Mary Cuffy

Paramin is a vil­lage sit­u­at­ed at one of the high­est el­e­va­tions in the west­ern re­gion of the North­ern Range in Trinidad. This vil­lage, known for its steep and moun­tain­ous land­scape, has a rich agri­cul­tur­al tra­di­tion among its res­i­dents.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Paramin is fa­mous for the cul­tur­al art form known as the Blue Dev­ils. The Next Lev­el Dev­ils Per­form­ing Arts and Cul­tur­al Group has shared with Guardian Kids how they pro­mote and sus­tain this im­por­tant tra­di­tion.

The Next Lev­el Dev­ils group was es­tab­lished in 2019 by Stef­fano Mar­cano and his team as part of a con­cert­ed ef­fort to en­gage the youth of the com­mu­ni­ty in this artis­tic ex­pres­sion.

This ini­tia­tive was dri­ven by a de­sire to re­turn to the roots of the craft and pre­serve its au­then­tic­i­ty. The group is ded­i­cat­ed to en­sur­ing the con­ser­va­tion of this cul­tur­al her­itage through cul­tur­al work­shops.

Mar­cano em­pha­sis­es the im­por­tance of dis­ci­pline among the chil­dren in his group, en­cour­ag­ing them to ex­cel in their aca­d­e­mics to par­tic­i­pate in the Next Lev­el Dev­ils.

He ac­tive­ly col­lab­o­rates with par­ents to mon­i­tor the chil­dren’s per­for­mance in school. Through this pro­gramme, par­tic­i­pants gain valu­able in­sights in­to the blue dev­il cul­ture and dance.

While the prac­tice of fire-breath­ing is not in­tro­duced at an ear­ly age, parental con­sent is re­quest­ed when it is con­sid­ered. The group wel­comes par­tic­i­pants of var­i­ous ages, in­clud­ing tod­dlers.

This year’s theme for the youth band is "Parmin­min­ions". Mar­cano be­lieves in in­cor­po­rat­ing their pre­vi­ous knowl­edge so the chil­dren can ac­tive­ly en­gage in the por­tray­al.

Mar­cano al­so out­lines the ori­gins of the blue dev­il mas­quer­ade, a tra­di­tion in which masked “dev­ils” would vis­it homes, en­ter­tain­ing and some­times star­tling res­i­dents in ex­change for gifts of mon­ey, food, and oth­er trin­kets. Al­though this prac­tice has di­min­ished in re­cent years, he aims to re­ju­ve­nate it with­in the com­mu­ni­ty.

The blue dev­il or Jab Mo­lassie holds sig­nif­i­cant cul­tur­al im­por­tance in T&T’s Car­ni­val. It is one of the old­est rep­re­sen­ta­tions of “Dev­il Mas” and is deeply root­ed in the his­tor­i­cal con­text of the is­land, re­flect­ing the ex­pe­ri­ences of en­slaved Africans labour­ing on sug­ar es­tates.

Mar­cel Joseph and Marie Skeet, mem­bers of the Next Lev­el Dev­ils youth group, shared with Guardian Kids how they feel about their par­tic­i­pa­tion. Mar­cel Joseph ex­pressed, "I am hap­py to be part of this to dance and have fun. Peo­ple throw mon­ey at you when you dance."

Asia-Marie Skeet added, "I feel free to ex­press my­self by scream­ing." She en­cour­aged her friends to join so they could ex­pe­ri­ence the joy of scream­ing, not­ing that chil­dren don’t of­ten get to en­gage.