Carnival and the Theme of Migration

| african arts WINTER 2022 VOL. 55, NO. 4 Carnival Calabar1 is an annual international event that occurs around Christmas time in the city of Calabar in Cross River State, Nigeria. The festivities offer a platform that displays cultural hybridity, translating Caribbean carnival aesthetics in a local context that values fun but also provides an avenue for addressing important social, cultural, and political issues. Carnival Calabar tells a story that is uniquely our own, full of joy, pain, triumph, and struggle. From the point of view of a costume designer, I will explain how the visual language of carnival links the conversation on migration and helps us to understand the past, present, and future. Each year the state government, through the Carnival Commission, chooses a broad theme encompassing many stories that are first and foremost part of human experience, not limited to a specific time or culture. Themes over the years include: Carnival Queen (2005), Our Beauty, Our Culture (2006), Celebrating Our Heritage through Culture (2007); Sustaining Earth Treasures through Our Culture (2008), Land of Our Birth, Our People, Our Heritage (2009); Our Strength and Resilience, the Bedrock of Our Future (2010); Endless Possibilities (2011); Celebrating a New Dawn (2012); Ain’t No Stopping Us (2013); Celebration Time, 10th Anniversary (2014); Climate Change (2015); Climate Change (2016); Migration (2017); Africanism (2018); Humanity (2019). I design costumes for the Passion 4, the band who won in 2017. Our band has won the most competitions for best band (eleven times out of fourteen) so I’m proud to be a contributing member of this group. Costumes, as Barbieri (2018) finds, are principal ingredients for interpreting and communicating understanding about a performance to the audience and enhance visuals for the performance. Passion 4 competes annually with the other major bands such as Freedom Band, Master Blaster, Seagulls, and Bayside. There are other noncompeting bands from government organizations, such as the Joint Military and Paramilitary Band and the Governor’s Band; and from sponsors such as First Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Dangote (a large African manufacturer and supplier across Africa). The competition bands, or the major bands, have remained the same from carnival’s inception.2 The judging categories focus on floats, band on the move, costume and make up, interpretation of theme, best reflection of carnival spirit.3 The obstacles to putting together such a large and complex event are many. My account of the 2017 Carnival Calabar and the theme, Migration, is intended to share insight into the visual language of carnival design created with visual metaphors built from textiles, costumes, props, floats, and performances that traversed the twelve-kilometer route through a city that has been at the center of numerous migrations. Dancers’ feet move across the land that fueled the Bantu migrations, enabled a major outlet for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and continues to spark many modern-day journeys. The theme of migration allowed us to create awareness of the issues around migration as it applies to Africa in general and Cross River State in particular so that both positive and negative impacts of migration are highlighted. As a designer I attempt to create an awareness of contemporary issues in order to promote public awareness and to appeal to those in authority so that we might work together to create positive change. All of these stories came together in 2017 in a street performance that required endurance, fortitude, and grit.