Edited by Azizi Powell
[This pancocojams post is a complete reprint* of a pancocojams post that was first published in 2011 and was last updated on November 29, 2023. The visitor comments and my replies from that post are also reprinted in this post.*The section heading "THE HISTORY OF NEGATIVELY DESCRIBING BLACK FEMALES WITH A BIG BUTT" is a slight wording change from the 2011/2018 posts.
The term "African booty" means "a really big butt". The inclusion of that term in these American children's recreational rhymes is a replacement of the words "Miss American beauty", In those two line verses, either the word "beauty" or the word "booty" rhyme or nearly rhyme with the word "duty".
The term "African booty" is only found in these children's rhymes or in the highly negative term "African booty scratcher". In children's rhymes "African booty" is usually a neutral term that is chanted by rote memory (without any thought to its meaning). However, it's also possible that "African booty" may be considered as a compliment since in United States culture it's preferable that a woman has a big butt than a small butt or a flat butt.
The origin of the term "African booty" came from the belief in the United States that all or most Black women from the continent of Africa and their descendants (such as Black American women) have large butts.
However, eventually the term "African booty" in these children's rhymes has also been used as a referent for non-Black females. Referring to someone having an "African booty" didn't mean / doesn't mean that the person -usually female- is from the African continent or has any Black African descent.]
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This pancocojams post provides definitions and commentary about the term "African booty".
This post also presents various text (word only) examples of the term "African booty" that are found in the children's recreational rhymes "Mailman Mailman Do Your Duty" and "Policeman Policeman Do Your Duty". Some video examples of these rhymes are also showcased in this post.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks to all those who are featured in the embedded videos, and thanks to the publishers of those videos on YouTube.
This post was republished in its entirety on November 15, 2018 with the title "What "African Booty" Means And Examples of The Use Of The Term "African Booty" In "Mailman Mailman Do Your Duty" Children's Rhymes https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/11/what-african-booty-means-and-examples.html
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/11/my-comments-about-whether-phrase.html for a continuation of this subject entitled "My Comments About Whether The Phrase "African Booty" In The Children's Rhyme "Mailman Mailman" Is Racist".
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DEFINITION AND USE OF THE PHRASE "AFRICAN BOOTY" [Revised November 15, 2018]
"African booty", a phrase from African American English that means "a big butt", appears to be limited to its neutral or positive use in certain children's playground rhymes, or its negative, insulting use in the term "African booty scratcher".
While the term "African booty" could be applied to males, it usually is reserved as a descriptor for teenage girls and women. In the phrase "African booty", the word "African" is evidence of the widely held, although erroneous belief that all women of African descent have big butts. As is the case with a lot of African American vernacular, while the phrase "African booty" originated with Black Americans, it has also been used by non-Black Americans.
The phrase "African booty" is found in some examples of contemporary (usually post 1970s*) versions of the American children's playground rhyme family "Mailman Mailman (do your duty)". Those rhymes are also known as "Policeman Policeman (do your duty)" or similar titles. In that sub-set of that family of jump rope or hand clap rhymes, the line "Mailman mailman do your duty" is followed by the line "Here comes a lady with an African booty".
*Note below a comment from Anonymous, July 10, 2018 that she or he recalls children jumping rope "in the 1960s in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood" singing "African booty" in a jump rope song. This is the earliest reference that I've come across of the term "African booty" being found in a children's rhyme.
Examples of "Postman Postman Do Your Duty" rhymes without the "African booty" term are included in now classic 1959 collection of mostly United Kingdom children's rhymes The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren by Iona & Peter Opie. Here's an excerpt about the "Mailman Mailman" rhyme from that book:
"In all of Britain the young have sent our Valentines {Valentine cards are definitely in fashion again}, and they have written anonymous verses, In Aberdeen and elsewhere in Scotland the boy follow the old convention of putting verse on the envelopes, addressed to the post man.
Postman, Postman, do your duty
Take this to my loving beauty.
Postie, Postie, don't delay,
Do the rhumba all the way" (Opie, Lore & Language, p. 236)"
Instead of the phrase "my loving beauty", I believe that the usual pre-1970s American versions of this rhyme included the phrase "an American beauty" or "Miss American beauty".
I've also found two online examples of the use of the term "African beauty" in "Mailman Mailman" rhymes. [Read Example #7 and #8 below]. "African beauty" may be a folk etymology substitution for "African booty". However, given the often negative attitudes about Black physical appearance in mainstream United States and other Westernized cultures, it would be significant if "African beauty" were purposely used in these children's rhymes.
From my online research, it appears that some children continue to use the phrase "American beauty" as the rhyming line to "do your duty", while other children use the phrase "African booty". While it's probable that most of those persons who chant "here's come a lady with an African booty" are Black, there's evidence that that line has crossed over to non-Black persons.
Various YouTube videos document the fact that a number of non-Black children routinely chant the "African booty" phrase in "Mailman Mailman Do Your Duty" handclap rhymes. Some commenters in those videos' discussion threads* and in some other online sites also have shared examples of "Mailman Mailman" rhymes with the term "African booty". These bloggers and these children featured on YouTube videos appear to use "African booty" as a matter of course. That phrase doesn't appear to have any positive or negative connotations for them
*As of Feb. 28, 2018 YouTube disabled commenting for most videos that feature children. This action was taken to "protect children from predatory comments".https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18244954/youtube-comments-minor-children-exploitation-monetization-creators
When YouTube disabled that comment feature, they deleting the comments that had been published in those video's discussion thread. Unfortunately, that action erased a treasure trove of material for folklorists and meant the end of that rich resource of children's recreational rhymes and cheers from that time on. Thankfully, prior to knowing about that impending action, I had copied some comments from some of those discussion threads before Feb. 2018. Also, thankfully, YouTube discussion threads about children's recreational rhymes that feature adults are still active, and (for some reason) a few discussion threads that feature children are still active.
-end of note about comment feature being disabled-
The word "booty" may have been introduced to non-African Americans by K C & Sunshine Band's 1976 hit R&B record "Shake Your Booty". The phrase "shake your booty" may appear in a few African American hand clap rhymes or cheers, but it doesn't appear to be used that often in those play experiences. I can't recall ever coming across any use of the words "African booty" in any other hand clap rhyme or cheer other "Mailman Mailman Do You Duty" or similarly titled rhymes as "Policeman Policeman", "Postman Postman" etc.
Apart from its use in the insulting term "African booty scratcher" (which isn't used in children's rhymes), the term "African booty" doesn't appear to be common among African Americans or non-African Americans. Instead, it's much more likely for contemporary Americans to informally say that someone (particularly a woman) has "a big butt" or "a big booty" (with the word "butt" used more often than the word "booty").
I believe that most African American adults know what the word "booty" and the term "African booty" mean, and I believe that it is much less likely that non-Black American adults know what the word "booty" and the term "African booty" mean. Depending on their age, I believe that it's likely that a lot of African American children don't know what "African booty" means. I think that children (usually girls) regardless of their race/ethnicity who chant "Mailman Mailman" ("Policeman Policeman)" rhymes which include the phrase "African booty" do so from rote memory without any thought about what that phrase means.
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MY MEMORIES OF THE POLICEMAN POLICEMAN RHYME AND MY DAUGHTER'S USE OF THE TERM "AFRICAN BOOTY" IN POLICE LADY" RHYMES
Here's the version of the very similar rhyme "Policeman, Policeman" that I recall from my childhood in the mid 1950s, Atlantic City, New Jersey (African American girls, group jump rope)
Policeman, Policeman,
Do your duty.
Here comes [insert the jumper's name or nickname]
an American beauty.
She can wiggle.
She can wobble
She can do the flip [later the word 'twist' replaced the word 'flip']
But I betcha five dollars she can't do this:
Lady on one foot, one foot, one foot,
turn all around. [jump on 1 foot and turn around]
Lady on two foot, two foot, two foot
Touch the ground.[jump on 2 feet and touch the ground]
Lady of three foot, three foot, three foot [jump on 2 feet with one hand on the ground]
Lady on two feet say your prayers. [jump on 2 feet while folding your hands like you are praying]
Lady on four foot, four foot, four foot [jump on 2 feet while placing both hands on the ground]
[Now] Go to bed. [jump out of the rope]
-snip-
In the mid 1980s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my daughter and her girlfriends jumped rope while chanting a version of the "Policeman Policeman" rhyme that is very similar to the one that I recall from my childhood. However, the version that my daughter & her friends chanted reflects two significant societal changes: the inclusion of women in the police force, and the attitude that having an "African booty" was a good thing. Instead of "policeman", the girls chanted "Police lady Police lady do your duty".
In the early 2000s, my daughter - an elementary school teacher - shared with me an experience she had while taking her first grade class to a nearby public park. All of the students in her class were African American. A White man and his pre-school (White) daughter happened to be visiting that same park. Some of the girls in her classroom who were turning the ends of the jump rope sang the "Police Lady Police Lady" rhyme which included the line "here comes a lady with an African booty". (I'm not sure if the girls in her classroom knew that version before she sang it or not.) The White man asked could his daughter and he join the jump rope game, and before long he and his daughter were singing the "here comes a lady with an African booty" line. That's just one example of how versions of rhymes get passed on from one generation to another, and from one racial population to another.
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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "AFRICAN BOOTY" AND "AFRICAN BOOTY SCRATCHER"
It should be noted that the phrase "African booty" is not a taunt like the similar phrase "African booty scratcher".
I believe that the referent "African booty stratcher" pre-dates the use of "African booty" in these children's rhymes. Unlike "African booty" [in those rhymes], "African booty stratcher" is definitely racist as it equates Black people (and particularly Black Africans) to monkeys or and apes. Often the person being taunted by that phrase is an immigrant from Africa, and often the person doing the taunting is an African American.
I believe that the "African booty" in the "Mailman Mailman" rhymes isn't an insult. Saying that a female has an "African booty" might even be considered a compliment since teenage females and adult females regardless of race/ethnicity like to have big butts. That said, having an "African booty" wasn't always considered a compliment, and it's probably wisest to refrain from using that phrase as a description of any female, particularly any Black female.
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THE HISTORY OF NEGATIVELY DESCRIBING BLACK FEMALES WITH A BIG BUTT
The stereotype of Black women having big butts was heavily influenced by, if not originated from the gross, racist mistreatment in the early 19th century of the South African woman Sarah Baartman and another South African woman. In 1810, Sarah Baartman and the other African woman were taken from South Africa and exhibited in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe as a freak of nature because of their "big butts". These women were labeled "the Hottentot Venus”. Upon her death until 2003, a replication of Baartman's body which emphasized her large protruding butt was featured in a French museum. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Baartman for information about Sarah Baartman.
Americans have had ambivalent opinions about big butt females for quite some time. Jimmy Castor 1975 "Bertha Butt Boogie" Rhythm & Blues songs document the humor Americans' have for big ("heavy set") women with big butts. Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LQJYgs1sxc "Bertha Butt Boogie" for an example of those songs. Also, click http://artists.letssingit.com/jimmy-castor-lyrics-the-bertha-butt-boogie-8tbtw43 for the words to that song.
Among African Americans, a female with a "Bertha Butt" means a female (usually a Black female) with a large, protruding butt. I believe that phrase was used prior to the Jimmy Castor songs. My theory is that the origin of "Bertha Butt" was the 1947 American prison Blues song "O Berta". That song has a line "I call Berta, but she didn't answer me". Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/o-berta-prison-blues.html for a pancocojams blog post about that song.
In contrast to song's that ridicule big butt women, the 1988 R&B song "Da Butt" by the Washington, D. C. group E. U. [European Union] praises those women, reflecting the positive societal value given to women who have a big butt. Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FShE0VifCYs for a video of that song. Click http://lyrics.filestube.com/song/a433f344b5c91eca03e9,Da-Butt-From-School-Daze.html for the lyrics to that song.
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PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES FOR THE RHYME "MAILMAN MAILMAN"
As mentioned above, the "Mailman Mailman" (do your duty) rhymes used to be chanted while jumping rope. However, as is the case with most jump rope rhymes, by at least the 1960s, in the United States at least, partner or three or four person handclapping was the preferred performance activity for those rhymes.
As documented by several YouTube videos and their viewer comment threads, the phrase "African booty" continues to be chanted by girls -regardless of race- as either a handclap rhyme, or a movement rhyme without accompanying handclap activities. With either of those performance activities, the girls use mimicking motions on cue- they shake their balled up fists in front of them when saying pom poms (in imitation of cheerleaders holding pom poms); they shake their hips from side to side as was done to the once popular "twist" dance; and with each rendition of the rhyme, they move their feet farther and farther apart either to do a split, or to see which girl falls down first. In the later case, the last girl who remains standing is the winner.
To date, I've not seen any off-line or online evidence on YouTube or elsewher that the "Mailman Mailman" ("Policeman Policeman") rhymes with or without the "African booty" phrase are still being used as a jump rope chant. This isn't surprising since chanting while jumping rope appears to be rarely done in the United States since at least the 1990s.
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FEATURED RHYMES
[These examples of "Mailman Mailman" ("Policeman Policeman") rhymes which include the phrase "African booty scratcher" are presented in no particular order.]
Example #1
mailman mailman
do your duty
here comes a lady with an
african booty
she can do the pom pom
she can do the twist
most of all she likes to kiss
-Guest, http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4300 Children's Street Songs; 12/2/2004
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Example #2
mail man mail man
do ur duty hear comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom pom she can do the splits but best of all she can kiss kiss kiss with her read hott lips
-socalgal89 at June 16, 2005 http://blog.oftheoctopuses.com/000518.php [This blog is no longer viable]
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Example #3
Mailman mailman do your duty
here comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom poms
she can do the twist
but most of all
she can kiss kiss kiss
-celinababe29; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3G7c6Fj_WM; 6/24/2009
[This video is embedded below.]
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Example #4
Mailman mailman do your duty
here comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom poms
she can do the twist
but most of all
she can kiss kiss kiss
With her big
red
lips
k.i.ss.i.n.g
-KellyJulia12 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgr8ApS4LWI&feature=related; 7/11/2010
[This video is embedded below.]
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Example #5
Mailman mailman do your duty
here comes a lady with an African booty
she can do the pom poms
she can do the twist
but I betcha five dollars
she can’t do this
k-i-s-s-i-n-g
-loserweirdo311; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Gs7-MQyrE; 8/15/2009
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Example #6
Mailman, mailman do your duty.
Here comes a lady with an African booty.
She can do the pom-poms, she can do the splits, I bet you $5 she can't do this:
(Take your feet, and go back and forth, pointing your toes out, then your heels out, then toes, then heels....
As you're doing it, your feet are moving out, so you're getting closer to the ground.) [Thanks to Ciara A.]; http://www.beachnet.com/~jeanettem/chants.html#MAILMAN; retrieved 12/28/2011
-snip-
Here are two examples from different YouTube viewer comment threads which gives the phrase as "African beauty" instead of "African booty":
Example #7
the way i do it is ive got an african beauty she can do the pom poms she can do the splits but most of all she can kiss kisss kiss k.i.s.s
-123leta ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3G7c6Fj_WM&feature=related; 6/2011
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Example #8
I learned it like 'Mail man mail man do your duty. I got a date with an African beauty. She can do the pom-pom, she can do the splits, most of all she can kiss kiss kiss. K-I-S-S ( for each letter you go like if your doing the splits )
-livetolove97; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgr8ApS4LWI&feature=related; October 2011
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Here are two examples of "Mailman Mailman" rhymes that include the term "big fat booty" which I think is an equivalent term for "African booty":
Example #9 (fragment)
Mailman, mailman do your duty here comes the lady w/the big fat booty...
-Classy_Diva5 (African American female, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc sorority, Bay Area, California); http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123; 12/28/2000
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Example #10
Mail man mail man do your duty
Here comes a lady with a
With a big fat booty
she can do the pom pom
she can do the twist
but most of all she can blow you a kiss
Uggh!
-froggielover737; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80uKGksoFTA&feature=related; 1/22/2007
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FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Mailman, Mailman
Uploaded by celinababe29 on Jun 24, 2009
My little sister and her cousin playing Mailman, Mailman after i taught them an hour earlier.
-snip-
These girls are chanting "with an African booty".
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Example #2: mailman mailman game
Uploaded by KellyJulia12 on Jul 11, 2010
Weird, huh?
-snip-
These White girls are chanting "with an African booty". The fact that they are smiling and shaking their own hips implies to me that "African booty" isn't an insult.
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Example #3: Mailman mailman do your duty
glancei, Published on Sep 26, 2015
Hand game- mailman mailman do your duty
-snip-
This video replaces one that is no longer available.
Notice that these two Black girls (presumably from the United States) chant "American beauty", which documents that not all African American girls chanted "African booty" when they performed this jump rope game.
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Example #4: Mail man do your duty
delcia50, Published on Apr 19, 2013
Este video se subi� de un tel�fono Android.
-snip-
The girl in this video says "African booty". Note that she doesn't appear to be African American, suggesting that non-African Americans also chant the term "African booty" as a part of this rhyme.
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COMMENTS FROM THE PANCOCOJAMS POST THAT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2011
Thanks Dani!
Delete
I appreciate your comment. It's good to hear from folks who read these posts.
My sense is that as the world gets more connected, things that Americans take for granted -such as that particular meaning of the word "booty"-may be unfamiliar to non-Americans. Also, some Americans might not be familiar with the term "African booty".
And it seems to me that "African booty" is considered a complimentary term is meaningful, in and of itself.
- AnonymousDecember 19, 2013 at 4:10 PM
“The stereotype of Black women having big butts was heavily influenced by, if not originated from the gross, racist mistreatment in the early 19th century of the South African woman Sarah Baartman and another South African woman. In 1810, Sarah Baartman and the other African woman were taken from South Africa and exhibited in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe as a freak of nature because of their ‘big butts.’”
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I learned of Sarah Baartman several years ago. That was a very tragic story and it was a disgrace how she was treated both during her life and after her death. So I understand there being some sensitivity due to historical baggage for a woman having a large posterior, particularly women of African descent.
“In the phrase ‘African booty’, the word ‘African’ is evidence of the widely held, although erroneous belief that all women of African descent have big butts. As is the case with a lot of African American vernacular, while the phrase ‘African booty’ originated with Black Americans, it has also been used by non-Black Americans….Saying that a female has an ‘African booty’ might even be considered a compliment since teenage females and adult females regardless of race/ethnicity like to have big butts.”
I am a white American man and I am familiar with the phrase. In today’s context, I think of a woman having an “African booty” as a compliment, because I think it is a very desirable feminine trait. I am aware that not all African-descended women have that trait, but many do, including many “Latinas” and others who have partial African heritage. This would likely apply to Jennifer Lopez. I am actually delighted that more people today acknowledge that many of these “non black” celebrities, like Jennifer Lopez (supposedly), have African ancestry.Thanks for your comment, newyorkman.
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If the statement that someone [particularly a female] has an "African booty" is a compliment then I suppose that indicates some progress has been made away from the notion that anything "African" is bad [not good]. But we [the citizens of the world] have a very long way to go before most Black African traits-such as dark skin color, physical features, and very curly (i.e. nappy) hair- are considered something that is neither bad nor good but "just is" and Nordic White features are considered the same way.Azizi PowellJuly 10, 2018 at 6:36 AM
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I just re-read the comment that was posted by December 19, 2013 at 4:10 PM.
"I am aware that not all African-descended women have that trait, but many do, including many “Latinas” and others who have partial African heritage. This would likely apply to Jennifer Lopez. I am actually delighted that more people today acknowledge that many of these “non black” celebrities, like Jennifer Lopez (supposedly), have African ancestry."
I want to clarify a point that you wrote:
I believe that saying that when Black children say [in the context of a jump rope rhyme or otherwise] that some female who isn't Black has "an African booty" doesn't mean that they think that that person actually has some African ancestry. Instead, I think it means that that female has a big butt like an African female.
In contrast, I recall that while "African booty" was a compliment that was directed to females, the term "Bertha butt" was a teasing insult that was directed to females or males. A person who had a Bertha Butt has a butt that protrudes.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LQJYgs1sxc for Jimmy Castor Bertha Butt Boogie and read the comments about this term.I have heard of the term "Big Bertha" and recall it was not intended as a compliment.
DeleteThanks for sharing that information, John, New York.
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Although I've never heard or read of "Big Bertha" being used in reference to a female, its use as an insult would conform with my recollection/knowledge of "Bertha butt".
That said, in some comments in t he Jimmy Castor Bertha Butt Boogie discussion thread whose link I gave immediately before your comment, a few commenters write that husbands call their wife "Bertha Butt" as a compliment for their wife's large behind (ass/butt).
- AnonymousDecember 11, 2014 at 1:28 PM
African booty meaning in Mailman Mailman Do your duty basically means an african lady with a ''big bum'' which is inappropriate for kids in rhymes.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous thanks for your comment.
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The Black girls who I observed chanting this rhyme-including my daughter- in the 1980s and since consider/ed "African booty" to be a big bum to use your terminology. However, that descriptor was considered a compliment.
- AnonymousJuly 10, 2018 at 12:57 AM
Growing up in the 1960s in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood (future home to Obama), and attending an elementary school with children of all ethnicities, I was confused by the phrase "African booty" in the jump rope song. I had no idea what it really meant, but even as a 7 year-old, I was uncomfortable saying it and didn't think it was a compliment.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thanks for your comment.
I recall that prior to the late 1960s/early 1970s, most people in the United States-including Black people, considered "Africa" and "African" negatively. That's why I think it's significant that "African booty" was used in this jump rope rhyme to refer positively to a female with a big butt.
Maybe the positive reference was what the jump rope rhyme that you heard in the 1960s in Chicago's Hyde Park, but maybe it depended on the race/ethnicity of the girls singing the rhyme.
My point is that I think when Black girls sing/sang that rhyme it usually means something positive and refers to the fact that [people think] that Black women are known for our "big butts" while the negative stereotype for White women is that they usually have "flat butts".
However, see the comment that I added above on July 10, 2018 about the negative reference "Bertha butt". I added that comment as a result of reading yours and wanting to clarify the point about whether "African booty" was considered negative or not.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This was really informative, just leaving a comment to let you know that this post was not in vain!
ReplyDelete