A mocking pretender. That is what 3canal singer and J’Ouvert bandleader Wendell Manwarren said he thought about American actor/businessman Michael B Jordan, who has named his new rum J’Ouvert.

On Sunday some people were enraged, flocking to social media to complain about the Black Panther actor trademarking the word J’Ouvert for his rum.

“I tried to figure out if they are serious. The thing I find appalling is that they tried to trademark something that is inherently a part of our cultural inheritance and cultural legacy. J’Ouvert is a ritual,” Manwarren said.

He thought choosing the name was a marketing attempt and he’s not sure that the rum brand will have any kind of impact on TT’s J’Ouvert, but he was heartened that people were aggrieved over the choice.

“These things are precious to us, and we need to guard them and value them.

"This is the epitome of what I would call a mocking pretender. You don’t know, and you don’t know that you don’t know. You are ignorant and you’re ignorant of your own ignorance.”

Quoting the Tao Te Ching, a book of Chinese philosophy, he said: "Woe unto him who grossly innovates while ignorant of the constant.

"J’Ouvert is our constant. J’Ouvert is our ritual. J’Ouvert marks the beginning of our year. J’Ouvert is our commemoration, our ancestral struggle for liberation and emancipation, so it is not something that we take lightly.”

Attillah Springer, who describes herself as a "jouvayist," said the rum branding is a prime example of how people, locals as well as internationally, are not informed about the cultural history and legacy of J’Ouvert.

“I feel like there is, on one side, a conversation about trademarks, which is essentially a moot point. If you look at the legal standing, there is nothing wrong with registering a trademark named J’Ouvert.”

But she said, this cannot just be looked at from a legal point of view, because from an emotional and cultural context, J’Ouvert has a historical and emotional meaning to the country.

“A lot of people were vex yesterday (Sunday) because they didn’t understand the trademark issue. They did not understand why they were feeling this visceral rejection of the idea that someone could take the name of something that means so much to us and put it to a product that we will never see any benefit from.”

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The origins of J’Ouvert, she said, had nothing to do with Carnival, but Emancipation.

“J’Ouvert is part of our emancipatory process. It is a ritual, and it becomes really problematic for someone to try and own that.”

The reason why people were enraged about branding a rum J’Ouvert is because: “We rioted for this. We rioted for the right to have J’Ouvert...J’Ouvert is about visibility. J’Ouvert is about protest, celebration in the face of people who did not see you as a human being.

"When you take all of that into consideration, it was extremely triggering to see in the trademark section something like: 'This means nothing in a foreign language