J’Ouvert 2010 happened this past Saturday afternoon on the quad and it was certainly a sight to see.
The J’Ouvert celebration was the brainchild of Nana Boamah-Acheampong ’11, special events director for Wooster Activities Crew. Boamah-Acheampong said he had heard about J’Ouvert his freshman year from Chris Miller ’11 and Matthew Miller ’11.† “The Millers are from Jamaica and talked about J’Ouvert non-stop and I had always wanted to try to bring it to Wooster,” said Boamah-Acheampong.
Boamah-Acheampong called the president of CaribConnect, Kemar Reid ’12 and began the paint party collaboration.† International Student Association president Hayet Rida ’11 joined in to help with supplying the food for the event.
J’Ouvert is a Caribbean celebration that includes dancing, parades and smearing paint all over one another. The roots of J’Ouvert date back to the late 1700s.† In the time of slavery, the French settlers would ban the slaves in the Caribbean from attending their masquerade balls. So, the slaves would either hold their own mini-carnivals or the slaves would cover themselves in paint so as to not be recognized by the settlers. This allowed them to take part in the celebration. The parade and celebration aspect of J’Ouvert originated with the emancipation of slavery in the 1800s.† With their new freedoms, everyone could then participate in the carnival.
“I wanted the event to be the first week of school so I spent the summer having Skype meetings with different members of CaribConnect to learn more about J’Ouvert because most of them had actually been,” said Boamah-Acheampong.
WAC, ISA, and Carib Connect wanted to bring cultures together through this event, and they were definitely successful.
Over 400 students of all ages, backgrounds and interests showed up throughout the day to dance, throw paint, and eat delicious international food. The quad turned into a giant dance floor and† music was played by DJ Brandon Striker, originally from Trinidad, who specializes in† soca (carnival music), Jamaican dancehall, pop, techno, and hip-hop. There were also contests which included tug-of-war, hula hooping, wining (dancing), and limbo.
There was virtually no way to walk into the event in the center of the field and not get messy.† Students ran around with small cups full of orange, yellow, white, green, and red paint and threw it on each other.
“It surprised me how much people liked the paint.† We had to close down paint stations so we wouldn’t run out and when we reopened them people just went wild, it was like it was food or something,” said Boamah-Acheampong. As if the paint wasn’t enough, other students had spray bottles, large squirt guns, small squirt guns, and there was even a hose for spraying down students with water. In the center of the field was a kiddie pool full of paint and water where students could jump in, wrestle, or throw each other in.
Boamah-Acheampong was pleased with the success of the event, and said “I really hope this turns into an annual thing.† It went pretty well and I’d like to see it happen again.† I think more people will attend next time because they will actually know what it is.”