A Look at The Caribbean and Its People and Culture
Editor: Keith Thompson
Paperback: 172 pages
Publisher: New Africa Press (8 October 2010)
ISBN-13: 9789987160068
Trinidad and Tobago
THE Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an island nation located in the southern Caribbean. It lies northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles.
It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados in the northeast, Guyana in the southeast, and Venezuela in the south and west.
It has an area of 1,980 square miles and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous smaller islands or islets.
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the main islands; Tobago is much smaller, comprising about 6% of the total area and 4% of the entire population which is estimated at 1.3 million.
The island nation lies outside the hurricane belt.
Trinidad and Tobago was a Spanish colony from the times of Christopher Columbus to 1802 when it was ceded to Britain. The country won independence in 1962.
Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago's economy is primarily industrial with an emphasis on the production of petroleum and petrochemicals.
The island nation has a sound macroeconomic framework and a long tradition of institutional stability. The government has tried to diversify the economy and the country has evolved into a key financial centre in the Caribbean.
Trinidad and Tobago is known for its carnival and is the birthplace of calypso, soca, and steelpan, and limbo music.
Trinidad and Tobago were originally occupied by Amerindians. Christopher Columbus visited both islands on his third voyage in 1498.
Tobago changed hands between the British, the French, the Dutch, and the Courlanders – from Courland – but eventually became a British colony.
The Dutchy of Courland was the smallest nation to colonise the Americas, with a colony on the island of Tobago from 1654 to 1659, and intermittently from 1660 to 1689.
Courland had a population of only 200,000 and was itself a vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at that time. Under Duke Jacob Kettler, a Baltic German, it established one of the largest merchant fleets in Europe.
The Duchy's ships were undertaking trade voyages to the West Indies at least as early as 1637 when a Courland ship attempted to found a colony on Tobago with 212 settlers.
An earlier European settlement on the island, a Dutch colony established formed in 1628, had been wiped out by the Spanish a few months earlier.
The first Courland colony was a failure, as was a second attempt in 1639.
In 1642, two ships under Captain Caroon took about 300 settlers who attempted to settle on the northern coast of Tobago near Courland Bay. But they were soon driven off by the indigenous people, the Carib.
Courland's attention shifted to Africa. The Duchy established its first successful colony on the continent in 1651. The colony was established on St. Andrews Island in the Gambia River where the settlers built Fort Jacob.
In 1654, Courlanders tried again to establish a colony on the island of Tobago. They were successful but the colony was soon overshadowed by a second Dutch colony on the same island.
Trinidad, on the other hand, remained under Spanish control until 1797. But it was largely occupied by French settlers.
In 1888, the two islands of Trinidad and Tobago were united to form a single colony under British rule.
The island nation won independence in 1962 and became a republic in 1976.
The arrival of Columbus
The first contact with Europeans, occurred when, on his third voyage, Christopher Columbus arrived on the island that is now Trinidad on 31 July 1498. He had three small ships: Santa Maria, El Correo and La Vaquenos.
He's reported to have promised to name the next land he discovered for the Holy Trinity and considered it a miracle when the first land he sighted was the three peaks of what later came to be known as the Trinity Hills.
After exploring the area for a number of days, Columbus and his crew claimed the island of Trinidad and Tobago for Spain on 13 August 1498.
When the Spanish colonists surrendered to the British in 1802, formally ceding the island of Trinidad to them, a large number of settlers from England and from the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean moved there.
But the island still did not have enough people. And the sparse settlement and slow rate of population increase during Spanish rule and even after the British took control of the island made Trinidad one of the less populated colonies in the West Indies and. It also the least developed plantation infrastructure.
New plantations were established by the British on the island of Trinidad. And the importation of slaves from Africa increased in order to facilitate sugar production on the plantations.
But the island still did not get enough slaves. The importation of slaves was limited. It was also partly hindered by abolitionist efforts in Britain.
The Abolitionist movement and the decreased economic viability of slavery as a means of procuring labour contributed to the abolition of slavery in Trinidad and in the rest of the British empire.
After the end of slavery, plantation owners experienced acute labour shortages. The British partly solved the problem by bringing in indentured servants from different countries.
Indentured servants included Chinese, Portuguese and Indians from India.
The majority of the indentured servants came from India. Indenture-ship of the Indians lasted from 1845 to 1917. During that period, more than 147,000 Indians were taken to Trinidad to work on sugarcane plantations.
They became the second largest group in Trinidad after the freed African slaves.
They worked on indenture contracts. But the system was exploitative, virtually amounting to what historian Hugh Tinker called “a new system of slavery.”
The servants were contracted for a period of five years with a daily wage – 25 cents in the early 1900s – after which they were guaranteed return passage to India.
Coercive means and tactics were often used to obtain labourers. And the indenture contracts were soon extended to 10 years after the planters complained that they were losing their labour too early.
In lieu of the return passage, the British authorities soon began offering portions of land to encourage the settlement of the indentured servants. But the numbers of people who received land grants is unclear.
Indians entering the British colony of Trinidad were also subject to particular crown laws which segregated them from the rest of the Trinidad population. For example, they were required to carry a “pass” once off the plantations; and if freed, they were required to carry their “free papers” or a certificate indicating completion of the indenture-ship period.
But in spite of all this, the ex-indentured servants and their families came to constitute a vital and significant part of the population of Trinidad as did the ex-slaves.
Besides sugarcane, the cacao – cocoa – crop also contributed greatly to the economic development of Trinidad in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
But after the collapse of the cacao crop – the failure of the crop was attributed to disease and to the Great Depression – the island of Trinidad found another important resource, petroleum, which increasingly came to dominate the economy.
Also the collapse of the sugarcane industry together with the failure of the cocoa industry, Trinidad faced a major problem. The collapse of both resulted in widespread depression among the rural and agricultural workers in Trinidad and encouraged the rise of the labour movement between 1920 and 1930.
The labour movement was led by Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler who, together with his Indian partners notably Adrian Cola Rienzi, aimed to unite the working class and agricultural labourers in order to have a better standard of living. The labour leaders also wanted to end British colonial rule.
But their effort was severely undermined by the British Home Office and by the British-educated Trinidadian elite, many of whom were descended from the plantocracy themselves.
They sowed seeds of disunity and instigated racial hostility in order to keep Indians and blacks divided. And they had some success. Butler lost support.
The island of Trinidad was also undergoing a major transformation during that period. The Depression and the rise of the oil economy led to changes in the social structure. And by the 1950s, oil had become a major export for the island. Oil production fuelled the economy and led to the growth of a large middle-class among all sections of the island's population.
Columbus saw Tobago from a distance but did not land on the island. The name of Tobago is thought to be a corruption of the island's old name, “Tobaco.”
The Dutch and the Courlanders established themselves in Tobago in the 1500s and 1600s and grew tobacco and cotton.
The island was under the control of different powers at different times: the British, the French, the Dutch, and the Courlanders. Britain consolidated its hold on both islands during the Napoleonic Wars and they were united to form the British colony of Trinidad and Tobago in 1889.
As a result of these colonial struggles, Amerindian, Spanish, French and English names are common in the country for the people and for places.
African slaves as well as Chinese, Indian, and free African indentured labourers, together with some Portuguese from Madeira, arrived in Tobago to provide labour on the plantations.
And through the years, emigration from Barbados and other islands in the Lesser Antilles, as well as from Venezuela, Syria, and Lebanon contributed to the diversity which evolved through the years to produce what came to be the multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multicultural nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
When the slave trade was abolished in 1807, plantation owners in the new British colony of Trinidad and Tobago faced severe labour shortage.
The abolition of the slave trade also led to another development a few years later. In August 1816, 700 former black slaves from the southern part of the United States who had escaped to the British lines during the War of 1812 and been recruited into the Royal Marines, were rewarded for their service to the British Crown during the war by being granted land on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
The shortage of labour was exacerbated years later by the abolition of slavery itself. Plantation owners in Trinidad and Tobago, as in other Caribbean slave colonies, tried to find ways to circumvent the abolition of this diabolical institution.
And they succeeded in some ways.
In fact, slave ships continued to transport captured Africans to the Americas even as late as the 1840s, although on a limited scale because of intensified anti-slavery patrols on the Atlantic Ocean. And the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago after the country independence from Britain, Eric Williams (1911 - 1981), was a descendant of the de Boissiere family which made its fortune buying and selling African slaves illegally after the slave trade had been abolished in 1807.
A staunch opponent of racism and imperialism, Williams was a prominent scholar who also specialised in the study of the abolition of the slave trade.
In his book Capitalism and Slavery published in 1944 and which became a classic, he argued that the British abolition of their Atlantic slave trade in 1807 was motivated primarily by economics, not by altruism or humanitarianism; so was – by extension – the emancipation of the slaves and the fight against the trading in slaves by other nations. He contended that as industrial capitalism and wage labour began to expand, eliminating the competition from slavery became economically advantageous.
It's a thesis that remains valid today, except to apologists of imperialism and supporters of slavery as an integral part of the civilising mission of Europeans who conquered, colonised and enslaved Africans “for their own good.”
The first announcement by the British government that slaves would be totally freed by 1840 was made in 1833. In the meantime, slaves on plantations were expected to remain where they were and work as “apprentices” for the next six years.
Trinidad and Tobago was also one of the first countries to use non-violent protest and passive resistance successfully.
On 1 August 1834, an unarmed group of mainly elderly African Americans being addressed by the governor at the Government House about the new laws, began chanting: Pas de six ans. Point de six ans – meaning, “Not six years. No six years” – and drowned out the governor's voice.
Peaceful protests continued until a resolution to abolish apprenticeship was passed and de facto freedom was achieved. This may have been partially due to the influence of Dr. Jean Baptiste Phillipe's book, A Free Mulatto published in 1824.
At the request of the governor, Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, “on July 25th, Dr. Jean Baptiste Phillipe, the first coloured member of the Council, proposed a resolution to end apprenticeship and this was passed. On 1 August 1838 emancipation which had theoretically been granted to the slaves in 1834 became a reality. Full emancipation for all was finally legally granted ahead of schedule on 1 August 1838.”
The year 1838 also saw the abolition of the “apprenticeship” system in Jamaica, Barbados, and the Leeward and Windward Islands.
To deal with the problem of labour shortage, plantation owners in Trinidad and Tobago compensated for the loss of their slaves by importing indentured servants from the 1830s until 1917, as we learned earlier. In addition to the indentured servants, large numbers of ex-slaves migrated from the Lesser Antilles to Trinidad and Tobago.
The sugarcane plantations which dominated the economy of Trinidad and Tobago in the 1800s gradually gave ground to the cultivation of cacao.
Trinidadian and Tobagon chocolate – from cacao – became a high-priced, much sought-after commodity. And the British colonial government opened land to settlers interested in establishing cacao estates.
French Creoles – white Trinidadian elites descended from the original French settlers – were being marginalised economically by large English business owners who were buying up sugar plantations, and the cultivation of cacao provided them with a new way of earning a living and achieving economic prosperity.
Venezuelan farmers with experience in cacao cultivation were also encouraged to settle in Trinidad and Tobago where they provided much of the early labour in these estates. Many of the former cocoa-producing areas of Trinidad retain a distinctly Spanish flavour. And many of the descendants of the Cocoa Panyols – from 'espagnol' – remain in these areas. They include Trinidad and Tobago's most famous cricketer, Brian Lara.
After the slaves were freed, the plantation owners were desperate for new sources of labour.
In 1839 the British government began a programme of recruiting Indian labourers, also known as coolies, now a derogatory term even in places such as Tanzania and Kenya in East Africa used to describe Indians in those countries.
The operational base for the recruitment of these labourers was Calcutta, India. And those recruited were to be sent to Trinidad and British Guiana, now called Guyana.
The recruited Indians were bound – under contract – to work as indentured labourers for a number of years on the plantations. The mostly Hindu and Muslim labourers were compelled to work seven and a half hours a day, six days a week for 3 years, receiving about 13 cents per day for their work.
At first, half of the recruits were women but, in 1840, the proportion was reduced to a third of the number of men.
In 1844, the period of indenture was extended to five years with a guarantee that, if they wished, they would get a free passage home at the end of their service.
In 1853 the law was again amended to allow the indentured labourers to re-indenture themselves for a second five-year term or, if they wished, to commute any portion of their contract by repayment of a proportionate part of their indenture fee.
Many Indian immigrants who had completed their indentureship also established cocoa estates, most notable of them being Haji Gokool Meah, a Kashmiri-born immigrant who went on to become one of the wealthiest men in Trinidad and Tobago.
Since then, the Indian community has steadily prospered and grown in terms of numbers. It's now the largest ethnic group in Trinidad and Tobago and constitutes about 41% of the country's population. Blacks, descendants of African slaves, are the second-largest. And sometimes there is rivalry between the two for control of the country.
Even before, relations between the two groups have not always been good, if at all. And during the colonial period, was the British factor.
Relations between the Indian immigrants and the British as well as the blacks, were generally strained through the years and occasionally erupted into violence such as the 1884 Hosay massacre in which many Indians were killed, others wounded, by British troops.
There was another development in the history of Trinidad and Tobago and in the country's economic fortunes. This was the arrival of witches' broom and black pod diseases in the 1930s which destroyed the cacao industry. Compounding the problem was the Great Depression during that period.
Cacao has also declined in importance through the years. Although prices for Trinidad and Tobago cocoa beans remain high on the world market, cocoa is now no more than a marginal crop in the nation's economy.
Discovery of oil
The American Merrimac Oil Company drilled what is said to be “the first successful well in the world” at La Brea in Trinidad and Tobago in 1857. Oil was found at a depth of 280 feet and Trinidad became one of the largest producers of petroleum in the world.
According to the CIA World Factbook, oil production was about 150,000 bbl/day in 2005.
Trinidad was ruled as a crown colony with no elected representation until 1925. Although Tobago had an elected Assembly, this was dissolved before the two islands were united to form one country.
When the first elections to the Legislative Council were held in 1925, the franchise was determined by income, property and residence qualifications. And it was limited to men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30.
The first elections with universal adult suffrage were held in 1946. Labour riots about 10 years before paved the way to further democratisation of the country years later in terms of workers rights. They also fuelled demands for independence.
The riots erupted in 1937. The leader of this uprising was T.U.B. Butler, an immigrant from the neighbouring island of Grenada. The riots shook the country and led to the formation of the modern trade union movement in Trinidad and Tobago.
Butler was jailed from 1937 to 1939. He was re-arrested when the United Kingdom entered World War II and jailed for the duration of the war.
After his release in 1945, Butler reorganised his political party, the British Empire Citizens' and Workers' Home Rule Party. The party won a plurality in the 1950 general elections but was prevented from assuming power. The colonial authorities considered him to be radical and instead chose Albert Gomes to be chief minister. It was an important milestone and Gomes became the first chief minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
The 1956 general elections saw the emergence of the People's National Movement (PNM) under the leadership of Eric Williams.
The PNM, opposed by Dr. Rudranath Capildeo of the Democratic Labour Party and Ashford Sinanan who later founded the West Indian National Party (WINP), continued to dominate politics in Trinidad and Tobago for 30 years until 1986. The party won every general election between 1956 and 1981. Williams became prime minister at independence and remained in that position until his death in 1981.
In 1958, the United Kingdom tried to establish the West Indies Federation composed of British-ruled territories in the Caribbean. But disagreement over the structure of the federation led to Jamaica's withdrawal. Eric Williams responded to this with his now famous calculation: “One from ten leaves nought.” Trinidad and Tobago chose not bear the financial burden of the federation without Jamaica's assistance and the federation collapsed.
Trinidad and Tobago achieved full independence from the United Kingdom in August 1962. Queen Elizabeth II became its head of state.
The country became a republic on 1 August 1976 and the last governor-general, Sir Ellis Clarke, became the first president of Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago is also one of the few countries where the Black Power movement has made its presence known at different times through the years after independence.
In 1968, the National Joint Action Committee was formed by the members of the Guild of Undergraduates at the Saint Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies under the leadership of Geddes Granger. And in 1969, the members of the committee protested the arrest of West Indian students at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, Canada. This led to the birth of the Black Power movement in Trinidad and Tobago supported by other groups including some trade unions.
In 1970, a series of marches and strikes led to the declaration of a state of emergency and the arrest of 15 Black Power leaders. In sympathy with the arrested leaders, a portion of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment led by Raffique Shah and Rex Lassalle mutinied and took hostages at the Teteron Barracks(located on the Chaguaramas peninsula.
However, the Coast Guard remained loyal to the state and was able to isolate the mutineers at Teteron; the only way out for the mutineers was along a narrow coastal road. After 5 days, the mutineers surrendered.
Trinidad and Tobago has also witnessed economic prosperity through the years. Between 1972 and 1983, the country benefited greatly from the rising oil price on the world market, enabling the oil-rich country to raise its living standards significantly.
The country has also enjoyed relative stability since independence. But it also has had some crises. One of them involved a black militant group.
In July 1990, 114 members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, an extremist Black Muslim group with an unresolved grievance against the government over land claims led by Yasin Abu Bakr, formerly known as Lennox Phillip, stormed the Red House – which is the seat of parliament – and Trinidad and Tobago Television, the only television station in the country at the time, and held the government hostage for six days before surrendering to the authorities.
The group tried to overthrow the government and held the prime minister and members of parliament hostage for five days while rioting shook the nation's capital, Port of Spain.
After a long standoff with the police and the military, the Jamaat al Muslimeen leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, and his followers surrendered to Trinidadian authorities on the condition that they would be granted amnesty. In July 1992, the High Court upheld the validity of the amnesty given to the Jamaat members during the hostage crisis. Abu Bakr and 113 other Jamaat members were jailed for two years while the courts debated the amnesty's validity. All 114 members were eventually released.
The UK Privy Council deemed the amnesty invalid but stated that it would be improper to re-arrest the 114 Jamaat members and their leader.
The country entered a second oil boom in 2003 and hoped that the prosperity would help the nation re-focus on sugar production and improve agriculture, once again making sugar the main export.
Great concern was raised in August 2007 when it was predicted that this boom would last only until 2018. But petroleum, petrochemicals and natural gas continue to be the backbone of the nation's economy.
Tourism and the public service are the mainstay of the economy of Tobago. But authorities have begun to diversify the economy of the island.
Most of the tourists visiting Trinidad and Tobago come from Western Europe.
Crime is major problem, a situation which has led to a severe deterioration in security conditions in the island nation. Also, a resurgent Jamaat al Muslimeen continues to be a threat to stability.
Trinidad and Tobago is a republic with a two-arty system and a bicameral parliamentary system based on the British system.
The country is a unitary state, not a federation. And in 1976, the British monarch was replaced as head of state by a president. The president is chosen by an electoral college composed of the members of the bicameral parliament. The Parliament is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The government is headed by the prime minister who is the effective ruler of the country. The role of the president is more ceremonial than functional. General elections are held every five years and the leader of the victorious party becomes prime minister.
The island of Tobago also has its own elections, besides the general elections. In Tobago's elections, members are elected and serve in the Tobago House of Assembly.
Trinidad and Tobago are southeasterly islands of the Lesser Antilles.
The island nation is located northeast of Venezuela and close to the South American mainland.
Covering an area of 1,980 square miles, the country also has numerous smaller landforms or islands which include Chacachacare, Monos, Huevos, Gaspar Grande or Gasparee, Little Tobago, and St. Giles Island.
The major island of Trinidad is – at the closest point – only 6.8 miles off the northeast coast of Venezuela and 81 miles south of the Grenadines.
The island of Trinidad has an area of 1,841 square miles and constitutes 93.0% of the country's total area. It is, on average, 50 miles long and 37 miles wide. The island appears rectangular in shape with three projecting peninsular corners.
Tobago is located 19 miles northeast of Trinidad. It has an area of 115 square miles which is 5.8% of the country's total area. The island is 25.5 miles long and 7.5 miles at its greatest width. It's cigar-shaped in appearance, with a northeast-southwest alignment.
The islands of Trinidad and Tobago are on the continental shelf of South America and are therefore geologically considered to lie entirely in South America.
However, the Caribbean islands – including Trinidad and Tobago – are generally considered to be part of North America. And because the language and cultural links of Trinidad and Tobago don't ties the island nation to South America but to the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean nations, the nation is often treated as part of North America; or many Trinidadians simply want to believe that because North America is more advanced than South Africa.
Its true identity is really Caribbean which is separate from North American identity.
The terrain of the islands is a mixture of mountains and plains. The highest point in the country is found on the Northern Range at El Cerro del Aripo which is 3,080 feet above sea level.
The climate is tropical.
There are two seasons annually: the dry season for the first six months of the year, and the wet season in the second half of the year.
Winds are predominantly from the northeast and are dominated by the northeast trade winds.
Unlike most of the other Caribbean islands, both Trinidad and Tobago have frequently escaped the wrath of major devastating hurricanes including Hurricane Ivan, the most powerful storm to pass close to the islands in recent history in September 2004.
The majority of the people live on the island of Trinidad. And that's where most of the major towns and cities are located.
There are three major municipalities in Trinidad: Port of Spain which is the capital; San Fernando, and Chaguanas.
The main town on the island of Tobago is Scarborough.
The island of Trinidad is made up of different kinds of soil. Most of it is fine sands and heavy clays. The alluvial valleys of the Northern Range and the soils of the East-West Corridor are the most fertile.
Trinidad is traversed by three distinct mountain ranges that are a continuation of the Venezuelan coastal cordillera. There are also numerous rivers and streams on the island of Trinidad.
The island of Tobago is mountainous. It's dominated by the Main Ridge which is 18 miles long with elevations up to 2099 feet.
Although Tobago is volcanic in origin, there are no active volcanoes. Forestation covers 43% of the island. There are numerous rivers and streams, but flooding and erosion are less severe than in Trinidad.
The coastline of Tobago is indented with numerous bays, beaches, and narrow coastal plains. Tobago also has several small satellite islands. The largest of these islands is Little Tobago. It's starfish-shaped, hilly, and consists of 0.46 square miles of impenetrable vegetation.
Because it was once part of South America, Trinidad has an assortment of tropical vegetation and wildlife considerably more varied than that of most West Indian islands. Tobago has a generally similar but less varied assortment
Although it is located just off-shore from South America, Trinidad and Tobago is generally considered to be part of the West Indies because of its geographical and historical heritage linked with the other islands in the Caribbean.
The economy of Trinidad is heavily dependent on the petroleum industry.
But tourism and manufacturing are also important to the local economy.
Tourism is a growing sector, although not proportionately as important as in many other Caribbean islands.
Agriculture is also important. Crops grown include include citrus, cocoa, sugarcane and others.
Recent economic growth has been fuelled by investments in liquefied natural gas (LNG), petrochemicals, and steel. There are also plans for additional petrochemical, aluminum, and plastics projects.
Trinidad and Tobago is the leading producer of oil and gas in the Caribbean. But although the island nation is heavily dependent on these resources, it also produces manufactured goods, especially food and beverages as well as cement which are sold to other countries in the Caribbean region.
Oil and gas account for about 40% of GDP and 80% of exports, but only 5% of employment.
The country is also a regional financial centre. And the economy has a growing trade surplus.
The expansion of the Atlantic liquefied natural gas (LNG) production has also created the largest-single sustained phase of economic growth in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. The island nation is a leading exporter of liquefied natural gas to the United States. And the economy now is more dependent on natural gas than it is on oil.
By regional standards, the infrastructure of Trinidad and Tobago is better than what you find in most of the other countries in the Caribbean. There is an extensive network of paved roads with several good four and six lane highways including one controlled access expressway. The Ministry of Works estimates that an average Trinidadian spends about 4 hours in traffic per day.
Emergency services are reliable, but may suffer delays in rural districts. Private hospitals are available and reliable. Utilities are fairly reliable in the cities. But some areas, especially rural districts, still suffer from water shortages.
The island nation has earned a reputation as an excellent investment site for international businesses and has one of the highest growth rates and per capita incomes in Latin America.
Economic growth reached 12.6% in 2006 and 5.5% in 2007 as prices for oil, petrochemicals, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) remained high, and as foreign direct investment continued to grow to support expanded capacity in the energy sector.
At least 96% of the country's 1.3 million people live on the island of Trinidad. The remaining 4% live in Tobago.
The ethnic and racial composition of Trinidad and Tobago reflects a history of conquest and immigration.
There are two major ethnic groups: Indo-Trinidadian and Tobagoan, and Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagoan. Together, they roughly constitute a formidable 80% of the total population. People of mixed race, and of European, Chinese and Syrian-Lebanese origin make up most of the rest of the population.
There are other smaller groups including immigrants from South America and different parts of the Caribbean. There are even a few directly from Africa who are not descendants of African slaves taken to the Trinidad and Tobago during the era of slavery.
Indo-Trinidadians make up the country's largest ethnic group. They constitute about 40% of the nation's population.
They are primarily descendants of indentured workers taken to the islands from India to replace freed African slaves who refused to continue working on the sugar plantations after winning their freedom.
The Indian community is divided roughly half-and-half between those who maintained their original, native Hindu or Muslim religions and those who have adopted Christianity or have no religious affiliation.
Trinidadians of Indian descent have a strong group identity which helps them to maintain many of their customs and traditions which can be traced all the way back to India.
The Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagonian ethnic group is the country's second largest, constituting approximately 37.5% of the total population.
The majority of them are descendants of African slaves.
The European population is primarily descended from early settlers and immigrants. About half are of British origin. The rest are of Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and German heritage. According to the last census, there were 11,000 of British, 4,100 Spanish, 4,000 French, 2,700 Portuguese and 2,700 German descent. These numbers do not include people who have at least some European ancestry but who identify themselves as African or Indian. Those who are descended from Spanish settlers or from mixed-raced immigrants from Venezuele are commonly referred to as “Cocoa Panyols.”
The French arrived mostly during the Spanish period to take advantage of free agricultural lands.
The Portuguese were brought to replace freed African slaves when they refused to accept low wages.
The Europeans who remained in Trinidad live in areas in and around Port of Spain.
In Tobago, most Europeans are retirees from Germany and Scandinavia who have recently arrived there.
Given the large number of ethnic identities in Trinidad and Tobago, many people in the island nation have a mixed ethnic heritage. Racial mixtures include Caucasian and African, Indian and African often colloquially known as dougla, and others.
The country's mixed population is estimated to be 20.5%.
There are also Chinese who, like the Portuguese and the Indians, are descended from indentured labourers. There are about 20,000 of them. They live mostly in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando.
There are also about 2,500 Arabs originally from Syria and Lebanon. They live mostly in Port-of-Spain.
The Syrian and Lebanese communities of Trinidad are predominantly Christian. They came from the Middle East in the 19th century. They fled from religious persecution under the Ottoman empire and ended up in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Other Lebanese and Syrians moved to Trinidad and Tobago in the early and in mid-20th century to escape the war and turmoil in the region.
Finally there are the Caribs who are descended from the native, precolonial people of the islands. Many of them are also racially mixed. They collectively identify themselves with the Santa Rosa Carib Community and live mostly and around Arima.
The Santa Rosa Carib Community is the major organisation of the indigenous people in the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It was formed to preserve Carib culture and speak for the indigenous people.
Emigration from Trinidad and Tobago has always been been high through the years, a phenomenon prevalent in other Caribbean countries as well.
Most emigrants go to the United States, Canada and Britain.
Emigration has – although at a lower rate in recent years – continued even as the birth-rate has sharply dropped to levels typical of industrialised countries. Largely because of this phenomenon, Trinidad and Tobago has been experiencing a low population growth rate (0.37%) especially since 2007.
The people of Trinidad and Tobago belong to different religions and denominations.
The largest religious groups are Roman Catholic and Hindu. Others are Anglican, Muslim, Presbyterian, and Methodist. But all these are relatively small.
Two Afro-Caribbean syncretic faiths, the Shouter or Spiritual Baptists, and the Orisha faith – formerly called Shangos, a less than complimentary term – are among the fastest-growing religious groups in the country.
The fastest growing groups are the American-style evangelical and fundamentalist churches collectively – and often erroneously – identified as “Pentecostal.” Next to them in terms of numbers are the Seventh-day Adventists who have established themselves well in a number of Caribbean countries such as Barbados and Jamaica.
The Mormons – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – have also increased their presence activities in Trinidad and Tobago since the mid-1980s.
According to census figures in 2000, 26% of the population was Roman Catholic, 24.6% Protestant (including 7.8% Anglican, 6.8% Pentecostal, 4% Seventh-day Adventist, 3.3% Presbyterian or Congregational, 1.8% Baptist, and 0.9% Methodist), 22.5% Hindu, and 5.8% Muslim.
A small number of individuals subscribed to traditional Caribbean religions with African roots, such as the Spiritual Baptists (sometimes called Shouter Baptists), 5.4% percent; and the Orisha, 0.1%.
The smaller groups were Jehovah's Witnesses (1.6% percent), atheists (1.9%, or those listed as “other” which included numerous small Christian groups as well as Baha’is, Rastafarians, Buddhists, and Jews (altogether constituting 10.7%), or undeclared (1.4%).
Comparing the two sets of data, and examining previous sets of data, it's obvious that Roman Catholicism, Hinduism and other traditional religions are declining, with the main conversions being to the born-again and other Protestant churches.
The government of Trinidad and Tobago provides substantial subventions to religious groups.
Other Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism – besides Hinduism – also have adherents. They include members of the Chinese community.
English is the country's only official language.
The local variety of standard English is known as Trinidadian English. But the main spoken language is either of two English-based creole languages: Trinidadian Creole English or Tobagonian Creole English. The two creole varieties are a product of the country's Spanish, Indian, African and European heritage.
Both creoles contain elements from some African languages. Trinidadian Creole is also influenced by French, Spanish and by Bhojpuri/Hindi.
The Spanish languages and other vernaculars are normally spoken in informal situations. And there is no formalised system of writing.
Patois a variety of Spanish/French – was once the most widely spoken language in Trinidad. And there are various remnants of the language in everyday vernacular.
There was also a Spanish-based creole known as “Coco Payol”, a term also used to describe people of Spanish ancestry.
Due to Trinidad's location on the coast of South America, the country has slowly been trying to re-establish some of the ties it had with the Spanish-speaking people on the continental mainland but has been impeded by the fact that in 2004, only 45,500 inhabitants spoke Spanish in the island nation.
People from Venezuela travel to Trinidad and Tobago to learn English. And many English schools in the island nation now teach both English and Spanish.
Because of the country's colonial heritage, the names of towns in Trinidad are derived in roughly equal proportions from English – Chatham, Brighton, Green Hill, St. Mary's, Princes Town, Freeport, New Grant; from French – Blanchisseuse, Sans Souci, Pointe-à-Pierre, Basse Terre, Matelot, Petit Bourg; from Spanish – San Fernando, Sangre Grande, Rio Claro, San Juan, Las Cuevas, Maracas, Manzanilla, Los Bajos; from India – Fyzabad, Barrackpore, Indian Walk, Madras Settlement, Penal, Debe; and from Amerindian languages – Chaguanas, Tunapuna, Guavaguavare, Carapichaima, Mucurapo, Chaguaramas, Arima, Arouca, Guaico, Oropouche, and Aripo.
In Tobago, English names predominate. However, there are several names which suggest its colonial past: Belle Garden, Bon Accord, Charlotteville, Les Coteaux, Parlatuvier – of French origin; Auchenskeoch, Blenheim – Dutch; and Great Courland Bay – from the Courlander settlers.
Trinidadian English (TE) or Trinidad and Tobago Standard English is a dialect of English. TE co-exists with both non-standard varieties of English as well as other dialects, namely Trinidadian Creole English in Trinidad and Tobagonian Creole English in Tobago.
Most speakers use Trinidadian or Tobagonian Creole in informal discourse. But in formal settings, they use standard English in varying degrees.
As all the other varieties of standard English, Trinidadian English was originally based on British English. But Trinidadian English, or Tem has now incorporated into its structure and vocabulary many American linguistic and cultural elements because of the influence from its larger and more dominant northern neighbour.
Examples of those elements include apartment instead of the British term flat, although the latter is still used; trunk instead of boot of a car; truck instead of lorry – the latter is not used even in Trinidadian English;hood of a car, although bonnet continues to be more commonly used than hood.
In addition, many words from the vernacular – Trinidadian English – have found their way into standard English. They include terms such as to lime – which means to 'hang out' or 'to party'; fête, a French word meaning 'to party' in Trinidadian English; lagniappe – pronounced as “lan-yap,” a term of Spanish origin from la ñapa meaning 'a little something extra'; and dougla, of Hindi origin, now meaning 'a person of both African and Indian parentage.'
Although Trinidadian English is mutually intelligible with other varieties of international standard English (British, American, Canadian, Australian, South African and others), varieties of speech in Trinidad – and to some degree in Tobago – may vary by location and circumstance.
The language is highly flexible and absorbs vocabulary from British, American, Jamaican and other kinds of English.
Trinidadian English is often remarked on by tourists and foreigners for its so-called “sing-song” intonation – a monotonously rising and falling inflection.
Some people can easily switch back and forth between the two varieties of English. One of the best examples was Black Power advocate Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael.
Born in Trinidad where he spent his early years until he was 11 years old when immigrated to the United States to rejoin his parents who left him with his grandmother and aunts when he was 2 years old, he sometimes spoke with a lilting Caribbean accent whenever he wanted to, and then easily switched to standard English, speaking with an American accent.
Another one was Dr. Walter Rodney, author of the highly acclaimed book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa which he wrote in the early 1970s when he was teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Originally from Guyana, he also sometimes spoke with a lilting Caribbean accent and used creole vocabulary, depending on his audience and whenever he wanted to or just to make a point. Then he would switch to standard English at will and speak without a lilting accent, using standard vocabulary.
Trinidadian Creole English (TCE) is a Creole English which is the common language spoken in Trinidad.
It has its own distinctive features which distinguish it from Tobagonian Creole English and from other English creoles spoken in other parts of the Lesser Antilles.
Like other Caribbean creoles, TCE combines syntax of African origin with a vocabulary which is primarily derived from English.
In addition to that, many expressions in Trinidadian Creole English reflect the presence of a French Creole – or Patois – substratum which was the primary language spoken on the island of Trinidad until the end of the 1800s.
Spanish, Hindi and Bhojpuri influences are also clearly discernible in Trinidadian Creole English (TCE).
Tobagonian Creole English is in Tobago. It's distinct from Trinidadian Creloe English and closer to other Lesser Antillean English creoles.
Education is free and compulsory between ages 5 and 16. Trinidad and Tobago has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, exceeding 98%. The main reason is that education is free from kindergarten to university.
The educational system is based on the British system. Children start pre-school at the early age of 3. It's not mandatory to send children to kindergarten but most Trinbagonians start their children's education at this stage because children are expected to have basic reading and writing skills when they start primary school.
Students proceed to primary school at the age of five.
Seven years are spent in primary school. The seven years of primary school consist of one for pre-kindergarten and one for kindergarten followed by five years from standard one to standard five.
During the final year of primary school, students prepare for and sit the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) which determines the secondary school the child is to attend. For most children and parents, this is a very stressful period.
Students attend secondary school for a minimum of five years, leading to the CSEC – Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate – examination which is the equivalent of the British General Certificate of Education Ordinary level, commonly known as GCE O level.
Children who pass go to high school for two years, leading to the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), the equivalent of the British GCE Advanced level.
Both CSEC and CAPE examinations are conducted by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC).
Public primary and secondary education is free for all, although private and religious schooling is available for a fee.
Tertiary education is also free for all up to the level of the Bachelors degrees for all students of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) and certain other local accredited institutions.
The government also currently subsidises some master's degree programmes.
Both the government and the private sector also provide financial assistance in the form of academic scholarships to gifted or needy students for study at local, regional or international universities.
The culture of Trinidad and Tobago is a product of African, Indian, Amerindian, British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese influences.
Since the history of Trinidad is different from the history of Tobago in some areas, there are differences in the cultural influences which have shaped the two islands. And in spite of their small sizes, there are also regional differences within each island.
Trinidad and Tobago has strong links to the United Kingdom because of its colonial history and legacy. The island nation's status as a colonial territory in the British empire left a major influence on the country, including the dominance of the English language and the great popularity of two sports, football (soccer) and cricket.
The island nation is also the birthplace of calypso and steelpan, widely claimed in Trinidad and Tobago to be the only acoustic musical instrument invented in the 20th century.
The diverse cultural and religious background of the island nation enables the people to have many festivities and ceremonies throughout the year.
Trinidad and Tobago claims two Nobel Prize-winning authors: V.S. Naipul, and Saint Lucian-born Derek Walcott who founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, working and raising his family in Trinidad for much of his career.
Edmundo Ros, the “King of Latin American Music,” was born in Port of Spain.
Designer Peter Minshall is renowned not only for his carnival costumes but also for his role in opening ceremonies of the Barcelona Olympics, the 1994 Football World Cup, the 1996 Summer Olympics, and the 2002 Winter Olympics, for which he won an Emmy Award.
Geoffrey Holder, brother of Boscoe Holder, and Heather Headley are also two Trinidad-born artists who have won Tony Awards for theatre.
Holder also has a distinguished film career. And Headley has been nominated for several Grammy Awards.
Recording artist Billy Ocean is also Trinidadian.
The most influential single factor on the culture of Trinidad and Tobago is carnival.
Carnival was brought to Trinidad by French settlers in the later part of the 1700s.
Originally, the celebration was confined to the elite. But it was imitated and adapted by their slaves and, after the abolition of slavery, the practice spread into the free population.
During carnival, members of the upper classes rode the streets in floats or watched from the upper stories of residences and businesses. That was during daytime. The night was for the lower classes.
The first few hours of Carnival Monday morning, from about 4 a.m. until sunrise, was known as J'ouvert, a contraction of jour ouvert.
Costumed and masked by the darkness, J'ouvert allowed the wealthy to mix with the poor in relative obscurity and anonymity.
Monday night (night 'mas) had similar but limited performances.
Mas'
The daytime of Carnival Monday and Tuesday are dominated by costumed masqueraders.
Until World War II, most of these masqueraders portrayed traditional characters including the Midnight Robber, Police and Thief, Wild Indian, Bat, Jab Molassie, Jab Jab, Red Devil, Blue Devil, and Dame Lorraine.
The wartime presence of American soldiers – and war movies – added the Sailor Mas'.
In the postwar period, individual performers gave way to organised bands which today can include thousands of masqueraders.
Carnival fetes
Carnival fetes or “parties” take place mostly during the week before the actual parade of bands on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
Traditionally, the carnival season begins on Boxing Day and soca and calypso music reign supreme over the air waves.
The fetes which take place from the end of the year and all the way through until carnival – usually in February – are generally carnival themed and feature live music from bands and soca artists who are promoting their song contributions for the year.
Parang is a traditional form of music at this time of the year.
Pastelle, black cake, fruit cake, sweet bread paime are some the customary foods eaten during this period. Peardrax, ponche de creme, ginger beer, sorrell wine are the drinks.
It's one of the biggest celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago.
Diwali – also spelt as Divali in other countries – is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism which takes place between mid-October and mid-November.
It's an official holiday in Trinidad and Tobago whose population includes a very large percentage of people of Indian origin.
Other countries where Diwali or Divali is a national holiday include India, Guyana, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Fiji. Besides India itself, all these countries have large Indian populations.
Hosay or Tadjah is a celebration in which multi-coloured model mausoleums are paraded, then ritually offered up to the sea, or any body of water.
Some contemporary writers equate the multi-coloured mausoleums with “mosques.”
In British Guiana, now Guyana, the festival was called Taziya or creolised into Tadjah in reference to these floats, the most visible and decorative element of this festival.
In nineteenth-century Trinidadian newspapers and even in government reports, Hosay was called the “Coolie Carnival.”
The term “coolie” is an identification label for Indian indentured servants and their descendants. But it has derogatory connotations, especially the way it has been used during the past several decades. Even in countries such as Tanzania and Kenya in East Africa where there are many Indians, the term is considered to be derogatory.
The Hosay celebration in Trinidad and Tobago and other parts of the Caribbean including Jamaica is for Shia Muslims. In Jamaica, it's spelled as Hussay. In Trinidad and Tobago it's primarily celebrated in Saint James in the northwestern part of the island of Trinidad and in Cedros in southwestern Trinidad. But it has also been celebrated elsewhere in recent years.
In the 1950s, very elaborately decorated models of mosques made of paper and tinsel called “tadjahs” were carried through the streets to the accompaniment of constant drumming. Small fires were lit in the gutters beside the streets over which the drumskins were heated to tighten the drumskins of the tassa.
The festival lasts three days ending with the throwing of the tadjahs into the sea at sunset on the third day.
Although Hosay is a religious event for Shias, all of Trinidad's religious and ethnic communities participate in it and it has become accepted as part of the national culture.
The first observance of Hosay in Trinidad has been traced back to 1854, eleven years after the first indentured laborers arrived from India.
In the 1880s, the British colonial authorities became increasingly concerned about public gatherings, and in 1884 issued an ordinance to prevent public Hosay commemorations.
Thousands of workers who had spent the year building their tadjahs joined a Hindu named Sookhoo in petitioning the government to allow the festival. When all appeals were ignored, the people defied the ban and the celebration went ahead.
The police in Port of Spain (St. James) did not interfere, but in Mon Repos, San Fernando, buckshot was fired into the crowds of women, children and men on 30 October 1884.
After shots were fired by the police to disperse the procession, 22 “Indians” were killed immediately. Later, 120 were found with injuries. some of them had fled into the sugarcane fields to hide during the police attack.
It was a tragic day and it's commonly referred to in Trinidad history as the Muhurram Massacre by Indians. In British colonial records, it's known as the Hosay Riots.
The colonial authorities came to see the Hosay as a threat and used massive force to quell it and keep it off the streets beginning in the 1880s. But it survived colonialism.
There are similarities and differences in the history and current meanings of Hosay across the Caribbean.
In Jamaica, many Christian Afro-Jamaicans participate alongside Indo-Jamaicans in Hosay celebrations.
In the past, every plantation in every parish in Trinidad celebrated Hosay. Today it has been re-branded an Indian carnival and is perhaps most well-known in Clarendon where it is celebrated in August every year.
Phagwah is another religious festival which is also known as Holi or Holli.
It's a spring festival celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and others. It's observed in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and in other countries with large populations of people of Indian descent. The countries include Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname, South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
It's a celebration of the Hindu spring holiday. In India, it's known as Holi. The people traditionally celebrate the Hindu spring and the new year of its lunar calendar.
In West Bengal, India, Phagwah is known as Dolyatra (Doul Jatra) or Basanta-Utsav (“spring festival”).
Indians who went to the Caribbean to work as indentured labourers took with them their customs and traditions including religious festivals which came to be established in their new homes in Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and other countries in the region.
In Guyana and Suriname, Phagwah became a national holiday.
And from the 1970s, many Guyanese – including those of Indiana descent – have emigrated to the United States in large numbers. Indo-Guyanese are some of the people who have carried on the Phagwah tradition in their new country.
Calypso music evolved in Trinidad together with carnival.
The chantuelle, who spoke for the band, evolved into the calypsonian and other characters such as the Midnight Robber.
The music, which drew upon African and French influences, became the voice of the people. It enabled them to challenge politicians and other leaders for wrongdoing.
As English replaced patois – French Creole – as the dominant language, calypsonians started to use the new language and in so doing it attracted more attention from the British colonial government.
But calypso continued to play an important role in political expression and also served to document the history of Trinidad and Tobago.
More than any other kind of music, calypso is identified as the music of Trinidad and Tobago, followed by soca and steelpan. And in the 1950s, the country was thrust into the international spotlight by major calypso stars such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener.
The music was also popularised by Harry Belafonte, an American of Jamaican descent. He was nicknamed the “King of Calypso” and had a large international audience singing calypso songs in the 1950s. He's perhaps best known for singing the “Banana Boat Song” with its signature lyric “Day–O.”
Along with folk songs and African and Indian-based classical forms, cross-cultural interactions in Trinidad and Tobago have produced other indigenous forms of music including soca, rapso, chutney, and other derivative and fusion styles.
There are also local communities which practise and experiment with international classical and pop music, often fusing them with local steelpan instruments.
History of music in Trinidad and Tobago
The modern music history of Trinidad and Tobago began with the arrival of Spanish settlers and African slaves.
Also, French Creoles came in large numbers from Saint Vincent, Dominica and especially from Martinique. They established their own communities before the islands of Trinidad and Tobago were taken from the Spanish rulers by the British.
The evolution of music in Trinidad and Tobago – as well as in other countries in the Caribbean where African slaves were taken – is inextricably linked with the way slaves communicated or tried to communicate. Music evolved as a form of communication.
Slaves were forbidden by their masters from talking to each other. There was also a language barrier even among the slaves themselves. They did not speak the same language because they came from different tribes and from different parts of Africa. Therefore communication was inherently difficult.
This resulted in the creation and evolution of a creole culture which combined elements from different cultures and languages of different African ethnic groups, and also from the indigenous people of the islands (the Caribs, Arawaks and others), the French, the British and Spanish colonisers.
Carnival had arrived with the French, and the slaves, because they could not take part in carnival celebrations, formed their own, parallel celebration called canboulay.
After slavery was abolished, the two celebrations – the French carnival for whites and the canboulay for freed slaves - merged and became one carnival, although racial discrimination against blacks still remained a major problem.
Also, the islands' ethnic mix became more diversified as a result of migration of Indians beginning in 1845. Most of them were indentured servants and brought their own customs and traditions including folk music, mainly from for the provinces of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The music they brought was added to the local mix, resulting in chutney music which is considered to be indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago where it originated.
In addition to Indians, Syrians, Portuguese and Chinese also came to the islands between 1845 and 1917.
Colonial rule also had an impact on the culture – including musical forms and expressions – of non-whites. For example, stick-fighting and African percussion music were banned in 1880 in response to the Canboulay Riots by freed slaves.
They were replaced by bamboo sticks beaten together. But these too were eventually banned. In 1937, however, they reappeared, transformed as an orchestra of frying pans, dustbin lids and oil drums. These steelpans are now a major part of the Trinidadian music scene and are a popular part of the Canboulay music contests.
In 1941, members of the United States Navy arrived in Trinidad, and the panmen, who were associated with lawlessness and violence, helped to popularise steelpan music among the soldiers; a development which eventually led to international recognition and popularity of this kind of music.
Calypso
But it is calypso music which is the national emblem of Trinidad and Tobago.
The music is definitely African in terms of style and rhythm and is probably derived from a similar West African form of music known as kaiso which evolved as a means of communication among the African slaves in Trinidad and Tobago.
Kaiso is still used today as a synonym for calypso in Trinidad and in some of the other Caribbean islands, often by traditionalists, and is also used as a cry of encouragement for a performer, similar to bravo or olé.
Highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals characterised the music which – in Trinidad – was most often sung in a French creole and led by a griot. As calypso developed, the role of the griot – originally a similar travelling musician in West Africa – became known as a chantuelle and eventually, calypsonian.
Calypso was popularised after the abolition of slavery and by the growth of the carnival festivals in the 1830s.
The islands of Trinidad and Tobago had a core population of descendants of African slaves and French creole workers as well as remnants of the indigenous people. On the white side, colonial masters increased the number of whites by rapidly bringing settlers from France, Spain and the United Kingdom. Among the things they brought with them from Europe was their music.
According to another version, it was the French who brought carnival to Trinidad. And calypso competitions held at carnivals grew in popularity, especially after the abolition of slavery in 1834.
Although most authorities stress the African roots of calypso, veteran calypsonian, The Roaring Lion (Rafael de Leon) asserted in his book, Calypso from France to Trinidad: 800 Years of History, published in 1986, that calypso also came from the music of the medieval French troubadours.
Whatever the case, the music of the Caribbean has its own unique identity because of the many influences from different parts of the world which have been combined with native traditions to shape it.
It's believed that the name “calypso” was originally “kaiso” which is now said to come from the Nigerian languages of Efik (“ka isu” which means 'go on!') and Ibibio (“kaa iso” which means 'continue, go on') used in urging someone on or in backing a contestant.
The official birth of calypso is generally acknowledged to be 1912 when Lovey's String Band recorded the very first song of the genre while travelling in New York City. In 1914, the second calypso song was recorded, this time in Trinidad, by chantwell Julian Whiterose who was better known as the iron Duke and Stick Fighter. Jules Sims would also record vocal calypsos.
The majority of these calypsos of the World War I era were instrumentals by Lovey and Lionel Belasco.
Perhaps because of economic hardship during the war, no recordings of significance were made until the late 1920s and early 1930s when the “golden era” of calypso would cement the style, form, and phrasing of the music.
From that time on, calypso further evolved into a way of spreading news around Trinidad. Politicians, journalists and public figures often debated the content of each song, and many islanders considered these songs the most reliable news source.
Calypsonians pushed the boundaries of free speech as their lyrics spread news of any topic relevant to island life, including speaking out against political corruption. Eventually, British rule enforced censorship and police began to scan these songs for damaging content. But even with this censorship, calypsos continued to push boundaries, with a variety of ways to slip songs past the scrutinising eyes of the editor.
Double entendre, or double-speak, was one way, as was the practice of denouncing countries such as Hitler's Germany and its annexation of Poland, while making pointed references towards England's policies on Trinidad.
Sex, scandal, gossip, innuendo, politics, local news, bravado and insulting other calypsonians were the order of the day in classic calypso, just as it is today with classic hip hop.
And just as the hip-hop of today, the music sparked shock and outrage in the moral sections of society. Countless recordings were dumped into the sea in the name of censorship, although in truth, rival U.S. companies did this in the spirit of underhanded competition, claiming that the rivals' material was unfit for U.S. consumption. For example, Decca Records lost untold pressings in this manner.
One of the most important figures in the popularisation of calypso music from Trinidad was Sa Gomez. A Portuguese immigrant who was was an entrepreneur in the early days of calypso, he owned a local retail shop in Port of Spain. And because he also sold records, record players and gramaphone needles, he was quick to market the new musical style, giving financial support to the local artists. He also sent Attila the Hun and Roaring Lion to New York to cut an album, taking the genre out of the West Indies and into popular culture.
The two would travel again to New York to record another record where they would meet Rudy Vallee and Mae West, and in 1938 would record a duet about the encounter.
The first calypso recordings made by Lovey's String Band in 1912 inaugurated the “Hot Jazz Calypso” era. By the 1920s, calypso tents were set up at carnival for calypsonians to practise before competitions, bringing in the “Golden Era” of calypso. These have now become showcases for new music during bacchanal season, and each year a new “Calypso Monarch” is voted in.
The first major stars of calypso started crossing over to new audiences worldwide in the late 1930s. Attila the Hun, Roaring Lion and Lord Invader were the first, followed by Lord Kitchener, one of the longest-lasting calypso stars in history; he continued to release hit records until his death in 2000.
1944's Rum and Coca-Cola by the Andrews Sisters, a cover of a Lord Invader song, became an American hit despite the song being a very critical commentary on the explosion of prostitution, inflation and other negative influences accompanying the American military bases in Trinidad at the time
Calypso, especially a toned down, commercial variant, became a worldwide craze with the release of the Banana Boat Song, or "Day-O", a traditional Jamaican folk song whose best-known rendition was done by Harry Belafonte on his 1956 album Calypso.
Calypso was the first full-length record to sell more than a million copies. Ironically, the music style on that album was mento.
The success of that album inspired hundreds of “Folkies,” or the American folk music revival, to imitate the “Belafonte style,” but with a more folk oriented flavour. The Kingston Trio would be a good example.
1956 also saw the massive international hit Jean and Dinah by Mighty Sparrow. The song too was a sly commentary as a “plan of action” for the calypsonian on the widespread prostitution and the prostitutes' desperation after the closing of the United States naval base at Chaguaramas on the island of Trinidad.
In the 1957 Broadway musical, Jamaica, Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg cleverly parodied “commercial,” Harry Belafonte style Calypso.
Several films jumped on the Calypso craze in 1957 such as 20th Century Fox's Island in the Sun that featured Belafonte, and the low budget films Calypso Joe (Allied Artists), Calypso Heat Wave (Columbia Pictures), and Bop Girl Goes Calypso (United Artists).
Also in 1957, Robert Mitchum released the album, “Calypso...is like so” on Capital Records, capturing the sound, spirit, and subtleties of the genre.
And in 1964, Dizzy Gillespie recorded a calypso album, Jambo Caribe, with James Moody and Kenny Barron.
Calypso had another short burst of commercial interest in 1988 when tim Burton released the horror/comedy movie Beetlejuice, and used Harry Belafonte's “Jump in the line” as the soundtrack´s headliner.
Early forms of calypso such as Sans Humanitae were also influenced by jazz. In this extemporaneous melody, calypsonians lyricise impromptu, commenting socially or insulting each other, “sans humanité” or “without humanity” – which is again a reference to French influence on the evolution of calypso and other aspects of cultural life in Trinidad.
Calypso evolved very closely with other pan-Atlantic musical genres such as jazz, mento, kompa, son, and highlife.
In the mid-1970s, Lord Shorty along with the more fluid rhythmic phrasing of Mighty Sparrow, combined the Afro-Caribbean calypso with rhythmic elements of Indo-Trinidadian chutney music to create soca. Soca music eventually grew and became the dominant genre at carnivals, replacing calypso.
Early chantwells like Hannibal, Norman Le Blanc, Mighty Panther and Boadicea made names for themselves by criticising the colonial government.
In 1912, calypso was recorded for the first time and the following decade saw the arrival of calypso tent.
During carnival, calypsonians competed for awards such as the Carnival Road March, Calypso Queen, National Calypso Monarch, Junior Monarch, and Extempo Monarch in contests called picong when two performers trade bawdy and irreverent jibes at each other and the day's events.
Soon, stars like Lord Invader and Roaring Lion grew in stature – during the the 1930s which was the Golden Age of Calypso – and became more closely aligned with the independence movement.
Some songs were banned or censored by the British colonial government, and calypso became a method of underground communication and of spreading anti-British information.
These early popular performers led the way for calypso's mainstreaming with artists like Lord Kitchener, Harry Belafonte and Mighty Sparrow. Belafonte was by far the most popular internationally during that period of calypso performances. His Calypso album was very successful and he became the first artist to sell a million copies. But his music was also extensively criticised for watering down the sound of calypso.
1947 saw Lord Kitchener and Killer forming the renegade calypso tent – Young Brigade. The term Young Brigade soon came to refer to a specific group of calypsonians that used fictional narratives and humour with new, more dance-able rhythms.
Kitchener was by far the most popular of the Young Brigade calypsonians and he helped popularise calypso in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Mighty Sparrow's first hit was Jean and Dinah, celebrating the departure of American military forces from Trinidad. The song launched a new generation of politically active calypso music which soon came to be associated with the People's National Movement, a political party founded in 1955 under the leadership of Eric Williams and which led the country to independence. It won the 1956 general election and went on to hold power for an unbroken 30 years.
Roaring Lion was also a major part of this vanguard in calypso music. And he became known for a traditionalist style that he maintained throughout his career.
During the 1970s, calypso's popularity waned throughout the world including the Caribbean itself, its home.
Today, derivatives include an uptempo version of calypso called soca, and a hip hop and dub-influenced style called rapso. Both are popular in Trinidad and other islands.
Soca has been the most influential in terms of international sales, since rapso's crossover appeal to mainstream tastes has been extremely limited.
Old-time calypsonians and purists, however, preferred rapso's continuation of the lyrical ambidexterity that helped make calypso the world-famous, innovative art form it has become. Many criticised soca's perceived watering-down of calypso, including veteran calypsonians like Chalkdust who asked: “Are we to put water in the brandy, singing just two or three words [that mainstream audiences] can understand and dance to?”
Indo-Trinidadians began popularising chutney music during the same time period. In the mid-1970s, Indo-Trinidadian artists like Sundar Popo made the music mainstream.
Soca is also known as soul calypso. It originated in the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. In the beginning, it combined the melodic lilting sound of calypso with insistent percussion – n which is often electronic in recent music – and local chutney music.
Soca music has evolved through the years and is performed throughout the Caribbean and even in the countries of Belize in Central America and Guyana in South America. All the countries in the region where this form of music is popular are mostly Anglophone.
The nickname of the Trinidad and Tobago national football team, Soca Warriors, refers to this musical genre.
Soca is said to have been invented in 1963 by Ras Shorty I with his song “Clock and Dagger.”
Shorty added Indian instruments including the dholak, tabla and dhantall and soon rivalled reggae as the most popular form of Caribbean music.
Soca reached its modern form by the early 1970s under the influence of American soul, disco and funk music which reached Trinidadian artists when they began recording in New York City. By this time, most of the Indian-derived elements had been removed from the genre.
Shorty's 1974 Endless Vibrations and Soul of Calypso brought soca to its peak of international fame.
Less lyrically revolutionary than traditional calypso, soca has remained mostly focused on good times throughout its history, although artists like Gypsy – whose 1986 “The Sinking Ship” hit helped remove the People's National Movement from power – continued calypso's socially-aware traditions.
Soca's popularity grew through the '70s and early '80s, finally becoming an international chart-topper after “Hot! Hot! Hot!,” a 1983 release by Arrow from Montserrat and not from Trinidad as some people may have thought.
Arrow soon proved himself to be one of the most innovative soca artists of the '80s, incorporating zouk and other influences into a series of best-selling singles.
Other artists of the '80s put new islands on the soca map. They included Shadow who was born in Tobago; Swallow from Anguilla; and from Barbados, the Square One Band.
African spirituals (Superblue) also helped influence soca music; so did gospel by Lord Shorty, under his new name Ras Shorty I; reggae by Byron Lee & the Dragonaires; Indian music by Mungal Patasar; and funk by Lord Nelson, and by other performers.
An important fusion was ragga-soca which combined Jamaican ragga with soca.
Bunji Garlin, KMC, Maximus Dan and Machel Montano & Xtatik were the most popular of the soca acts of the 1990s.
In the last decade (since 2000), Montano broke away to form Machel Montano HD, while a crop of new acts have emerged and dominated at the Carnival Road March or been strong popular contendors. They include Faye-Ann Lyons Alvarez, daughter of Superblue; Destra Garcia, Blaxx, and others.
The reputed father of soca was Lord Shorty – born Garfield Blackman – from Trinidad and Tobago whose 1973 recording of “Indrani” started the trend.
In the 1970s, he began writing calypso songs for other young calypsonians including Maestro and his cousin Baron who had a hit called Severe Licking produced by Shorty.
A prolific musician, composer and innovator, Ras Shorty experimented the fusion of the African-derived calypso with East Indian rhythms for nearly a decade before unleashing “the soul of calypso” music known as soca.
Shorty had been in Dominica during an Exile One performance of cadence-lypso and collaborated with Dominica's 1969 Calypso King, Lord Tokyo and two calypso lyricists, Chris Seraphine and Pat Aaron in the early 1970s who wrote him some Creole lyrics.
Soon after, Shorty released a song, “Ou Petit” with words like “Ou dee moin ou petit Shorty,” meaning “you told me you are small Shorty,” a combination of calypso, cadence, and kwéyòl, as reported in Exile One Gordon Henderson's book, Zoukland, 1999 edition. And it would be Lord Kitchener who would begin the transition which was developed as the soul of calypso – called soca.
According to Lord Kitchener's former manager Errol S. Peru, a pioneer in the promotion of calypso and soca music, “Kitch (Kitchener) had a knack for kaiso.... Anything he composed was instantly a hit.”
Byron Lee & the Dragonaires made soca a West Indian social wave, but it was Kevin Lyttle, Machel Montano, Burning Flames, Krosfyah, Rupee Walker and others in the 21st century who earned it American recognition.
Some notable soca producers and composers include Leston Paul, Ibo Joseph, Kenny Phillips, Shawn Neal (Da Ma$tamind), Neil Bernard, KC Phillips, Kondwani “Kd” Applewhite, and Ossie Gurley.
Like calypso, soca was used for both social commentary and risqué humour, although the initial wave of soca acts eschewed the former.
Lord Shorty was disillusioned with the genre by the 1980s because soca was being used to express courtships and sexual interests. Like all things related to sexual freedom, it was embraced because of its ability to reflect the desires of a society that was sexually repressed. Soca music became an expression of sexuality through metaphors in the West Indies.
Soon after, Shorty moved to the Piparo forest, converted to the Rastafari movement and changed his name to Ras Shorty I. There he created a fusion of reggae and gospel music called jamoo (Jah music) in the late 1980s.
In the 1990s, and now the new century, soca has evolved into a blend of musical styles. Machel Montano's collaborations with Jamaican musicians (Red Rat and Beenie Man), American musicians (like Walker Hornung), Panama musicians (Karamel and Lans) and Japanese artists have pushed the boundaries of modern Soca. Machel Montano would be the first mainstream soca artist to sell out venues all over the world including the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Rapso is a form of Trinidadian music which grew out of the social unrest of the 1970s. It has been described as “de power of de word in the riddum of de world.”
Although it's often described as a fusion of soca with American hip hop, rapso is really another distinctive form of music from Trinidad.
Its history is also inextricably linked with the social and political events in its country of origin. As Black power and labour unions grew in the 1970s, so did rapso; it grew along with them.
The first recording of rapso was Blow Away by Lancelot Layne in 1970. Six years later, Cheryl Byron – founder of the New York City-based Something Positive Dance Company – was scorned when she sang rapso at a calypso tent. She's now called the “Mother of Rapso.”
The term rapso was not invented until 1980 when the revolutionary Brother Resistance released an album, Busting Out, with his Network Riddum Band.
Initially dominated by the children of the Black power movement, changes in rapso came in the 1990s with the younger artistes adopting this music style. Some of the most prominent performers were the bands Kindred and 3 Canal.
Rapso has become the most influential of these two main descendants of calypso; the other one being soca.
Its origin was strongly influenced by Black power and Pan-Africanist thought which spread in Trinidad during that period and was not simply a phenomenon that occurred coincidentally with this political reawakening.
While Lancelot Layne is said to have invented the genre with his 1971 hit Blow Away, it's Cheryl Byron who is credited with bringing rapso to calypso tents in 1976. Rapso has currently become one of the most prevalent expressions of music on the island of Trinidad itself, but is largely absorbed into calypso during carnival celebrations and contests.
The 1990s saw a more politically and spiritually-conscious form of rapso which has been infused with soul and reggae music as well as j'ouvert, an early introduction to carnival which consists of percussionists using makeshift materials to hammer out a beat. The trio band 3canal is among the most popular modern performers of this kind of music.
Extempo, or extempo calypso, or calypso war, is a lyrically improvised – free-styled – form of calypso. It's performed mostly in Trinidad and Tobago.
It consists of a performer improvising in song or in rhythmic speech on a given theme before an audience who themselves take turns to perform. And it's inherently competitive. Success is judged by the wit and ingenuity of the performance.
It's similar in form to what has been defined as traditional African song: “a recitative or chants with a short chorus. The soloist gives the melody while a chorus sings a refrain. As the melody is given out, they turn to one another, each improvising in turn. Extempo tends to comprise topics from current events treated with mockery, ridicule and sarcasm, or with flattery or praise.”
An annual competition takes place at the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival for the title of Extempo Monarch.
The art of extempo is characterised either by the “single tone” consisting of four-line stanzas or by the “double tone” which has eight line stanzas.
There are four basic melodies common to extempo: “Santimanitay,” “Matilda,” “Miss Mary Ann,” and “Big Bamboo.”
The most widely used is Santimanitay.
Another characteristic of extempo is that the performer must be able to think quickly on his feet since the subjects are handed out on the spot and the lyrics are improvised.
The competitive nature of extempo is reflected in the annual Trindiad carnival with a formal extempo competition for the title of National Extempo Monarch.
Extempo War, or warring, is the practice of competitors attacking each others' efforts at extempo in the course of their own performance. It's not an essential part of competition but is a regular feature, and an entertaining one.
Extempo war may also be simply called Calypso War.
Not all extempo performance is competitive. Besides partcipating in competition, extempo performers also act as MCs or hosts at private functions.
Calypso War is a form of calypso which has existed since at least the beginning of the 1900s. Originally, it was sung in patois or French creole.
The classic War form is an eight-line stanza, the first four lines in a minor key, then modulating into the major, and returning to the minor with the refrain “santimanite” (“sans humanité” in patois, in English “without humanity”).
The object of War is to promote the calypsonian and defeat his competitors.
It's similar to the American tradition of 'yo mama' or the dozens in its competitive aspect but may be distinguished in that the aim is not to improvise humorous abuse to an opponent incorporating a given form of words, but to entertain an audience of ones' competitors while extemporising on a given theme.
The abuse or sarcasm may be directed either at ones' competitors or at subjects relevant to that theme, ideally both.
It's also similar to the American tradition of freestyle rap.
Since 1986, with the rise of David Rudder, brass bands have begun to dominate carnival competitions.
Brass bands had long been a part of Trinidad's cultural heritage, but Rudder popularised the genre and helped inspire the founding of the Caribbean Brass Festival in 1991.
However, the festival has been discontinued. The last one was the “B2B Bunji and Brass” event in 1997.
Chutney music is indigenous to the southern Caribbean. It originated in Trinidad and Tobago, derived from traditional bhojpuri folk songs, soca and Indian film songs known as filmi.
The music was created by Indo-Caribbean people whose ancestors were transported to the West Indies as indentured servants, and later as immigrants, during the 1800s.
During the same period when brass bands became a major musical presence in Trinidad, chutney also became a massive force in Trinidadian music, arising from the island's Indian community.
It has now become mainstream across the islands and elsewhere in the Caribbean, and has spawned its own subgenres including ragga chutney, chutney-hip hop, soca-bhangra, bhangragga and chutney-bhangra.
The modern chutney artist writes lyrics in either Hindi, Bhojpuri or English and then lays it on top of beats that come from Indian beats from the dholak mixed with the soca beat.
Chutney is an uptempo song, accompanied by dholak, harmonium, and dhantal, played in rhythms imported from filmi (Indian music used in films), calypso or soca.
Early chutney was religious in nature sung mainly by women in Trinidad and Tobago. Chutney is unusual in the predominance of female musicians in its early years. But it has since become mixed.
Chutney artists include Rikki Jai, Rakesh Yankaran, Devanand Gattoo, Heeralal Rampartap, and the late Ramdew Cahitoe who composed the Surinamese-based Baithak Gana in his album The Star Melodies of Ramdew Chaitoe.
Among the best known examples of chutney music are Sundar Popo's Pholourie Beena Chutney, sonny Mann's Lotalal, Vedesh Sookoo's Dhal Belly Indian, Anand Yankaran's Jo Jo, Neeshan 'D Hitman' Prabhoo's Mr. Shankar, and Rikki Jai's Mor Tor.
Chutney music is mostly popular among Indo-Trinidadians and Indo-Tobagoans, Indo-Guyanese, Indo-Surinamese and in the Caribbean diaspora communities in Canada, the United States, and in the Netherlands because of the country's historical ties to Suriname, its former colony – once known as Dutch Guiana – where there are many people of Indian descent.
Some of the top chutney music producers and bands responsible for making chutney what it is today by providing the sound tracks include Harry Mahabir, the JMC Triveni Orch., T&Tec Gayatones (Rishi Gayadeen), Beena Sangeet Orch., Rishi Mahatoo, Fareed Mohammed, Ravi Sookhoo and Big Rich, all out of Trinidad and Tobago where chutney music was originally born.
The melodies and lyrics of religious songs sung in Trinidad in Hindi, Urdu, and Bhojpuri are used in chutney music; so are songs that were and still are used from Indian commercial cinema such as Bollywood. Calypso, soca, dancehall reggae and roots reggae are other forms of music which have influenced chutney music.
Early chutney music was religious in nature. The songs were sung by Indo-Trinidadian female family members who, as customary in Trinidadian society, sang before a typical wedding celebration to prepare the bride-to-be for her role as a wife. This can be thought of as a kind of bachelorette party where only the female members of the families celebrate.
Gradually, the music and the dancing – and some of the suggestive lyrics sung at the events – leaked out into the wider community and society and became enmeshed into Trinidadain society as a whole.
The year 1970 was perhaps the biggest turning point in East Indian music in the Caribbean. In that year, Sundar Popo, a young man from Barrackpore, Trinidad, leapt to fame with the song Nana & Nani.” The song, almost comical in nature, described the “Queen Of Chutney.”
Steelband and pan music have achieved great popularity in Trinidad through the decades.
The origin of the music is traced to Laventille, a poor section of Port of Spain, in the 1930s.
Laventille is also home to Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, one of the worlds oldest steelbands existing today.
It's also the place where steelpan music originated, and is the birthplace of innovators and renowned steelpan musicians such as the late Rudolph Charles, Bertie Marshall and Roland Harrigin.
Laventville is the heart of the steelpan world where pioneer Winston “Spree” Simon lived and created one of the century’s new acoustical musical instrument. It's also home to several bands such as Laventille Hilanders, Courts Laventille Sound Specialists and others.
The name Laventille is synonymous with “poor neighbourhoods” and is used to described other parts of the nation's capital, Port of Spain, which are poor. But it also has a rich history because it's inextricably linked with some of the most influential forms of music ever to come out of the Caribbean.
Steelband music started during World War II and evolved during the post-war period. Steelband musicians were preceded by the Tambu Bamboo bands which used percussion instruments based on bamboo.
Many bands took names from war movies including Casablanca, Tokyo, Free French and Tripoli.
Another form of music which has become an integral part of Trinidadian culture is the Latin American-derived Christmas season music called parang.
It traditionally involves singers moving throughout homes or districts playing staple instruments such as the cuatro which is a four-stringed guitar; the macaras, indigenously known as chac-chacs; and the guitar.
Chutney soca and chut-kai-pang – which is chutney, parang and calypso mixed with Venezuelan-derived rhythms – have also achieved popularity in Trinidad and Tobago through the years.
Pichakaree is an Indo-Trinidadian musical form which originated in Trinidad and Tobago.
Pichakaree songs are generally social commentary and are sung using a mixture of Hindi, English and Bhojpuri words.
The musical form was created by RaviJi, spiritual leader of the Hindu Prachar Kendra, as an Indo-Trinidadian counterpoint to calypso.
Pichakaree competitions are an integral part of Phagwa celebrations hosted by the Hindu Prachar Kendra in Trinidad and Tobago.
Steelpan
Steel pan musicians are called pannists.
The pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument – some toy or novelty steelpans are tuned diatonically – made from 55-gallon drums which are used to store oil.
In fact, drum refers to the steel drum containers from which the pans are made. The steeldrum is correctly called a steel pan or pan as it falls into the idiophone family of instruments and is not technically regarded as a drum or membranophone.
The pan is struck by a pair of straight sticks tipped with rubber; the size and type of rubber tip is unique to the class of pan being played. Some musicians use four pansticks, holding two in each hand.
This skill and performance has been conclusively shown to have grown out of Trinidad and Tobago's early 20th century carnival percussion groups known as Tamboo Bamboo.
Pan is the National Instrument of Trinidad and Tobago.
With the mass exodus of French creoles from Martinique to Trinidad, the steelpan evolved from being a communication device to being the musical instrument it is today.
Drumming was used as a form of communication among the enslaved Africans and was subsequently outlawed by the British colonial government in 1783.
African slaves also performed during Mardi Gras celebrations, joining the French who had brought the tradition to the island of Trinidad.
The two most important influences were the drumming traditions of both Africa and India.
The instrument's invention was therefore a specific cultural response to the conditions present on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
The first instruments developed in the evolution of steelpan were Tamboo-Bamboos, tunable sticks made of bamboo wood. These were hit onto the ground and with other sticks in order to produce sound.
Tamboo-Bamboo bands also included percussion of a (gin) bottle and spoon. By the mid-1930s, bits of metal percussion were being used in the tamboo bamboo bands, the first probably being either the automobile brake hub “iron” or the biscuit drum “boom.” The former replaced the gin bottle-and-spoon, and the latter the “bass” bamboo that was pounded on the ground.
By the late 1930s, their occasional all-steel bands were seen at carnival and by 1940 it had become the preferred carnival accompaniment of young underprivileged men.
The 55-gallon oil drum was used to make lead steelpans from around 1947.
The Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO), formed to attend the Festival of Britain in 1951, was the first steelband whose instruments were all made from oil drums.
Members of TASPO included Ellie Mannette and Winston “Spree” Simon.
Hugh Borde also led the National Steel Band of Trinidad & Tobago at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in England, as well as the Esso Tripoli Steel Band who played at the World's Fair in Montreal, Canada, and later toured with Liberace and were also featured on an album with him.
The cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago is a blend of African, Amerindian, European, Creole, Indian, Chinese, Spanish, and Arab influences among others.
It therefore draws upon the diverse origins of the people of Trinidad and Tobago who collectively constitute this multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multicultural nation.
Although the cuisine's origin is diverse, three influences are dominant: Creole, Indian, and Chinese.
Creole food commonly includes callaloo, macaroni pie and red beans.
Indian food is based on curries.
Chinese influence on the nation's cuisine is unique, considering the minority status of the Chinese community.
Although the Chinese community in Trinidad and Tobago is very small, in sharp contrast with the two main ethnic groups (Indian and African), Chinese food is very popular in this island nation.
It's cooked in most homes and is served in almost all “sit-down” restaurants; an influence the Chinese have far out of proportion to their numbers in the country's population.
Trinidad and Tobago has produced many influential writers. The most famous is Nobel laureate Vidia S. Naipaul who is of Indian descent.
But his image has been somewhat tarnished by accusations of racism. Many blacks and other people say he is a racist.
A Look at The Caribbean and Its People and Culture
Editor: Keith Thompson
Paperback: 172 pages
Publisher: New Africa Press (8 October 2010)
ISBN-13: 9789987160068