Bour­geois, a 2011 J'Ou­vert pre­sen­ta­tion, takes its main in­spi­ra­tion from the Car­ni­vals held in Trinidad dur­ing the ear­ly 1800s (1783-1805).Car­ni­val was brought to Trinidad by the French im­mi­grants in the 1770s. Pri­or to that there was no ac­count of Car­ni­val be­ing in ex­is­tence.

Be­fore the French ar­rival, Trinidad's pop­u­la­tion was very small. Af­ter 1797 (British cap­ture), how­ev­er, it grew con­sid­er­ably, in­clud­ing a very large num­ber of African slaves. Car­ni­val in those times was ex­clu­sive­ly en­joyed by so­ci­ety's up­per and mid­dle class­es, which meant the slaves were barred from this event. It was on­ly af­ter the eman­ci­pa­tion of slav­ery in the British Colonies (1833) that slaves were legal­ly al­lowed to par­tic­i­pate.

Ac­cord­ing to Pierre Gus­tave Bor­de's His­to­rie de la Trinidad, the French planters were a true rur­al aris­toc­ra­cy and au­tho­rised to wear the sword of Louis XIV. As a very close knit group, the planters with­held their cul­tur­al stan­dards and cus­toms to the hilt, and Car­ni­val was one of these. In those days Car­ni­val would com­mence from Christ­mas and end on Ash Wednes­day. This pe­ri­od was al­so marked by elab­o­rate and lav­ish masked balls and the cus­tom­ary evening house vis­its in cos­tume.

Af­ter the British cap­ture, Car­ni­vals con­tin­ued with for­mal masked balls held by the British Gov­er­nor Sir Ralph Wood­ford at Gov­ern­ment House in St Ann's.Al­though legal­ly barred from Car­ni­val, the slaves se­cret­ly par­took in it dur­ing their day offs. Some of the tal­ent­ed ones were called to per­form at the var­i­ous masked balls. One ac­count from 1826 tells that a slave called Ofu­ba the Chantwell was of­ten called to per­form the "neg deye pot­la," while an­oth­er called Jack Bow­ell, used to dance dress as a French Mar­i­onette.

Dur­ing this time the slaves slow­ly be­gan to in­flu­ence the French Car­ni­val with their African cul­ture. This in­fu­sion cul­mi­nat­ed on the Eman­ci­pa­tion of Slav­ery, and start­ed a pe­ri­od known as the Jamet Car­ni­vals. Many of the tra­di­tion­al mas­quer­aders had their ear­ly roots here, like the in­fa­mous jab mo­lassie, the dame lor­raines, the chantwell and even the prince­ly pier­rot.

The band, pro­duced un­der the ban­ner of Mas Jumbies, will con­sist of sev­en cos­tumed sec­tions, mod­ern in de­sign and in­fused with ear­ly 18th cen­tu­ry fash­ion aes­thet­ics. It will be our most elab­o­rate pre­sen­ta­tion to date to mark our fifth an­niver­sary in the Trinidad J'Ou­vert are­na (2007-2011).

THE SEC­TIONS

1. Les Dames Vertes

2. Les Gen­til­shommes Verts

3. Les Dames de Bor­deaux

4. Les Gen­til­shommes de Bor­deaux

5. Les Femmes du Bour­bo

6. Les Gen­til­shommes de Bour­bon

7. Les Gen­til­shommes d'Or­ange

8. Negue Jardin (male & fe­male)

9. Vive la France (male & fe­male)

10. Les Demons de Melasse (male & fe­male)