Christmas comes but once a year 
And everyman must have his share
But poor Brother Willy in the jail
Drinking sour ginger beer
Ban !
(Masquerade Toast; Traditional)
The Christmas season officially ended yesterday according to common tradition. It was January 6 – the twelfth day of Christmas, and the last, which culminated in Twelfth Night, celebrated by Christians as the Feast of the Epiphany. For everyone who recognises the tradition it is the last night for the seasonal decorations which must be taken down and all the Christmas lights put out. There are even folk beliefs about what can happen if that is not done.
In today’s fast changing technologically charged society these things are barely remembered or recognised. But the lights seem to have gone out on another tradition – one that used to be known as a most powerful Christmas time folk performance tradition in the Caribbean and Guyana. 2023 ended on a sober note with the Guyanese community mourning the loss of a man hailed and fabled far and wide and known to everyone as “Potagee”. It seems, however, that the mourning is not for a man, but that following him, the lights went out on the noble theatre of the masquerade (maskarade) in Guyana.
The entire community knew Potagee, but only the privileged knew his real name – he was officially christened Rudolph Vivieros, and only the privileged will appreciate what that name stood for. In recent times he was a synonym for maskarade in Guyana; he represented a past age, a rare breed, a priceless talent and a fading corps of maskarade practitioners who performed the theatre, who knew and practiced the tradition when it was the tradition.
Vivieros was a flautist. He played the flute, also known to the folk as the “fife”, in the maskarade band, an old trademark element in the masquerade music that identifies and distinguishes it. The rhythm is known across the Caribbean, including the jonkunnu or maskarade in Jamaica, and this sound is distinct and distinguishable, identified as maskarade whenever it is heard. In this music there are the drums, which include “the boom” and “the kittle”, complemented by a middle drum that sustains the rhythm. The boom is the bass drum that keeps time, while the kittle is a folk version of the kettle drum, known in Europe, which is the lead instrument – the cutting drum, that can improvise upon the rhythm. All the drums are played with sticks. The masquerade or jonkunnu is an African survival, a once religious/spiritual dance, which, like most of these folk traditions, display significant European influence.
The music is carried by the drums, which have the typical African three part rhythmic combination – a base, a rhythm and a cutting drum. But in addition, it is tipped off with the flute or fife, a folk wind instrument. In a maskarade band the flautist always improvises. There is a known common maskarade air, but he will play any known popular tune during the performance. Vivieros, otherwise called Potagee, played this role in the band, and was one of a very few known maskarade flautists in Guyana who carried on this tradition. This part of it faded away and is not heard in performances at the present time.
Vivieros was the son of a fisherman resident in Plaisance, ECD, and carried on his father’s trade for most of his life. According to his sister Bernadette Ramsingh, there was a maker of masquerade costumes on the street where they live in Plaisance and Potagee frequented the place enjoying the Mother Sally performances and became an expert on the flute, rising to be the best among maskarade bands in Guyana. He played with Golden Arrowhead Band which was led by the famous Lionel Blackett on the West Coast of Demerara. Throughout the contemporary period, there has been only one other flautist of that standard, Jerome Cumberbatch popularly called “Three Feet” who leads the Torch Masquerade Band in Linden.
This level of maskarade practice, however, for quite a while, was only carried on by bands like Three Feet’s Torch in recent times, formerly by Blackett’s Golden Arrowhead, and at one time by Joker’s Wild on the ECD led by Adrian Waldron. So impressive was Waldron as a designer and maker of band costumes that he was recruited by Rawle Gibbons’ Department of Creative and Festival Arts at UWI, St Augustine while at Carifesta in 2008, and spent some time in Trinidad. But his band is not known to be still in practice.
On the contrary, according to Linda Griffith, Director of the National School of Dance, a choreographer who has worked with masquerade, and Margaret Lawrence, Administrator of the National School of Drama, there are some seven maskarade bands in existence around Demerara. Several bands were in regular appearances on the Essequibo Coast where at one time businessman Alfro Alphonso coordinated an annual competition. It would appear that while the tradition was alive on the Essequibo Coast, it was defunct in Georgetown and Region 4.
Yet the bandleaders have insisted that this is not the case and the bands on the East Coast are alive and well. These were named as Victoria Renegades, Fire in the Land, Lucky Stars and Jokers Wild all in Victoria; the Anns Grove Warriors and Golden Arrowhead on the WCD. There was evidence that Cumberbatch’s Torch was active, but none to support the claim from the East Coast groups.
There is a segment in Carifesta known as the “Country Nights” where each nation is represented by a kind of compilation theatrical variety show. In Trinidad in 2019 Guyana had the best of all the Country Nights. A high point in Guyana’s performance was the appearance of the masqueraders – bad cow, Bam-bam Sally, flouncers and the towering stilts dancers. This gave the stage a dramatic lift and had memorable impact. Question is, if this was so impressive, what really is wrong with maskarade in Guyana? The answer is – plenty.
For a long time now, Guyanese would only see maskarade as a brief item on stage as a part of some variety show. This shows that there are individual performers with the skill to perform on stage, but they are never seen performing in a maskarade band on the street. Problem is, the maskarade tradition is not a stage item; it is a street theatrical performance in which a band takes to the road traveling from place to place with a costumed dance theatre performance. Spectators would give them money as they pass. It is a spectacular show, or, supposed to be. But that no longer happens in Guyana.
Maskarade bands no longer perform on the streets at Christmas time. The tradition is defunct. One may ask, where are the seven bands that claim to be active? Do they ever appear on the street according to the traditional practice? The answer is, no. How then, can they claim to be active if they do not practice? We are told that at least two bands – Lucky Star and Anns Grove Warriors were out on the street last Christmas. If that is true, they did themselves no credit. Fragmented stragglers in costume were seen in Georgetown, but they were tragically incompetent and inadequate.
At a few corners around the city there was a small group of young men hitting on drums standing at one place under a tree by the roadside. There were a few scattered youths in minstrel costumes walking around in and between the traffic, occasionally stopping cars, occasionally gyrating, with their main intent, the collection of money. They did not entertain, they could not dance, they wore no character costumes, represented no theatrical characters, and the drummers, such as they were, could not play the maskarade rhythm.
No one seeing them can claim to have seen a maskarade performance, because that is not what a maskarade band looks like. There was no full band; the drummers stood rooted in one spot and occasionally took a rest. If these were members of one of the existing bands, then they were lacking in any knowledge of maskarade practice, be it the drumming, dancing/flouncing, costuming or drama. They were simply asking for monetary donations. While real maskarade bands do collect money, they entertain; they give performances to earn it.
There is a need for an up-to-date visit to the Essequibo Coast to see what might have survived there. But If Guyanese maskarade bands do still exist, they need to be trained, to be taught the lost art. Dancer Griffith and dramatist Lawrence, or the remaining flautist Cumberbatch, some of whom were at one time assigned by the Department of Culture to monitor or tutor masqueraders, need to be re-engaged. There is evidence that the art of stilt walking and stilt dancing is being taught and people are learning, but none of them were seen on the streets last Christmas. The youths who were out there are obviously untrained.
If the art of the flute, and more importantly, the art of the masquerade, are not to totally take a bow and exit the stage along with Rudolph Vivieros, the local hero known as Potagee, drastic measures must be taken to arrest the decline. If truly, there are bands still in existence, they clearly need to be taught true maskarade and to be willing to learn. A maskarade band costs money to equip and costume, so funds are needed. Here is a role for the Department of Culture in the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport. Here are roles for the National School of Dance and the National School of Drama to research and offer training. But the Ministry must be willing to put out the funds. The decline has been chronic; the solution needs to be drastic or Guyana may never see another maskarade band on the street.
