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Jab Jab: Grenada’s Legacy
Have you heard the expressions, playin’s mas, Jouvert, or Jab Jab before? If so, Trinidad's Carnival probably comes to mind. Every Caribbean island has its own terms for Carnival. In Barbados, Carnival is called Crop Over and in Guyana, it is known as Mashramani. In Grenada, however, this celebration is known as Jouvert or Jab Jab, and while Trinidad calls its carnival by the same name on occasion due to exchanges between the two islands, Jab Jab in Grenada strikes a different chord than it does in Trinidad. This article, however, isn’t about what Jab Jab is, at least not on a surface level. If you want to learn more about Jab Jab, check out this article here.
I want to talk about Jab Jab in a spiritual context. As I said before, Jab Jab is practiced in Trinidad, but it seems to take different importance in Grenada, so much so that soca music there has been branded as JabJab soca. I listen to this brand of soca very frequently since half of my family hails from Grenada, specifically Carriacou and it got me thinking; Does Jab Jab have the potential to be more? Can it be a…
