‘Rona Cyah Cancel Embodied Black Joy: An Emancipatory Inquiry and Experience Design Exploration of Positive Health and Wellbeing; Pleasure, Healing, and Liberation; and Equitable Change in Carnival in the Caribbean

Abstract

As a spi(ritual) practice and experience rooted in celebrating the resistance, emancipation, and cultural traditions of enslaved Black Africans, Carnival in the Caribbean epitomizes a desire for happier, freer, and healthier existences. Accordingly, its contributions to people’s physical, mental, and social health and wellbeing render it a supportive environment and cultural health asset. Threatening the liberatory practice’s ability to benefit Caribbean people through those aspects, the current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of most Carnivals, drastically limiting opportunities for large-scale communal practices of joy and sociocultural support, and contributing to the unfolding mental health crises taking place around the world. Through an analytical approach encompassing emancipatory inquiry, experience design, and systems thinking, this DrPH doctoral project used Carnival as a site of analysis for: 1) understanding how the cultural practices Caribbean communities already employ positively impact health and wellbeing; 2) illuminating masqueraders’ experiences of pleasure, healing, and liberation; and 3) exploring opportunities for increased sustainability, inclusivity, and accessibility for a) greater access to and participation by Caribbean people and b) community-and-population level mental health impact.

From March to December 2020, masqueraders from the English-speaking Caribbean who have attended multiple regional Carnivals participated in 37 semi-structured interviews and submitted 78 posts for a Twitter analysis. Thematic and content analyses revealed 18 themes (e.g. “Mental Health Impact of No Carnival due to COVID-19,” “Facilitation of the Body-Mind-Spirit Connection,” “Creation and Celebration of Black Euphoria and Joy,” and “Exclusion/Discrimination as Antithetical to Carnival”) and 35 codes, respectively. Findings illuminate that Carnival in the Caribbean serves as a 1) community care practice for improved physical and mental health by and for people dealing with oppressive systems and their resulting impacts on wellbeing and 2) cultural adaptation and intervention for Caribbean people and nations navigating and recovering from (neo)colonialism. Results contributed to the development of a desire-based framework to facilitate individual and community flourishing through celebrating culturally-affirming, health-giving practices. Recommendations for equitable change to further Carnival’s potential public health impact and contributions to Caribbean people moving beyond surviving to get to flourishing highlight taking actions at the enabling environment level.