Glendon Morris at his Mas Camp
Picture Courtesy Siobhan Cumming
The city of Belmont like any other city has its own urban
history. It was included in the borough of Port of Spain in 1899 and was
formerly known as “Freetown”, after becoming the first established settlement
of the former enslaved Africans who worked on the cocoa and coffee estates in
the area. “ In time it produced its own stick fighters, world-class cricketers,
footballers and Trinidad and Tobago’s first republican president, Ellis Emmanuel
Innocent Clarke” (Trinidad Express Newspaper, Feb. 24,2013)
A tour
of the area and observation of its historical form and structure revealed how
it is today and helped to give an insight on how it may develop in the future. According
to Charles Tilly 1981, “history is so porous a subject and writing history so various
an endeavour, that almost any image anyone---historian or not---has ever held
of cities appears somewhere in an historical account” this is true to Belmont;
a town rich in culture and home to many of Trinidad and Tobago’s historical and
meaningful attributes, ranging from its popular Carnival activities to its
colonial architectural structures that have been robbed of their identities and
transformed as the cities transformed through space and time.
Belmont
was once recognised as the “Mas Capital of Trinidad” and home to the steel
bands, historical Mas characters and Jouvert bands, which attracted foreigners
from every corner of the globe. Today the relationship between these large
historical processes that have shaped the city of Belmont has been lost and the
historical elements native to the area and the individual city are treated as separate
entities. It is evident that they have even been transformed and transferred to
the capital city; Port of Spain and according to Glendon Morris; one of the
pioneers of Mas in Belmont, wishes that traditional Mas can return to Trinidad
instead of the nude costumes that characterize the celebrations. The question
then arises as to the issue of individuality of Port of Spain. While it is
large enough to harbour its own historical character it depends upon the
society outside of it: Belmont and its particular contributions to society in
the arena of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
Belmont
as it exists today is characterized by congestion along its narrow streets and
lanes that are a direct effect from its proximity to the capital city and criminal
activities that has labelled the town as a “community without communities”. What
can be done to revive Belmont? Revive its history? Its communities? Lampard
(1963:233) suggests that “the broader scope of historical studies should thus
be broadened and more systematic efforts made to relate the configuration of
individual communities to on-going change that have been reshaping society”
What do you think?
References:
·
Charles Tilly, The Urban Historian’s Dilemma: Faceless
cities or cities without hinterlands? (university of Michigan, 1981)
·
“From Freetown to Belmont”, Trinidad and Tobago
Express Newspaper, Feb 24,2013
What about its Geography?
ReplyDeleteFantastic photo, Siobhan!