From the origin of the Carnival and a glimpse of traditional transvestites
In Martinique, Carnival is the main festive event of the year. It has long been the island's most important musical event.
Carnaval de la Martinique is the business of all Martinicans. In the 17th century, it began with casserole concerts, charivaris, cavalcades and balls for colonists and planters. The evolution of society and the organization of slavery gradually led masters to authorize a certain number of festivities and dances for their slaves.
This evolved over the years according to the local political situation and the status of the island (wars, English domination, revolts against the metropolises, etc.). In this way, the syncretism of the slaves gradually integrated the dances of their masters into the rhythms and festive habits they maintained under the yoke. In parallel and concomitant with its development, Carnival was regulated and controlled by the authorities, under the dual pressure of the Church and the owners, who feared the excesses of men of color and blacks, and the endangerment of property, people and the moral and social order.
Sometimes, when the situation is racially or politically heated, masks and disguises are banned on pain of imprisonment, and sometimes Carnival is banned altogether.
Its particularities
Carnival in Martinique is very different from its cousin, Rio Carnival, but also from its distant ancestors in Venice and Florence. It's a highly participatory affair, in which the population, if not actively involved in running the vidés, comes out to watch the parades go by. They often respect the color of the day. Everyone contributes in their own way.
Events generally begin in mid-February, before Lent, just after Epiphany. First come the dawn pyjama parties, which take place at dawn on Shrove Monday, followed in the afternoon by parades of street bands and groups on foot, all dressed up in costumes, which liven up Fort-de-France, its outskirts and the island's communes to great effect during the Shrove Days.
Every weekend, from the start of the carnival season, queen elections are held in the communes, and there are also occasional carnival shows. Carnival song contests, which make fun of a significant event of the year, are numerous. However, they are less popular than in the past.
The week known as the "week of the fat days" runs from the preceding Saturday to the following Wednesday.
Saturday: presentation of the carnival queens.
Shrove Sunday : the floats, queens and his majesty Vaval are brought out.
Shrove Monday: parade of burlesque weddings in drag, also the day of the southern and northern parades.
Shrove Tuesday : parade of the red devils, dressed in red.
Ash Wednesday: black-and-white parades, death of Vaval.
Shrove Days and the preceding days are accompanied by parades in the island's various communes (northern parade, southern parade, etc.); a different commune each year, as well as costume parties with specific themes.
The carnival in Saint-Pierre
It was in Saint-Pierre, the island's capital at the time, that carnival reached its apogee in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies . The tradition of carnival in Martinique was born of the meeting of two cultures, European and African, which hybridized during colonization. After the Abolition of 1848, which gave a new impetus, Carnival developed and reached new heights of color, imagination and voluptuousness. The world-famous Carnival of Saint-Pierre, the "Pearl of the Antilles", was brought to a screeching halt in 1902 by the eruption of Mount Pelée, which destroyed the town and led to the disappearance of many of Martinique's intellectual and artistic elite, such as Rosal and Bonneville, champions of what would later be known as the "doudouiste" movement. The carnival tradition continued in the new capital, Fort-de-France, also known as Foyal after its former name, Fort-Royal. It's located in the center of Martinique, a long way from Mount Pelée, which has since seemed quieter.
After the disaster
After the catastrophe, carnival descended on Foyal, where it was undisciplined, spontaneous and totally unorganized; it was gradually channeled by the committees, while preserving its diversity and its profound nature as an outlet. First of all, it was in 1948, just a century after the Abolition, that the "Rassemblement Féminin", chaired at the time by Paulette Nardal, organized the first Creole Song Contest, enabling local musicians and artists to compete in mazurka, biguine and Creole waltz. The result was a treasure trove of suggestive and lascivious songs such as Gombo, gombo, gombo and Emmanuel wozé jaden an, which are still sung to this day.
The Carnaval de Fort-de-France, and hence the Carnaval martiniquais, was built around the activities and programs associated with this competition. Then, for more than 20 years, the Comité Carnaval Foyal took over, promoting and organizing the Carnaval by adding the Queen of the Carnaval competition. At the same time, several committees were set up to help make the Fort-de-France Carnival a celebration of creativity, beauty and charm.
During this period, virtually every commune on the island has its own carnival of masks, floats, parades, balls and parties every Sunday after Epiphany. But for the "jours gras", Fort-de-France becomes the center of all carnival activity, hosting the most beautiful floats and queens from the communes, as well as the expression of its own committees and associations with their cross-dressing groups.
In the streets of the main town, this organized carnival coexists with the more popular, spontaneous and good-natured " vidés". Lined up and embracing each other, they come down from the hills surrounding Fort-de-France, from Sainte-Thérèse, Terres Sainville and Au-Béro, marching in cohorts behind a truck carrying a trombone, long the Carnival's flagship instrument, a drum kit, a clarinet and a singer. The meeting of these two worlds is what makes Martinique's Carnival so original.
From the 1980s until the beginning of the 21st century, Carnival evolved and gradually lost the " jou-wouvè " or pyjama vidés, the most beautiful baby contests, the parades of beautiful cars, the parades of small trades and the floats.
The carnival of Foyal
Carnival often takes as its theme political and social events, as well as news items that have left their mark on people's minds over the past year. It was, and still is, a way of making fun of everyday scenes, a way of reactivating collective memory, and a good pretext for denouncing political and social exactions. It has its own specificity, which has spread beyond the region: Ash Wednesday in black and white, the liturgical beginning of Lent.
Fat days, days of jubilation
Carnival in Martinique is a festive occasion accompanied by music and specific gestures. The participation of street bands with drums, steel bands and other instruments dates back to 1975. Carnaval de Martinique takes place all over the island, depending on the resources of the various communes. Children of all ages are not left out, with schools and their own programming. High school students also organize their own election of the King and Queen of the High Schools, often in nightclubs. Some communes elect a carnival miss, from Miss Timoun (children) to Miss Granmoun (adults), not forgetting the carnival queen herself.
Every year since 1997, all categories of carnival performers have been honored with the 12 "trophées du carnaval de la Martinique" (and 24 awards), which are the result of public voting by Internet and by ballot, with a 13th trophy reserved for the jury. Other awards include the "Vaval d'or" from the City of Fort-de-France since 2004. The songs that win prizes at the carnival are always based on current events, viewed from the angle of derision.
Carnival in Martinique reaches its apotheosis during the "jours gras" (fat days), when :
Dimanche gras. The presentation of Vaval, a giant bwabwa created in the greatest secrecy by the technicians of the capital city, and the unveiling of the chosen mascot. Quite often, the caricature represents a cause to be defended, denounces a criminal act or shows an event that has marked people's minds during the year. It's also the day of the release of Les Reines. The overall theme itself is free.
Lundi gras. Neighbors, relatives, friends or allies form walking groups that criss-cross the neighborhoods, singing the famous En pyjama lévé song to awaken the population before dawn, and encourage them to follow them as they are dressed: in shirts or pyjamas, to come and take part in the vidés of the same name, the pyjama vidé. The afternoon is traditionally reserved for burlesque weddings. Carnival-goers dress in drag for parodies of weddings in which the men are dressed as women and vice versa, with witnesses, the priest and all that represents the revelers, the altar boys and the wedding party in their cross-dressing. This day is also reserved for the grand southern parade, when floats and other groups parade through the chosen commune.
Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is a day off, and one of the days of greatest popular fervor. Costumes are red, and red is everywhere, as the red devils are out in full force. All the carnival-goers and even the curious onlookers along the boulevards are traditionally dressed in red. Mardi Gras is synonymous with red devils in Martinique. Papas Diables adorned with bovine horns on their heads and bits of broken mirror stuck to their clothes are in the streets.
On a trip to southern Senegal, Aimé Césaire was surprised to see the exact representation of red masks with horns and mirrors. This emblematic figure, still very much alive under our skies, is a heritage from the tradition of African masks, whose horns are said to symbolize strength and mirrors wisdom.
Ash Wednesday. This is the day when the population mourns the death of the king known as Vaval, with his grieving widows, dressed in black and white and accompanied by devils, also in mourning, wandering through the streets. Before suffering the fate that awaits him - his cremation on the Savannah - Vaval makes one last tour of the streets and boulevards. It's a Martinican speciality, which has since been copied in other regions. At the end of the day, he will be burned on the Savane and in the communes, as tradition dictates. The many widows, inconsolable mourners, fall dek-dek (into a trance). The "obstek" or "zob sek" notice had already announced his death on the radio.
The empties
They can also be found in neighborhoods and communes. They are made up of walking groups of participants who follow the floats and liven up the empties by singing. At times, the participants stop, leaving a distance between themselves and the float that precedes them, and take a rest before returning to join the group that makes up the whole float. A distinction must be made between groups on foot and groups on floats with sound systems, queens or a representative mascot. Until the 1960s, in the Saint-Pierre region, people still used to say "courir la guiablesse" to run the vidé on Wednesdays. There are no special costumes for running the vidé, which is usually run in rows, holding each other by the shoulder or hip, or simply side by side. The vidés also feature street bands with metal drums to play the stilbann (steel band) and drums made of plastic drums. The term vidé covers three realities:
A parade of people in the streets. We can think of a connection between the Martinique term vidé, a phonetic pronunciation of VD, Victory Day, the festival and parades celebrating an election victory in the English-speaking islands.
A musical genre. " The "vidé" is the characteristic musical element of West Indian carnival. Created to accompany popular street parades, it consists of a short phrase that is sung tirelessly to a polka-marche rhythm, while running and dancing behind Creole orchestras (trombone, clarinet, trumpet, drums) perched on trucks. Nothing escapes the caustic irony of the authors of "vidés": the political scene, public figures, those in authority. Alongside the biguine, the mazurka and the waltz, the Concours de la chanson créole awarded a prize each year to a song in the "vidés" category, notes Monique Desroches (a Canadian ethnomusicologist and professor at the Université de Montréal, who researched Martinique music in the 1970s).
A chronicle. A text chronicling an event, a character... These are short incantatory phrases, in the form of calls and answers between a singer and the choir, supported by a frenzied rhythm, sung tirelessly as they parade through the streets. These texts are the expression of the popular imagination, recounting a notorious event, local or otherwise. In the past, they were carnivalesque adaptations of songs that had won prizes at the Concours de la chanson créole.
Perhaps a vidé would never have been a real vidé if the great lady of Martinican song, Léona Gabriel-Soïme, hadn't bequeathed us the "timeless sweethearts" that have become Édamise o!, Doudou !... ki jou! and O Madiana.
The accessories
The "bradjaks". Their names refer to the onomatopoeia, "bra-djak, bra-djak", which is the sound made by these old jalopies loaded with carnival-goers. These old cars are often decorated according to the theme of the day, or, let's go ahead and say it, they're made up according to the artist's taste. Unfortunately, for some, they've become a concentration of obscenities in very bad taste. They move forward in groups and take pleasure in making a lot of noise. The number of such vehicles has fallen sharply since the prefecture began requiring the owner to produce all the necessary documents, including a permit, insurance and an inspection visit, in the interests of safety. So we're much more reassured.
The characters
Les hommes d'argile. Unlike the ancient carnival characters known as the "Gros Sirop", men and women who impregnate their bodies with a viscous liquid made from molasses, the much more recent "hommes d'argile" are covered in clay. For several decades now, they have been transforming themselves into living statues in the streets of Foyal during Carnival. They walk forward, then suddenly, as if anesthetized by a wasp, they all come to a standstill. For minutes at a time, they become statues that suddenly wake up and move on to repeat the game further on. They look like tableaux vivants on the move. It's amazing.
Hospital doctor (medsen-lopital, Carbet region). A traditional transvestite. The medsen-lopital is dressed and masked in white with a conical headdress. Pockets filled with flour, sometimes spiced, it is said. In the 1960s, on the Sundays preceding the "jours gras", they were rampant in the neighborhoods of Carbet and sometimes as far as Saint-Pierre. The worst kind when they were in packs: they were the terror of the children who taunted them from afar, singing: Medsen-lopital, manmay la, manmay la, ko lopital. Elusive, hiding to better surprise and smear flour on those they caught.
The "neg gwo-siwo" are gleaming figures of molasses, said to be mixed with powdered charcoal and soot, who, from their hats to their clothes and shoes, have their whole bodies smeared. Everyone runs away from them, because they're so messy to touch. They have their own charm, but we prefer to respect them, and admire them from afar as a precaution.
Mariyàn lapofig. They are dressed in banana leaves, which add to their elegance and make a nod to the island's economy.
Caroline yeux-kokis. While each eye is aimed as hard as it can at her husband, "Caroline yeux-kokis" the curler, faithful and resigned, calmly carries her drunken man on her back.
Les malpropres. Shirtless, almost pantsless malpropres burst from the top of the Pavé, singing songs that would again kill all the dead in the world. Instead, they are men dressed as women, ostentatiously displaying their anatomy in overly provocative lingerie.
The mokozonbis are stilt-walkers perched on very high heels who, because they can see further than the end of their noses, look down on everyone.
Les diablesses. They are out and about on Ash Wednesday, wearing black skirts, blouses and a headdress made of white horns to indicate mourning.
Papa djab. The Papa djab, with their horns, mirrors and impressive build, roam the streets on Mardi Gras. They are devils who deliberately frighten children.
Vaval, also known as bwabwa - meaning puppet - is the main character of Carnival. He's a giant doll, several meters tall, commonly known as a bwabwa. Mounted on a float, he parades through the streets during the fat days with his faithful festival-goers, and the "obstek notice" is broadcast on Ash Wednesday. Carnival-goers, dressed in black and white for the occasion, gather in a never-ending procession, joyously mourning Vaval, Vaval sa nou fè'w ou lé kité nou? (Vaval, what have we done to you, why do you want to leave us?). They accompanied him all the way to La Savane and its plage de la Française on the Fort-de-France waterfront, where he was cremated at dusk, to the howls, cries, excitements and heart-rending tremolos of his inconsolable widows, mistresses, wives and men, on the evening of Ash Wednesday - not to contradict tradition, marking the end of Carnival. According to witnesses, the spectacle of the streets of Fort-de-France, seen from the air on Ash Wednesday, is unforgettable. With special dispensation from the religious authorities, the Lenten period begins the following day (doc. C-H Fargues and T. Léotin).
The magic-religious around the carnival
Carnival is said to be an outlet, but it also serves as the basis for many legends and magico-religious rites among the local population, the vast majority of whom are descendants of slaves. The fat days, known as the red days, are times when freedom exceeds all limits. They stand in contrast to the lean days of Lent, which correspond to abstinence and restraint. But isn't life itself a masked ball that goes on all year round, and aren't we all just big kids who put on a masquerade every day? La Liberté runs the gauntlet in pyjamas from the dawn of Epiphany to Ash Wednesday, when the hysterical mourners lament the fact that everything is already back to normal.
