With its colorful traditional shows and masquerades, including Jab Jab, Fancy Indians and Moko Jumbies, the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is considered the largest and brightest in the Caribbean sub-region and attracts thousands of international visitors each year.
In 2019, Port of Spain was named City of Music by UNESCO. This has created a year-round opportunity for artists, musicians and entrepreneurs to promote the art of music and culture as a driver for sustainable urban development.
In 2020, everything was different.
Restrictive social distancing measures, travel bans and island-wide lockdowns to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus came on the agenda. In 2021, the Carnival had to be suspended. This deprived Trinidadians of one of the most important social events and a large part of the local cultural industry lost its income and livelihood.
“You are so busy with pleasure that you don’t see the level of employment. It can save lives when yuh think it’s gonna destroy them.” In his latest hit, “Heart of The People,” local soca artist Bunji Garlin pays tribute to the service providers and creators who make a living during the carnival season. Many artists and creators, especially those working in the informal or gig economy, are now unable to make ends meet, let alone produce new works of art. Dancers, musicians and event organizers had to reinvent themselves to market their art online or put their creativity on hold for the “post-corona” time. Cultural institutions and event organizations are losing millions in revenue. The destruction wrought throughout the culture value chain will have a long-term impact on the creative economy.
Since the start of the pandemic, social media campaigns like #ShareCulture have encouraged cultural professionals around the world to post their art online. This enabled access to culture for millions of people around the world during the Covid lockdowns. Artists were able to connect, lift each other up, share their art and, in turn, some hope and community spirit.
Culture and creativity are central to building the resilience of Caribbean communities; this becomes even more true in times of crisis.
At a time when billions of people are physically separated from each other, culture brings us together. In a time of great anxiety and uncertainty, culture offers comfort, inspiration and hope. “Covid-19 has brought into stark relief, as crises often do, the necessity of culture for people and communities,” said Ernesto Ottone, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture. “However, even as we rely on culture to get us through this crisis, culture is also suffering.”
As the world works to address the immediate threat of Covid-19, it is imperative that measures are put in place to support artists and access to culture, both in the short and long term.
We must work to ensure that culture is accessible to all and that the full diversity of humanity’s cultural expressions can flourish, both online and offline. We must encourage countries to ensure that artists have access to global markets and are paid fairly for their work. With a fifth of those employed in the cultural professions working part-time and often on a contractual, freelance or intermittent basis, we need to rethink the work and social protection framework surrounding artists to consider the unique ways in which they they work. We must guarantee respect for the economic, social and human rights of artists and creators. This includes their right to free expression and protection from censorship.
We need to equip young cultural practitioners with the skills for creative entrepreneurship. We need to promote cultural exchanges between Caribbean artists and international markets to promote Caribbean cultural assets, create an inter-regional exchange of knowledge and build on lessons learned from other regions.
We must protect the Caribbean’s cultural heritage and environment by supporting the tourism sector. We need sustainable eco-tourism that enables the visitor to discover the Caribbean’s cultural resources in harmony with its natural wealth.
Culture has the power to positively change the lives of thousands of people in the Caribbean, build lasting bridges and overcome language barriers when integrated into development strategies. Placing culture at the center of sustainable development, the UNESCO Transcultura program, with financial support from the European Union, aims to harness diversity and connect artists and cultural professionals from different linguistic areas in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and interregionally.
Now, more than ever, people need culture. Culture makes us sustainable. It gives us hope. It reminds us that we are not alone, that we are part of a larger place in life. This is why we must do everything we can to support culture, protect our heritage and empower artists and cultural workers to recover from this crisis and build better. We all need to join hands in supporting culture in our family, our community, our city, our country – however we can.
— Saadia Sanchez-Vegas is Director and Representative for the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean
