CARIB POLITICS
500 YEARS LATER
Tracy Kim
Assing
Sunday
Guardian
January 30, 2000
Page 12
Removed 500 years from their ancestral cultural and
traditions, is the Carib community in Arima clinging to an already lost
heritage? The death of Carib
Queen Justa Werges on January 16, at the age of 73, left a void in the
community as it seeks to locate a new queen. But as Tracy Kim Assing
discovered when she trekked to the foothills of Arima last week, there are many
other gaps in the administration of the Carib community.
The
relationship between the late Carib Queen Justa Werges and the
Carib community was 'strained,' admitted community president Ricardo Barath in
an interview last week at the Carib Community Centre on Paul Mitchell
Street.
Although he would not go on
record with the specifics of what caused the strained relationship, Barath said
this was behind the lack of special Carib elements in the queen's burial. He said the Werges family made all the
arrangements and chose to not involve the Carib community.
Barath has been the
president of the Carib Santa Rosa community for over 24 years. He has also been a councilor for the
People's National Movement on the Arima Borough Council for the past six
years. He lists the organizational
structure of the Carib community as "queen, chief/captain, council of elders
(consisting of seven to nine persons), then members." The active members, mostly elderly men
and women, amount to about 200, but it is believed that there are 500 to 600
descendants living in Arima and environs.
Barath, who lives in a
modest but well-furnished apartment near the community centre, explained that
there were now three contenders for the position of Carib queen, Valentina
Medina, Julie Calderon and Norma Stephen.
A queen, he said, was selected based on her knowledge of traditions. She was usually someone who was 'settled
in life' or who had 'plenty experience in life.'
But
that was up for revision, Barath said, and he 'might seriously consider'
changing the choice from an elder person in order to get the youth involved, and
to allow for youths to participate in forums that call for Carib
representatives.
Yet, the Carib queen concept
is not traditionally part of Carib culture. It was influenced by the Roman Catholic
Church, although within Carib culture there is always a community
matriarch. Caribs were
traditionally led by a chief.
This chief was chosen after
a series of tests designed to ensure that he was able to lead his people in
battle and at peace time, that he was an exceptional hunter and that he had some
knowledge of traditional medicine.
In
his explanation of the organizational structure of the Carib community Barath
likened the president to a 'chief or captain.' As for how he became chosen he said: "I
was instrumental in getting the majority of descendants to function on a regular
basis and revived the festival. We
still live on church lands. To own
lands we had to be registered. In
order to be registered we needed a structure. We still don't own any
land.
Barath is peeved about the
fact that the community has no land to call its own. He said he has presented a proposal
asking for the land to be handed over tot h community and for financial
assistance to develop it. He is
also asking for a day of recognition (Amerindian Heritage
Day).
In
1993 he began agitating for Caribs to be given a parcel of land on the
Blanchisseuse Road, so members of the community could relocate and exist in as
real a Carib village, "planting corn, cassava and having access to wildlife and
indigenous plants when they need it."
He
said the community also intends to ask government for a review of their annual
$30,000 grant, as well as a stipend for the queen.
"In
the beginning the money was spent principally on the festival, but over the
years it has gone all ways, and then sometimes we only get part (of the
$30,000)," Barath said.
Without elaborating further
than the fact that the money was spent on the festival and the upkeep of the
Carib community centre, Barath said a review was now necessary for "upgrading
the centre for information, as there are regular visits from schools and
foreigners."
But
to all appearances it seems that the physical structure of the community centre
has changed little in the past 15 years.
And the photographs of old Carib men and women performing various tasks
that adorned the interior walls seem to have disappeared. There is no sign of the gifts brought to
the community over the years by visiting indigenous
people.
Barath said in order to
really handle the visitor traffic someone would have to be hired to be at the
centre to greet visitors and educate the curious.
Although a few community
members claimed that the food is prepared in large quantities all year round and
that they get paid "a little $200 for their labour sometimes," Barath said the
community makes a small but "unreliable" income by selling some of their
indigenous foods and handicraft.
#############################
A ONCE GREAT
TRIBE FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL
Manuel Adrian
Pantin
Sunday
Guardian
January 30, 2000
Page 12
Just south of the land where
the Muslimeen erected their mosque and school the Caribs used to launch raids on
Spanish settlements.
Mucurapo is an Amerindian
name and it was the site in western Trinidad of ferocious battles between the
Indians and the Spanish colonists who had established military bases
there.
The
Caribs lived mainly along the banks of the Orinoco River in southeastern
Venezuela and built canoes, which they used to travel to Trinidad and other
islands in the Caribbean.
The
Spanish named the entire region after the Indians. They found the Caribs as far north as
Hispaniola (today, divided between the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and as far
south as northern Brazil.
The
Caribs were the dominant Indian tribe in Trinidad when Christopher Columbus
arrived on the island in 1498. They
had conquered the other Indian clans, including the more pacific
Arawaks.
They had settlements at
Mucurapo and the Chaguaramas peninsula and various parts of south Trinidad. They also settled in various areas of
northern Trinidad, particularly Arima and Lopinot.
The
Spanish, armed with the sword and the cross, eventually subdued the Caribs. Those who did not succumb in battle or
become enslaved were converted into tame Christians who were taught to be humble
and submissive in the hope of everlasting eternal reward in the
hereafter.
But
not before the Caribs had put up fierce resistance, raiding Spanish army camps
at Mucurapo from their settlements in south Trinidad and from neighbouring
Venezuela.
Today, the descendants of
the Caribs number just a few thousand on the island in which they once reigned
supreme. They have lost all their
land, language, customs and tradition and their descendants now speak and
practise the conquerors' language and religion.
One
of the largest groups of Carib descendants resides today in
Arima.
After the British ousted the
Spanish from Trinidad about 200 years ago, the remaining Caribs were already set
in their imitation of the Iberian colonists. Many took Spanish surnames and spoke
that language.
In
an interview with Sunday Guardian's Tracy Assing, Carib community leader
Ricardo Barath lamented that the Carib language was lost and the upkeep of
tradition is in decline.
He
also complained that he "has a real problem" with how the Catholic Church treats
the Carib community: "The Church was instrumental in killing Carib traditions,
and in the early days when there was no one else in Arima, the Church depended
on the Amerindians. Now the
community is insignificant to the Church."
He
suggested that Church authorities ensure that any priest who comes to the parish
is made aware of Carib traditions and pledges to uphold
them.
Today, the Caribs of Arima
speak mainly English, practise the Catholic religion, and are as destitute as
the Spanish had left them.
They are remembered mainly
for their annual Santa Rosa festival in Arima and for the coronation of their
Carib Queen. The last one, Justa
Werges, died recently. Active
members of the community number 200, but up to 600 Carib descendants live in and
around Arima.