“Ai ai ya karu mai kya suku”

Earlier this year, I wrote a post titled  “Who is Caribbean?” After reading even more books by Earl Lovelace and thinking back on Marcus Garvey’s “The Evolution of Latter Day Saints,” I started applying the question to how I thought we were perceived by the outside world. How does the way we live teach others about our history? As a Trinidadian, I can mainly speak on my day to day life. So, in this [ELLE]ments article, I will keep my focus here. The words we choose to say, the things we eat and even how we share our stories - all contribute to the essence of Trinbago culture and provide insight into our history.

There is so much one can learn about a Trinidadian, as well as many other islands, simply by observing what they include in their day to day life. While at university, someone was once surprised I was Trinidadian. She said I didn’t look like the other Trini people she knew. I definitely knew where she was going with the conversation and it’s often something I deal with when educating non-Caribbean people on  our culture. Long story short, I did not look Indian and when it came to Trinidadian people, that is all she knew. There is often so much separation in communities, each element needing to be checked off in a box so that you can identify as solely this or that. But Trinidad is a multicultural island through and through, being from Penal, I am a testament of that.

First things first - Food. I do not view doubles or anything else with curry as “Indo- Trinidadian” food. It is just something that Trini people eat. My aunt Athlene makes some of the BEST doubles on the island. And her kuchela? Out of this world. Until I migrated to the States, I never considered these foods “Indo-Trini” foods. It was just Trini food. 

 And of course, one of Trini people’s favorite things to do -  talk. Something my mother uses a lot, to this day, is “nahin jala”. I never knew the formal definition but I understand what she meant when she used it. NO. Simple as that. I decided to look up the formal definition one day after a colleague was surprised I used it correctly.  I could not find the “jala” definition that worked with the saying. When asked, my mom said it was something the Indian people in our town said and she used it as well.  I never even thought of “nahin jala” as an Indian word or saying, I just saw it as a Trinidadian word. 

One of the funniest things to witness was when my mother was upset and would yell out “Ai ai ya karu mai kya suku suku!” My older sister would take off running. She wanted ZERO PROBLEMS. I also thought that this was a Trini saying just like “mauvaislang” or “bacchanalist.” Y’all. It is from a song in an Indian movie that a few of our neighbors used to sing. In layman’s terms, it means “Oh help me, I don’t know what to do.” All I knew was that if an adult said it, the kids were in trouble.

“Tawah,” “chulahs,” “baigan.” All of these words are Trini words. There is no Afro vs. Indo term for these items, this is what we call them. 

In 1845, Indians were sent to Trinidad as indentured laborers. From 1845 to 1917, over 140,000 Indians arrived in Trinidad. A little over ten years post the abolishment of slavery, the cultural and historical differences of the origins of both the African and Inidian people, as well as their role on the island is one that we can spend a long time breaking down. BUT what I want to focus on here is how some elements of both groups have been infused to create Trinidain culture. Though there are  both political and societal differences between the two that have posed problems on the twin islands, as a culture we have done well in celebrating the things that make us both beautiful, as well as learning from each other to make Trinidad what it is today.

 My siblings and I all use the words I mentioned today. One of my favorite things to do this past summer was make doubles. Without even realizing it, my mother carrying these words and foods across the waters with her, told a story to her children and kept us one with who we are as Trinidaidan people.. Though our origins differ, we shared our cultures so closely that our everyday life, down to the words we chose to use, represented a mixture of both identities. When you see the foods a Trinidadian cooks, the terms they use, the clothes they wear, and the songs they sing - you are seeing all of us. They all tell a story of how we as an island have created a culture that represents all who were brought here years ago. 

The words we chose to share, the foods we have created, and the songs we like to sing all hold our history. They tell a story.