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Salaka
Feast - Pembroke Village.
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Salaka
Feast - the festival of
the first fruits.
• Held
in Pembroke, the Salaka
Feast is a celebration
that is offered in honour
of the ancestors.
•
The significance
of this feast spans
generations and reaches
back into the past of the
African tribes - the
Dahomey, Ibo, Congo and
Mandingo.
•
It is a
celebration of
thanksgiving and the
blessings given through
the intercession of the
ancestral spirits are
acknowledged. It also
represents the harmony
and commitment that is
necessary in any village
or town for peace and
progress to occur.
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Tell
your friends
about this site
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The community attempts to
give thanks for the blessings
enjoyed during the past year or
season.
The Salaka Feast is closely
aligned with the presence and
significance of drums in the
culture. Very dramatic
presentations using drums are
involved Drum tempos ranging from
soothing to fire hot: – the
jun jun, djembe, bass and rhythm
drum all speak in their unique
voices.
A quite similar harvest festival
of the "first crop,"
called "Salaka," was
celebrated in Trinidad in the
areas between Guapo and Point
Fortin by immigrants from
Carriacou who had settled around
the oilfields there.
In these celebrations all the
food offered was derived from
"corn" which harkens
back to the ancient tradition of
corn as the basic staple, as well
as its philosophic symbol of
self-continuity.
People from Carriacou settled in
Pembroke and were the first ones
that observed and preserved the
Salaka celebrations in Tobago.
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This
production reacquaints the
audience with the legacy and
traditions of the
Tobagonian-African roots.
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