There was something else bothering the council about the carnival and the London Free School that they had been previously unaware of.
“During the period preparing for the carnival the school members were in effect mobilising the local working class population, both black and white for a vigorous, sustained and relentless campaign against the local landlords and the council for ‘urban space’ against the worst housing situation the country has ever seen.”
(Cohen, Abner, 1982, p26)
This crucial political issue meant that the landlords and council were in direct opposition of the carnival because it would have a knock on effect to the entire economy of the area. Since the 1950’s Notting Hill had been over-accommodated by immigrants especially West Indians. The London free school were associated with schemes to reduce high rent prices for the immigrant population and provide equal opportunity for housing and employment (landlords had been known to not let black people buy or rent in certain areas). Their continuing attempts to resolve the housing crisis had then been linked with this multicultural event, which the council may have seen as empowerment and a possible propaganda machine for immigrants living in Notting Hill. The first three carnivals were a success even though there had been a small but notable political undertone, which was usually part of the performances or shown in the costumes and songs. This political edge to the carnival was highlighted in the early seventies when the tension between the white and black population had slowly been on the increase, mainly due to the high proportion of unemployed that had hit the black population particularly hard. These were also the years that had witnessed the black power movement in America, and in 1968 a small but symbolic black power meeting was held in Kensington Town Hall. The carnival had become far more influenced by the West Indian culture during the 70’s, many of the white population had been re-housed in council accommodation that the West Indians were not eligible for. The West Indians were familiar with the carnival tradition as most had come from Trinidad where carnival had been a tradition for over a century and a half. Therefore the West Indians embraced the culture and the symbolism of the carnival and it eventually became a predominantly West Indian event.
Since then the Carnival has gone through more changes and the commercial potential of the event has been realised at a time when Notting Hill is becoming increasingly more affluent. The problem, believes Precious Williams writing in the National Feature, is that the black residents of the area are being criminalized by the state control. She sums up her views on the situation by pointing out the criticism that Richard Curtis’ film Notting Hill received when it was released, which depicted a commercially idealistic view of the Notting Hill area. She refers to this as a “whitewashing” of the ethnic diversity that really exists in Notting Hill and complains that Richard Curtis, deliberately cut the black population out of the film so it would appeal to a foreign market by depicting “traditional” stereotypes of Britain (Hugh Grant being the typical white middle class stereotype). However he may not have realised that he was actually capturing the areas new identity. This new identity is also being encouraged to spread across Notting Hill by the repressive police enforcement that has seen shops close for supposedly encouraging use of illegal drugs and then being replaced by trendy food shops and bars. The police target areas where they know they can remove the ethnic contingent and in turn appease the wealthy population of the area. The crime-rate may have gone down but this is more than likely be due to the way the area is policed, the rich middle-class cocaine snorting contingent are left to their devices while the West Indians and other ethnicities are being stopped and searched. In Precious Williams’ piece she makes the point that burglary has fallen by 34 per cent and street crime by 30 per cent, but you have got to ask yourself whether this is a true reflection of actual crime rate or just a result of the police concentrating on certain areas of crime and increasing patrols in the ethnic areas. This has had a knock on effect to the carnival and in recent years with the black population not attending quite as readily as previous years. Unemployed Westbourne Park resident say about the carnival in Williams’ piece “it’s too white and to commercial” a view backed up by the fact that it is now sponsored by Richard Branson’s Virgin company and Kiss FM radio. To make the carnival even more inaccessible to the poorer black population the price of purchasing pretty much anything at the carnival has risen to astronomic proportions and you are more likely to be paying a fiver for a bottle of Evian then drinking West Indian punch. The housing situation is again a mounting problem but for very different reasons than in the 70’s, now the council are trying to move out the ethnic population that are finding it increasing difficult to find employment amongst the mass of Coffee houses and trendy establishments. They want the housing to be bought up by the rich, young professionals to convert and make the area affluent, Richard Branson in fact lives in Ladbroke Grove himself.
It seems that the dominant hegemonic and ideological forces that are in power have triumphed once more, after becoming what Cecil Gutzmore Calls a “domain of threatening culture” (Kwesi, Owusu, 1986, p8) in the mid 70’s the small white opposition to the carnival has convinced the council and authorities that it needs to be regulated. Through this regulation the carnival has become less culturally diverse and the underlying political message that was once so important to the West Indian revellers has been saturated by through the interest of commercial gain. Owusu Kwesi goes on to say that during the 70’s the “the police and local authorities clearly listened hard to the voice of racist discontent” (Kwesi, Owusu, 1986, p11) and the combination of this and the rise of Notting Hill as a popular residential area for the rich over the last couple of years has had a giant effect on the Carnival and what it symbolises. Carnival is an important cultural device that has many roles to play in our lives as consummators of lived culture; it is that day or days that stand alone as a discourse of its own. One that liberates the individual in society to become whatever they want to be, in Trinidad it is in fact the police that contribute to the steel bands and Calypso music. This is a good example of how carnival turns everything that we know and is “ordinary” on its head.
To explore carnival in further depth as a literary genre we look to the work of Mikhail Bakhtin who has done extensive research into carnival and the carnivalesque. The notion of the language of carnival is a prominent one in his work and important to look at when examining the political significance of any carnival. Because the roots of carnival are set deep in the construct of modern hierarchical class society and the thinking of man, its characteristics are most easily explored in differentiation with exactly what carnival is not. Bakhtin describes carnival as a completely different way of life, a carnivalisitc life where “everyone is an active participant”(Bakhtin, Mikhail, 1998, p250) and to some extent it is essentially life turned inside out. There is a very familiar political aspect to most carnivals and the combination of alcohol, drugs and the freedom given to those who live the carnival creates an outspoken carnivalistic word. This is not a new thought that may be a spare of the moment groan, this is rhetoric that has been at the back of the minds of men and women for thousands of years, but unfortunately the cultural climate has forbidden most of these views to be heard in significant numbers. These political jibes sang in songs, represented in costumes and acted out on carnival day have been appropriated as such to make a parody of historical and modern day politics. The most famous of these is the crowning and de-crowning on carnival day, which occurs in an ironic sense often presenting the jester or the most unlikely person with a crown. It is this “playing with the symbols of higher authority” (Bakhtin, Mikhail, 1998, p250) that gives carnival its politically threatening tone and is why the carnival and the carnivalesque way is often looked down upon by those of power or high class in ordinary society. The language of carnival is greatly represented by laughter (often towards something higher, politically), dancing, dressing up and much more which gives liberation to every individual as well as joining in making heard the voice of the public square. This is the same in carnivals that have been tradition for many years and occur all over the world but has become increasingly less the case at The Notting Hill carnival over the past few years. Many believe (including Precious Williams and many local residents) that the true nature of the carnivalesque features and literature mentioned above has been lost at Notting Hill.
With the large scale of the Notting Hill Carnival it may be surprising to discover that it is in fact staged by a combination of part-time staff and volunteers, not any permanent group of organizers working all year to create an artistic policy and framework for the event. The arts council and the community arts movement have clearly both failed in their duty to the carnival, which seems ironic when you are more than likely to see members of these bodies amongst the carnival revellers. It is also a strong disappointment because of the success and popularity of what has become such a large event, one that still maintains its traditional aims set out by Laslett almost forty years ago. This lack of support creates a vicious circle that means that carnival receives bad press for any trouble or accidents that occur, which may have been prevented with professional organisation. Funding has always been poor and it quite often means that the artists who contribute to the fair are left out of pocket and with a mad rush in the early August months to create their pieces. Carnival is a form of cultural expression that is essential to our society, some argue that it acts as a valve to vent pressure and essentially worry that the sheer scale of the event is a threat to authority. However like Bakhtin I disagree with this notion, instead seeing carnival as a relative ground from which we are able to objectively observe our own society and lives. It has the ability to create a plain of existence that is flat, where co-existence is in a non-hierarchical and naturalistic human expression strives over the barriers that are usually in place. Not only do I consider carnival essential in this political respect but also because of its status as a popular form of mass jollification, something that often goes unnoticed amongst all the controversy created around the carnival. If laughter is meant to be the best medicine then The Notting Hill Carnival is as important to our modern society as penicillin.
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Bibliography
- Owusu, Kwesi (1986) The Struggle For Black Arts In Britain, London: Camedia
- Bakhtin, Mikhail (1998) Carnival & The Carnivalesque, Cultural Theory & Popular Culture. A Reader, eds. Storey, J, London: Prentice Hall, p250-259
- Cohen, Abner (1982) A Polyethnic London Carnival As A Contested Cultural Performance, Ethnic And Racial Studies Vol. 5 Number 1 January 1982, London: Routledge p23-38
- Storey, J (2001) Cultural Theory And Popular Culture. An Introduction, London: Prentice Hall
- Gutzmore, Cecil (2000) Carnival, The State and The Black Masses In The UK, Black British Culture & Society: A Text Reader, eds. Kwesi, Owusu London: Routledge
- Williams, Precious (1999) National Feature: Notting Hill- Pride Magazine August Edition, p17-21
