For many years, Grenada has been known…
The Island Blog
- June 8th 2011
Accuse me arrogance. Accuse me of exaggerating. Nonetheless, I’ll still go out on a limb and say – without any fear of contradiction – that Grenada is the most beautiful country in the world. I’ve lived it; I’ve experienced it.
Others have, too; albeit, to a lesser degree. They include celebrities searching for a beautiful but quiet locale that is many miles away from the intrusive cameras of the paparazzi of North America and Europe. It’s the reason stars such as Morgan Freeman, Mick Jagger, and Sherri Shepherd have vacationed in Grenada.
Shepherd, co-host of ABC’s The View, is an Emmy Award winner. Her film and television credits include Beauty Shop, Everybody Loves Raymond and The Jaime Foxx Show.
“You guys got to go to Grenada because it was really great,’’ Shepherd said on a live broadcast of The View.
But not only is Grenada “great,’’ it is also peculiar and special. The nation of 100, 000 scattered on three archipelagic islands – Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique – best displays its peculiar and unique nature through its carnival arts.
Carnival began as a freedom celebration for Africans after their emancipation from chattel slavery on sugar plantations. The festival has expanded and adopted new features.
Carriacou has retained carnival as a traditional pre-Lenten festival. This makes Grenada unique. It’s the only nation with two annual carnivals. Each year, in August, Grenada holds its own version of carnival – Spicemas.
It’s at Spicemas that a really unique component of Grenadian culture comes to the fore, with the portrayal of the “Jab Jab.’’
Masqueraders oil and grease themselves to an extreme black, with accompanying accoutrements such as cows’ horns and chain. Even former Trinidad Soca Monarch, Iwer George, threatened in song in 2011 that he was leaving T&T for Grenada to participate in the island’s “Jab Jab’’ mas’.
Iwer should stop threatening and, like Nike says, “Just do it!’’ And Shepherd should revisit. She has seen places like Annandale Falls and Grand Anse Beach. However, Shepherd must return at carnival to experience “Jab Jab’’ – the mas’ and its music.
Written by Mr. Lincoln Depradine
