The “whippers” during the «charge», Voukoum Group The “whippers” are the «Mas» sentinels, those who open the “charge” with the clacking sound of the their long whip, which handiness is only equaled by the deafening sound it produces.

The whip liberates energy and symbolizes the physical punishments inflicted to the slaves by their masters. Ahead of the group, the whippers move the crowd aside, by swirling their instrument in a physically controlled expertise they learn at young age. In fact, it is the favorite game of the children who try the whip, it becomes an initiatory ritual when they’re teenagers, and only pass it when the whip “clacks” like the ones used by the adults. Petit Paris district, Basse Terre