Valley's Afro Caribbean community celebrates Rihanna at the Super Bowl

For Casa Grande resident and Jamaica native Gayle Reid, 47, no beat or jam compares to the “island vibe” that music from the Caribbean embodies.

Music is the biggest unifier among people from the predominantly English-speaking region, Reid and other Phoenix-area expatriates are quick to share.

This week, that island vibe is reverberating even stronger with Barbadian singer Rihanna’s upcoming performance during the Super Bowl halftime show Sunday night at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium, Afro Caribbean residents told The Arizona Republic. They are looking forward to seeing her in the spotlight, in their adopted city.

“She's raw, she's authentic, so she's embraced,” Reid said.

The excitement Black Caribbean residents hold for Rihanna comes some struggle to grow a bigger sense of community in the Valley, they said during a conversation at Reid’s Jamaican eatery, Topnotch Island Flavor Kitchen in north Phoenix.

The Grammy-winning 34-year-old Rihanna will become the third woman of color to solo headline a Super Bowl halftime show. The others were Diana Ross and Beyoncé. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira co-headlined.

Affectionately dubbed RiRi by fans, Rihanna's music has long been a popular choice at local Afro Caribbean parties, community members noted. They said Rihanna’s first single, the 2005 hit “Pon de Replay,” which lifts from the Caribbean musical genre dancehall and is about musical revelry, remains a favorite.

Mesa resident Irma Banzi, 22, hails from Trinidad and Tobago.

“I grew up on Rihanna,” Banzi said. “All the school parties, everything is just straight up Rihanna.”

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'We're still family'

According to 2019 figures from the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, there are 7,264 foreign-born Arizona residents from the Caribbean, excluding Cuba.

The British West Indies are lands the British colonized in the region, including Guyana in South America and Belize in Central America.

A majority of British West Indians in the state hail from Jamaica, mainland Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, said Robert Cumberbatch, president and founder of the Arizona Caribbean Cultural Association.

A immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, Cumberbatch, 60, said the Afro Caribbean community is mostly spread throughout north Phoenix, Laveen, Maricopa, Tucson and Flagstaff.

Hearing a stranger speak in the distinctive Caribbean English patois prompts not only celebration, but is a rare opportunity to connect, community members said.

“I don't care where you are from in the Caribbean as long as I know that you are Caribbean, we share the same things,” Margo Laing Wint said. "We're still family.”

Maricopa resident Laing Wint, 46, immigrated from Jamaica as a child to New York City before moving to Arizona in 2009. She deejays as DJ Lady Ninja.

A signature of Afro Caribbean gatherings is home cooking, be it at a birthday party or a funeral, community members said. Dishes such as roti, oxtails, saltfish, coco rice and flying fish with cou-cou transcend nationalities.

But it's harder to find quality seasonings for jerk chicken, a popular Jamaican delicacy, in Arizona, Laing Wint said.

As such, many Black Caribbean residents looking for culinary staples flock to establishments like Reid’s. Partially because of that, the restaurant, located at at 16816 N. Cave Creek Road, will soon host meetups for Afro Caribbeans every second and fourth Sunday of each month. The first meetup? Super Bowl Sunday.

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Carnival culture

Beyond food, music continues to help bind the community within the Valley. Cumberbatch’s cultural association was on hand the afternoon of Feb. 6 at Phoenix City Hall for a proclamation honoring Jamaican musical great Bob Marley on what would have been his 78th birthday.

David Hinds, Arizona State University associate professor of Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies in the School of Social Transformation, agrees music is integral to the British West Indies' shared heritage.

For instance, with its storytelling style, Trinidad and Tobago’s musical genre of calypso helped slaves address their history and politics. Calypso emerged as a form of resistance, giving space for slaves to mock plantation owners who did not understand the Creole language it was performed in, Hinds said.

Another cultural commonality is carnival, which started as an end-of-harvest celebration for slaves, Hinds said.

Rihanna regularly attends Barbados’ Crop Over festival where she appears in colorful regalia, replete with beaded fabric and feathers. Her presence, Cumberbatch said, has helped bring international attention to Caribbean carnival culture.

To better coalesce the Afro Caribbean community in the state, Cumberbatch and Laing Wint started Destination Arizona Carnival. When it debuted in 2019, the festival was inspired by Trinidadian celebrations and drew about 400 people, Cumberbatch said.

The pandemic put the event on hold, so this year will be the event's second year. The festivities in Phoenix will be held over two days – March 18 at Steele Indian School Park and March 19 at Heritage Square.

Its organizers have faced challenges as of late, however.

Pulmonary fibrosis led Laing Wint to undergo two double lung transplants in as many years only a few years ago. Then COVID-19 hospitalized her for months. Not long after, on the night of Thanksgiving in 2019, Cumberbatch suffered a physically impairing stroke.

Funding for the carnival and festival is another issue, Cumberbatch said. Security, location and the courier shipping of carnival costumes are all costly.

Nonetheless, Cumberbatch said he is optimistic about growing the event in the state he moved to from Long Island, New York, a dozen years ago.

“It can be done," Cumberbatch said. "It takes a lot.”

He believes passion and drive will see the event through.

The waves of migration that brought people to the U.S.

The first wave of migrants from the British West Indies came to the United States in the early 20th century. Many settled in New York City, explained Hinds, the ASU professor. A second major migration took place following the civil rights movement, with many moving to the Washington, D.C., metro area. Later migrations took place in Florida, along with Chicago and Ohio, he said.

As for English-speaking Caribbean migration to Arizona, Barbadians came to the Phoenix area nearly 40 years ago when their tech industry jobs relocated them here, Hinds noted.

Among these immigrants was Ward Scott, 68. Now retired from Intel, the Chandler resident has dedicated himself to teaching math at local schools and institutions.

Scott admits that because he is of an older generation, Rihanna isn't on his playlist, but he is still moved by the visibility and representation that her Super Bowl appearance will provide.

“I am very proud of Rihanna as a fellow Barbadian,” he said. “Before Rihanna, a lot of people may not have heard of Barbados, so she puts Barbados on the world stage.”

Reach breaking news reporter Jose R. Gonzalez at jose.gonzalez@gannett.com or on Twitter @jrgzztx.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona's Afro Caribbean community celebrates Rihanna for Super Bowl