Every Boxing Day and New Year’s Day my friend and I traverse the streets of Bermuda in search of gombeys, Bermuda’s folk dancers. We follow them for hours, strutting behind them, sometimes even dancing along with them. The gombeys have become a symbol of Bermudians’, specifically Black Bermudians, identity and heritage and the tradition holds a place of pride in the Bermudian ethos. Firmly rooted in history, the gombey tradition dates back centuries. After a year of forced, unpaid labour, enslaved Bermudians were typically “rewarded” with a few days off during the Christmas season. To celebrate, enslaved Bermudians put on their best clothes, gathered with loved ones and danced. Watching the gombeys, one is reminded of the struggle of one’s ancestors and that they too once donned the same costume and danced the same dance. 

No matter where we find them, we always follow them to North Hamilton, or Backatown, as it is affectionately called. It is here, when dusk falls, that the gombeys are at their best. It becomes a spiritual moment: the gombeys fill the streets and perform the dances of our ancestors. As the gombeys dance through the streets of North Hamilton, they and their audience fill space that was once used as a tool of oppression. In the 1960s and 70s, the colonial government used the bounds of North Hamilton to contain the movement and protests of the Black Bermudian population. The gombeys’ movement through this space reclaims North Hamilton for the Black Bermudian population, filling it with the sounds of their drums and footsteps. It is an act of defiance and subversion. It is in this moment that space is decolonized. 

Space is not neutral. Bound up within space are hierarchies and power dynamics. In fact, it is through the manipulation of space that those in power are able to marginalize people and maintain that subjugation. As French philosopher Henri Lefebrve asserts, space is constructed or produced in order to uphold economic and political power structures. 1 Places and spatial boundaries are delineated in order to maintain social order. Where one lives, socializes, and is educated determines one’s place in the social hierarchy. As one moves through space, social relationships are reinforced and solidified. Determining who is allowed to traverse and occupy which spaces is a central tenet of seizing and maintaining power. White supremacy functions through the racialization of space. When it comes to maintaining the subjugation of Black bodies, white supremacy “require[s] black displacement, black placelessness, black labor, and a black population that submissively stay ‘in place.’” 2 The policing of another’s movement denies the subject a sense of self-determination and autonomy. It is within this framework that one moves from a subject to an object. 

The racial uprisings of 1968 proved to the colonial government how crucial it was to keep Black Bermudians ‘in place in order to maintain their hold on power.’ Protesting and rioting broke out as Black Bermudians demonstrated against their status as second-class citizens. During this time, North Hamilton served as the site of political organizing and dissent., The colonial government needed to control and contain the movement of Black bodies. As a result, law enforcement physically quarantined protests within the boundaries of North Hamilton in an attempt to protect white businesses from potential damage and looting. They patrolled the streets, searched homes for rioters, and harassed youth for congregating. 3 By containing Black bodies within a designated area, the Bermudian colonial government was able to quash any form of political dissent. The purposeful containment of Black outrage and protest reinforced social hierarchies and the delineation of where Black bodies belonged. Such tactics harken back to laws that sought to stamp out the possibility of revolt of enslaved Bermudians. One of the first documented attempts of white Bermudians attempting to suppress the threat of Black uprisings by controlling the movement of Black bodies appeared in a 1709 hearing at the House of Assembly.  4 Both the 1709 assize and its 20th century descendent were enacted to control Black bodies and uphold white supremacy. 

To this day Black movement is restricted. In order to take to the streets and perform, gombey troops must attain a permit. 5 The creation and enforcement of such  a law is no surprise, as gombeys are a symbol of Black protest and Black defiance. Dancers would use song and dance to mock their white enslavers. 6 The performances were considered such a threat, that several white Bermudians called for the gombey tradition to be “done away with as a thing not suited for civilized community.” 7 The Bermudian House of Assembly attempted to rectify the situation by passing several legislative acts such as “An Act for the Further and Better Regulating of Negros and other slaves” in 1711 and again in 1730. 8 Despite these attempts, the gombey tradition continued, subversive as ever. To this day, gombeys remain a symbol of protest. At political and social demonstrations, the traditional drumming and dancing appear, pushing against the order to stay ‘in place.’ 

Through the ritual dance of the gombey, Black Bermudians take the space in which they were “placed” and reclaim it for their own purposes. The way in which public space is used by the dancers to challenge colonial authority is particularly profound. The ambulatory performance literally happens in the streets. Gombey troops, and the audience that follows them, reclaim their authority over the space through the very act of filling the streets with music and dance. As the gombeys dance and travel from place to place traffic is forced to wait until the performance is finished. Black bodies now claim authority over the space by determining how and when traffic will once again be able to flow through the streets.  In this moment, North Hamilton is no longer an instrument of oppression but a sacred stage on which the gombeys perform the dance of the ancestors; a dance of subversion. North Hamilton loses its oppressive power, transforming into  a space in which the Black Bermudian struggle is commemorated and memorialized through the subversive dance of the gombeys.