Minister plays minstrel mas

Michelle Loubon

Cabinet Minister Vernella Alleyne-Toppin wears a different hat during Carnival...and it’s normally white with a colourful piece of cloth matching the pattern of her jacket. While for most of the past nine months she has addressed the issues of Tobago development, in the last few weeks she has donned the mantle of artistic director of Tobago minstrels, who hail from Scarborough and Roxborough. Alleyne-Toppin led the band of merry minstrels through the streets of Port-of-Spain at the launch of downtown traditional Carnival last Friday. Amid the carnivalesque atmosphere, the minstrels sang, danced and chipped.

On February 6, Alleyne-Toppin was photographed with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the  launch of regional Carnival in Chaguanas. Face coated in white paint, she was playing minstrel mas to the hilt. Earlier on, she was a guest of principal Prof Clement Sankat at last month’s all-inclusive fete at the St Augustine campus of University of the West Indies. At times, she’s not afraid to strum her guitar.
Sharing in the merriment was her spouse, retired fire officer Lynn Toppin, who also manages the merry minstrels of Tobago. Commenting on the decision to retain the beauty of traditional mas, Toppin said: “We find the traditional mas, especially in Tobago, is absent from the Carnival...It is absent from Trinidad, too.

“It is all part of our commitment to keep playing minstrels,” she said. “More people get a chance of see ole- time Carnival characters. The tourists are more aware of minstrels and performances. There are black and white minstrels from New Orleans. “We are going to keep it as long as we perform in the  Carnival. We were in Port-of-Spain, Penal and Chaguanas.” added Toppin.

Minstrel attire
 Strutting their fancy attire, minstrels step out in hat, jacket  pants, white shoes, white socks, white vests and a cummerbund. It is dependent upon the jacket’s colour. Toppin said the more popular colours were blue and white. He said: “We use black and white and red. We use white and black for the jacket. Then, we cut a strip of the cloth and put it around the hat. White gloves, too. “Sometimes we mix colours,” he said. “We use a white button-up shirt on the inside with a bow tie. The bow tie is usually the colour of the jacket.”

While J’Ouvert revellers cake their faces in mud and oil painting, Toppin said, a minstrel’s kit is perfected with face painting. “We use white face painting on everybody,” he said. Before seducing the onlookers, minstrels reach for their mini umbrellas (parasols) which complement the jacket’s colour. “The men usually carrying a mini stick—a wanderer...They are usually accompanied by guitarists,” Toppin said.
“We are planning to introduce a banjo.”  Among the slew of traditional mas characters are bats in full flight, the voluptuous dame lorraines and agile burrokeets.

Breathing venom with their words, midnight robbers and pierrot grenades,  decked in tattered clothing, create a stir. The shrill cries of the black devils, fire-breathing blue devils and jab jabs cracking their whips also enhance the potpourri of T&T’s indigenous masquerade.

Minstrel mas origins
Tracing its 2007 origins, Toppin said: “The lady from culture (Glenda Rose-Lane) said she wanted an infusion of traditional characters in the Carnival. I told Vernella. She is a culture buff. She said: ‘We are going with the minstrels.’ We bought the clothes. It costs about $600 to outfit a minstrel.  “Most of the members are from  Roxborough Folk Performers and Scarborough,” he said. “We sing old songs like My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean, Valerie Valera and Yellow Bird...We have incorporated the old dances with the modern. “A minstrel is a travelling musician who is also a performer. We keep the band under 30...between 10 and 30.”