Postcolonial Speculative Fiction

The Midnight Robber mas’ in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber

In Hopkinson’s book Midnight Robber, the rambunctious little girl, Tan Tan, has a fascination with a Carnival character called Midnight Robber. Because Tan Tan lives on a planet named after Toussaint Louverture, the society has Caribbean culture references. One reference is the Carnival season which is celebrated communally with music, larger than life puppets, and individuals wearing costumes. Tan Tan’s eshu, an artificial intelligent au pair, shares old-time images of Peter Minshall’s mas’ or masquerades (29-30).

Carnival is a repeating theme throughout Midnight Robber. The invented planet, Toussaint, was a refuge colony from long-lost Earth. After a substantial passing in time, the tradition of Carnival was maintained. Carnival appears to anchor time within a year in which the youth can measure their growth, arguments are settled, and the town reflects on historical Earth events. The mention of Minshall and the Carnival character, Midnight Robber, was a factual reflection on how Carnival is viewed today in Caribbean cultures. Minshall is credited for bringing back traditional Carnival characters and maintaining the larger than life spectacle. Brian Honore writes about how Minshall’s works influenced his life and culture.   


 
Peter Minshall
In a 2006 Caribbean Beat interview, Nicholas Laughlin, Attillah Springer and Georgia Popplewell write,
 
He is here to talk about “The Artist and the Mas”, and, as ever with Minshall, this is theatre: script, music, dance, and the drama of his eyes and voice. He begins with his birth in Georgetown, British Guiana, in 1941 (but “I was conceived in Trinidad!”), and then tells the story of his childhood discovery of “the mas”, his delivery refined by many retellings over the years. He was twelve when he came to Trinidad with his family, thirteen when he made himself an African witch-doctor costume, from “a cardboard box, Christmas decorations, dried grass, old bones, and a lot of imagination”. With “43 cents’ worth of animal charcoal” he blackened his skin and entered the children’s Carnival competition. He won first prize for originality, and at that moment, you might say, the direction of his career was set.
 
In 1980 Minshall’s Midnight Robber was crowned King of Carnival!
Brian Honore writes in essay “The Midnight Robber: Master of Metaphor, Baron of Bombast”. The MIT Press. 1988. Available from: WWW.jator.org/stable/1146686
 
The most fearsome and lovable character of the Trinidad Carnival is, indisputably, the Midnight Robber. From his first official appearance in the early I90os until his self-imposed exile in the I96os, this performer blustered bragged his way into the folk traditions of Trinidad and Tobago. During '6os and '70s, this masquerade, or mas', was virtually obliterated by the expanding historical and fancy mas' bands. The resurgence of the traditional Midnight Robbers may be linked to Peter Minshall's critically acclaimed Carnival band of I980, the Danse Macabre. The main character-played Peter Samuel, crowned King of the I980 Carnival-was a 20-foot skeletal effigy entitled Midnight Robber. Minshall's mas' depicted death as the ultimate king of the masquerade of life. To that character I owe my own reintroduction to the genre.

Honore recalls his childhood meeting of Midnight Robber

I was no more than five, maybe six. It was a Carnival Monday morning quite early. [...] Suddenly the robber appeared in front of me blowing a whistle and brandishing, what to me was a "real" gun! [...] In no time at all I was behind my mother's skirt as I heard the robber declare his inten- tion to eat me for lunch or dinner if I did not surrender my "treasure" [...]. After a long speech which consisted of his claim to be a "walking disaster who can chase away hurricanes and make an earthquake shake" [...,] my mother [...] sent me inside to collect a few coins which my shaking hand deposited in a small coffin-like box tied to the robber's belt as he repeatedly threatened to boil my liver if I cheat him of his "ill-got- ten gains." (Honore I987:4)
 
Minshall describes the art behind Carnival
 
From the beginning, Minshall has claimed he is not merely making costumes. “I provide the means for the human body to express its energy,” he says. “Mas is a vehicle for the expression of human energy.” And “mas”, he insists, is the only name for the art he practices — a unique artform that could not have evolved anywhere but Trinidad, a hybrid artform that combines the visual with the performative. This “living art that we make fresh every year”, Minshall argues, is the highest and deepest artistic expression of Trinidad. “Flesh and blood powers the mas . . . The energy passes from performer to spectator like an electrical charge . . . a moment that cannot, will not last — it passes quickly, leaving the mind singed . . . Our aesthetic is performance, the living now.
(Caribbean Beat 2006)
 

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  1. I enjoyed reading about the tradition of Carnival and how it was changed through space and time in the book. People often migrate, whether in real life or in Sci-fi stories. It's interesting to contemplate what traditions get taken and carry on unchanged, what gets changed over time, and what gets left behind. It's worth noting that every tradition serves or served some important purpose to the practicing culture. The needs of a society change and, thus, the traditions are also changed.
  2. As much as I enjoyed learning about the tradition, I would love to hear your take on how this information influenced "Midnight Robber" or even just your own thoughts on the book. Do you think this research helped you better understand the story in some way? Personally, I think gaining a better understanding of the tradition helped become less detached from the book. Prior to reading the book (and this blog) I knew very little about Carnival and I had never heard of the Midnight Robber character. When I began reading the book, it wasn't something I entirely had my head wrapped around because I didn't know much about it. Luckily, I don't think it hindered my understanding of the novel in a detrimental way. However, it's no longer a strange tradition I've heard or seen little about. It's now something I know some of the history behind and something I understand a little better. It removes some of the foreignness of it and makes it more personal. I wonder if this research provided that same kind of clarity for you?

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