History
Carnival was brought to Spanish Trinidad by French planters via Martinique in the 1770's. It was originally a harvest festival, at which drums, singing, dancing and chanting were an integral part. After Emancipation (1838), it developed into an outlet and a festival for former indenturered laborers and freed slaves who were banned from participating in the masquerade carnival events – derived from European Christian traditions – of the colonial elite, and whose drums and religious observances were also outlawed in the late 19th century. Consequently, Canboulay has played an important role in the development of the music of Trinidad and Tobago, for it was the banning of percussion instruments in the 1880s that led to the surreptitious innovations that gave birth to steelpan music. It is re-enacted in Port of Spain each Carnival Friday in Trinidad.
The "chantwell" or chantuelle who was also an integral part of the celebrations was the forerunner of the calypsonian and later soca music.
Read more about this topic: Canboulay
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