Jump Up!

I did not know this when I bought my ticket, but Monday was the Grand Kadooment, or the final event of Crop Over here in Barbados. (A jump up means a big party, from what I have gathered.) Dating back to the 1600s, Crop Over is the traditional end to the sugarcane harvest season. The festivities begin in June, and culminate on the first Monday each August. Though terminated in the 1940s due to WWII-related economic stressors and the decline of the sugar industry, Crop Over was revived in the 1970s by local advocates. The Grand Kadooment also overlaps with Emancipation Day (August 1st), which commemorates the abolition of slavery. Barbados also observes a Season of Emancipation (April - August), consisting of many events and celebrations to honor and remember Bajan ancestors, and to mark important dates in the history of slavery and emancipation in Barbados.

The Grand Kadooment traditionally takes place in downtown Bridgetown (the capital), but was moved to a major road further out of town to give more space due to COVID-19. Nobody I talked to was happy about this (the old route ended at the beach - how can I blame them!). Nonetheless, the carnival was loud, bright, and glitteringly gorgeous.

Throngs of people milled about the parade track, amongst countless food stalls and pop-up bars. There was music everywhere: the party starts at 9am and lasts all night (so I was told - I left after getting fairly sunburnt by 2pm). Each band is a parade group consisting of steel drum bands and DJs on converted busses, and people decked out in brilliant costumes of feather wings, gems, and glittering straps dancing in the parade, or inside of the converted busses.

A band member orders a drink from the mobile bar

Everyone had matching water bottles, which I thought were filled with water until I saw people filling them up at the mobile bars that drove along with the parade. Party above hydration always!!!

Each band is the product of a specific design house. You can read more about this in this really excellent NYT article that profiles women Crop Over designers - also with much better photos than I took.

Geology Footnote:

Walking through the inland roads leading to the parade, I noticed that much of the rock seems to be coral-like in structure, with sharp intricate pockets and occasional imprints of branching corals. Some quick googling taught me that this is indeed the case: Barbados lies at the boundary of the Caribbean and South American plates. As the South American plate subducts (slides underneath) the Caribbean plate, sediments from the South American plate are scraped upwards, causing the island to rise slowly out of the water at a rate of 25 mm (1 in) per 1,000 years. This is called an accretionary prism. The island itself is therefore composed of coral 300 feet thick, and is relatively flat in comparison with nearby volcanic islands, like St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

In addition to eating fried fish and drinking juice, I promise that I have been pursuing my research project for which this blog was created. Hanging around fish markets, I've seen many amazing marine specimens and gotten to chat with some really interesting and kind folks who catch, process, and sell these animals. Stay tuned for some fisheries content very soon!

Thanks for reading,

Grace