By Jermaine Cruickshank
This is not a case about trophies or titles. This is not a case about competition.
This is a case about regaining ownership.
The People vs Bunji Garlin is brought before the Court of Carnival not to challenge an artiste’s integrity nor to pressure a legend into reversing his word, but to confront a deeper cultural truth: once a song leaves the studio, it no longer belongs to the artiste alone; it belongs to the people who “Carry It” And as it was so well put in 2025 “It is the Ground that carries it”.
Carnival Road Marches are written on paper and recorded in studios. But it is on the streets and stages, in fetes and villages and within the hearts of us all that it grows and morphs into a contender for Road March. It is decided in sweat, paint, dust, in blistered feet and exhausted bodies pushing forward still from gyms and savannahs across the land to the road on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. It is in the riddims and bass within the soundtrack that keeps masqueraders moving when energy is gone and the sun refuses to relent.
When a song becomes the fuel that carries a nation through the streets of Port of Spain, from Mucurapo Road to Ariapita, downtown and around town, up Charlotte onwards to the savannah in two of the longest, hottest days of the year, that is the Road March. But when that song has already been chosen, it truly speaks to our carbon.
Bunji Garlin made his position clear in 2025. He stepped away from competition and we The People respect that stance. This case is not about forcing him back into a race he chose to leave. It is about acknowledging that “Still a Road Man” has taken on a life of its own, one driven entirely by the masqueraders and in the hearts of feters and the wider Carnival public.
In his own words, Bunji told us:
“Ah say ah done with competition / I eh finish with the road.”
And that is precisely where this case rests.
The People agree. Competition may be done but the road is not.
Every year, Road March is not decided by intention, marketing and registration forms. Repetition, movement and response decide it. The song that plays the longest, the loudest and the most consistently across stages, on trucks, at judging points and routes, becomes the anthem of the Carnival experience.
This is why The People step forward not as prosecutors, but as witnesses. We speak as masqueraders, photographers, vendors who sell their T&T branded memorabilia, flags, cups and bottled water, and even the corn soup man.
We need that rhythm when our legs begin to fail. As feters who found second wind when the chorus dropped. As citizens who lived the lyrics:
“Yes I is a road man… and every year meh program to take me and meh whole gang go over on the stage.”
If the road and the people cannot be separated, as Bunji himself reminds us, then why should Road March be separated from The People’s choice?
This moment also opens a wider cultural conversation, one that extends beyond any single artiste. In T&T the highest honours in the land, The Republic Day President’s National Awards for heroism, culture and service require no registration fee. Nominees do not apply. Citizens nominate citizens. There is no registration fee.
We want to remind the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (TUCO) that Road March is not a commercial product. It is a cultural reflection. So maybe it’s time for them to hold some deep reflection as we remind them Carnival itself is supported at the national level to the tune of million$. The question must be asked respectfully but honestly: Is registration still necessary for Road March?
The People do not demand change for change sake. We are asking for evolution rooted in truth and re-evaluation.
The road does not submit forms. The road responds to music.
So, this is not a verdict against Bunji Garlin. It is a tribute to him.
Because when the people chant “Still a Road Man” until their voices crack, they are not asking him to compete, they are confirming what he already told them.
He may be done with competition.
But the road was never done with him.
The people rest. Court adjourned.
We remind them we all are the “Road Man”. There is carbon in we body. There is carbon in the road.
https://youtu.be/qA9Vux4HAKU?si=0pU6cpG4465lozYm
