Mashramani: A national shame
The Scene
Stabroek News
February 28, 2015
By Ashma John
If you are expecting me to tell you how fabulous my Mashramani was, think again! After last year Mash I was embarrassed to say I was even contemplating going this year. Maybe you participated and felt proud of what you were a part of and will be upset at what I have to say, but I feel as Guyanese we are all lost when it comes to Mashramani.
Judging from the videos and pictures I came across, Mash 2015 depicted exactly who we are: a bunch of people capped under the nationality of Guyanese who don’t know what their national festival is. I have no clue what we will teach our children in years to come about our cultural identity.
What we had for Mashramani this year was a ‘wannabe’ Trinidad carnival topped with sloppy disregard for national pride by the ministries. You would think that the ministries out of all who were involved would set a better example as regards costume design.
One of about a dozen ‘party’ trucks that were part of the parade
But guess what? You couldn’t draw our national identity from anything you saw on Mash day. More effort needs to be placed on what the floats are actually trying to display; creativity was sadly lacking. After 45 years, Mashramani should be a spectacle that we could go home and reminisce on. Today is Saturday and no one is talking about which costume was captivating, but rather, which singer was on which truck and which fete/Jouvert party they attended.
And guess what was the most popular thing this year? Being on a ‘party truck’ or wearing a BOOM FM t-shirt; mostly done by the younger folks. The second biggest trend was the itsy bitsy copy and paste Trinidad Carnival inspired floats and costumes. If you ask me Mashramani came across as a confusing and messy painting by a three-year-old.
Mashramani is a part of our identity and I believe it should and must be at the highest standard, so it can be passed on to the next generation. The costumes from the ministries should be the strongest. But what we have seen is an extremely poor effort and an artistic display of ‘Mash deh bad’.
This is not a blame game, but those in higher positions should ensure that our culture is treated with some amount of respect or the younger generation would not be in a position to carry on our traditions.
I don’t know what exactly the judging criteria was for these bands and so forth but I personally think it’s a waste of time to even be judging things that make no sense. People have begun to say that our costumes should be more like Trinidad and that the concept of Mash needs to change to be entertaining. But what some fail to realize is that Trinidad’s Mas has grown to the stage it is currently in after years and years of adding value; not a woebegone costume situation year after year.
The bands should tell stories with their costumes, so that it is live theatre on the streets. But then even the arts in Guyana is not in a good place. Mashramani, unfortunately, has turned into a street lime with people eating food on trucks and wining vulgarly in horribly made costumes.
If Guyana wants to turn out a world class parade it will need to invest properly. Costumes and bands must relate to the arts in order to build value.
Designers should know by now that the typical skimpy feather and bead costume can only take them so far. And for everyone else, printed t-shirts can only take you so far. You ultimately have to invest more time and aesthetic into creating floats and costumes that people will remember you by.
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