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Caribbean Military Encounters pp 331–343Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Music and Militarization: Soca, Space, and Security

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Part of the book series: New Caribbean Studies ((NCARS))

Abstract

Violence and security are ubiquitous issues in the Caribbean and the subject of heated discourse in Trinidad, particularly during Carnival season. Locating music and militarization in the long Caribbean history of slavery and plantations, this paper takes on the relationships of armed violence and mass musical events in Trinidad. Writing against cause and effect narratives, and focusing instead on the necessity of historical and contextual analysis, this paper shows how the promotion of carnival culture in Trinidad entangles the roles of private security forces and the state police with agendas of cultural entrepreneurs and desires of citizens and travelers. The proliferation of “all-inclusive” fetes provides a particular example of this complex entanglement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On the phenomenon of pistolization, see, for example, Agozino et al., “Guns, Crime.”

  2. 2.

    Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, “Total Crime by Offence Comparative Report,” Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, http://www.ttps.gov.tt/Statistics/Comparative-Chart.

  3. 3.

    Soca initially emerged out of musical experiments, mixing Indian elements with calypso in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, by the mid-1980s, this mix became hardly audible, and thus soca is now predominantly heard as an Afro-Trinidadian music, as simply a musical offshoot of calypso. See Guilbault, Governing Sound.

  4. 4.

    Kraska, “Militarization and Policing,” 502.

  5. 5.

    Phillips, “Trinidad and Tobago Defence,” 20.

  6. 6.

    Kraska, “Militarization and Policing,” 501.

  7. 7.

    Kraska, “Militarization and Policing,” 503.

  8. 8.

    Wine is a local term referring to one of the dominant dance movements typical of many African-derived musical traditions in the Caribbean, characterized by winding or gyrating the hips. Performed alone or in close physical contact with a partner, wining can be done in an erotic or more casual manner. If such a dance movement was in the past performed nearly exclusively between a man and a woman, today wining can also involve two women, or several people, including men and women or just women (in public, at least, never just men).

  9. 9.

    Pino, “Developing Democratic Policing,” 231.

  10. 10.

    Pino, “Developing Democratic Policing,” 243.

  11. 11.

    Regis, “Who Going to Guard These Guards,” 312. My emphasis.

  12. 12.

    The number of private security companies (PSCs) in Trinidad and Tobago is “staggering given that there were roughly two (2) PSCs operational in 1970 and ninety (90) by the end of 1990. In launching the new Private Security Network Commission in October 2010, the Minister of National Security observed that PSCs represent a workforce of over 20,000 security guards, more than three times the existing number of police officers (uniformed police have never exceeded 10,000).” Anyanwu, “State of Private Security,” 51.

  13. 13.

    Pino, “Developing Democratic Policing,” 243–244.

  14. 14.

    Pino, “Developing Democratic Policing,” 243–244.

  15. 15.

    Charles Kong Soo, “NCC Wants to Keep Crimes Out of Carnival,” Trinidad Sunday Guardian (Port of Spain), January 5, 2014.

  16. 16.

    Renuka Singh, “Cops to Get More Firepower,” Trinidad Sunday Guardian (Port of Spain), January 12, 2014.

  17. 17.

    “Murders Spark National Security Heightened Alert,” Trinidad Sunday Guardian (Port of Spain), January 5, 2015.

  18. 18.

    Gail Alexander, “Alfonso: Carnival Security Booster,” Trinidad Guardian (Port of Spain), February 13, 2015.

  19. 19.

    “This Is the Happiest Country in the Caribbean,” Caribbean Journal, April 24, 2015, http://www.caribjournal.com/2015/04/24/this-is-the-happiest-country-in-the-caribbean/#.

  20. 20.

    A study on drugs and crime sponsored by the UN reports that, along with El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, Honduras, and Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago “show police recorded homicide rates over 40 per 100,000 population.” Malby, “Homicide,” 12.

  21. 21.

    Graham and Aurigi, “Virtual Cities,” 20.

  22. 22.

    Interestingly, as mentioned above, the Army fete, which is public, has followed suit and has also used security as central to its branding.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Jocelyne Guilbault

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  1. Jocelyne Guilbault
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Correspondence to Jocelyne Guilbault .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Shalini Puri

  2. Department of History, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Lara Putnam

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Guilbault, J. (2017). Music and Militarization: Soca, Space, and Security. In: Puri, S., Putnam, L. (eds) Caribbean Military Encounters. New Caribbean Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58014-6_17

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