1. Peter Minshall’s Mid- night Robler nas’, played by Peter Samuel, Jr, was part of Minshall’s Danse Macabre hand. Samuel wus crowned Kin of Ca nival for 1980. (Photo by Jefliey Chock) The Midnight Robber Master of Metaphor, Baron of Bombast Brian Honoré tireless clarion of ur. [.-.[ Whenever I speak, a million people Latin, the Celt, the Hun, the Moslem, the Hindu; al The most fearsome and lovable character of the Trinidad Carnival is, indis: putably, the Midnight Robber. From his first official appearance in the early 19005 until his self-imposed exile in the 1960s, this performer blustered and bragged his way into the folk traditions of Trinidad and Tobago. During the ‘60s and s, this masquerade, or mas", was virtually obliterated by the ex pandi jorical and fancy mas’ bands, The resurgence of the traditional Midnight Robbers may be linked to Peter Minshall’s critically acclaimed Carnival band of 1980, the Danse Macabre, The main character —played by Peter Samuel, crowned King of the 1980 Carnival—was a 20-foot skeletal ef- figy entitled Midnight Robber. Minshall’s mas’ depicted death as the ultimate f the masquerade of life, To that character I owe my own reintrodue-1 recall Minshall’s Robber: bestriding the Carnival stage like the Phantom at the crossroads of Trinidadian folklore, a gaping skull wghing at the confi sion and corruption in the world.! This, suns mots, was the Robber I had en countered as a young child in Fairley Street, Tunapuna: Twas no more than five, maybe six. It was a Carnival Monday moming quite early. [...] Suddenly the robber appeared in front of me blowing. a whistle and brandishing, what to me was gun! [...] Inno time all | was behind my mother’s skitt as I heard the robber declare his int tion to eat me for lunch or dinner if I did not surrender ny uJ. After a long speech which consisted of his claim to be a “walking an earthquake shake’ [a] 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 edly threatened to boil my liver if I chi ten gains.” (Honoré 1987:4) *treasu disaster who can chase away hurricanes and mal as he re} i him of his “ill- gor As Samuel paraded the Dimanche Gras stage, | realized, “But dis Robber t talk!” I vowed then to give back to the Robber his power—his most idly weapon: his speech, his robber talk. | have done that in my Robber mas’ entitled Reincamasion of O'Cangaceiro, taken from the Brazilian sertao, the hin- terland the bandit O'Cangaceiro terrorized, [have done this as a member and now leader of the Mystery Raiders Robher Band. Here, too, 1 speak in the voice of this self-proclaimed King of the Trinidad Carnival. Who authorise you to put on dem clothes and call yubself, Midnight Robber? ‘The Midnight Robber's costume consists of baggy or frilly embroidered trousers or pantaloons, a fancy shirt, a compulsory cape which may be adored with pictures of graveyards and dollar signs, an ACME Thunderer whistle to announce the Robber’s impending appearance, and a counterfeit revolver or dagger to impress upon victims the perilous nature of his intent His enormous hat, reminiscent of the Fancy Sailor hats, usually depicts the theme of the Robber's speech Some even mistake me for the notorious Jesse! The Midnight Robber mas’ has been identified by scholars like Dan Crowley and Errol Hill as a mimicry of American Western movie icons (Crowley 1956b; Hill 1972:00). But while the lives of notorious American “badmen” like “the notorious Jewse” (Jesse James) remain rich sources of ma- terial for the Robber’s creativity, the Midnight Robber is armed with histori~ cal precedents dating back to the griots—storytellers and oral historians—of West Africa, To Maureen Warner-Lewis, he is one of “Guinea's other suns, his dress (especially the outrageous hat) and sp Airican griots ich descending directly from jother African motif in Trinidad Carnival is the hat worn by the mid- night robber [...] a replica of the chief”s hat worn in the coastal area of Nigeria between Lagos and Calabar. [..1]ts tassels fringing the brim, [the hat resembles} indigenous icons of chiefiaincy |... among the Yoruba [-.[ [Robber speech is] an idiosyncratic, long-winded boast which in- corporates references to Aftica [... in which the boaster] identifies himself with the Nile’s prosperity while consigning his enemies to the horrors of Saharan wastes, (Warner-Lewis 1991:183)" Midnight Robber Bs126 Brian Honoré 2. The legendary Robber Andrew “Pugey” Joseph was known among the “warriors of the word” as the Agent of Death Vale ley. Trinidad, circa 1988 (Photo courtesy of Brian Honoré) Take, for example, this excerpt from Andrew *Puggy" Joseph: Away down from the heightless regions of the Phantom graveyard came I the invineible, son of the undaw eath Valley. Now the motive of my sudden appearance here today is to accomplish the destruc tible Agent of D tion of my father's deadly expeditions, For within these two bloodthirsty hands of mine lies that woefil book of challenge, headed by the warrant of death, written with the hands of kings and sealed with the blood of monarchs |...]. (Honoré and Joseph 1988) Warner-Lewis links such talk to passages from Arrow of God by African writer Chinua Achebe: There is.a place beyond knowing where no man dares venture. [...] But | ‘Ogaluaya Evil Dog that warms his body through the head |...) made friends with a leper from whom even a poisoner flees. [...] Tell me folk assembled, a man who did this, is his arm strong or not? (in Warner Lewis 1991) A correlation may also be drawn with the “keelboat talk and manners” and the drunkes rd by Mark ‘Twain's Huck Finn as he stows away on a Mississippi riverboat boasting over: nal iron jawed, brass mouthed copper bellied corpse saw! I'm the man they call Sudden Death ‘ half brother to the cholera [...]. The massacre of isolated communities is ments, the destruction of I'm the old ori maker from the wilds of Ad and General Desolation sired by a hurricane, 'd by an earthquake, the pastime of my idle the nationalities the serious business of my life (Dwain [1896] 1981213) Such a similarity raises questions about the influence of African culture in the Mississippi Basin, an influ- ence which had already endowed the Mississippi te- gion with the tradition of the Uucle Remus stories ler Harris, written by Joel Ch My tongue is like the blast of a gun Building upon his costume of hat, cape, weapon, and whistle, the Midnight Robber uses traditional robber talk to comment on the most contemporary of issues: proliferation of nuclear weapons, the role of the Monetary Fund (IMF) in Third World s, even the attempted 1990 Muslin Joseph, known among: the warriors of the word as the Agent of Death Valley Internationa coup d'etat in Trinidad! Pugy and crowned champion on countless occasions aver the 40 years he played this mas’ until his death in 1997, once displayed a hat shaped like the dome of the Red House (the seat of Trinidad and Tobago’s parlia- iment). This Robber satire echoes the derisive judg- ment of Trinidadians who dub the Red House “the house of robber talk.Minshall’s voiceless King of Carnival in 1980 carried a reminder of the Midnight Robber’s potential for social and political criticism, which had al- ready been exploited in plays with a Carnival theme. In Ronald Amoroso’s The Master of Camival (1979), the Robber appeared ay a bearer of spiritual death for the main character, who had sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for the Carnival monarchy. In another instance, actor Finbar Ryan used the Robber mas’ to satirize the then chairman of the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) for the power he wielded over the lives (and water!) of the people In this capacity, the speech of the Robber resembles extempo calypsos or the kalinda chants used to embolden stick fighters of Trinidad. Kaisonian Raphael DeLeon, The Roaring Lion, in a kaiso battle with Kaisonians Executor (Phillip Garcia), Attila (Raymond Quevado), and Caresser (Rufus Callendar): The Earth is trembling and tumblin and heroes are falling and all Because the Lion is roaring My tongue is like the blast of a gun When I frown monarchs have to bow down to the ground Devastation Destruction Desolation and Damnation All these I'll inflict on insubordination For the Lion in his power is like ‘The Rock of Gibraltar...santimanitay!* (DeLeon 1935) Read aloud the cadence of this kalinda chant written by Rupert Grant, Lord Invader: “Thousand thousand to bar me one! Hitler didn’t know ten thousand to bar me one!” (Grant 1939). Apart from his role as bray rt supreme, the Midnight Robber functions as a social and political critic, humorist, and educator in the manner of calypsonians, 1 first used the speech weapon of the Robber on the calypso stage in 1981. Be- ing assigned the apt sobriquet Commentor, I composed and sang “The Opera of the Midnight Robber,” condemning the rampaging corruption which ac- companied the Trinidad Oil Boom of the late 19708 Stop, stop, stop you mocking pretender Get down off my throne Peter Minshall your Midnight Robber is only a mas’ of bone When he come our to kill or slay He must point revolver at men But when this robber come to plunder All he need is a ballpoint pen ain't pulling off no robbery risking shoot-out with Randy B. When ah could open an agency for some aeroplane company Chomus Tell Minshall gi’ me back meh crown Tam the king robber in the town! (Honoré 1981) Dressed in Midnight Robber’s garb, I had taken up cudgels against the cor rupt by “becoming” the standard bearer of corruption and arrogance—the very essence of the Midnight Robber. In 1988 I produced a long-playing Midnight Robber 7