The faux kings and queens of Junkanoo must have liked nothing better than to dress up as British royals during the 2012 Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade. Three Category A groups chose themes celebrating the reigning British monarch in splendidly ahistorical style. “A Royal Celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee”; “A Night of Elegance: The Queen’s Masquerade Ball” and “A Celebration of Queen Elizabeth II” were the themes performed by the Valley Boys, Roots and Saxons Junkanoo groups.
England has repeatedly come to Bay Street in one form or fashion over the past 60 years, but in 2012 Junkanoo took it to an entirely new level. In the case of the Valley Boys, the performance was golden. They won. But at what cost?
It is not the legitimacy of the parade’s results that I take exception with. I have no dog in that fight. The artistry on Bay Street was masterly: the Valley Boys’ costumes in particular were polished and well executed; One Family incorporated three dimensions of motion with pattern and shape in their best Hurricane themed pieces; and Roots brought a harmony of colour and style to some of their off the shoulder pieces that left me feeling truly inspired.
But in the midst of all this excellence I was constantly confronted with the image of Junkanoo bowing down to a glorified image of the queen. And I found her excessive glorification to be psychologically oppressive.
The fact that we still see the queen as a legitimate expression of who we are as Bahamians and experience no internal conflict when parading around waving the union jack, chanting God Save the Queen is outrageous. But such is the contradiction of 1973.
As a community we have so many untold stories to tell, so many heroes to honour, so much history to record, and to choose to waste our precious energy and creativity on the meaningless celebration of an irrelevant queen is irresponsible.
Considering Junkanoo was birthed in the Bahamas by our enslaved ancestors as an expression of spiritual freedom, ancestral remembrance and resistance to British slavery and colonial oppression, I was disturbed by the lack of consideration given to the symbolism behind the queen’s portrayal.
(Portion of article by Noelle Nicolls, The Tribune)
