The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad: MOKO JUMBIES
Stefan Falke
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A photo essay on a stilt-walking school in Cocorite, Trinidad Dragon Glen de Souza founded the Keylemanjahro School of Art & Culture in 1986. The main purpose of the school is to keep children off the streets and away from drugs. He first taught dances like the Calypso, African dance and the jig with his former partner, Cathy Ann Samuel. Searching for other activities to engage the children in, he rediscovered the art of stilt-walking, a tradition known in West Africa by the name of Moko Jumbies, the protectors of villages and participants in religious ceremonies. The art was brought to Trinidad by the slave trade but soon forgotten.
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Today, Dragon’s school has over 100 students from age four on. His two-year-old son Mutawakkil is probably the youngest Moko Jumbie ever. The stilts are made by Dragon and his students and can be as high as 12-15 feet. The children display their artistic talents mostly at the annual Carnival, which would be unthinkable today without the presence of the Moko Jumbies. A troupe can have up to 80 children on stilts; they have won many of the prestigious prizes and trophies awarded by the National Carnival Commission. Designers such as Peter Minshall, Brian MacFarlane and Laura Anderson Barbata create dazzling costumes for the school and these are admired by thousands of spectators. In addition to stilt-walking, the children learn the limbo dance, drumming, fire blowing and how to ride unicycles.The school is situated in Cocorite, a suburb of Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.
A book on the same subject, The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad - MOKO JUMBIES by Stefan Falke, was published by Pointed Leaf Press (www.pointedleafpress), New York in November 2004
