As it happens, both events coincide almost exactly with the annual celebration of Emancipation. In Barba-dos, Kadooment Day is the first Monday in August, the last day of Crop-Over. Although the package of activities in its present form as designed by the National Cultural Foundation was only formalized in the 1970s, crop-over is a tradition that dates back to the eighteenth century and is a celebration of the harvesting of the last canes of the season. However, while it originated with the plantation owners, it grew to significance among the enslaved black population be-cause it became associated with the symbol and spirit of liberation. It is in this context that it became enmeshed in Barbadian culture, although the carnival festivities also loom large in its popularity.

In Jamaica, political Independence was declared on August 6, the first Monday in August, 1962. In order to celebrate it, “Festival” was created, and although Jamaica lies outside of the ‘carnival zone’ that evolved in the Eastern Caribbean, this event itself appropriated aspects of the carnivalesque tradition that, nevertheless, is a feature of the entire region. Festival then rapidly developed as a whole season of celebration in which all the arts were commandeered. A whole complex of competitions, prizes and awards emerged in the performing arts, literature and the fine arts.

The alliance between Jamaica Festival and emancipation may be found, of course, in the theme of ‘freedom’ that comes with sovereignty and the end of colonial status. But it also involves the fact that many of the performance traditions that used to be practiced by the folk to celebrate emancipation were drafted in to enrich the Festival season. This also helped to keep some of them alive since most were fading or had disappeared.

It was easy to do this in some cases because of the coincidence of dates between Independence and Emancipation. In Jamaica in particular, the first Monday retained its significance although the anniversary is marked on August 1. The use of the terms “August Monday” and “August Morning” has been preserved among the folk who retained the memory that August 1 in 1838 was also the first Monday in the month.

A good example of this is “brukins” (brukings). This is a dance / theatrical masque often associated with the “gumbay”. The dance is performed to its own peculiar musical rhythm played on the gumbay drum, an instrument steeped in its own tradition. It is a regal dance. The main performer is in royal dress complete with a crown, a cape and a mace or scepter carried in the hand. Allied to this tradition is a song

Augus marnin come again
Augus marnin jubilee
Queen Victoria set we free
Jubilee, jubilee

Jubilee, jubilee
Queen Victoria jubilee
Augus marnin jubilee

It obviously celebrates emancipation and reflects the general belief among the enslaved at the time that Queen Victoria was responsible for their ‘freedom’. They gave her (undeserved) credit for putting an end to slavery. The inclusion of the repeated “jubilee”, however, places the song in 1888, the year when Victoria’s Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of her coronation, was widely celebrated in the Caribbean. The brukins dance also emphasizes the persistent loyalty that the Africans and their descendants in the Caribbean gave to the monarchy. These performances also demonstrate the way they express their beliefs, their adversity and their celebrations in theatre, including the carnivalesque, music, dance, drama and oral literature.

This was another factor in the manner in which some performances traditionally linked to emancipation were naturally enfolded into Festival. But seasonal performances from other times of the year, such as the “jonkunnu” (or masquerade) were also enlisted. The much reduced jonkunnu bands, threatened with imminent disappearance, normally appear at Christmas time, and their inclusion in the grand Independence Day street parade helped to revive them. In keeping with the theme, as it happens, they also have their history of resistance and liberation.

This whole theme, however, in addition to the emancipation day events, became somewhat overshadowed by Independence, which also drew strength from the performing arts in general outside of those linked to August 1. By June and July each year the season begins to pick up pace and a wide range of dramatic performances, music and dance is exhibited and adjudicated for prizes. One of the biggest competitions, which attracted the participation and captured the imagination of the whole Jamaican population, is the popular Festival Song contest. The attractive cash prize as well as the assurance of popularity and record sales ensure that many of the leading reggae artistes in the country are among the entrants each year.

Similar attention is paid to the fine arts and literature. Gold, silver and bronze medals as well as Certificates of Merit are awarded to the best entries in art and the Jamaica Festival Literary competition. Some of the most acclaimed Jamaican poets, playwrights and short story writers have either received medals, or emerged out of these competitions.

One of Trevor Rhone’s medals, for example, was for his famous play School’s Out (then titled Take Six), while Chariots of Wrath earned a medal for Dennis Scott, another of the country’s best dramatists who was also a winner in poetry. The first gold medal in this category was awarded to Anthony McNeill, another leading Jamaican poet, but the fiction is limited to short stories only. Mervyn Morris’s famous publication “On Reading Louise Bennett Seriously” won the Festival Essay Competition when it was first written.

The general design of festival is the very well publicized build-up in June-July with the array of performances, exhibitions and competitions leading up to the great street parade on August 6. A significant feature is the fact that it does not compare with carnival or the traditional Crop-Over in historical depth or age, yet it has become a major cultural force. It is a well established traditional festival of modern manufacture strong in artistic content because, more than the other regional events, it has marshaled the greatest focused exhibition of the arts to be found anywhere in the region outside of Carifesta.