Mashramani must break from the shackles of imitation

Feb 18, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

Peeping Tom…

Kaieteur News- Mashramani, heralded as Guyana’s grand national celebration, is often presented as a festival of cultural expression, a vibrant display of unity, and a tribute to our hard-won Republican status. Yet, after more than five decades, an uncomfortable truth persists—Mashramani remains a poor imitation of Trinidad’s Carnival rather than a genuine reflection of Guyanese culture.

It is a festival steeped in borrowed traditions. It is a feeble attempt to replicate the vibrancy of a celebration that is neither ours in origin nor suited to our unique diverse cultural heritage. At its core, Mashramani lacks originality. The Float Parade, the flagship event of the festival, is a glaring example of this deficiency. What was envisioned as a distinctively Guyanese expression of festivity has instead become a patchwork of imported aesthetics—elaborate but uninspired costumes, soca-driven revelry, and an overall spectacle that mirrors the bacchanalian excesses of Carnival. The question that lingers is this: why has a festival meant to celebrate Guyana’s identity become so dependent on the cultural blueprint of another nation?

The very name “Mashramani,” derived from an Arawak word meaning “celebration after hard work,” suggests a deep indigenous connection. However, the festival itself has little to do with our indigenous communities. Their contributions remain tokenistic, relegated to the periphery of the main event rather than forming an integral part of the celebration. This exclusion underscores the superficiality of Mashramani’s claim to be a festival of national unity.

Successive governments have attempted to inject a sense of inclusivity into Mashramani by adding elements like chutney performances and dance hall competitions. Yet, these are merely cosmetic adjustments, not substantive efforts to create a festival that authentically represents the full spectrum of Guyanese cultural traditions. Inclusivity cannot be achieved through tokenistic representation; it must be a foundational principle of the festival, interwoven into its structure and ethos.

To appreciate the festival’s shortcomings, one must first examine the fundamental issue—Guyana has yet to define what constitutes its cultural identity. Our society is not a  melting pot of African, Indian, Indigenous, Portuguese, Chinese, and European influences. It is more like a salad bowl of different cultures. We do not possess a singular cultural identity.  Yet, rather than engaging in a national discourse on how these diverse cultural elements can coalesce into a unique cultural expression, we have taken the easier route of mimicry. This approach has failed to produce an authentic national celebration, instead leaving us with a festival that feels disconnected from the people it purports to represent.

If Mashramani is to be more than a derivative spectacle, it must be reimagined from the ground up. This means shedding the obsession with imitating Carnival and engaging in meaningful discussions about how our traditions, history, and artistic expressions can be showcased in a way that is uniquely Guyanese. We must ask ourselves: where is the storytelling component in Mashramani? Where are the folk traditions, the oral histories, the dramatic re-enactments of our collective struggles and triumphs? Where are the masquerades that tell the stories of our ancestors, the performances that reflect our folklore and mythology? Where are the dancing, drumming and dress of Indians, the Chinese dragon dances, the Portuguese folk music, and the Amerindian expressions? Where are the reenactments of our indentured laborers’ resilience, the vibrant expressions of our Indigenous petroglyphs, and the Chinese and Portuguese ancestral rites that are supposed to shape our diverse cultural expressions? A festival that claims to be a cultural celebration must do more than simply provide a platform for revelry—it must educate, enlighten, and evoke a deep sense of belonging among its participants.

Other countries with equally diverse populations have managed to craft celebrations that are reflective of their identities. Take, for example, Brazil’s Festa Junina, which pays homage to rural traditions while being celebrated in a way that is distinct from the country’s world-famous Carnival. Or consider Barbados’ Crop Over, which, while sharing some similarities with Carnival, is deeply rooted in the island’s history of sugar cane production and the legacy of enslaved Africans. These festivals are not mere copies of something else; they are unique cultural expressions that tell the stories of their people.

If we are to truly honour the spirit of Mashramani, we must break free from the shackles of imitation. This requires a radical rethinking of the festival’s format, a commitment to elevating authentic Guyanese art forms, and a willingness to engage in the difficult but necessary work of cultural introspection. It may take years, even decades, to redefine Mashramani into something that is distinctly ours, but the alternative is far worse—a continued celebration of borrowed traditions that do little to instill a sense of national pride.

Guyana deserves better. We deserve a festival that speaks to all of our peoples, one that captures the essence of each of us. We have been brainwashed into accepting a national motto that speaks to “ one people”. But we are not one people. We are land of many peoples and our cultural heritage is embedded in this fact. The path to discovering our unity in diversity will not be easy, but it is a journey worth embarking on. The question remains: do we have the courage to abandon the safety of imitation and embrace the challenge of defining our own cultural identity? Until we do, Mashramani will remain what it has always been—a hollow reflection of a celebration that is not truly ours.

(Mashramani must break from the shackles of imitation)

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

---

• grand national celebration, Mashramani, Peeping Tom, Republican status, Trinidad’s Carnival

---