By Jairo Rodrigues
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
The streets of Port-au-Prince were crowded on Friday with thousands – yes, thousands of Haitians lining the avenues and roads for the official start of Carifesta XII.
Excited eyes gazed at the foreigners –twenty-one nations registered, all wearing costumes. Barbados was in a Kadooment theme; Haiti in their pride and glory; Trinidad in their bright red, black and white with make-up and costumes; and Guyana in its masquerade theme full with band and dancers. What began as two hours of various nations parading through the streets of the Haitian Capital exploded into a cultural concert that all of the French-speaking nation can be proud of.
Men painted in gold and silver, hair dyed in exotic colours skated on high rollerblades bearing the flags of the contingent behind them; notably present were Grenada, Dominica, Suriname, Mexico, the Netherlands, French Guiana, the United States of America, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Anguilla, St Vincent, Jamaica, Belize, Barbados and Canada.
Guyana – by far the largest foreign contingent masqueraded down the streets – the dancers and dramatists in synchronised choreography, the other artistes frolicking behind. The entire delegation was dressed in the national colours and decked out with small flags. Some wore Amerindian-styled headdresses, others wore African head wraps. There were swishing long Sari-like dresses and wide skirts for flipping and waving in dances. The colours were loud and the music bright. It was nearly impossible not to prance to the music of the drums, flutes, tassa, triangles and shak-shak of the band.
Making its way into the Kiosk Occide Jeanty amphitheatre, the crowd roared when Guyana’s entrance was announced in both French-creole and English. The other delegations poured in, Guyana third and the others behind in no particular order. Other than Jamaica no other foreign contingent received such strong support.
As if dancing down the streets were not enough the Carifesta audience was treated to Haitian music, fashion, language and arts. The audience, particularly the Haitians danced and gyrated to the Carifesta theme song, Nou Se Caribbean (We are Caribbean) performed by Mikaben, J Perry, Renette and Rutshelle; and the CARICOM Song ‘Celebrating CARICOM’ by Michele Henderson.
Lights decorated the stage adorned with cloth designs as backdrops – easily illuminated which complimented the LED screen displaying pictures of the Carifesta logo and of Haiti and its people. Fireworks blasted through the night, just a few feet over the heads of the audience who were amazed by the sparkles, lights and the bang of the colours sparkling in the dark Haitian night.
From a 17:00hrs start, the show ended just after 22:00hrs local time. Though celebrated with much culture and fanfare, nothing particularly stuck out from the Haitian cultural performances that made up the rest of the opening ceremony. There were dances to showcase their clothing and colours, songs of pride and nationality by Haitian artistes; and speeches from the President, and the Minister of Culture of Haiti; and CARICOM leaders: Secretary General, Irwin LaRoque and Barbadian Minister of Culture, Stephen Lashley.
For Haiti however it was the moment to show that they are Caribbean and a moment to be proud of their accomplishment and what is yet to come.
