Paper-Mache - Haiti Observer Blog

When Carnival season begins in Haiti, the seaside city of Jacmel divides its celebration into two halves. In the daytime, some celebrants meander through the streets dressed up in colorful paper-mache outfits, while others cover their bodies in shiny, black paint and wield ropes as imitation whips. They are addressing Haiti's slave history and the subsequent slave revolt.

Another roving group, the Chaloska, move through the streets in blood-red and black costumes, their faces decorated with over-sized lurid, red lips and monster fangs. They symbolize the 1915 bloody assault carried out on jailed political dissidents by the local police chief.

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