Letter to the Editor - Mancham praises carnival organisers and offers some pertinent comments |28 April 2015

There is no doubt that the Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange and his associates have done an impressive job this year to bring about the Carnaval International de Victoria to an impressive level. We must therefore sincerely congratulate him and his group on their achievement in this respect.

 Of course he must have received several deserving congratulatory messages in this connection. The purport of this letter is not just to offer another accolade but to elaborate constructively on certain aspects of the event with a view that we may be able to consolidate the level reached and to aim to go beyond this in future years.

Was our success to attract an increased number of participants the reason why there was perhaps too many parades along the line of drums and dancing? There are those who believe that perhaps the parades dragged a bit too long. It was like giving too much good food to anyone. While you enjoy the hors d’oeuvres and the dishes which follow you have no time to appreciate your dessert.

There are some who also believe that perhaps the visit to Seychelles of His Majesty the King of Ashanti should have constituted an event by itself and not an integral part of the carnival. Certainly while the Ghanaians in their colourful outfit provided a very special dimension to this year’s carnival, the great speech delivered by the King of Ashanti focused on serious matters dealing with world peace. At the time of Seychelles’ independence, Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada, who was the chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), sought an invitation to attend the celebrations. However, he never got such an invitation because I was advised by the British Foreign Office that if President Amin came to Seychelles on the occasion with his dancing team, the Ugandan leader would have stolen the show. In this context we must put into perspective the arrival of the King of Ashanti with such a powerful group. Did we provide them with the level of attention which he and his group in shining armour expected from us? Did we find the time to host him with a special reception which take into account traditional Ashanti hospitality he must have expected?

The contribution from the United Kingdom, which in fact was the dispatch of an impressive contingent from the Notting Hll carnival, resulted in the display on many occasions of the Union Jack, yet we did not see one English face in the contingent. This leads us to another quesrtion: Where was the Tricolor? Sure the French will say that La France was represented by La Reunion, another island group of rainbow colour like ourselves. But taking into account our strong historical link with La France – a contribution which would have reminded us of this historial feature -- should not have been neglacted. Beautiful Creole songs: OK – Beautiful African songs: OK – But why not one good French song?

James R. Mancham