Wearing black with a flowing cape and extravagantly outsized hat, performer Kurt Layne’s distinctive macabre ensemble blends influences from movie depictions of the American wild west with West African tradition. He cuts an imposing determine as he struts alongside a street bringing to life a standard Carnival character, the Midnight Robber.

He not too long ago carried out in Tobago Carnival, the place he took the chance to share his story about staying secure through the pandemic. His efficiency geared toward educating folks was private.

“My mum had handed away from COVID,” he mentioned. “I might inform anybody, and particularly these near me, to at all times keep heading in the right direction when it comes to maintaining with the COVID protocols.”

“Pow pow, I shot COVID useless,” he declared, grabbing the eye of a bunch of youngsters together with his ‘Robber Speak’. 

Kurt Layne’s ominous supply invokes the most effective of the character’s oral ability and energetic supply to drive dwelling a message of hope and optimism to his younger listeners. 

“Be a part of arms with we; one another do their half and for positive, we’ll have an incredible begin!”

The dual island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago was dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 4300 died from the illness and the economic system which is essentially based mostly on oil and gasoline manufacturing suffered as demand for gas plummeted through the international lockdown.

The Caribbean nation reopened for public gatherings in April 2022 and 6 months later the inaugural Tobago Carnival was launched on the smaller of the 2 islands, the place Kurt Layne and different conventional pageant favourites carried out.

Dame Lorraine, a temptress with exaggerated voluptuous curves, is one other of the standard mas (quick for masquerade) characters present in Caribbean carnival celebrations.

Performed by Lesley-Ann Ellis, the character performs provocative dance strikes sporting costumes impressed by 18th and early nineteenth century French colonial plantation house owners.

Dame Lorraine isn’t related to verbose social commentary however on this case Lesley-Ann Ellis works a calypso music into the standard dance with the intention to give attention to encouraging folks to proceed sanitizing arms and sporting protecting masks.

“This factor has to finish so cough in your sleeve; keep your distance, let this virus go away.”

Each performers labored with the Verified Initiative which was developed by the United Nations with the assist of the social affect company Objective to struggle disinformation about COVID-19 and to supply reliable, life-saving data and fact-based recommendation concerning the illness.

In Trinidad and Tobago, guided by the United Nations Info Centre for the Caribbean Space – based mostly in Port of Spain – Objective labored with such native stakeholders because the Tobago Home of Meeting to ship messages that had been related to the nationwide cultural context.

Oral traditions

Oral traditions are completely suited to getting throughout COVID-19 data.

Pupils of Sign Hill Secondary Faculty in Tobago labored with the Verified Initiative to develop messaging encouraging vaccination towards COVID-19.

Scholar, Clorysa Gill defined how the efficiency, generally known as “speech band” can captivate a crowd. “Whenever you say, ‘cease yuh bow, Mr. Fiddler,’ the way in which you mission your voice and the tone you say that, that would let you know OK, folks listening to my speech now.”

These pro-vaccination and anti-disinformation messages will resonate at, arguably, the most important cultural pageant on the dual islands, the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. The occasion which brings collectively the 1.5 million inhabitants of the islands and which attracts hundreds of worldwide guests is going down for the primary time since 2020, on February 20-21.

“Carnivals just like the one held in Tobago are the perfect setting to succeed in a lot of folks with the messages of the Verified marketing campaign,” mentioned Liliana Garavito Canon, the Director of the United Nations Info Centre for the Caribbean Space.

“Among the many many constructive messages is one which says that healthfulness and celebration can co-exist,” she added. “Everybody simply has to behave on correct data to guard themselves and stay COVID-19 free.”