I have to ask these questions after watching the Batabano Parade last Saturday (2) along with thousands of others that comprised a great many young children.

Batabano is bacchanal and is very much East Caribbean culture adopted by Jamaica and now the Cayman Islands. Trinidad is the country that comes immediately to mind when you mention Carnival and this is what bacchanal is all about.

The legendary Dave Martins of the Tradewinds was the inspiration behind the festival that became a rival of the Cayman Islands National Festival Pirates Week.

Pirates Week has consistently been given a bad rap, especially from some media outlets with emphasis on the pirate image of lechery, drunkenness and brawling.

I have to confess that image is largely not apparent in the present day Pirates Festival that I have seen. Yes, I was a big part of Pirates Week for many years so you can aim the word ‘bias’ at me.

Batabano has astonishingly escaped the bad rap, except for one year when someone posted on YouTube a video of a young teen having hard ‘dry’ sex with dozens of men on a bench outside a George Town jewellery store during Batabano. The video was so lewd YouTube removed it because of the large number of complaints they received.

There was another year when a group of parents complained about the suggestive street dancing being performed in front of their children that made the rounds of the radio talk shows and even MLAs jumped on board. This was the same year I actually saw a young mother run into the revelers and actually pushed the two ‘dancers’ onto the ground she was so enraged.

The following year the organisers gave a stern warning that lewd dancing would not be tolerated. Police said prosecutions might be enacted against the culprits.

Move on to 2015 and I have never seen so many ‘bunkie’ and ‘daggering’ performances on our streets. And this time it would appear I am the only one complaining. When photographing we took great pains not to ‘shoot’ any of these performers as they were encouraged by anyone with a camera. Even so when going through all the over 100 images I found 2 showing the man bending over whilst the woman dry humping him all in time to the loud music. I have posted one of these images here so you can judge whether you think it is lewd.

For a definition of ‘bunkie’ and ‘daggering’ dancing go to my story today “Cayman Islands Batabano gets better and worse”.

I am thankfully not alone with wondering what passes for culture and art form in Caribbean street dancing. To get a true Caribbean perspective of it I have published below part of an article written in 2012 by Trinidadian Professor Prakash Persad
Ph.D. (U.W.I) that appeared in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. There is a link to the whole piece at the very end. I agree with everything he so eloquently wrote.

“One gets the distinct impression that the traditional Carnival culture of wire bending, costume making and other historical art forms are no longer in vogue or practice.”

“The movement away from clothed and costumed masqueraders to “cover-as-little-as-you-can” pelvic vibrational gyrators is cause for national concern and shame. Sure street dancing is good, some display of skin might be acceptable but what passes for “culture and art form” would put serious blushes on hardened barbarians. The line must be drawn between what is art and what constitutes outright vulgarity. The motions that take place on the street, particularly when the cameras are focusing on the revellers, might remind an entomologist of the movements of “mad ants in heat.” It would appear that the sense of shame and decency are alien at that point in time.”

“It has been reported on several occasions in the media that people have been arrested for lewd and suggestive dancing in night clubs and houses of ill repute. Clearly there is a test that determines the boundaries between what is acceptable what is lewd and suggestive. One would presume that sexually explicit movements would qualify as lewd and vulgar. The motions that occur during the Carnival season in the public spaces are not just lewd, they are explicitly lewd and create the environment for sexual permissiveness and sexual exploitation.”

“No one is suggesting that we institute a cadre of “clothes police” but surely there must be enough citizens who think that enough is enough; that it is time to bring back some sanity and decency to these festivities. However many they are, this is a call on their behalf to the law enforcement agencies to enforce the law with regard to not only drinking and driving but also on lewd and vulgar dancing. To ensure that the message is crystal clear, a proclamation must be made before Carnival Tuesday that those, irrespective of their social position or office or citizenship, who simulate the sexual act, singly, as couples or in groups, will be in breach of the law with the attendant consequences. Simulated sexual actions qualify as lewd and vulgar dancing and the law should be enforced. The trend from clothed and costumed mas to scantily dressed gyrators is in urgent need of reversal.

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.tt/columnist/2012-02-19/putting-stop-lewd-street-dancing