Bassculture Islands No 4 | Page 32

then we go paint the town blue “Djab se yo Neg me die se nom-la blah” = ‘if the devil is a black m a n t h e n God is a white man“. The Story told by Tafar Chia Lewis These words paint the rebellious, fearless energy of the Blue Devils, an energy that could only be experienced. A sudden burst of madness onlookers would see but to the player of this Mas he experiences sane honesty; the honest playing of the side of us that we wish to suppress since slavery oppressed and since Carnival for the lower class was the chance to have an opinion that mattered and could be expressed. Blue devils did that. It instead is not a devil as what we know in the biblical sense but, it is the title given to blacks in slavery, it is the antagonist through the eyes of a very subjective society, and it is the person who chooses to revolt or rather stand up against the ills of politics and capitalism. “If everything we do and every fiber of our being can only be considered evil because of the mere blackness of our skin then we go paint the town blue.”