some Caribbean people concluded that maintaining Commonwealth ties with Britain was no longer worthwhile. 'That particular scandal did not help the situation,' Natricia says. 'Immigration is always an issue. People feel that if King Charles is our head and we have this connection through the Commonwealth, there should be some sort of free movement. They think: 'I can't even get a visa to go there.' I don't know to what extent the scandal caused a change in perspective for the average person in the Caribbean. But it did have an impact on public perception.' And there is, Natricia says, the reparations movement – the global call for repair from former enslaving countries to the descendants of those they victimised. That discourse triggered a realisation among some Caribbean states that 'one of the reasons why they are struggling is because of their colonial past, and there should be some redress for that. That opened a conversation about our identity and where we should be today. Reparations are about repair and restoration for the damage that was done during enslavement.' People are becoming aware that some of the inequities and challenges they are experiencing are the result of the fact that they are descended from enslaved people who 'lost everything, their homes, their language, their cultural identity'. Reclaiming cultural identities It's hard to gauge how much of a groundswell there is in favour of this reassertion of identity. 'At the governmental level, it's very strong and, in most cases, across parties,' Natricia says. There are Indigenous groups, such as the Garifuna people, and others, such as Rastafarians, who are passionate about the cause. 'There are cross-sections of the population, especially those who are marginalised, who really connect with this idea of reclaiming our cultural identity, correcting narratives and falsehoods in our history.' Otherwise, she says, the picture is mixed. 'In the Caribbean, there have been referendums in which people have voted 'no' to the question of removing the monarch as head of state. More recently, a poll in Jamaica showed that only 56% of participants were in favour of republicanism. So, I think decolonisation is important but still some way down on the list of priorities for Caribbean populations.' But aspects of decolonisation that have a material impact, such as removing the UK's privy council as the highest court, 'are things people appear to be more passionate about because they have an impact on justice. There is a lot of concern about the fact that we have the Caribbean court of justice, but for a lot of countries, they go to the privy council for the final decision.' I say to Natricia that what she is describing sounds essentially like the birth of a Caribbean-wide consciousness. 'Absolutely. Yes,' she says. The next step, she says, is to raise awareness among populations struggling with the cost of living and other more immediate and tangible concerns. 'What I have observed is that there needs to be a strong and well thought through education programme that tells people about our past. There are moves to do this now by integrating information into the curriculum,' Natricia says. 'There is an international debating competition, created by the Centre for Reparation Research, to which schools in the Caribbean and UK have been invited.' With Britain experiencing its own growing pains in coming to terms with its colonial past and role in enslavement, a process the Guardian has initiated regarding its own history, that momentum behind this movement in the Caribbean could spread to its former coloniser. The key lies in helping people to understand their past, Natricia says. 'In doing so, people in the UK and the Caribbean can take that journey to understanding why we are where we are.' To receive the complete version of The Long Wave in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here.
