Founder of the Simply Cultural Minstrels, Dr. Claudette Sinnette, said her group has evolved the traditional song of the Minstrels to include Trinidad and Tobago’s unique stories.
Speaking to TTT News after crossing the Downtown stage on Carnival Tuesday, she explained the importance of the traditional musical griots in the Trinidad and Tobago cultural landscape.
“Yes, we are a spin-off of the American Minstrels, and that’s why we have scissor-steel and paint faces, because we continue to mock the mockers who mocked us, painting their white faces black. We paint our black faces white, but we have now moved into and evolved into the storytellers of our own stories, and so for the past few years, we have been creating stories about things that concern us.”
Dr. Sinnette said this was evident in the band’s 2026 presentation, “What the Premier Say”.
“We went back into sayings of Dr. Eric Williams when he created the CDC and all the things he had to say about Carnival and about Trinidad and Tobago, and so we put that together and put it all in a song, reminding us that what we need is discipline, production, and tolerance.”
Formed in the 1940s, the group traces its roots to the 15th-century minstrels, whom Dr. Sinnette described as bearers of the people’s messages delivered from a place of love — a standard she says she maintains today.
“The Americans are no longer here. We thank them for a part of our culture. Like I said, each traditional character documents a part of our history, and we need to really, really recognise and observe that. And if you trace any of the other characters, you would realise that they, again, were created at a different time, but also, in that time space, documented what was happening at that time in the country. So here we are, minstrel griots, telling our story with a whole lot of love. We love you, T&T.”