Mary Cuffy

The re-en­act­ment of Kam­bule stands as a pow­er­ful sym­bol of the awak­en­ing of the Car­ni­val spir­it, cel­e­brat­ing re­silience and cul­tur­al in­no­va­tion amidst ad­ver­si­ty. This cher­ished tra­di­tion serves as a poignant re­minder of the ex­tra­or­di­nary achieve­ments of African an­ces­tors de­spite the hor­rors of en­slave­ment. Through re­lent­less strug­gle, they carved out spaces to ex­press and pre­serve their her­itage, adapt­ing tra­di­tions in the chal­leng­ing new Caribbean land­scape they were thrust in­to.

Draw­ing from the rich mask­ing cus­toms of West Africa, Kam­bule has evolved un­der the in­flu­ence of its Caribbean sur­round­ings, blend­ing an­cient roots with lo­cal cre­ativ­i­ty to form a vi­brant cul­tur­al ta­pes­try.

At the heart of this tra­di­tion is sev­en-year-old Tara­ji Joseph, a res­i­dent of St Ann’s in Port-of-Spain and a stu­dent at Melville Memo­r­i­al Girls’ AC School. Tara­ji is poised to play a key role in per­pet­u­at­ing this cul­tur­al lega­cy, em­body­ing the spir­it of con­ti­nu­ity and youth­ful en­er­gy.

Her jour­ney with Kam­bule be­gan in 2024 at just five years old, when she par­tic­i­pat­ed in a pho­to­shoot for At­til­lah Springer, por­tray­ing Anan­si for a lo­cal Hal­loween event. Im­pressed by her per­for­mance, the or­gan­is­ers in­vit­ed her to join the Kam­bule pro­duc­tion. Now in her third year, Tara­ji has been an in­te­gral part of the event for two years, bring­ing fresh en­thu­si­asm to the re-en­act­ment.

"I'm proud to be a cul­tur­al am­bas­sador for my coun­try, and I want oth­er kids my age to get in­volved too!" Tara­ji said. "Be­ing in Kam­bule helped me build my vo­cab­u­lary and learn new words. Dra­ma is so fun be­cause it helps me re­mem­ber things bet­ter. I love read­ing dur­ing prac­tice and mem­o­ris­ing my scripts, which makes my mem­o­ry su­per strong!"

Ac­cord­ing to her grand­moth­er, Rox­anne Cater, this op­por­tu­ni­ty has been a bless­ing for Tara­ji, al­low­ing her to learn more about African his­to­ry and cul­ture through the eyes of Kam­bule. "She's met new and fa­mous peo­ple in the Car­ni­val com­mu­ni­ty, and read­ing and learn­ing the script writ­ten by Dr Ein­tou Pearl Springer is the best, be­cause she loves read­ing and knows all the songs," Cater added.

Tara­ji as­pires to be a sci­en­tist, ac­tress, and artist when she grows up. De­scribed as very in­tel­li­gent, well-spo­ken, and a lover of singing, she rep­re­sents the next gen­er­a­tion, en­sur­ing that Kam­bule's lega­cy en­dures.