Dragging Chains - An anthropological study on Grenadian jab jab and collective identity formation in the post-colonial context.

Abstract

This master’s thesis, together with the film that accompanies it, is based on four months of fieldwork done in Grenada from April to August 2023. The aim of this project is to explore the devil-masquerade jab jab, one of several traditional carnival masquerades played in Grenada, as a catalyst for the emergence of a Grenadian national identity. The participants that have taken part in the creation of the project are primarily jab jab practitioners and musicians, as well as organizational and academic actors engaged with carnival. The fieldwork was conducted using a number of methods with a primary focus on the camera as a tool for exploring meaning and symbolism in both the aesthetic, musical, and theatrical aspects of jab jab as it is currently practiced. Some overt components of the national pride found in jab jab include flagging and the insistence on Grenadian jab jab music, but these are only surface-level aspects. By exploring the masquerade through the lens of storytelling as a form of negotiation, I argue that jab jab makes visible dynamic processes of national identity formation. Although storytelling leads to some contention, ultimately, the space that is created through jab jab is characterized by pride, egalitarianism, and national unity. Storytelling in jab jab thus plays out as a form of negotiation in which practitioners get to authorize notions of who they are as a Grenadian collective.