MUD MAS
One of the unique identifiers in the ethos of Tobago Carnival is the Mud Mas. But not many of us understand the deep-rooted ancestral ties that this feature has to who we are as a people.
Carnival was introduced to Trinidad and Tobago by French settlers in 1783, a time of slavery. Banned from the masquerade balls of the French, the slaves would stage their own mini-carnivals in their backyards — using their own rituals and folklore, but also imitating and sometimes mocking their masters’ behavior at the masquerade balls.
French men and ladies would use lots of make up "powder" and slaves would use mud instead.
Even deeper than that is the history of our ancestors using mud and clay to build homes, for medicinal and healing purposes, for cleansing - and to feed themselves with the creation of ovens made of mud, dirt and clay that we can still find littered across Tobago today!
Even though the origins may not be glamorous, mud mas has been woven into the fabric of Tobago Carnival in a way that is not replicated anywhere else in the world.
MUDERN MUD
The Bagatelle Dutty Camp, has always been civic-minded and committed to expanding aspects of the culture that are good for the growth of Tobago’s tourism industry. In service of Tobago, the camp merged education with their passion for the preservation of heritage, attracting visitors around the globe who seek an authentic local experience. The Tobago Carnival experience, provided a gateway to do so.
Capitalizing on the traditional Mud Mas Carnival experience, a Mud Mas showcase was hosted for the Tobago Carnival 2010. A responsibility to uphold the legacy of a community elder who passed the previous year, fueled this initiative. This community elder led a fun, educational Mud Mas experience, yearly. It was a sense of obligation. Two successful years would pass by and Bagatelle Dutty Camp became inspired to enhance the showcase by adding colour and officially marketing mud as an exportable tourism product.
It is then, in 2012, the Bagatelle Dutty Camp was registered, and the introduction of the MUDERNMUD product has since elevated the value of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival experience, forever. The camp went on to make the mud more vibrant and stayed committed to acquiring the best clay for the product. Year after year some dedicated friends trod far into the deep jungles of Tobago to obtain the finest clay, producing the finest quality of mud. Along with our traditional brown mud, colored mud is now a staple amongst participants at our annual Mud Mas Festival showcasing.
In 2014 and 2015, the Bagatelle Dutty Camp hosted a private educational pageant known as, the Miss Mudernmud Pageant. This initiative added another layer of entertainment-driven cultural education. It encompassed several categories, highlighting the importance of preserving, showcasing and expanding the history of Mud Mas. This further reflects the dedication the Bagatelle Dutty Camp has in serving Tobago, through Health, Education, Entertainment and Tourism.
MUDERNMUD is a clay-based carnival accessory which takes the form of a lotion and is at one's disposal in a variety of colours; pink, green, yellow, purple, orange, blue, champagne and brown. Masters extract the uppermost quality of clay, which is concocted with colour and packaged metal drums, plastic buckets or an environmentally safe, export-friendly, transparent packet with a spout and an attached glow-in-the-dark label.
Mudernmud has been used in over 8 countries worldwide, from Miami, Antigua, Montserrat, Bahamas, England, Germany just to name a few and with Trinidad being our largest market. The Tobago Mudernmud Festival was established in the carnival of 2012 to celebrate Mud as a traditional type of Carnival Mas and to enlighten the masses about this neoteric mud formula indigenous to the majestic isle of Tobago. The festival adds to worldwide awareness of Mud Mas in Tobago which occurs every year on carnival Sunday to carnival Tuesday.