[Haiti’s] carnival (or “kanaval” in Haiti’s native creole) of Jacmel is …a spontaneous, popular and mysterious mixture of theatre and masquing, voodoo and history that reaches a climax in this former French colonial port on Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras…
For a few wild days, boys and men career round the crumbling, picturesque by-ways of Jacmel, often in marauding groups, wearing home-made costumes or in sinister, eye- popping drag. Some outfits have meanings that extend back centuries, others are entirely idiosyncratic and personal to their creators. It is no mere street party, then, but rather a carnival by and for the largely impoverished people of Jacmel, which tells, in its own way, the tumultuous history of Haiti, from the slave rebellion that freed the country from its French masters in 1804 to this year’s catastrophic earthquake, via the bloody dictatorships of the Duvaliers and much else besides.
Political commentary, voodoo street theatre, religious pageantry – Jacmel carnival has been juggling these myriad roles for two centuries. But whether it can survive in the form so vividly captured by Leah Gordon is in doubt. Already there is pressure to introduce parades and more music, which, according to Gordon, is largely an attempt to control and commercialise the event, with sponsorship, and licensed food and drink concessions. Jacmel carnival is unusual because, unlike other Haitian carnivals, it has so far resisted this fate.
Full story at The Independent
‘The Invisibles’, An exhibition of Haiti-inspired art and photography by Leah Gordon and others opens 5 July at London’s Riflemaker gallery
