Mr. Jean H. Charles Commentaries
The West Indian Carnival in New York
By Jean H Charles
Sep 4, 2007, 13:22 UTC

BROOKLYN, NY, U.S.A. - From a humble beginning in Harlem in 1967, the West Indian Day Carnival in Brooklyn has taken a proportion so large that according to experts there are only two man made attractions that can be seen on earth from the moon, they are the Great Wall of China and the West Indian Carnival on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York.

With a crowd strong of more than three million people on the street, the Carnival in New York dwarfs the Rio or the Port of Spain Carnival reputed for their immensity and their exuberance all over the world. Indeed, Brooklyn is the Capital of the Caribbean Islands. Tout New York was in Brooklyn today, the traditional Labor Day parade in Manhattan has to be cancelled because of low attendance.

Ethnic groups from all regions of the area cohabit joyfully together, replicating the culture of the homeland in food, music and dance for the delight of the Americans.

On Carnival day, if Trinidad is Queen due to the artistic talent and the sheer virtuosity of the décor and the costume of the participants, Haiti is King because of the critical mass of the people waving their flags and chanting viva Haiti behind their band. There was a time I was lead to believe that all Caribbean are Jamaicans. Indeed if you traveled to Scandinavia, and you tell a Danish man or the Swedish woman that you were from Haiti, they would innocently asked you whether Haiti is a village of Jamaica. That was the time when Bob Marley was the man, and Reggae was King.

Today, I now believe that all Caribbean are Trinidadians, we are all marching or dancing to the tune of the Calypso songs of “Good Morning neighbor … when you whine on me, I get cold sweat.” I believe also that the sheer mass power of the Haitians on the Parkway is an indication that their time has come. The Caribbean Islands and their people must integrate Haiti into their midst or they, will become irrelevant. Any keen observer on the parade could see that the force, the strength and the zeal of the Haitian people in waving their flags was comparable to the mass of the Black people demanding to be reckoning with during the Civil Rights era of the 1960’s. The United States have become better and richer in integrating the Black people in its vision of the future. The Caribbean will be a better and a stronger region when Haiti ceases to be the sleeping China or the step child of the area.

Carlos Lozama in taking the leadership of the Carnival Day in Brooklyn has enriched the people of the United States with the rich culture, the joie de vivre of the Islands; her daughter Yolanda Clark Lozama is pursuing admirably the dream. We are completing the tapestry of the mosaic that has made the United States. The British, the Italian, The Irish, The West Indian and now the Haitians are part of that fabric. We must force and help to open the doors wide and large for all to enter and enjoy the pursuit of liberty and of happiness. We must also together fashion the homeland so our children will stay at home and build the motherland so New York, London and Toronto will stop to be the attraction that take the best and the brightest leaving the islands as the playground for the rich and the famous and for those who have no other alternative.

Carnival 2007 is over, as in antiquity time, it was the day for the debauchee before the opening of classes for the children and the search for or the return to the job for the parents. May the spirit of the elders and the grace of the Maker be with us until Carnival 2008?