Caring For Black Children's Hair

Written by Azizi Powell

Note: This is a posting with minor typographical & grammatical corrections of an article that I wrote in 1992. The article was published in Ours magazine (November 1992, pps 32-34). Ours was published and distributed by The North American Council On Adoptable Children. One section of the article is missing. I will add what I think is missing in brackets. I recognize that given the internet it's far easier to find information about Black hair care & far easier to purchase Black hair products now than it was in 1992. However, I'm posting this article as it was written for the historical record and with the recognition that some of my comments would be different now in large part because of the internet.

Caring For Black Children's Hair
An adoptive African American parent discusses Black hair care for families who have adopted transracially.
by Azizi Powell, 11/1992

There she was, a 2 or 3 year old Black girl standing next to her White adoptive parents and her Asian older sister. The little girl's skin was brown like mine. Her eyes were alert and expressive, but her hair was dry, lackluster, and badly matted. It ssemed clear that the girl's White parents didn't have a clue how to take care of her hair.

There were more than 100 people at the reception held at the Pennsylvania governor's mansion celebrating the establishment of an initiative to improve the state's adoption services. People were mingling, networking, and socializing. But the family I had noticed earlier was standing alone, isolated. That family bothered me. More to the point, I was bothered by the condition of their daughter's hair, and the fact that I've never been sure what the proper etiquette is for offering unsolicited information and assistance.

The girl's hair

I wasn't the only person who had noticed that little girl's hair. Actually someone else had surreptitously pointed her out to me and whispered that this confirmed her position that White people shouldn't be raising our kids.

There were other transracial families at that adoption conference's reception but they were White families with Asian children. While these families have to face issues of differentness, they don't have to so immediately confront their prejudice and other people's prejudice about what society calls "good" and "bad" hair. They also don't have to learn how to properly groom hair whose management needs are different from theirs.

It's not unusual for African Americans who attend adoption conferences to see Black children whose hair isn't properly groomed and combed. While that little girl's hair was in worse shape than most I'd seen, there have been other Black girls whose hair needed grooming, and Black boys whose hair needed a good hair cut, some hair grease, and the use of an Afro pik.

It takes a certain amount of psychological preparation for African Americans who have concerns about transracial adoption to attend these conferences. Issues of entitlement are potent and rarely addressed. Often transracial adoptive parents see you as the enemy and are on guard against your every statement.

At other times White parents ask you to provide suggestions and advice about raising children of color. [But what do you do when you think a person needs advice but they haven't approached you for it? Do you approach them? That's what I finally did. The liitle girl had gone off with her father and older sister, and I walked up to the mother and started the conversation by saying something like "I noticed that your little girl's hair texture is a lot like mine. I wear my hair in an afro, but many Black girls under the age of 12 years old, or even older prefer their hair in other styles."

The woman seemed somewhat taken aback that I had introduced that subject, but she admitted that she didn't know how to take care of her daughter's hair. I suggested that she comb her daughter's hair with a wide tooth comb or an Afro pik, and use a detangling spray or dampen each section of her daughter's hair with a little bit of water before combing it.]

Finding Black hair care products & other issues

The adoptive mother told me that she lived in a town where there were no other Black people except for her daughter. She explained that she didn't know where to buy an African pik and detangling spray. I asked the woman how far her family lived from the city where this conference was held. She said 100 miles. I told her that I regretted that there were no other Black people besides her daughter in their hometown but wasn't she lucky that she lived so close to a city where she could meet some Black people.

I told her that she needed to be more assertive about reaching out to others and encouraged her to be creative about how she and her family could grow more knowledgeable about African American lifestyles so that she and her family could be more comfortable interacting with Black people. I suggested that after attending this conference in the city, the family stop at a convenience store and purchase some Black hair care products, asking for help if need be. I recommended that she subscribe to some Black magazines, read them, and order some Black hair products through those magazines. I also suggested that when the family traveled to the city they could attend a Black church and attend community events in African American and integrated communities.

If the family had lived far from African Americans, they would have to be more creative and assertive about finding resources and resource people for their entire family. A family could contact a National Association For The Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) or a branch office of the Urban League in the nearest large city to ask for assistance. Or they might want to consider seeking information from and cultural exchanges with a Black student group at a nearby college or university.

Other Black hair care tips

Here are some other Black hair care tips that I didn't share with that woman because of the circumstances:

Under normal circumstances, don't wash tightly curled hair more than once a week.

Because most African American hair is less oily than most Caucasian hair, replenish the hair's natural oil at least once a week by using hair grease, hair oil, or hair gel. When combing this hair, slightly dampen the hair by wetting a washcloth and rubbing it through the hair. Or you can apply a detangling spray or a little water to the hair while combing it.

For thick, coarse, tightly curled African American hair, use an Afro pik or wide tooth comb. Section the hair in parts and deal with one section of the hair at a time. Place a dap of hair grease, hair oil, or hair gel on the palm of your hand. Rub your hands together and place the grease (or oil, or gel) on the hair stand and not the scalp. Place one hand above the portion of hair that you are combing and begin to come the hair from the bottom up. Move your hand up the hair as you comb up. Then you can braid the hair as you go, combining more than one section of hair into braids.

There are almost as many types of African American hair textures as there are Black skin colors. When their hair is wet, some Black people use a blow dryer with a comb attachment to straighten out the tangles in their wet hair or in their children's wet hair. However, frequent use of a blow dryer takes a toll on hair that is already less oily than most Causcasian hair.

For years, most Black women have been using iron combs heated over the kitchen stove, and lately, electric heating irons or chemical perms to straighten or "relax" the tight curls in their hair cuticles. While stores do sell some chemical relaxers for children, most Black hairdressers recommend that those products not be used until the child is at least 8 years old. The reason for this is that prior to that age, children's scalps and hair are too sensitive. Cosmetologists also don't recommend using a hot comb or an electric comb in girls' hair prior to the age of 8. Hoever, quite a few Black parents have done so, particularly for special occassions.

Conclusion

Hair is such an important determinant of beauty. I told the White transracial adoptive mother that her daughter faces special challenges because she is of a different race than others around her. Why add to those challanges by having people tease her because her hair doesn't look good or feel good?

I explained that even though I knew that she and her husband would take measure to try to ensure that their remained physically healthy, they also owed it to their daughter to help her grow up emotionally healthy. And that means liking herself. And liking her hair is a big part of liking herself.

-End of article-

Disclaimer: I'm not a beautician. I merely shared the way that I take care of my hair and the way I took care of my children's hair. That said, I recall asking for tips on hair care from two African American beauticians before writing that section of the article on hair care tips.

Here are links to two online pages that provide tips on Black hair care:

Black hair care tips

Black hair care tips, continued

Also, here's a link to a current adoption magazine Adoptive Familes

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Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards

Posted by Azizi Powell

Another Blues great has gone home to glory.

From New York Times Obit Of Honeyboy Edwards

By BILL FRISKICS-WARREN
New York Times
August 29, 2011

David Honeyboy Edwards, believed to have been the oldest surviving member of the first generation of Delta blues singers, died on Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 96...

Mr. Edwards's career spanned nearly the entire recorded history of the blues, from its early years in the Mississippi Delta to its migration to the nightclubs of Chicago and its emergence as an international phenomenon.

Over eight decades Mr. Edwards knew or played with virtually every major figure who worked in the idiom, including Charley Patton, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He was probably best known, though, as the last living link to Robert Johnson, widely hailed as the King of the Delta Blues. The two traveled together, performing on street corners and at picnics, dances and fish fries during the 1930s.

"We would walk through the country with our guitars on our shoulders, stop at people's houses, play a little music, walk on," Mr. Edwards said in an interview with the blues historian Robert Palmer, recalling his peripatetic years with Johnson. "We could hitchhike, transfer from truck to truck, or, if we couldn't catch one of them, we'd go to the train yard, 'cause the railroad was all through that part of the country then." He added, "Man, we played for a lot of peoples."

Mr. Edwards had earlier apprenticed with the country bluesman Big Joe Williams. Unlike Williams and many of his other peers, however, Mr. Edwards did not record commercially until after World War II. Field recordings he made for the Library of Congress under the supervision of the folklorist Alan Lomax in 1942 are the only documents of Mr. Edwards's music from his years in the Delta.

Citing the interplay between his coarse, keening vocals and his syncopated "talking" guitar on recordings like "Wind Howling Blues," many historians regard these performances as classic examples of the deep, down-home blues that shaped rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll.

Mr. Edwards was especially renowned for his intricate fingerpicking and his slashing bottleneck-slide guitar work. Though he played in much the same traditional style throughout his career, he also enjoyed the distinction of being one of the first Delta blues musicians to perform with a saxophonist and drummer.

David Edwards was born June 28, 1915, in Shaw, Miss., in the Delta region. His parents, who worked as sharecroppers, gave him the nickname Honey, which later became Honeyboy. His mother played the guitar; his father, a fiddler and guitarist, performed at local social events. Mr. Edwards's father bought him his first guitar and taught him to play traditional folk ballads.

His first real exposure to the blues came in 1929, when the celebrated country bluesman Tommy Johnson came to pick cotton at Wildwood Plantation, the farm near Greenwood where the Edwards family lived at the time...

After spending the better part of two decades as an itinerant musician, Mr. Edwards made Chicago his permanent home in the 1950s. He performed frequently in its clubs and at the open-air market on Maxwell Street, but he recorded only sporadically during his first years there, notably for the independent Artist and Chess labels.

Mr. Edwards achieved new popularity during the blues revival of the 1960s. Near the end of the decade he appeared with Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy on sessions that produced both volumes of the album "Blues Jam in Chicago" by the British rock band Fleetwood Mac...

Mr. Edwards was elected to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1996 and named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002. In 2007 he appeared as himself in the movie "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."...

Mr. Edwards won a Grammy Award in 2008 for the album "Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas," a collaboration with Henry Townsend, Pinetop Perkins (who died in March) and Robert Lockwood Jr., and a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2010.

He was still playing as many as 100 shows a year when he stopped touring, in 2008, and he continued to perform occasionally until this year. His last appearance was at a blues festival in Clarksdale, Miss., in April.

-snip-

Hat tip to Desert Dancer and others who posted this and several more newspaper articles about Honeyboy Edwards on RE: Obit: David 'Honeyboy' Edwards RIP 29-Aug-2011

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Honeyboy Edwards at WBEZ Chicago Public Radio



Uploaded by ChicagoTribune on Feb 12, 2008

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Remembering Sesame Street's Roosevelt Franklin

Written by Azizi Powell

The oldest memory that I have of Sesame Street is watching that children's television show in 1970 along with twin toddlers who I took care of. Since Sesame Street first aired in November 1969, that makes me part of the earliest audience for that show. And while I admit to having a fondness for Cookie Monster along with my daughter who watched the show in the mid 1970s, the character who I liked the most was Roosevelt Franklin. Years after those video clips stopped airing on Sesame Street, I can still remember the words & tune to the theme song that you heard before the actual clip started (Roosevelt Franklin was such a cool teacher that they named the school after him).

"Hail to thee our alma mater
Roosevelt Franklin
High!
Elementary School
Elementary School."

-snip-

This post has no heavy duty message. I just felt like sharing the following two videos of Roosevelt and his "crew":

Sesame Street - Roosevelt Franklin's picture story



Uploaded by jonnytbirdzback on Mar 7, 2008
The story of a big ol' bone in the doghouse.

-snip-

Classic Sesame Street - Roosevelt Franklin Africa



Uploaded by BipBippadotta on Aug 5, 2006

-snip-

My thanks to the talented writers and puppeteers for the good times (though admittedly these classroom scenes don't convey all that positive an image of African American schools). Yet I really like these two videos. As a storyteller, I love the call & response pattern of the "big ole bone in the dog house" story and I wonder if it's an adaptation of a traditional African American or African story. And I like how that story left the students (and viewers/listeners) with the message about how they should leave things alone that are not their own. As Roosevelt said "This is another golden rule from the Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School".

Also, I give points to that second video's goal of sharing some positive information about the African continent.

I really wish Roosevelt Franklin was back on Sesame Street, although I'd prefer a classroom of characters who acted much less rambunctions but still retained their heart warming characteristics.

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Racial Attitudes In Caribbean Folk Songs

Written by Azizi Powell

In the summer of 2011 a blogger using the tag name of MorwenEdhelwenI arrived at a Folk & Blues music website called Mudcat.org. and started a number of discussion threads* about a host of very old Caribbean folk songs. That blogger indicated that she is a 17 year old Australian of Chinese ancestry whose goal in life is to be a Calypso singer in Jamaica. On one of her earlier threads I shared my suspicions that this blogger's identity might be fictitious. But whether that identity is real or not, I appreciate being able to read the lyrics and learn about the Caribbean songs and singers that Morwen has shared with the world via her posts on that Mudcat site. From 2004-2009 I was a very active poster on Mudcat. I very rarely post there now, but I've publicly thanked Morwen there & on my Cocojams website for helping to raise awareness about Caribbean folk songs through her postings. I've also publicly thanked Morwen for inspiring me to these pages to my Cocojams website.

Caribbean Folk Songs and Caribbean Folk Dances

*A thread is a series of written comments usually on a specific topic or topics. My comment that I referred to above is found on this Mudcat thread: A very uncomfortable question perform other trad

An example of Morwen's Caribbean threads on Mudcat.org is Big Big Sambo Gyal

That thread focuses on various examples of Caribbean songs in which a woman is criticized because she isn't good with cooking or housework. The male voice in those songs also may threaten that he might send the woman "back to she ma" if she doesn't improve her cooking and housework skills. Here's the words to and a video example of one of the songs mentioned on that Mudcat thread "Jesse Mahon" (also known as "Pack She Back To She Ma)

CHORUS
Pack she back to she ma,
Oh, pack she hack to she ma,
Such a decent girl like Jessie Mahon,
Pack she back to she ma.

1. A pretty little girl name Jessie Mahon,
She lazy since she born, .
De girl couldn’ cook, she won’ read a book,
So pack she back to she ma.

2. A pretty little girl like Jessie Mahon.
Uh miss she now she gone
De girl couldn’ clean, she was so mean.
So, pack she back to she ma

Lyrics Of Barbados-Jessie Mahon

**
St Lucia National Youth Choir -Jessie Mahon



Uploaded by glnlake on Oct 13, 2007
Colors of Love Concert at Sandals Grande (2005)

(Visit the previously mentioned Cocojams page for another, probably newer, rendition of this song by that same choir.)

-snip-

It's interesting that among the complaints about Jesse Mahone is that "De girl couldn’ cook, she won’ read a book". I wouldn't be surprised if that was a later version of this folk song. The song itself (or more accurately, a version of this traditional song was copyrighted in 1943 as "Pack She Back To She Ma" by Massie Patterson and Lionel Belasco. If I'm not mistaken, both of these individuals are of Afro-Caribbean descent, though they lived in the USA.

-snip-

These songs are more than a man's lighthearted banter about a wife who is a sloppy housewife who can't cook. Hints as to why "Jesse Mahon" may not have wanted to cook & clean or may not have known how to cook & clean are found in this similar song that was published in a 1904 book of Jamaican folk songs:

Bungo Moolatta, Bungo Moolatta
Who de go married you?
You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing
Who de go married you?
Me give you me shirt fe wash
You burn up me shirt with iron
Who de go married you?
You hand full a ring an' you can't do a t'ing
-Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song And Story 1904; Dover Reprints

-snip-

Walter Jekyll noted that ""Bungo" is "a rough, uncivilized African" and "Moolatta" is "the child of two Brown parents, Brown being the offspring of Black and White. He has rather a yellow skin."

And in the notes to another similar song that is included in his book (and whose lyrics are posted on that abovementioned Mudcat thread entitled "Big Big Sambo Gyal", Jekyll wrote that "A Sambo is a child of a brown mother and a black father, being a cross between black and white. The Sambo lady, being proud of the strain of white in her blood, turns up her nose at the black man. She wants a white man for a husband. Failing to find one, she will not marry."

-snip-

The implication here is that "Jesse Mahon" feels that she's too good to cook and clean for a Black man because of her White ancestry. Note that Jekyll described the offspring of a Brown woman and a Black man. The implication might be that a Brown man wouldn't "marry down" to a Black woman. Yet it's interesting to note that the song suggests that some White men would marry a woman of mixed Brown (or Black?)/White ancestry.

These old Caribbean songs have many more than what we may have been led to believe. It would be wonderful to say that no person of African descent nowadays has such racist (or is it classist?) attitudes about their race, but if I said that it wouldn't be true.

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The Original Meaning of The Song That Became "Sea Lion Woman"

Written by Azizi Powell

The 1999 American movie "The General's Daughter" might have been the first time many people heard the song "Sea Lion Woman" ("Sea Line Woman"). For others - including me -"Sea Lion Woman" is forever associated with the soulful vocalist Nina Simone. Here's a video of Nina Simone singing that song:

Nina Simone- See Line Woman



Uploaded by mardenhill on Oct 5, 2009

Live Performance - Montréal, Canada (1992)
-snip-
Update 6/7/2012: Lyrics to this version of "Sea Line" are found below.

Since the only version of "Sea Lion Woman" that I knew for a long time was the one that Nina Simone sang, it came as a suprise to me that some people believe that a children's playground song was the basis of "Sea Lion Woman" (or similarly spelled titles).

In a comment that is posted on the Folk music & Blues forum Mudcat Cafe, blogger Jim Dixon shared the following information

"Sea-Lye Woman (Sea Lion)was included on the album "Field Recordings Vol 4: Mississippi & Alabama (1934-1942) which was released in 1998 on the Document label. There it is sung by Katherine & Christeen Shipp, who sound very young. In fact, the song has the flavor of a girl's jump-rope rhyme, with a sort of African beat....

By the way, I doubt that African American girls in Mississippi or Alabama in the 1930s or 40s would be singing about a "sea lion" woman anyway. They seem to be awfully far removed from the "selkie" legends. And they are definitely pronouncing it "see-lye" or maybe "seal-eye". "Sea Lion" seems like rationalization to me. Do you suppose the song had been handed down from some African language?
April 3,2003 http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=33719

-snip-
Instead of thinking that the "sea lion" phrase might have come from an African language, my guess [which I shared on that same Mudcat thread] was that "sea lion" was a folk etymology form of the Biblical phrase "Selah". But I dropped that theory after reading several comments from guests who identified themselves as being from the South* and who shared that that "sea lion" ("see-line"; "see-lye") originally was "she lyin'". The phrase "She lyin" (or "she's lying" as one guest wrote it) was said in response to a call & response tattle tail type statement such as one person saying "she drank coffee" and the second person saying "(No I didn't) She lyin'".

*I'm a Northern girl with no known Southern relatives. The only Southern city I've ever visited is Atlanta, Georgia. I guess Atlanta still counts as the South in spite of all the Northern people who've moved there).

It should also be noted that another guest wrote that "sea lion" was originally "C-line", a referent for a railroad line. But I'm sold on the "She lyin" meaning for a number of reasons.
1. That phrase fits the likely pronunciation customs of some Black folks in the South (and elsewhere)

2. The back & forth tattle tailing and denial statements fit the call & response pattern that Nina Simone has preserved so well in her renditions of this song

and

3. That theory fits the comment that was shared earlier that the first recorded version of this song in 1939 [which I haven't heard yet] sounds like a girl's jump rope song.

I should also mention that I happened upon another children's game song version of "Sea Lion Woman" from Mississippi. That version was included in the 1965 book Children's Games From Many Lands (Nina Miller: New York, Friendship Press, pp 121-122). That version was credited to a number of females from Mississippi (no age or race given). The words to that version can be found on Mudcat thread whose link has been previously given.

I believe that it's important to also share that two comments on that same Mudcat thread on "Sea Lion Woman" were posted by guests who indicated that she (or he or perhaps the same person) were members (or a member) of the Shipp family. The first of these comment was written in August 2007. That guest (who didn't share her or his name) wrote:
"I feel the song has been stolen from the family, but having trouble proving it. My grandmother and aunt wrote that song."

The second comment from a Shipp family member was posted to that same Mudcat thread in November 2010. That comment was signed by LaVern Shipp who wrote
"My father Isaac Shipp, my grandmother Mary, and grandfather Walter Shipp was known in the South as the singing Shipp. My aunts are catherine, christine, they both are on the recording in 1939. My grandmother used to write songs and make up tunes to various songs. She passed away in 1966."

UPDATE WITH LYRICS & COMMENTS 6/7/2012
Although the original version of "Sea Lion Woman" ("Sea Line Woman") may have been a children's playground rhyme, the lyrics of that song as sung by Nina Simone were clearly about a "bad" woman who sleeps all day and "balls" all night. However, eventually, the woman returns home to her roots "to save her soul(because she realized that her lifestyle was wrong).

****
LYRICS TO SEA LION WOMAN
[As sung by Katherine and Christine
Shipp; 1939]

Sea Lion Woman (Sea Lion)
She drank coffee (Sea Lion)
She drank tea (Sea Lion)
And he gamble lie (Sea Lion)*
Way down yonder (Sea Lion)
I'm going maul (Sea Lion)
And the rooster crow (Sea Lion)
And he got no lie (Sea Lion)
Sea lion woman (Sea Lion)
She drank coffee (Sea Lion)
She drank tea (Sea Lion)
And she gamble lie (Sea Lion)
Sea lion woman (Sea Lion)
She drank coffee (Sea Lion)
She drank tea (Sea Lion)
And a gamble lie (Sea Lion)

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Lion_Woman

"The exact origins of the song are unknown but it is believed to have originated in the southern United States. It was first recorded by folklore researcher Herbert Halpert on May 13, 1939. Halpert was compiling a series of field recordings for the Library of Congress in Byhalia, MS, when he ran across Walter Shipp, a minister, and his wife Mary, a choir director of a local church. Halpert recorded Shipp's daughters, Katherine and Christine, singing a sparse version of "Sea Lion Woman" that defined the basic rhymes and rhythm of the song."

-snip-
*In the Gullah dialect of English, the pronoun "he" in the Gullah dialect, also means "she". I've read that this is similar to some West African languages, and that practice of using "he" for females can also be found in some Caribbean dialects of English.

-snip-
LYRICS TO SEA LINE WOMAN
[As sung by Nina Simone at a Montréal, Canada (1992)]

Sea line woman (Sea line)
She drink coffee (Sea line)
She drink tea (Sea line)
then she go home (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman, dressed in white (Sea line)
Sleep all day (Sea line)
Ball all night (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
She drink coffee (Sea line)
She drink tea (Sea line)
then she go home (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Wiggle Wiggle (Sea line)
Purr like a cat (Sea line)
Wink at a man (Sea line)
Then he'll wink back(Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Empty his pockets (Sea line)
And wreck his days (Sea line)
Make him love her (Sea line)
She'll fly away (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in gold (Sea line)
Goin home (Sea line)
To save her soul (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in red (Sea line)
Make a man (Sea line)
Lose his head (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Wiggle Wiggle (Sea line)
Purr like a cat (Sea line)
Wink at a man (Sea line)
Then he'll wink back (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Empty his pockets (Sea line)
Wreck his day (Sea line)
Make him love her (Sea line)
And she'll fly away (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in black (Sea line)
Sleep all day (Sea line)
On her back (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in yella (Sea line)
Watch out fellas (Sea line)
You gonna lose out fellas [?]
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in blue (Sea line)
Watch out fellas (Sea line)
She's gonna steal you (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

He can't hear you (Sea line) **
I can't hear you (Sea line)**
Sea line woman (Sea line)
She drink coffee (Sea line)
She drink tea (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in yella (Sea line)
Watch out girls (Sea line)
You gonna steal your fella
Sea line woman (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in gold (Sea line)
Goin home (Sea line)
To see [save?] her soul (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
She drink coffee (Sea line)
She drink a little champagne (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Then she go home now (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Then she go home now (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Whoah!
Sea line!
Sea line!
Sea line!
Sea line!
Sea line!
Sea line!
Sea line!
Sea line!

Sea line woman (Sea line)
She drink coffee (Sea line)
She drink tea (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Sea line woman (Sea line)
Dressed in gold (Sea line)
Goin home (Sea line)
To save her soul (Sea line)

Sea line woman (Sea line)
She drink coffee (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Then she go home now (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line)
Then she go home now (Sea line)
Then she go home (Sea line!)

[transcription by Azizi Powell from the video; words that I'm unsure of are followed by a question mark in brackets]

**lyrics directed to the audience to sing louder

It's should be noted that- as is the case with other folk songs- the lyrics to Nina Simone's "Sea Line Woman" weren't fixed. The words, the order of verses, and the length of the song could change with different performances. For that reason, there are several "Nina Simone" versions of "Sea Lion Woman" (or "Sea Line Woman") online. Most of them follow the "color pattern" (Sea lion woman/dressed in ___) as found above, with the "she drink coffee/she drink tea" verse being repeated more often than any other verse.

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Is Jumping The Broom A Black Appropriation Of A White Custom?

Written by Azizi Powell [revised June 2, 2013]

The tradition of jumping the broom was known to African Americans before the bestselling novel & 1977 television mega hit Roots. But post-Roots and I believe largely because of its inclusion in that television mini-series, more African Americans have incorporated the custom of jumping the broom into their wedding reception, or their wedding ceremony than ever before. And many African Americans think that "jumping the broom" was either created by Black folks during United States slavery or was an traditional African custom. Some people who hold that belief, only Black folks then and now jumped the broom. Judging from online comments on various blogs & YouTube videos of jumping the broom, this view also appears to be held by a number of non-African Americans.

Between 2008 and 2011 there were three African American films that focused on the custom of “jumping the broom”. Those films ant their move trailers are:
Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIwlEAbS-gQ&feature=related

Jump The Broom: A Musical (2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGh02pboiGY

and
Jumping The Broom (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D90GKozn-Xg

The latter film is by far the most popular and the most widely known of these three movies.

In a scene from the Noah’s Arc movie, one of the men getting married gives this explanation of the custom of jumping the broom:
“What’s the deal with this whole broom thing?”

“When our ancestors were slaves, they weren’t allowed to marry legally. So they created this ritual to symbolize marriage. It’s a way for us to honor our history.”

“Cool.”
-snip-
I admit that I was among those who believed that the custom of jumping the broom was either created by enslaved African Americans or was a tradition wedding custom in West Africa or Central Africa where most African Americans came from.

When it is part of the wedding ceremony, the newly married couple jumps the broom after the minister pronounces them husband & wife, and after they kiss. When it is part of the wedding reception, jumping the broom usually occurs before the newlyweds take their first dance.

In the few weddings that I've attended where African Americans jumped the broom, it was done as part of their wedding reception, prior to the newly married couple's first dance. However, most YouTube videos of this custom show African Americans incorporating jumping the broom as part of the actual wedding ceremony.

Although some African Americans "jump the broom" at the conclusion of their wedding ceremony or at their wedding reception, not all African Americans include this custom in their wedding. One reason that some African Americans may not "jump the broom" is because that custom is associated with slavery and/or "jumping the broom" is considered "lower class". It's interesting to note that two of the three above Black movies about jumping the broom Noah's Arc and Jumping The Broom, the wedding was held in the upscale community of Martha's Vineyard and both these movies touched on the issue that some Black people had with jumping the broom being a lower class remmant of slavery.

There's no question that sometimes during United States slavery Black couples jumped the broom to symbolize that they were married. But I don't think that custom came from Africa.

According to the folkloric research cited as references in Jumping The Broom,there are no recorded instances of West African or Central African weddings that involved jumping over a broom. In contrast, that same Wikipedia page notes that there’s considerable folkloric documentation that the custom of jumping the broom has been practiced for centuries in Wales and in England.

A traditional belief of the Congolese people of Central Africa is that there is a line (called the Kalunga line) which separates the world of humans and the world of ancestors, spirits, God and gods. It’s possible that some enslaved Black people might have remembered this belief. It’s also possible that those same enslaved people could have grafted that belief onto the act of newlywed couples jumping over a broom stick lying on the ground-that movement symbolizing moving from being single to being married. But I think that it’s probably more likely that White people introduced the custom of jumping the broom among enslaved Black people as a substitution for more formal marriage rituals whose use was denied to Black people.

In a nation such as the United States where the folkloric traditions of various racial and ethnic groups are often appropriated, merged, and significantly modified, the fact that African Americans may have claimed a Western European custom as our own shouldn’t be all that surprising. Borrowing customs across racial and ethnic lines is a universal practice. The fact that the custom of jumping the broom might have originated in Europe, and may have been either voluntarily borrowed from White folks by enslaved African Americans or forced upon us by White slave masters need not minimize the symbolic meanings of that custom that has been given to it by African Americans in the past and in the present.

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FEATURED VIDEOS OF PEOPLE JUMPING THE BROOM
Here are four videos of the jumping the broom. Each of these videos are examples of how "jumping the broom" has been integrated into some wedding receptions or wedding ceremonies. These videos aren't meant to serve as a template of what should happen during ceremonies or receptions.

These videos are given in no particular order. The first three videos are of an African American weddings, and the fourth video is an non-African American wedding service.

Video #1: Kiss the Bride and Jump the Broom



Uploaded by brownsoc on Aug 28, 2009

Jason and Jorvanna on their wedding day. He's about to salute the bride but first things first

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Video #2: Wedding Reception and Jump the Broom, Union Plaza Las Vegas, Nv.



Uploaded by oscarandbernie on Nov 21, 2009

Academy Award Video Productions shot this unique celebration at the Union Plaza in 1995. This was a musical and visual presentation of the old custom of 'jumping over the broom' a new life begining together. The performance includes the Bride and Groom and is emotional as is beautiful to see. See more of Oscar's video work at Oscar and Bernie Dotcom on TV/Web Productions Page.

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Video #3: Darran & Venus Jumping The Broom



Stacey1Venus, Uploaded on Jul 4, 2011

An African-American traditional wedding ceremony in which the bride and groom signify their entrance into a new life and their creation of a new family by symbolically "sweeping away" their former single lives, former problems and concerns, and over the broom to enter upon a new adventure as husband and wife...

Stacey1Venus: Darran Stacey Johnson & Venus Bivins

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Video #4: Nicky and Tim jump the broom



Uploaded by SaintMitch on Oct 1, 2006

Nicky and Tim got married in Cenac, France on 16th September 2006. The ceremony culminated in them jumping over a broom to symbolise their leap into domestic bliss together!

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ADDED VIDEO [6/2/2013]

Ben L'Oncle Soul - Elle me dit (clip officiel)



Universal Music France, Uploaded on Jul 18, 2011
-snip-
Hat tip to Afro-Europe for alerting me to this video.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/06/ben-loncle-soul-elle-me-dit-she-told-me.html for a pancocojams post of "Elle Me Dit" which includes an English translation to this song & information about Ben L"Oncle Soul.

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Soulful Black Churches

Edited by Azizi Powell

Soulful churches are found throughout the United States. I was raised in one, but the soulfulness of my Baptist church in New Jersey pales in comparison to the down home santified for realness of this church service I found while YouTube surfing:

Mt. Do Well Baptist Church in McConnells, South Carolina -"He Set Me Free"



Uploaded by Hymnchoir on May 3, 2007

Recorded by RAM in 1991 at Mt. Do Well Baptist Church in McConnells, SC www.hymnchoir.org

This way of singing hymns is called "Dr. Watts" , named after the 18th century composer of English hymns, "Dr Isaac Watts. These songs are also called "long meter", the "Old One Hundreds", and "surge singing."

Here's some more information about this type of soulful singing:

According to William T. Dargan, Ph.D., Professor of Music at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina, the old style a capella "spirituals and hymns are characterized by two and three part modal harmonies, gradual but drastic quickening of tempos, frequent and strong body movements as well as polyrhythmic clapping and stomping patterns.

Developed by slaves during the camp meeting revivals of the early nineteenth century, spirituals are rhythmic, call-and-response song forms that continue in oral tradition among African-American congregations.

"Lining out" is a method of performing a psalm or hymn in which the leader gives out the words, or the melody, or both, one or two lines at a time, to be followed by the congregation. This practice began in the early seventeenth century by the British Parish Churches as an aid for those who were unable to read.

Quotation appeared in the Black Music Research Journal Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College, Chicago, Vol. 15 NO. 1, Spring 1995; reposted from http://www.hymnchoir.org/

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