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Faculty of Arts and Education The University of The West Indies. "Education in the British Caribbean." educoas.org, Ruby King.

Institute of Caribbean Studies. "The Presbyterian Canadian Mission." jstor.org, Brinsley Samaroo.

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Portrait of Naparima College student.

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Students of Naparima Girls' High School by their sign.

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1)       Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago is celebrated before the commencement of the Lenten season. From 1783 for half a century, the French developed their Carnival , which was noted to be a season of festivities extending from Christmas to Ash Wednesday. These festivities consisted of dinners, balls, concerts and hunting parties. The Africans started to participate in the festivities from 1833 after the Emancipation Bill was passed. The Africans brought Canboulay to its festivities. Canboulay was first played on August 1st, Emancipation Day , but subsequently took place after midnight on Dimanche Gras, the Sunday before Carnival. In early celebration of the festival by the masses activities were held over the three days preceding Ash Wednesday. However, in the face of over 60 years of criticism from the upper class about the low standard of Carnival and strong feelings expressed about the desecration of the Sabbath, in 1943 Carnival on the street was restricted to the Monday & Tuesday.

2)     Furthermore, Carnival continued to evolve after it’s introduction due to the arrival of different ethnic groups such as Indians, Chinese, Portuguese and Syrians. Indentured Indians brought their traditional folk music in the forms of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. This paved the way for the creation of chutney music such as chutney soca. In 1881 African stick fighting and percussion music were banned due to Canboulay riots. In response to this, it was replaced by bamboo. Now known as Bamboo-Tamboo. In addition an entirely new instrument, the steelpan, was created from using oil drums and frying pans in an orchestral style and it is now a major part of Trinidadian Carnival and has made appearances in music worldwide.

3)      Carnival is definitely a festival that attracts many persons to take part especially in the Caribbean when there are many different ethnicities in everyday life. In addition, many non-Caribbean people flock to Trinidad every year to take part in the festivities. However, Carnival is not strictly celebrated in Trinidad and the Caribbean. For instance during other festivals in continents such as North America the diaspora will promote Carnival culture either through music, folklore or costumes. Soca music specifically has become increasingly popular in foreign lives as it is played at various events, such as cricket matches leading to a greater awareness of the music used.

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During slavery there had been no formal provision of education for the slaves, except perhaps for that offered by non-conformist missionaries towards the end of the period. After the abolition of slavery, education was made available to the public in the British Caribbean. The view was widely held that with the removal of the controls which slavery provided, the destabilization of society in the Caribbean was imminent. Education was looked to as the mechanism for averting this impending catastrophe and ensuring the continued existence and supremacy of the white planter class. The provision of elementary education was therefore a direct response to a perceived need for social control of the emancipated slaves. Finances were provided to missionary bodies in the form of a “Negro Education Grant”, to ensure that Christian education was provided. It was thought that the continued education of the “black child” would allow social advancement, causing him to forsake the occupation of his fathers, which in this case was working on the plantation. As a result, the imperial government stated that education would no longer continue unless agriculture was included as a subject. Another suggestion was to teach the ideals of the mother country to maintain their interests in the Caribbean territories. During the latter half of the 19th century, the system was remodelled to preserve class boundaries. Elementary education only became available to working class children at very early ages to integrate them to manual labour since they would be needed to inevitably replace their parents (King, 1). However, for the middle class, secondary schools were established. The two systems were designed to be separate from each other. It was not intended for working class children to attend secondary schools; the superior secondary schools were intended specifically for middle class children. Teachers in secondary schools were, tautologically, the products of secondary schools and British universities, while those in elementary schools had been selected from among the brightest products of these schools and trained in normal schools. The two systems operated parallel, never to meet. Certain other aspects enhanced colonial control on the working population, such as only allowing primary education for girls and the teaching of domestic subjects, for instance cooking and sewing. From the years 1845 to 1917 almost 200,000 East Indians came to Trinidad as indentured labourers (Samaroo, 41). These labourers were brought to replace African labourers. The large amount of these Indians prompted Canadian missionaries to begin a Mission of evangelisation and convert the Hindu or Muslim Indians to the Presbyterian faith. To encourage this, the Presbyterian Church commissioned the construction of schools where labourers could be educated if they accepted their faith and changed their names to ones suitable to the missionaries. Some of these schools in Trinidad still exist such as Grant Memorial Primary School. Secondary schools such as Naparima Girls’ High School (1912) and Naparima College were created to enhance education.

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Slavery was an undeniable phenomenon or an epidemic which permeated the Caribbean region.

(a) However, historical evidence indicates that before West African slavery, the first people to the Caribbean were those of the Coloniser. This mode of  slavery occurred in the form of bonded white labour. The condition on board the ships were impoverished even for the captains, and horrible in the extreme for the indentured servants (The Caribbean History Archives, 1). They were subject to inhumane conditions and cruelty, comparable but not equal to chattel slavery.

(b) In chattel slavery, slaves had absolutely no rights and were viewed as property. Slavery existed in Africa but it was not analogous to European chattel slavery. Traditionally, individuals were enslaved in order to pay off a debt or pay for a crime. These slaves lost protection for their families and their place in society, but they or their children were vulnerable to either becoming part of their master’s family or free. Conversely, in chattel slavery, they were enslaved for life, as were their children, and their grandchildren.

(c) Skin colour was greatly beneficial in slave society. Skin colour determined an individual’s entire life from the minute they were born. The higher classes were white planters and the slaves were black. Even if a child was born between a master and a slave, whether the child would be considered a slave or not was dependent on the mother’s skin colour.

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Guyana, Mexico, Belize and Suriname have indubitably struggled to find themselves as part of the Caribbean identity for many reasons. Pivotal factors contributing to jurisdictions which are not closely aligned to Caribbean identity include historical context, political regime, dominant language religion, and most importantly geographical location (Jamaica Gleaner, 3). The aforementioned countries are all inextricably connected to the mainland, with Belize and Mexico as part of Central America; Suriname and Guyana as part of South America. As a result of this geographic dispersion, many academics opine that these territories may not be considered part of the Caribbean due to geographical determination of jurisdictions which comprise a region. Notwithstanding this, their history reveals similarities such as common European colonisation, as with the the Caribbean (Williams, 19). Guyana, formerly British Guiana, and Belize were colonised by the British whilst. Mexico was colonised by the Spaniards and Suriname, previously Dutch Guiana, was colonised by the Dutch. The similarities of the European influence resound in cuisine, culture, language and religion in these territories, replicating effects in other Caribbean countries. Therefore, based on geographical evidence, these territories may be considered as part of Central and South America, however, from the historical experience, they may also be part of the Caribbean identity.