ABSTRACT
In this paper, I aim to bring together some themes from Caribbean history and social anthropology with some ideas from contemporary social geography about the territorial basis of British racism (see Jackson, 1987). I develop Cohen’s notion of Carnival as a socially contested event whose political significance is inscribed in the landscape (Cohen, 1980, 1982) and argue that London’s Notting Hill Carnival is a contemporary British event with deep roots in the colonial past. Understanding its contemporary significance requires a knowledge of Caribbean history and of the changing geography of British racism. Although the present-day form of Carnival originated in the Caribbean, its meaning has changed over time. Like racism itself (Sivanandan, 1983), Carnival has changed shape according to the material circumstances and social relations of black people both in Britain and in the Caribbean. The meaning of Carnival in Trinidad and in Notting Hill is as different as the meaning of Rastafarianism in Jamaica and in Brixton. Neither Carnival nor Rastafarianism can be understood as a passive cultural import from the Caribbean. Both involve ‘a creative construction of a new cultural tradition, saturating and modifying culture symbols and practices from [the Caribbean] with a specifically English experience’ (Miles, 1978, p. 2). 1
