Be­fore dawn broke over the cap­i­tal, Pic­cadil­ly Greens in Port of Spain was al­ready ablaze with fire­light, rhythm, and re­sis­tance. Short­ly af­ter 4 am yes­ter­day, the an­nu­al Can­boulay re-en­act­ment, host­ed by the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC), un­fold­ed in dra­mat­ic fash­ion, mark­ing the pul­sat­ing start of Car­ni­val week­end.

The air hung heavy with smoke as flam­beaux bear­ers, their torch­es crack­ling and spit­ting em­bers, carved fiery paths through the dark­ness. Drums thun­dered as African rhythms rolled across the crowd.

The re-en­act­ment vivid­ly re­called the his­toric Can­boulay ri­ots of 1881, when freed Africans and their de­scen­dants re­sist­ed colo­nial at­tempts to sup­press their street pro­ces­sions.