Senior Producer
The producers of Kambule say young people want to know their history. In fact, they say they are often angry when they do learn it because they feel they should have been taught this at an earlier age.
Speaking yesterday at the conclusion of the Kambule Street Play on Piccadilly Greens, Port-of-Spain, show producer Attillah Springer said their team had to do a lot of emotional work helping their actors come to terms with their history.
She said, “There is a need for this information, this education that is not didactic, that’s not in a book, in a textbook. And of course, the textbooks don’t have us in them anyway.”
She said the play provided an opportunity for them to learn in a way that was also entertaining and they were very receptive to the information.
“The young people, when they start to learn what we have to say, they get really angry,” Springer said. “Because the education system is not teaching them that about themselves.”
The Idakeda Group, formed by Pearl Eintou Springer and her daughters Dara Healy and Attillah, are the producers of Kambule, now 20 years old. Healy said they are committed to spreading the message of educating through Carnival.
The audience seemed to enjoy it. Many were seen singing and swaying throughout the roughly 90-minute production, which Idakea described as a ritual enactment of the 1881 riot. The play describes how the people of East Port-of-Spain confronted the police commissioner at the time, Captain Baker, who attempted to use force to stop their Carnival celebrations. The residents matched and bested Baker, earning their right to “play mas.” The actual confrontation took place on Duke Street, in the vicinity of All Stars Panyard.
Guardian Media spoke to Aafisha, a first-time attendee who said the show was worth the early morning. She described it as culturally refreshing.
Tamika, a young dancer and another first-time attendee, said she enjoyed the storytelling and how it brought the history of Carnival to life for her.
“It was nice to add up all the steps,” she said. “You see where everything come from; the story just brought everything together for me.”
At the end of the play, the production team awarded, for the first time, Spirit of Carnival Awards. Kalinda Bois were awarded to cast member Emmanuel Ansolia, who played one of the Pierrot Grenades in the play, and Prof Maureen Warner-Lewis, whose work on the African languages in Trinidad and Tobago informed Eintou Springer’s decision to change the name of the play from Canboulay, which means burning cane, to Kambule, the Kikongo word for procession. Ansolia is also the president of the National Drama Association of T&T.
Yesterday’s presentation was viewed by President Christine Kangaloo and her husband, as well as acting Prime Minister Stuart Young.
As is typical, the production ended with a traditional mas demonstration that was led by a tamboo bamboo band and featured the Whip Masters, Blue Devils and Black Indians.
