Shabaka Thompson is the Artistic Director of Yaa Asantewa Arts Centre, which for many years has played a central role in London's annual Notting Hill Carnival. Yaa Asantewa is Zhana’s partner in the current project of which this website forms a part.
The origins of carnival in Trinidad lie in the enslaved African people’s retentions of African culture. It represented the meeting of the slave master and the slave. The enslaved people were given the freedom to express themselves on Shrove Tuesday, so Carnival developed as a pre-Lenten festival. It included Spanish and French colonial influences as well as some British, and of course African, influences.
The enslaved African people used Carnival as a platform to express their freedom.
After the attacks on the Caribbean community in Notting Hill in 1958, there was a need to provide an outlet for Caribbean cultural expression, as well as to bring people together and help London become united. Carnival was developed as a way to meet these needs.
Being from Trinidad, I was always involved in Carnival. I grew up in Carnival.
I came to London in 1986. In 1987, I started out playing in a band with Rita Mendez, and we approached Yaa Asantewa Centre. Yaa used to have an approach which was less structured, and I offered to bring my skills to the organisation. We put meaning into it in terms of artistic involvement. We used Carnival to disseminate information about ourselves and our culture, and for people to appreciate that Carnival is more than a art form, it also provides employment opportunities and skills development.
In the past, we worked with designers from Trinidad and Tobago directly, to improve the standard and quality of the work. We used to bring over a different designer every year. We now have a core group who have the skills and the understanding of the design. Yaa has a creative collective which develops the theme. Since 2000, we have a team of people who work collectively to transform the theme.
This year’s theme is the second part of the trilogy of the Black Presence in Britain, Abolition brought people in initially. This year, How Yaa Come looks at how Black people continued to come, from 1806 to 1948. Black men worked in ships and in engineering, they were seamen in Liverpool and Bristol, and worked in the coal industry in Wales. We also depict the war periods – both World Wars, in which Black people offered their services.
We go up to the arrival of the Windrush in 1948, which brought in a whole new set of people.
The trilogy will culminate in next year’s bicentenary commemorations.
It is Important that Carnival remains in Notting Hill because of the history and the reason for it starting here. We can extend to Hyde Park, but not leave Notting Hill. Carnival has become part of the people’s life in Notting Hill. The Council wants to make sure it stays here. It is part of West London local history.
Bicentenary Commemorative Walk and other Black arts events
Carnival - A Deeper Rhythm
Yaa Asantewa Home Page