Calabar Carnival

The tradition & historical record

Calabar Carnival also known as "Carnival Calabar" is an annual carnival held in Cross River State, Nigeria. Colloquially entitled Africa's Biggest Street Party, the carnival holds every December and was declared by the then governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke as an activity to mark Christmas celebration yearly. He said his vision for creating the festival was to make Cross-River a home of tourism and hospitality in Nigeria and Africa. The quality of the festival has grown over the years making it Nigeria's biggest carnival and an internationally recognized festival. It used to be a month-long event that began on the 1st of December, until the former governor of the state, Benedict Ayade reduced it to two weeks after he was elected. During the 2017 carnival, Former governor Benedict Ayade said in his speech that the carnival is to showcase Africa as the richest continent and a blessed place where the young ones should be proud to belong. The carnival has always been entertaining and colourful as different competitions take place and huge cash prizes are won. Calabar which is also known by the name Canaan City, is a city in southern Nigeria. Calabar is the capital city of Cross River State. Calabar sits adjacent to the Calabar and Great Kwa Rivers and Falls as well as the creeks of the Cross River. According to Ojoi Ekpenyong, the managing director of the tourism bureau, the event hosted over 248,000 visitors. ¹

The Calabar Carnival is an old cultural event that started even before Nigerian independence. During the Nigerian civil war that lasted from 1966 - 1970, the carnival was halted for a while for security reasons, but it commenced in 1971 when the governor of South Eastern state was Brigadier General U. J. Esuene and was celebrated throughout the 80s and 90s. By 1993 political crises that later lead to the death of M.K.O Abiola, following election results annulment by then military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, as the crises engulfed the entire nation, subsequent events from the political crises lead to economic down turn, massive protest, and Commonwealth sanctions. All these slowed down the Calabar Festival celebration again. In 2004, former governor Donald Duke of Cross River, as a way to promote tourism and improve the local economy reboosted the Calabar carnival, by bringing in participants and visitors from other African countries, international investors and the Diaspora. According to Osima-Dokubo, "the carnival aimed to include more aspects of local heritage and culture and at the same time strengthen the capacity of the locals to participate in an economically beneficial way." ¹

The programme is drafted each year by the committee in charge of tourism and cultural activities and new initiatives are introduced with different topics chosen to drive the carnival. In December 2009, the Carnival Committee organized "Carnival Cup 2009", a football competition among the five competing carnival bands - Seagull, Passion 4, Masta Blasta, Bayside and Freedom. These bands are distinguished by their colors; The Seagull is the Red band and is known as the most stylish and coordinated band, Passion 4 is the Green band and is known as the most successful band, Masta Blasta is the orange and largest band, Bayside is the Blue band, and Freedom is the Yellow band. The Festival also includes music performance from both local and international artists, the annual Calabar Carnival, Boat regatta, Fashion shows (introduced in 2016), Beauty pageant (Miss Africa introduced in 2016) Christmas Village, traditional dances and the annual Ekpe Festival that brings in thousands of tourists.) Other activities that make up this carnival include essay writing competitions, which involves both secondary school and tertiary students. These competitions are designed to promote reading culture among the youths of the State and inculcate in them the carnival culture. In 2017 The Paradise Music Festival and Awards was added to the Calabar carnival calendar ¹

The event hosts local and international musicians, actors and actresses, politicians and other notable men and women. Some of the entertainers who have attended the carnival include Lucky Dube, Akon, Fat Joe, Young Jeezy, Nelly, Kirk Franklin, Sean Kingston, Wizkid, P-Square, Banky W, Ojb Jezreel. ¹

Calas vegas Passion 4 Freedom band Seagull band Masta blasta Bayside Diamond Hitfm band FAF band (Florence Agogo Foundation) Governor band ¹

The 2013 Calabar Carnival was focused on Nigerian artists. The winner of the 2013 carnival was Masta Blasta. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Calabar Carnival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Calabar Carnival is annual festival in Nigeria, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²