9790: 9788: Re: 9747: T-Vice vs Sweet Mickey (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com

T-Vice and Sweet Mickey's fight is part tradition part show business.  In 
fact, this last carnival, since T-Vice had accused Sweet Mickey of being 
"gason makome" (effeminate) Mickey wore skirts, even let his young boy wear a 
skirt, (outrageous act to most Haitian fathers' opinion) and his colors were 
bright pink and white.  Competition has always been part of the Carnaval 
scene and I think it is also part of the Rara scene.  My oldest memory of 
words from a carnaval song is a song in which Nemours Jean Baptiste accuses 
Webert Sicot of being born bad because his conception took place while 
dancing in Carnival: "Se nan Otofonik, Sia te fe Sicot, se sa ki fe l soti 
san sal konsa".  Before Carnival the band uniforms were sold everywhere, and 
the youth picked their band and wore their colors, just like every one wears 
Brazilian or Argentinian colors during the world cup. It has been said of 
Sicot and Nemours, as it has been said of Martineau and Martelly, that in 
fact they are good friends and baptized each other's children.  The 
Difficiles the Petion-Ville competed with Tabou-Combo de Petion-Ville in the 
late sixties, early seventies.  When  Tabou Combo moved to New York City,  
Difficiles split into 2 bands, DP Express and Scorpio which became 
competitors.  Usually during the pre-carnival Sunday outings of the bands, 
there would be a lot of exitement around if and when the two groups would run 
into each other.  
Carnival meringue competition is just part of the side show.  In fact, since 
the government decides who wins the best music award, that's not considered 
genuine competion.  During Carnival time, it is costumary to leave the best 
band for last.  Because of that, the Carnival parade moved later and later 
because no one wanted to go in the beginning.
When I lived in the Grandans area in 1979 Rara bands from different villages, 
Chambellan, Abricot, Anse d'Hainauld,  would travel over the mountains to 
tease each other and sometimes ended up having rock-throwing fights.  So 
fighting is part of the fun ....