National stick-fighting champion Anderson Marcano of Gran Chemin, Moruga, acknowledges his victory on Wednesday. Photo: Trevor Burnett
Anderson Marcano is the new national stick-fighting champion. And Ortoire has emerged the leading gayelle in the country. Marcano 21, of Gran Chemin, Moruga, was crowned King of the Rock on Wednesday night at Gilbert Park, Couva, when he scored with a “buss head” over Cluster Guy of Ortoire in the final. He had earlier outclassed former champion Anthony Binealle of Couva in the preliminary round, while Guy had defeated George Quashie of Talparo with a “buss head.”
Popular stickfighter Moses Ralph, of Sangre Grande, was beaten by Kenneth John, of Cushe. John was scheduled to meet with Marcano in the semifinal, while Guy had a bye into the final. John chose to settle for the third prize of $5,000 and conceded the fight to his younger brother Marcano. Marcano, an unknown to the stick-fighting arena, displayed superb craft, striking with either hand and with a change of leading foot, he checked the advances of his charging opponents.
Binealle and Guy were thrown off-balance by the clever moves and ambidextrous strikes of Marcano...a well deserved champion. In the Gayelle semifinal battles, Ortoire won all three fights against Gran Chemin, while Longdenville defeated Sangre Grande by a similar margin. And in the Gayelle final, Ortoire, represented by Cluster Guy, Daniel Barclay and Peter Stephens, won by two fights to one over Longdenville, represented by Anthony Binealle, Nigel Jones and Sunil Kowlessar.
Mas Man, a film by Dalton Narine about Peter Minshall, and edited by Benedict Joseph, will be screened for the media and friends at 6:30 pm, on Tuesday February 10, in the audio-visual room at the National Library (Nalis), in Port-of-Spain. Subtitled “Peter Minshall, Trinidad Carnival Artist,” the work is about a designer’s hubris to author a new word in art to counteract the conformity and conservatism of Carnival in the 1970s. It’s about him reinventing “mas” as a cutting edge tool to enlighten spectators about the complexities of life —a bold move that, in time, influences global awareness of T&T’s principal cultural export—Carnival.
The film (1hr. 48 mins.) hems in the life and art of the designer. A tapestry woven from multiple threads that include his “masography” coursing through 26 years; his design and stage acumen (documented in the 2006 presentation, The Sacred Heart); his contribution to the artistic direction of the opening ceremonies for three Olympic Games; the Savannah stage (the mas) preparing him for the world stage (the Olympics); his set pieces of protest and entertainment provoking parallel emotions in major North American, European and Asian cities – all of these textures tying into a story line that essentially captures Minshall’s muse, his flair for costumery, as well as the enigma of a man whose main job seems to be playing evil against good amid the Bacchanalia.
Mas Man also serves as reunion for Narine, a writer and filmmaker (King Carnival Productions) and Joseph, a director at Out D' Box Solutions, a media production company. Both producers of the film, they had cut their teeth in TV production at T&T Television (TTT), Narine as an interviewer and co-host at Panorama and Carnival Tuesday events; and Joseph’s experience running the gamut from cameraman to technical producer. They also worked on documentaries at TTT during the 80s and 90s, taking Outstanding Television prizes at Caribbean Publishing and Broadcasting Association Awards and Columbus International Film Festival in the United States.
Danielle Dieffenthaller, whose Westwood Park and The Reef series define her art as groundbreaking, completes the team as project consultant. Narine interviewed 29 persons for the film, including local and foreign luminaries in the mas and the arts. Their comments serve as a narrative of the film, which took five years to complete. Narine and Joseph largely financed the film, working without pay, the T&T Film Company rescuing the pair during the last month of production when resources dried up.
It was inevitable the creative juggernaut that is Brian McFarlane, would have turned his attention to the black continent and mother of all civilisation that is Africa.
From his first band, the medium band of the year ‘The washing by Fire by water’ in 05, all Mc Farlane’s presentations (06, Treads of Joy, 07India, and 2008’s Earth), have established, McFarlane, as the latest master of the art form (mas).
Many critics of MacFarlane have accused him of bringing nothing new to mas, they say that he is only, ‘following the footsteps’ of Peter Minshall, I can’t deny, that I too have looked at MacFarlane’s past works and found many similarities between his, and that of Minshalls.
Whatever the similarities are, between Minshall and MacFarlane, it is with his 2009 presentation of ‘Africa, her people her Glory, her Tears’, that MacFarlane has stepped out of the shadow that Peter Minshall’s style and celebrated contribution to Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival has cast over the Carnival, since the late 1970’s.
Not since the genius of the legendary late George Bailey has a band leader taken on the challenge of portraying Africa, or at least aspects of Africa on the streets of Port of Spain, in the detail that McFarlane is undertaking.
With one presentation Bailey forced Trinidadians to see Africa not as the dark, mysterious, cannibalistic land that colonialism and plantation racism lead them to believe, but a continent history and culture that contained royalty and splendour that equalled that of Europe.
Take a look at the record books yourself, after George Bailey won bandof the year awards with African themes in 1957 and then 1969 with ‘Brightest Africa’ not one other designer or bandleader has been able to win the coveted title with an African theme.
Even the big names of big bands that dominated the last quarter of the 20th century, a period that was, it can be argued, the pinnacle of Trinidad Carnival’s creativity,did not even accept the challenge of presentingAfrican themed mas directly.
Why?
Africa is a challenge, it is the second biggest continent on the planet, and made up of about 53 countries, and almost countless tribes, languages, histories, religions, and art forms, for any bandleader to, take on the challenge of Africa to any dept could take a trilogy.
And while medium and small bands may have taken on Africa over the years, it is the big presentations that grasp the attention of the Carnival world.
So it is at this junction that McFarlane has chosen the road less travelled. Minshall has never gone deep into the subject but has used African themes and concepts in his presentations, so Macfarlane is now in Bailey territory.
The band seems to be structured around a story of a woman that travels through time (or the spirit world) in search of a tale for her children, it is during this journey she meets a King and Queen (the first ancestors?) who offer her stories in exchange for a look at the future of their descendants, a future eventually destroyed by disease and death.
The story is a modified version of ‘where stories come from’ a traditional South African story about the origins of tales, MacFarlane’s version readapted for the presentation seems to examine Africa’s past, sad present, and dismal future, with characters i.e. the bird ‘manzandaba’ the King and Queenpossible main characters or individuals for the road.
The sections of the band seem to be recreations of actual traditional African costumes, from all over the continent. According to a mas man friend of mine, “...is like he open a book on Africa...”In doing this Macfarlane, can be said to be paying tribute to the old school, and their traditions of the near perfect portrayal, like the Master George Bailey did in the 50’s and 60’s “… George thoroughly researched his portrayals and came as close to the original living thing as was possible.”
Africa her people her glory her tears, in 19 sections can only skim the surface of Africa, Macfarlane attempts by presenting tribes from as far north as Morocco to South Africa, in the south to give us a peek of Africa’s people, the story line will no doubt tell of just some of her many, many tears, and hopefully, the visual magnificence of the entire band will give us a tiny glimpse of her glory.
MacFarlane is without a doubt the high priest of 21st Century Mas. Every one of his presentations to date have been a visual spectacular, from the drawing board to the streets, his band launches alone make his Mas an almost religious experience. But I can’t help feeling that he is two decades too late, had Macfarlane been on the streets when names likeMinshall, Berkley, Lee Hueng, Harts, and Garib, filled the streets, I feel his contributions would make more of an impact on the society.
Today MacFarlane is more or less in a league of his own, the only heavyweight in the heavyweight division, the only Mas band in a Carnival of blind fantasy. It is this absence of a main rival, a ‘Frazer to his Ali’, that makes, Africa is an impressive band but not an explosive band, I believe, that if Macfarlane did have a great rival to contend with, his 2009 presentation of Africa could be as legendary as Bailey’s.
All said and done MacFarlane’s Africa is a sure bet for another band of the year title in 09 in fact the first decade of the 21st century may come to be known to future generations as the MacFarlane era.
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