“Christmas comes once a year
Everybody must have their share
But poor Mr. Willie in the jail
Drinking sour ginger beer”
The poetic sounds of masqueraders penetrate the placid Main Street atmosphere as drummers, flutists and other costumed musicians compose consecutive beats while men, girls and boys rhythmically flounce through the streets of Georgetown in flamboyant apparel.
It’s masquerade time! Crowds of shoppers heading to Singers or Mattai’s supermarket to complete the final details of the new seasonal furniture and appliances or getting final ingredients for bread and pepperpot became energized by the beats of the masquerade bands.

“This is Christmas fuh me!” one lady anxiously shouted, prancing around with smiles of satisfaction that indeed it is ‘Christmas time in the City.’ Instead of the sounds of silver bells, Guyana now hears the pulsating of drums.
There went men on stilts, flouncers, mad-bulls and mother sally passing by on Water Street, as a masquerade parade headlined the launch of ‘Masquerade Jamboree – Festival of Guyana Masquerade 2016.’

National Dance Company Coordinator Linda Griffith and Guyana Cultural Association’s Executive member Dr. Rosalind October-Edun led the parade of over 100 masqueraders to Main Street, Georgetown, where an organized dance-off and a formal ceremony were done to open officially ‘Masquerade Jamboree 2016.’

The excitement remained but members of the masquerade bands which gathered from administrative Regions 4 and 10, rallied around one man, who was recognized as a stalwart in the art and held responsible for fighting for the survival of the native art.
Flautist Rudolph ‘Putagee’ Vivierous and his band performed to the pleasure of the audience and was announced winner of the 2017 ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the United States of America (USA) based Guyana Cultural Association (GCA). The annual award is given to culture legends of Guyanese heritage around the world, and Vivierous, who is now an amputee, has been called ‘Stalwart’ in the masquerade culture.

The festival, a production of the GCA and Ministry of Education’s Department of Culture, Youth and Sport, was supported by Fly Jamaica, and featured three days of activity. At Main on Monday Street there was a masquerade exhibition and performance by each of the seven bands, with the youngest flouncer, 3-year-old Levi Barry of the Ann’s Grove band, touching hearts and thrilling audiences with his skillful choreography.
Chants and a benefit concert and a masquerade parade followed Tuesday and Wednesday with the bands participating in a masquerade parade through Plaisance, East Coast Demeara, the village from which Vivierous originate. At the community center groung there, a massive ‘flounce off’ was staged where individual masqueraders face off for awards of ‘best flouncers’ ‘best stilt dancer’ and ‘best village dancer’ among other titles.

“Putagee was a very good flauntist. He’s an amputee, so we’re trying to raise funds to assist him,” Griffith said.
Thursday the team hosted a party for children, and featured the reading of excerpts from a research on Guyana’s masquerade done by Dr. Paloma Mohamed. Thursday saw the launch of book by Dr. Juliet Emanuel titled ‘Masquerade for Children’ at the National Dance Company.
In an interview with Pepperpot Magazine, Dr. October-Edun said the reception received throughout the jamboree indicates that preservation, promotion and development of masquerade is needed indeed.

She said as they danced, crowds of people commented “I can’t tell when last I saw a masquerade… this is the real thing… I feel like if I were young again.”
“It shows that it is needed, and we can really bring this back! Today is the indicator that it can happen because it was embraced around town,” she told Pepperpot Magazine.
That is why a massive masquerade revival is in the making and the organisations move to push masquerade power in every festive season as Guyana moves ahead on preserving the art.

According to guyaneseonline.wrdpress.com, ‘Masquerade’ may very well be the only “original form of music and dance from Guyana.” Masquerade originates from Yoruba and Ibo traditions in Nigeria and is one tradition which was not completely eradicated through slavery, the website said.
With a determination to preserve, and a life that survived slavery and lived past mere emancipation, there is no chance of an end to masquerade entertainment where men don masks and costumes and dance to the sounds of a particular drum.

It started with “not a competition as such, but it’s a masquerade jamboree, where we have several activities. And this is to resuscitate this dying art form masquerade – which happens at Christmas time and then later on it became part of Mashramani.”
Many Guyanese reminisced what they used to see when they were children – they remembered seeing these masquerade groups at Christmas time, with the cow running and the long lady, the stilt dancers and the founcers, Griffith said too.
She said the jamboree fest was used as a stepping stone for a bigger component of such bands in parades during Mashramani 2017.

“We use this to let people know that yes masquerade is still here. We’re encouraging the youngsters, we’re encouraging the teachers in the schools to teach them it because it’s part of the Children’s mash competition… Part of the African tradition is that it’s passed through the family, and then the village also becomes part of it… the father is the leader, and the uncle is there, the niece, the nephews, the children… and they took it over from their grandparents,” Griffith explained.
She said Masquerade is a family affair which ignites a feeling of excitement. The National Dance Company is also working with masquerade groups across the country to help them perfect the flounce.

“The groups are excited that people have become more interested in what they are doing so it gives them a kind of impetus to go forward. So they’re asking us to work with them so that they can learn particularly the correct flouncing movement, so that they can teach the different groups and people in their areas,” Griffith said.
Meanwhile, Dr. October-Odun said her USA based association plans to promote and propogate Guyana’s masquerade.

“Any type of art that is relative to Guyana we embrace and really bring it alive to the diaspora… Masquerade is a part of our culture, like so many events… It needs to be an event … it also gives a sense of who we are as a people. If we understand our traditional culture, then we are hopeful beings. Masquerade lives,” she told Pepperpot Magazine.