Carifesta XI, 2013, closes its curtains today in Paramaribo, Suriname. At its closing this evening it is expected that Haiti will be declared the host and the venue for Carifesta XII in 2015. Like Suriname, Haiti is one of the non-English speaking Caribbean territories brought into the Caricom fold, and will be the third such nation to host the festival, after Suriname (2003 and 2013) and Cuba (1979).
As an aside, the part played by these countries in Carifesta is significant; Cuba quickly stepped in to host the third festival just six years after it started. This was no doubt prompted at the time by the first (unofficial) ‘charter’ for the regional arts set down at the Georgetown meeting of artists in 1970 when it was acknowledged that the arts of the Caribbean should include the non-English territories (see Andrew Salkey, The Georgetown Journal, 1971). It also sprang directly from the fact that when Jamaica hosted Carifesta II in 1976, they invited several Latin American countries, setting the tone for this inclusive definition of the arts and culture of the Caribbean.
It was further significant because of the factor of ideology; the Cold War was still hot and some Caribbean countries were newly embracing communist Havana, while Castro was placing great value on the acquisition of West Indian friends. It is now the post-Cold War era, but the same geopolitics continue with Caricom’s official endorsement of
