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Articles

v. 1 n. 1 (2022): Disruption and Surveillance

Answering the Blue Devil Call: Performing a repertoire of Resistance, Disruption, and Inspiration

DOI
https://doi.org/10.25071/2816-8275.5
Enviado
dezembro 19, 2024
Publicado
2025-01-10

Resumo

This paper explores performance, disruption, and the decolonial forces of the Caribbean Carnival and the Blue Devil masquerade. The Blue Devil performance can be linked to African cultural traditions (Dabiri, 2019) which emerged within the pre and post emancipation Trinidad Carnival and the Jab Jab or Molasses devil masquerade (Mas). Both Carnival and Devil Mas symbolize resistance, ritual and rebellion as practiced by enslaved Africans and their descendants (Hill, 1972; Liverpool, 2001; Bakhtin, 1968). In this paper I discuss the performance of the Blue Devil in resisting and disrupting historical and contemporary forces of oppression. I tie the 'erotic' energy of Blue Devil to decolonial and abolition practices of imagining, creating, and inspiring strategies to change the world.