The Tribune

IF EVER there was a Bahamian who has his heart rooted in Junkanoo, it is Prime Minister Christie, who never misses an opportunity to show off his Junkanoo shuffle. A founding member of the Valley Boys Junkanoo group, the ker-lick of the cowbells and beat of the goat skin drums seem to put a renewed vigour in his step.

However, the dismal lack of organisation this holiday season is more talked about than the elaborate costumes and music, with the prime minister declaring that something has to be done to make the parade “less boring.”

We suggest that instead of spending government’s proposed $9m to introduce a carnival-style Junkanoo next year to attract tourists — to which Junkanoo aficionados are loudly opposed — at least a part of that money should be put to building up, improving and better controlling and organising our home-grown product. One can only imagine the slack organisational skills brought to the parade when it was discovered that one of the judges this year, not only has a criminal charge pending, but has been outfitted with an ankle bracelet. This in itself tells the story as to what level junkanoo has fallen in this country. Of course, as long it remains at that level, an infusion of Bahamians’ taxes cannot be justified.

Junkanoo supporters cry that a Carnival Junkanoo will lose the true spirit of Junkanoo. What today’s Bahamians don’t realise is that the spirit of Junkanoo was lost many years ago.

We remember our father, the late Sir Etienne Dupuch, who probably loved Junkanoo as much as Mr Christie, constantly warned in this column, which he wrote daily for over half a century, that Bahamians were losing Junkanoo with floats outgrowing Bay Street’s narrow thoroughfare. Instead of the fringed costumes, the music — cow bells, whistles and African drums as only Bahamians can beat them — the increase of lumbering, elaborate floats, now slowed the pace of Junkanoo.

In his day, Junkanoo was the rushing of rival groups on Bay Street — drums beating, and cow bells ker-licking. And when we describe it as rush, we mean rush — it was no slow hike – it was exhilarating fast moving legs, hands and body — a group of hands beating the drums, another shaking the cow bells and blowing the whistles. The costumes were made of fringed paper — predominantly red, white and blue — topped by a coned hat.

Sir Etienne talked of the groups as the Easterners and the Westerners. The Easterners met on the Eastern parade. The Westerners we think assembled at Clifford Park. The groups moved towards Bay Street at a rushing pace until they confronted each other on Bay Street, still rushing toward each other on a seeming collision course. As the crowd held its breath, expecting a serious accident, without missing a beat, they opened a space through which they passed and kept rushing. The crowd exploded in laughter and shouts, as the music and rushing continued from midnight until dawn.

Many oldsters will remember a character who led the Eastern rush every year — “Josh Boy”. “Josh Boy” was a tiny man who tooted his horn and ker-licked his cowbells with such vigour that one thought his small frame would crumble with the effort. The bent figure of Josh, his fringed costume flying in the air, body gyrating, with his knees almost touching his chin pranced ahead of his group to Bay Street at a breath-taking pace with the crowd clapping and shouting him on.

That was Junkanoo, a fast-moving, bells, drums and whistles affair with excited spectators participating with clapping hands and shouts — it was hours of music and excitement.

And then the fringed costumes became more elaborate until floats that got larger and larger started to move onto Bay Street — it slowed the rush and the music. And this column from the pen of Sir Etienne mourned the loss of Junkanoo.

He predicted the day would come when Bahamians would have lost the real Junkanoo. That day is here and now, with no less a person than the prime minister, who founded the popular Valley Boys, supporting a move to turn Junkanoo into a South American carnival to attract more tourists.

However, in all the talk about Junkanoo this country’s one true Junkanooer is always forgotten. A B Malcolm, who owned a chain of gas stations, was more “Mr Junkanoo” than anyone that we have ever known. Yet he is always forgotten. Was it because he was a white man, who could possibly be classified as a “Bay Street Boy”?

However, if it were not for AB, it is a possibility that we would have no Junkanoo today in any form.

After the 1942 “Burma Road” riots when window smashing looters threatened to destroy Bay Street, government decreed that Bahamians could no longer congregate in large groups. This meant that Junkanoo, which annually brought Bahamians together, was banned.

If it weren’t for the fight put up by AB — a true Junkanooer if ever there was one — Junkanoo might never have returned to Bay Street.

AB Malcolm with the support of The Tribune and others, won his fight. Junkanooers met at his Bay Street garage and every year planned their parades.

And yet in all the publicity on Junkanoo, the name of AB Malcolm has been erased from history. This is a tragedy for a man who did so much to preserve one of our most treasured traditions.

We agree with those Bahamians who believe that Bahamians should develop their own product, rather than pour large sums of money that this country cannot afford into a carnival that is not truly our own and as such risks being a failure of untold proportions. However, what Bahamians do not realise is that the introduction of floats was the result of Bahamians travelling to other carnivals, being impressed, and introducing them to Nassau. This was the beginning of the end of real Junkanoo.

However, if local Junkanoo is to make its mark it has to be in the hands of persons who know what they are doing. The artists, and pasters can take care of the costumes in the shacks, those in charge of logistics can limit the size of the floats and those who understand business can take on the overall planning and promotion of the parades.

However, as Junkanoo is managed — with inevitable disputes every year between the contestants — Junkanoo is on the road to extinction. This year’s failure cannot be repeated.