c qoi o jus' ? ki sa sa ki sa yé ?

JAY MARIAMMAN

CARIFESTA : HISTORIQUE 1972-2008

Histoire de CARIFESTA

• L'histoire et l'évolution de CARIFESTA
• Thèmes des précédents CARIFESTA
• Comment est né CARIFESTA’72
• Qui est venu à CARIFESTA'72 ?
• Chant  « Bienvenue à CARIFESTA »
• Timbre-poste du Festival
• La Cité du Festival
• Les pays invités
• la Scène Mondiale
• CARIFESTA Festival Caribéen des Arts Créatifs
• Objectifs de CARIFESTA
• Nombre de CARIFESTA réalisés
• Renseignements sur CARIFESTA
• Paroles et chansons CARIFESTA’72
• Événements

    Histoire et évolution de CARIFESTA

    Carifesta pour public et pour sujet les habitants de cette région, le «peuple» qui demeure le fondement et le moteur de nos pays.

MY INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY, INDIAN WEDDINGS IN GUYANA

Shri Ramautar Ji.

Photo courtesy Nanda Sahadeo.

MY INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY as told by Nanda.

Pranaam.

Today in honor of this special day, my Mata Ji and I decided to spend our day in a special way.

We first went to give sweets to some children whose home was destroyed by fire a few years ago. Then we went to visit an elder --Sri Ramoutar Ji. Sri Ramoutar Ji was born on 2nd January 1915. His Pita Ji --Sri Somai Ji came from India.

Sri Ramautar Ji was born at Mon Repos Estate and lived in a small flat bush house as a little boy. Sri Ramoutar Ji  went to school--what he refered to as the English Church School (The Anglican School). He said the teachers( they were mostly Blacks) used to come around and ensure that the small children attend school. He stop attending school at 14 years when his Mata Ji fell sick. He had to now help out his Pita Ji.He joined the Creole Gang whose job was to throw manure on the cane, when he got a little older, he joined the Weeding Gang then later the he started to Cut and Drop then later Cut and Load cane.

He worked and saved until he was able to buy land--what was called "beds" and started to plant rice.

HOLI, AND APRIL'S FOOL...

"One of the Hoolie diversions, by the way, is what in England is called making April fools, by sending persons on errands and expeditions that end in disappointment and raising a laugh against them. 'The Hoolie (says Colonel Pierce, in the 'Asiatic Researches') is always held in March, and the last day is the general holiday.' In India high and low join in the fooling custom; and Suraja Doulah told Colonel Pearce that he was very fond of making Hoolie fools, though he was a Mussulman [Muslim] of the highest rank.

"They carry the joke so far as to carry letters making appointments in the names of persons who, it is known, must be absent from their homes at the time fixed upon; and the laugh is always in proportion to the trouble given.

"The least inquiry into the ancient customs of Persia (notes Brand, in his Popular Antiquities), or the minutest acquaintance with the general astronomical mythology of Asia, would have told Colonel Pearce that the boundless hilarity and jocund sports prevalent on the first day of April in England, and during the Hindoo festival of India, have their origin in the ancient practice of celebrating with festival rites the period of the Vernal equinox, or the day when the new year of Persia anciently begins."

Source  and cont'd : great text and photo resource harappa.com

CARNIVAL, INFECTIONS AND DISEASE

By M. Faisal Rahman, Trinidad & Tobago.

Infections and Disease.

In seeking to diagnose the illness of patients, doctors pay particular regard to diet and lifestyle.

Careless excess in food and drink is a common recipe for disease and results in obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney failure, strokes and similar illnesses.

Entire nations suffer from pandemics that are the result of cultural tastes.

But we must also consider that just as the nation may suffer from excessive imbibing in its physical nourishment, so too must its body politic suffer from paucity of spiritual diet.

We bewail the state of the nation that now produces mayhem as the norm, yet we have not considered that the primal cause of this may well be the moral decay that we have embraced in public nudity and open wantonness, staged, telecast and published with religious fervor.

It is oxymoronic that we would seek to curb Aids through the very medium of its greatest facilitator. Promiscuity and licentiousness are the bedfellows of our nationally beloved festival.

Far from being Art, Carnival is its caricature.

The rhythm of our lifestyle now infects our souls and we can boast that we now export this poison to western soils where our diasporized citizens reside.

But like the glutton who digs his grave with his own teeth, we are incapable of admitting the evils of our ways. The pleasures are too great and addictive and they give a fleeting purpose to meaningless lives.

Majority religions here are mired in a quandary. How can we condemn the separate innocent parts that constitute the metamorphosed whole?

For surely wine is sacred, art is very life and music the food of love? Yet mixed together in this now unholy land, their fruits are promiscuity, Aids and rampant bastardy. To those who know their scripture, up to the seventh generation, pews shall be defiled in perverted continuum.

The disease continues to spread like cancer through the sinews of the society’s being and every depredation confronts us as a people.

Perhaps it is time for thinking people to seek out a “new” faith that prohibits alcohol, demands continence and disdains art and music. The athlete whose goal is fame and fortune gives up drink and excessive food and pleasure in his quest for Olympic Gold.

The goal beyond the inevitable grave is Paradise. Its path is an austere one and not necessarily ascetic. Its hurdles are hedonism and lust.

Shall we continue to respond to the beckoning of the other place where those who have lost Paradise shall abide?

MFRahman.
mfr1@tstt.net.tt

Tourist market in Ooty, Nilgiris, South India, Jan. 2006. ©J.S.2006.

CHANTÉ NWÈL - La tradition des chants de Noël en Guadeloupe

Exposé de Marie-Hélène Joubert à la Médiathèque Caraïbe, le 2 décembre 2005.

La Fête de Noël, une célébration religieuse imposée avec son folklore. 

Les chants de noël ont dû surmonter des tabous pour mériter leur inscription dans le patrimoine culturel de la Guadeloupe.

Article complet sur le site de La Médiathèque Caraïbe.

TOLERANCE SELON GLISSANT, CHINOIS

Les contacts entre les peuples et les différences culturelles sont devenus primordiaux dans notre expérience de tous les jours. Ces contacts ne sont pas toujours harmonieux, ils peuvent être violents, ils impliquent très souvent la peur et la haine de l’Autre. On le voit aujourd’hui dans tous les pays.

Les auteurs de la Caraïbe en parlent beaucoup. Ils savent que, de cette violence, peuvent émerger de nouvelles identités et de nouveaux discours. Un auteur comme Édouard Glissant nous apprend à penser et à vivre ces contacts, cette approche de l’Autre. Il nous amène à réfléchir sur la véritable tolérance.

Il ne s’agit pas de tolérer l’autre, à condition qu’il nous ressemble, ou qu’il accepte de vivre et de penser comme nous - bref, à partir du moment où il ne serait plus Autre.

Édouard Glissant nous apprend qu’on peut vivre avec l’Autre sans le comprendre, en respectant son «opacité».

Dominique Chancé. Texte.

2005 Chinese New Year celebrations. Wellington, New Zealand. © Karim Sahaï

Chinese immigrants workers in Guadeloupe, mid-XIXth century.
From a photo d'époque by M. Lamoisse.

INDIAN ARRIVAL MONUMENT, GUADELOUPE

INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY MONUMENT INAUGURATION
A MOVING TRIBUTE to the co-ancestry of the diverse society of Guadeloupe.

'On December 24, 1854, the sailing ship "Aurélie", after a dreadful three-month passage, disembarked on this spot 314 East Indians, requested by the Colony to cope with the loss of labour resulting from the abolition of slavery in 1848. Thus began a long period of transplantation that brought 42,326 east Indians to Guadeloupe, among which 24,891 were to perish, particularly because of the ill-treatment they received, and 9.460 returned to India.

In memory and homage to the contribution of those from India who founded the multicultural Guadeloupe of yesterday and today, the Regional Council, the General Council, the City of Pointe-à-Pitre, in accord with the Bharat-à-Gua Federation, have erected this First Day monument, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first Indians in Guadeloupe.

Scheduled for December 23rd, 2004, the inauguration was postponed to January 23rd, 2005, due to an earthquake in Guadeloupe.' (translation help : Bernard Ram-Cheddie, John S. Wilkins).

Read full story in ENGLISH.

South Asian Heritage Month Program

To mark 167 years of Indian Heritage in the West

Vedic Cultural Centre
4345-14th Avenue,
Markham, Ontario

Cordially invites you to its 7th Annual

South Asian Heritage Month Program

On Saturday, May 7th, 2005
At   7.00 PM

For a special
Naatak
Folk Theatrical Dance Drama Evening

Highlights of the program includes

An Original take on a Ramayan play….Baali Naatak
Historical fashion shows and dances by Tarana Dance School
Poetry, Taan Singing, Tassa

Educational exhibits in the Foyer

Variety of cultural foods on sale in the Food Bar

Admission:
Adults $10   
Students  free

To honour our pioneer ancestors and enhance the ambiance, please wear period outfits if possible

For information please call: 416-292-1952, 905-472-3012, 416-422-2295, 416-412-2169

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14 AVRIL : NOUVEL AN TAMOUL

Vannakam!
Best Wishes for Tamil New Year!

Ce 14 avril, nos compatriotes tamouls célèbrent le ´Varusha Pirappu´ qui marque la nouvelle année tamoule.

Bonne et heureuse année tamoule
14 avril 2005
Parthiva 5106

INDES REUNIONNAISES
http://www.indereunion.net
Ph. Pratx

CQOJ
La mémoire de nos ancêtres
http://cqoj.typepad.com
J.S. SAHAI

Yagnas- Poojas- Homams
La nature à votre service
http://www.vedic.by-choice.com
Caroline & Michel

Pour en savoir plus
http://www3.clicanoo.com/article.php3?id_article=101042
http://www.iledelareunion.net/spectacles/agenda/index.php?cat=5&page=&limit=50
http://www.reunion.wanadoo.fr/web/sorties.php?refactu=5894