By Dr. Antonio Carmona Báez
Sint Maarten’s annual Carnival celebration, traditionally held in April, is by far the island’s most attended and money moving cultural event attracting locals and tourists in the thousands. Even after the devastating effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017, Carnival loyalists came back in April 2018 to support the rebuilding of the local economy by having fun. Attendance that year and in 2019 was almost seen as a patriotic duty. However, due to this year’s COVID-19 pandemic, party goers saw the cancellation of their favorite jubilee for the first time in 51 years.
According to some narratives, Sint Maarten’s Carnival (not to be confused with the traditional Catholic carnival celebrated in the French territory of the North -Mardi Gras) was inspired by similar activity in St. Thomas and organized by the Oranje Committee in the 1970s to stimulate tourism and money spending in November, near St. Martin Day. The two weeks of musical festivities with the presence of world renown reggae and calypso artists, food stalls and costume wearing was later moved to the month of April, coinciding with the end of the tourist season and the monarchs’ birthdays (Dutch Queen’s and later King’s Day). Governed now by the Sint Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) and heavily subsidized by the Ministry of Tourism, millions of dollars are commonly spent on alcohol, food and costumes. Unlike the more exclusive Heineken Regatta and the electronic music SXM Festival, which in 2020 were in full operation while the government was only contemplating lockdown, Carnival is usually attended by locals en masse, allowing for the cultural expression of ethnic and national groups on the island, and thus making it authentically Caribbean.
Nevertheless, and just like all other tourist-related economic activity during the pandemic, the money-making bacchanal was brought to a halt. And rightfully so, as the easily transmittable and lung defeating novel coronavirus posed a serious public health risk for a country that is not prepared to handle more than 6 severe cases requiring ventilators.
Once again, the COVID-19 pandemic requires us to rethink yet another aspect of our island-life; that is culture.
Across the world, festivals and artistic performances (concerts, chorales, theatre, operas, dance performances etc.), and any cultural activity requiring face-to-face interaction were put on hold during the months of March and April. Jobs were lost, flights were cancelled, investments rendered nil, and those with any kind of music or dance talent were restricted to offering living room recitals on Zoom or Facebook. The situation was bad, but especially for those whose livelihoods depend on cultural production, the artists who are rarely considered essential in global emergencies. It is here where we need to make the distinction between cultural activity as commodity for consumption, and culture as a living process involving artistic and traditional (re-)production that characterizes a group of people, nation or sector of society.
If we look at culture strictly from the perspective of consumption and business, then the artist is transformed into a dispensable being and appears in our lives only when we go out or stay at home to watch shows. On the other hand, if we look at culture as a set of values, codes, expression, habits and narratives that gives life to our identity as a people, then the artist can be regarded as essential to the community.
Pandemics, just like war or economic devastation forces us to stop, think and priorities.
What do we value as a community? When the government of Sint Maarten cancelled Carnival and put the country on lockdown, they were upholding public safety above profits. But the work and value of the artist, just like that of the farmer, does not stop during crisis. On the contrary, its worth is enhanced in the collective identity of the community that is involved, and it is liberated from market structures which are bound to collapse.
In this sense, cultural production can be seen as an essential service that simultaneously feeds the people as well as reflects its spirit and aspirations.
The cancellation of Carnival for a year could very well have been a blessing, to serve as a moment of reflection and prioritization.
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