Gender and Sexuality in Trinidad

Gender and Sexuality in Trinidad:
An Anthropological Connection Between Pre-Columbian Amerindian Cosmology,
Neo-Colonialism, and Calypso Music

After talking to some of the other people going to Trinidad at the June 10th orientation meeting, many of us were discussing the seemingly unconcealed nature of female sexuality in Trinidad, and were questioning how this is both similar and different to similar issues in Canada. In keeping with my minor in First Nations studies, I was originally going to write my assignment about the indigenous people of the Caribbean, but I happened to stumble upon an article that hinted at what might be the origin of the obvious overtones of female sexuality in the traditional indigenous culture. The following paper attempts to connect this history of female fertility with modern day calypso culture within the rubric of contradictory colonial attitudes toward female sexuality. Essentially, my research indicates that the primacy of female sexuality has always existed in the Caribbean, but its meaning has become complicated by prudent colonial attitudes.

As with all First Nations groups in North and South America, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, known by their colonial oppressors as the Caribs , hold a distinct ‘cosmology’ or way of conceptualizing the natural world. Through an oral tradition, the Amerindians transferred their perceptions and understanding of their traditional knowledge to younger generations in stories, songs, by instruction, and in ceremonies (Wilbert 1993:81). The Carib traditional knowledge is based on observation and a deep knowledge of their environment.

Unlike the four seasons in Canada, indigenous Caribs divided the year into two seasons: wet and dry. One half of the calendar year was male and the other half of the year was female. According to this division, the male half (the dry season) was represented by the Bat while the female half (the wet season) was represented by the Frog.

The following description is from Honychurch’s 2002 research. Bat Man: Because the bat likes to be dry and goes out hunting then returns to his shelter, the dry season represents man as a bat due to his traditional role as the hunter and provider of meat. Frog Woman: On the other hand, by summer solstice, the wet season begins. Frogs come out when it rains and they produce many eggs. The Frog Woman represents fertility. She is always depicted as half frog and half woman. Her hands and feet are webbed: she faces us with her arms and legs presented like a squatting frog: her navel is always positioned prominently at the centre of every image of her and her genitals are on display. According to Honychurch, the Caribs “were frank about such things before the influences of colonization introduced the concept of shame, cover up and sexual hypocrisy” (2002:5). Thus, Pre-Columbian indigenous concepts and imagery of female sexuality have always featured strongly in Carib culture and political economy.


Gender and Sexuality in Calypso

According to Maude Dikobe, a professor of Black literature at the University of Botswana, “the woman’s ‘bottom’ matters a lot in calypso and real life in Trinidad” (2004:1). For example, during Carnival, the primacy of “bumsie” (also bum bum, bumbulum, and bam bam) spotlights the explicit sexual nature of celebration. However, the one thing that is most important about men’s vision of women’s “bumsies” is that it is deeply contradictory: simultaneously celebrating and derogatory. Consider the following lyrics to David Rudder’s song “The Trail of the Bumsie”

I’m on the trail of a bumsie
Camouflaged in this party
Camouflaged in this party
Has anyone seen the bumsie
I know right in this party
The bumsie was in a red maxi…

Lord Kitchener’s “Sugar Bum Bum” (1977) lyrics

Audrey, where you get that sugar?
Darling, there is nothing sweeter
Audrey, every time you wiggle
Darling, you put me in trouble
You torture me the way you wine
I love to see you fat behind…
Gimme the bum bum Audrey

And George Victory’s “Biggie Bam Bam” (1994)

She said, “Music Man, I want to dance with you now”
I said, “You boyfriend here, I don’t want no row”
She said, “that’s all right, my boyfriend’s blind”
If you see me jam she from behind
Watch me jam biggie bam bam
She just tell me, “Rock me from side to side”
This bam bam is yours to ride

Taking these examples of Calypso lyrics into account, it is easy to infer thatfemale sexuality in Trinidad has become conflicted since the influence of colonial attitudes toward sex was imposed on Trinidadian morality. Prior to European contact, in my opinion, the importance of female fertility and sexuality was significant and celebrated as the time of the planting season. As Franco asserts, “The female archetype represented abundance and survival in indigenous Trinidad” (2000:60). Problematically, for the colonial administrators of Trinidad, the traditional association of the female with agricultural and economic prosperity contradicted the European gender norms, “specifically regarding male superiority and dominance” (Butler, 1990: 48).

Thus, when we examine modern Calypso lyrics, it appears that the male singers simultaneously objectify the female as their property, while celebrating female bodies as dynamic and capable of agency. Consequently, the neo-colonial attitudes that are pervasive in the present day status quo of Trinidadian society have confused the European ideals of male dominance over the Caribbean concept of powerful female sexuality. Overall, the historic cosmology of the indigenous Trinidadians suggests the deeply embedded nature of female sexuality in their society –a tradition that has carried into the present culture of Trinidadian dance and Calypso music, which continues to be complicated by the conflicting dualism of neo-colonial moral ideology.































Works Cited

Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.
London: Routledge.

Dikobe, Maude. 2004. Bottom in de Road: Gender and Sexuality in Calypso.
Proud Flesh: A New Afrikan Journal of culture, Politics and Consciousness. 3(3)
pp. 1-18. Retrieved July 26th from www.proudfleshjournal.com/issue3.dikobe.htm

Forte, Maxmillian. 2005. Writing the Caribs Out: The Construction and Demystification
Of the ‘Deserted Island’ Thesis for Trinidad. Issues in Caribbean Amerindian Studies. Pp. 1-37. Vol 6(3) August 2005.

Honychurch, Lennox. 2002. The Lost Cosmology of Indigenous Caribbean. Cavehill
Press.

Wilbert, Johannes. 1993. Mystic Endowment: Religious ethnography of the Warao
Indians. Harvard University Press.

Discography:

Many calypsos are never “officially” recorded on albums or CDs. Consequently, it is not always possible to provide complete discographic information for every song quoted. In this assignment all the song lyrics are derived from Dikobe’s 2004 article.

Kitchener, Lord “Sugar Bum Bum”
Rudder, David “Trail of Bumsie”
Victory, George “Biggie Bam Bam”

Diagram and Photos:

www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/grenada/conference.htm

www.guardian.co.tt/photos/details.php?image_id=564

www.davidsanger.com/stockimages/8-150-6.dancer