Gayelle The Channel has launched their coverage of Carnival and as usual they have some great programming. There was a segment on recently about the Keylemanjahro Moko Jumbie School  showing the processes behind concepts for bands each year, the training, and most importantly the creativity and dedication of the members. Here’s a similar documentary on the history of Moko Jumbie in the Caribbean:




The Moko Jumbies are the spirits that guard Carnival bands: 

In Iwoye, a Ketu town in West Yoruba country near the Dahomey border, the “Gagalo” silt dancers come out at the annual festival held to honour the supernatural protector of the town – “Orisa Oluwa.” It is a harvest festival at which yams are offered and the stilt dancers must perform before the harvest begins…In Trinidad today and in the US Virgin Islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix, especially, an abundance of stilt dancers can be seen. They are called in both places the “Moko Jumbie” (Rituals of Power & Rebellion 65-66)