Remember when we promised an EPIC REVIVAL of our traditional board game Warri? Well, here comes the Revival! The WARRI REVIVAL PROGRAMME kicked off at the National Public Library with an exciting Train the Trainers session. Running from July 3-10, 2025, this is the opening move towards bringing Warri back into the hearts and hands of our communities! Catch the details in the video below!
So, to recap:
The Warri Revival Programme, part of the UNESO ICH Fund-Sponsored National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Project, will train 550 students and 50 NGO members in Warri-playing. The Revival will also birth a new generation of 18 Warri board makers, including youths from vocational programmes and the national prison. Furthermore, throughout this and the next year, ABWA will also plant 200 of the Caesalpina Crista, the “nickal”/”nicker”/seed-producing tree. Three varieties of the seeds are typical in Antigua/Barbuda: the grey, the brownish-orange, and the black.
Stay tuned for updates on how YOU could be a part of this project!
To learn even more about the WARRI REVIVAL PROGRAMME, see this previous article.
What do you remember or know of some of our ole time Christmas traditions? Do you know of the John Bull, the Long Ghost, or the Portuguese Band? What about the Jazz Band, the Minstrel Band, and the Monkey Band? Courtesy, the National Museum of Antigua and Barbuda, let us travel back to ole time Christmas with a brief look a two popular masquerade characters: Long Ghosts and John Bulls.
The Long Ghosts
LONG GHOSTS with their heads levelled to the galleries above the ground floor of merchant’s homes, once numerous in the city, roamed the streets in search of Christmas donations.
Drawing by Dan Mendes
If a donation was not forthcoming, a string inside the ‘ghost’ was pulled. This made the arms wave about, giving an added sinister effect, and it showed that the operator was displeased!
Long Ghosts were about 12 feet from the head to street level. The top section was a cylindrical shaped mask with cuts for eyes, nose, and grotesque figuration of teeth through which a lighted candle would throw its illumination sufficiently to light the immediate surroundings.
The mask was inscribed on both sides. This gave a kind of Janus Head (two-headed) effect that gave the illusion of the ‘ghost’ facing you though the operator’s back was turned.
John Bulls
John Bulls were tended by a ‘Cattle Tender’. With the crack of the whip, the ‘cattle tender’ would tease the bull. The bull would then shoot off in the direction of the crowd of children or grownups and plough through them and they would scatter.
The John Bull costume was sometimes just a sugar crocus bag with the head cut out and two armholes, with a big piece of rope around the waist.
To absorb the blows from the whip, the back of the John Bulls’ costume would be stuffed with grass or straw, giving them a hunchback appearance.
On the head, bulls had a cow’s horn clamped onto a rigid piece of cloth. The head was also padded with a big ‘catacoo’, which was a soft support.
Drawing by E. T. Henry
The John Bulls generally wore a mask, but sometimes blackened their faces with grease and paint and sprinkling with a little fine chalk dust. They looked very grotesque.
Some of the best John Bulls came from the villages to town, but most of them were porters or stevedores, men who would hang around the rum shops on Long Street.
The description of these two masquerade characters was reprinted, in large part, from the Historical and Archaeological Society (HAS)– the National Museum of Antigua and Barbuda Newsletter No. 144.
Photos and drawings courtesy of the National Museum of Antigua and Barbuda.
