CARIBBEAN FOLK SONGS

CARIBBEAN CREOLE LANGUAGES

VEGETABLE FOODS USED IN THE CARIBBEAN

CALYPSO

Calypso is a form of  syncopated Afro-Caribbean music or song popular in Caribbean countries and wherever people from the Caribbean live. It developed during colonial times, largely as a means of communication among African slaves in the French and British islands of the Caribbean. Much of its development took place in Trinidad, where it became the music of Carnival.

Calypso and Society

MENTO

Mento is a form of Jamaican folk music popular in the 1950s, foreshadowing ska and reggae.  Somewhat similar to calypso, its lyrics were generally pleasant and light-hearted, and the featured instruments were guitar, banjo and drums. The best way to learn about mento is to hear a sample of it.

SHANTO

Shanto is a special musical folk idiom that shares features with the calypso. Bill Rogers, a Guyanese, was its greatest exponent and "B.G. Bhagee" was the most well-known shanto.

Bill Rogers sang Shanto at vaudeville shows in British Guiana and his enormous popularity in the 1920s made it posssible for him to become one of the first performers to sign a recording contract with Parlophone Records, a British Gramophone Record Company. A version of B.G. Bhagee was further popularized by Harry Belafonte.

CARIFESTA

CARIFESTA, the Caribbean Festival of Arts was  conceived as a regional festival encompassing all the creative and artistic skills and energies of the member countries of CARICOM, the wider Caribbean, and people of the Caribbean abroad, wherever in the world they now live.

The first Carifesta, called Carifesta ’72, was held in Georgetown, Guyana in 1972. It brought together writers, artists, musicians and other creative people in a variety of performances concentrated during the period Carifesta lasted. The audiences were not only the local people but visitors from other Caribbean countries, from the United States, Europe and other parts of the world. This has been the pattern for succeeding Carifestas.

The following table shows a complete listing of  Carifesta dates and locations.  

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

"One of the world's premiere centers for documenting, preserving, interpreting and celebrating the history and culture of peoples of African descent worldwide." Of value to those interested in "in-depth knowledge about the historical and cultural development of black people" in the Caribbean and other parts of the world.

Caribbean Recipes: a fine collection of recipes from SOAR

Poetry

News report on the examination of the global impact of Caribbean culture

The Caribbean Writer

an international anthology with a Caribbean focus. Published by the University of the Virgin Islands. Includes poetry, short fiction, personal essays etc.

Christmas in the Caribbean

Aspects of worship, music, customs - old and new

Taw - Playing Marbles

Looks at the folk games of taw

Guyanese who made contributions to national culture

A list of 36 Guyanese who were recognized and given awards at Folk Festival 2 (August, 2002) in Brooklyn, New York.

Cricket

Football

Carifesta 1

1972

Aug 25 - Sept 15

Guyana

1976

July 23 - Aug 2

Jamaica

Carifesta 3

1979

Cuba

Carifesta 4   

1981

July 19 - Aug 3

Barbados

Carifesta 5

1992

Aug 22 - 28

Trinidad and Tobago

Carifesta 6

1995

Aug

Trinidad and Tobago

Carifesta 7

2000

August 17 -26

St Kitts and Nevis

Carifesta  8

2003

August 25 – 30

Suriname