Jamaican Children's Song "Jump Shamador" (Good Morning To You, Mother)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Update: Oct. 19, 2021

This pancocojams post showcases two text versions of the Jamaican children's song "Jump Shamador" (also known as "Good Morning To You, Mother.)"

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, inspirational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

****
SOUNDFILE EXAMPLE OF "JUMP SHAMADOR"
[Added September 8, 2015, along with slight corrections of typos to the remainder of this post]

Jump Shamador



Various Artists - Topic, Published on May 30, 2015

Provided to YouTube by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
-snip-
Transcription of the recording:
First voice: Good morning to you, daughter.
Second voice in response: Good morning to you, mother.
First voice: What is your intention?
Second voice: I want to be a teacher.
First voice: You can't be a teacher.
Second voice: I must be a teacher.
Group: Jump shamador, me darling.
Jump shamador me dear.
Jump shamador, me darling.
Jump shamador, me dear.
Jump shamador.
Jump shamador.
Jump shamador.
Jump shamador.
-snip-
The song repeats from the beginning with new children taking the part of the first voice [daughter] and second voice [mother]. Each time the daughter says what profession she wants to be and the mother says she can't be that profession. The daughter than insists that she can be that profession. In this recording, the professions given are teacher, lawyer, nurse, doctor, president, teacher, and nurse.

The first voice probably is changed to "son" and the second voice changed to father if boys played the part of the "first voice" and the "second voice".

I believe that "Jump Shamador" started as a game song whose purpose was to help Black children develop and reinforce self-confidence and learn to persevere in spite of almost certain obstacles to them achieving their goals.

Songs like this are still needed today.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT "JUMP SHAMADOOR" ("GOOD MORNING TO YOU, MOTHER")
Note: I prefer the title "Jump Shamador" to "Good Morning To You, Mother" because the title "Jump Shamador" distinguishes this Jamaican children's song from other songs with "Good Morning To You" titles.

JUMP SHAMADOOR IN THE 1904 COLLECTION BY WALTER JEKYLL  
The song "Good Morning To You, Mother." is included in Walter Jekyll's 1904 collection Jamaican Song and Story Annancy stories, digging sings, ring tunes, and dancing tunes. In 2011 that manuscript was published online as a Project Gutenberg EBook. The link for that book is given below with the song's lyric. In that song the term "jump shamador" is also given as "jump shamadir".

"In that same collection by Walter Jeykll, the game song "Black Boy In A Ring"* (CIX, page 208) is given with the "jump shamador" phrase:
"There's a black boy in a ring, tra la la la la,
There's a black boy in a ring, tra la la la la,
There's a black boy in a ring, tra la la la la,
He like sugar an' I like plum.
Wheel an' take you pardner, jump shamador!
Wheel an' take you pardner, jump shamador!
Wheel an' take you pardner, jump shamador!
For he like sugar an' I like plum.

The boy inside the ring chooses his partner, whom he leaves there after the dance. She obtains release by choosing another partner, whom she leaves behind. So there is alternately a boy and a girl in the ring.

"Shamador" is possibly a corruption of "camerado." 

 -snip-

* This is the same song that is now known as "There's A Brown Girl In The Ring".
-snip-
Walter Jekyll noted that the first half of "Black Boy In A Ring" was sung in one of the Anancy (spider) stories which he included in his collection (Annancy and Screech-owl (No. XIX.).

Jekyll also wrote "Shamador" is possibly a corruption of "camerado."
-snip-

https://whitmanarchive.org/published/foreign/spanish/vasseur/introduction.html indicates that … "Camerado is a defunct term borrowed from Renaissance Spanish, and is the root of the English comrade, … A little-used term, camarada is derived from the Spanish cámara, or chamber, and a camarada was originally a group sharing a chamber, or sharing a bed. Hence it first meant bedfellow, then more generally a companion or friend.”…

Some information about "jump shamador" and a related term is included in the Dictionary of Jamaican English edited by Frederic Gomes Cassidy and R. B. Le Page (University of West Indies Press, 2002; Originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1967, and revised as a second edition in 1980):

"SHANDELAY sb dial; etym unknown — perh [perhaps] no more than a nonsense refrain: cf jump shamador. Some kind of dance or caper. 1924 Beckwith 172 (Song:] "Massa Puss and Massa Rat a jump shandalay, jump shandalay".
http://books.google.com/books?id=_lmFzFgsTZYC&pg=PA404&lpg=PA404&dq=jump+shamador&source=bl&ots=N7MtvgUrre&sig=D_gXWYPCsKpeaF1w6bhe047MWTk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NYVIUeKIKKzi4AOso4HIAQ&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=jump%20shamador&f=false, p. 404.

****
JUMP SHAMADOR IN THE 1989 CHILDREN SONG  BOOK BY CHERLY MATTOX

The song "Jump Shamador" is also included in the American published 1989 children's song book by Shake It To The One That You Love The Best: Play Songs and Lullabies From Black Musical Traditions (collected and adapted by Cheryl Warren Mattox) under the title "Jump Shamador". Cheryl Mattox indicates that "Jump Shamador" is a ring game from the "West Indies".

Whatever the actual meaning of the phrase "jump shamador", my sense is that this song is an example of purposeful play. This game teaches children to be self-assured and to perserver in the face of obstacles as they strive toward their career choice and otherwise in life.

This song is particularly poignant if we reflect on how difficult conditions in the early 20th century were for Black people in Jamaica (and in the United States and other nations) who wanted to be a doctor or a teacher or some other profession. What is equally sad is that there are still stories today in the United States and elsewhere of Black children, other children of Color, and poor children of any race or ethnicity being discouraged by their teachers from striving to be a doctor, teacher, business owner, scientist, and other "white collar" professions.

That is why songs like "Jump Shamador" are so important. They can help children reinforce their self-esteem and help them strengthen their will to achieve, without the children even realizing that they are being taught such valuable lessons. That's why I'm showcasing this song.

****
MP3 SAMPLE
Here's a brief Mp3 sample of "Jump Shamador" from the 1978 Smithsonian Folkways album Caribbean Songs and Games for Children
Various Artists FW07856

http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=19879
song #106

That song is also included on Cheryl Warren Mattox's tape cassette of her book Shake It To The One That You Love The Best songs. If I recall correctly, while the tune was the same as the tune of that Mp3 sample, the tempo seemed to be a little bit faster.

In both of those renditions, the word "shamador" was pronounced "sha-mah-DOOR".

FEATURED TEXT EXAMPLES
Example #1: GOOD MORNING TO YOU, MOTHER

Good morning to you, mother;
Good morning to you, daughter;
What is your intention?
I want to be a teacher.
You shan't be a teacher.
I bound to be a teacher.

Jump shamador, me darling.

What is your intention?
I goin' to be a doctor.
You shan't be a doctor.
I bound to be a doctor.
You shan't be a doctor.
I will be a doctor.

Jump shamadir, me darling.

There is no dancing here. The mother walks round inside the ring, the various members of which she addresses in turn. "You shan't" is emphasized by an uplifted arm swept vigorously downwards and a stamp of the foot. The answers go through the various professions until it is felt that there is a want of something more exciting, which is supplied by:-"....."
-snip-
Source: Walter Jekyll Jamaican Song and Story
Annancy stories, digging sings, ring tunes, and dancing tunes The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jamaican Song and Story
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35410/35410-h/35410-h.htm (With musical score. CXII p. 211)

****
Example #2: JUMP SHAMADOR

Good morning to Joseph.
(Good morning to you too).*
What is your intention?
(I want to be a doctor.)
You can't be a doctor.
(I will be a doctor).

Well, jump shamador, my darling.
Jump shamador my dear.
jump shamador, my darling.
Jump shamador my dear.

Jump shamador
Jump shamador
Jump shamador, my darling.

Jump shamador
Jump shamador
Jump shamador, my dear.

Jump shamador
Jump shamador
Jump shamador
Jump shamador
-snip-
*The lines by the person responding are given in parenthesis.

Here are the notes that Cheryl Warren Mattox included with this song's musical score:
West Indies

Ring Game

This song has an important message-if you believe in yourself, you ca be whatever you want to be. Each player chooses a profession. When your name is called, go to the middle of the ring. Respond to the question -"What is your intention?" - by naming your choice of profession. Show how determined you are bu being very forceful when you sing the line, "I WILL be a ______!"

****
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks also to the Walter Jekyl for collecting & publishing this song, and Cheryl Warrren Mattox for adapting, publishing, and recording this song.

Thank you for visiting pancocojams.

Viewer comments are welcome.