Transnational spirituality, invented ethnicity and performances of citizenship in Trinidad

Abstract

The practice of masquerade in Carnival has implications for the way that citizenship is articulated, mobilized and made meaningful in Trinidad. This is exemplified by artists who make and wear ‘Indian mas’ costumes. ‘Indian mas’ refers to a type of costumed performance, ritually played out on the two days of the year before Lent, which portrays aspects of Native American or American ‘Indian’ dress, beliefs, iconography and history. It is a masquerade that underscores mas makers' understandings of politics, practices of informal nationalism and approaches to citizenship. This mas does not seek to exactly replicate the material culture of Native American ‘Indians’. The working-class, Hindu, Indo-Trinidadian makers and players of this mas express a creolized re-interpretation. This has significance for their identities within, but also beyond, Carnival. The implications can be seen in their negotiations with state bureaucracy over forms of governmentality in the lead up to Carnival; routes, prizes and judging on Carnival days; and expressions of citizenship and politics at other times of the year. An ethnographic case study of the Lionel Jagessar and Associates' Mas Camp, in the City of San Fernando, Trinidad, highlights how performative articulations of fairness, reciprocity and leadership can intersect the spectacular with the power of sociality. More importantly, the configurations of gender, ethnicity and nationalism described point to the messy interlocking of habitus and rupture. This, in turn, suggests a way to navigate occidental categories and map unexpected ambiguities in claims of political subjectivity.

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