thepiperchile Uploaded on Jun 30, 2007
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides play instructions for the children's singing game song "Brown Girl In The Ring" and showcases several YouTube examples of that song. Most of these videos show adults playing this game.
Selected comments from the discussion threads of some of these YouTube examples are also included in this post.
Lyrics for some versions of this song are also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composer/s of "Brown Girl In The Ring" and thanks to the known composer/s of the Calypso and the Pop examples of this song.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/01/revisiting-questions-about-whether.html for a closely related post entitled "Revisiting Questions About Whether The"Brown Girl In the Ring" Game Song Is Racist And/Or Promotes Colorism."
Here's my concluding statement in that post:
"Despite what I consider its pleasant, catchy tune, and its creative lyrics, and more positive attributes, given the racial (and sometimes racist) environment that children still have to navigate in the 2000s, my recommendation is to err on the side of caution and NOT include the game song "There's A Brown Girl In The Ring" in children's music curriculum, unless this song is part of the curriculum for older children who are studying the history of folk songs or the history of Jamaican and/or Caribbean children's game songs and/or folk songs.
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PLAY INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE GAME SONG "THERE'S A BROWN GIRL IN THE RING"
Excerpt from the 1997 book Brown Girl In The Ring: An Anthology Of Song Games from the Eastern Caribbean, editors Alan Lomax, J.D. Elders, and Bess Lomax Hawes
"Brown Girl In The Ring"
[page] 7
"TO PLAY
Players form a ring of clappers and singers facing the center, where a sing child dances about during the first verse. During the second, she "makes her motion", which may consist of "winding" or any other dance step she elects. During the third verse she stands in front of a child in the ring and the two hug or dance together. The "partner" becomes the "brown girl" for the next run through of the game, which continues till every child has had a turn at the center role.
Anguillan children play the game approximately the same way but to a variant of the Trinidadian tune and with more direction from the lead singer. "Crossing the ocean" means dancing back and forth across the ring; "work up your calabash" means to move belly and pelvis. In St Kitts, children sing "Now make up your cat backs,", and the dancer arches her back like a cat. Other dance steps may be called for as desired.
[...]
[page] 8
Whenever and however played, this song game epitomizes the classic and essential form of Caribbean ring play, in which a single dancers occupies the center of the circle, "shows her [or his] motion, and then selects a partner and who hares the dance briefly and ultimately takes over the central role. Such dances serve in part as preparation for later courtship experiences; indeed, Caribbean parents encourage their children to participate in such games, to "hug and kiss" their partners and to demonstrate their physical skills in the art of "winding" a sinuous movement of the trunk, an act which might well be disapproved of if the child were not dancing. This dance became a theater in which children can rehearse adult behavior in a socially approved situation."
-end of quote-
Pancocojams Editor's Notes:
Anguilla, Trinidad, and St. Kitts are names of three Caribbean nations.
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"STANDARD LYRICS" FOR THE SINGING GAME VERSION OF "BROWN GIRL IN THE RHYME"
There's a brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la
There's a brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la la
Brown girl in the ring
Tra la la la la
She likes sugar and I like plum.
Now show me your motion
Tra la la la la
Show me your motion
Tra la la la la la
Show me your motion
Tra la la la la la
She likes sugar and I like plum.
Skip across the ocean
Tra la la la la
Skip across the ocean
Tra la la la la
Skip across the ocean
Tra la la la la
She likes sugar and I like plum
-snip-
These lyrics appear to be the standard words to this song in the United States.
Another verse "Stand and face your partner".
After that verse, the one who the middle person is standing in front of becomes the new middle person and the game immediately begins from the beginning.
Click ___ for the Boney M lyrics for "Brown Girl In The Ring"
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM SHOWCASE VIDEO #1
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1So7q6IfJ4&feature=emb_logo
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread (Numbers are given for referencing purposes only)
2009
1. mr y mysterious video
"true story....
when i was about 6, there was only one black girl in our
whole school in wales.
they played this song at our xmas party, we all sat in a
circle while she danced for our entertainment - it wasn't a racist thing though
- we were being literal and she seemed to enjoy herself."
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2. Becca Secret
"funny, my aunt thought this song was rascist xxx"
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3. feinferno
"i wish we still had music like dis reminds me of the
old days back in guyana sitting on my uncles front porch with a coconut cutting
it to get coconut water"
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2010
4. BLACK.LIKE. ME
"Does N E one knows where this group's from?"
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Reply
5. toe luutaga
"the group was put together in West Germany by Frank
Farian the original four memebers line-up were 2 Jamaican Liz Mitchell and
Marcia Barrett ,1 Montserratian Maizie Williams and 1 Aruban Bobby Farell there
was a change times later. This group was well known in my island country Samoa
in the South Pacific and all their songs were heard on the radio and all local
bands play them at fiafia night. One of the best in their time ..... always
remember."
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2011
6. Trelli28
"I remember this song growing up! The ring game we used
to play in Jamaica :-)"
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Reply
7. asomra
"@Trelli28 A lot of Islands had this song in school.
I'm Guyanese , my mom was listening to this growing too. This song will never
die, people from the whole world will be singing and playing to this at some
part."
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8. Charms434
"All I think of is the movie touching the void and when
the guy was deliriously close to death this song was stuck in his head, and
he's praying he doesn't die to this song LOL"
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_the_Void for
information about Joe Simpson's 1988 book "Touching The Void" and the
2003 documentary film that is based on that book. Cainefan, a commenter in that
Boney M discussion thread wrote in 2009 "... Someone analyzed that it may
have to do with the lines from the song "show me your motion" and it
was his brain telling him to keep moving."
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9. locorojo25
"anyone tell me wot the song is about? brown girl in
the ring? boxing or wrestling? she looks like a sugar in a plum. wot does that
mean. catchy tune but wots it about?"
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Reply
10. mjaooajm
"@locorojo25
Neither one. She is in a dancing ring."
-snip-
"ring play" = circle game songs
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2012
11. mr y mysterious video
"i was 7, at school in ely, cardiff, wales.
it was christmas, the entire school gathered in a big circle
while the sole black girl in school stood in the middle and danced with all her
heart to this song - a true story.
and yet... it was all so innocent, nobody had any malice but
they wouldn't try that these days!"
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2013
12. Doris Smith
"For West Indian Brown Girls Everywhere!"
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13. RichXboxOne
"This is an excellent song, but if it was released now,
the PC Brigade and the Loony left would complain about it being racist. "
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2014
14. havaiianteine u
"I heard this song when I was little, n my words were
totally different :) Brown Girl, Brown n Proud."
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2017
15. Francisco Castillo Mata
"Qué bonitas son las pieles morenas, y cuanto han sido
maltratadas por el " hombre blanco" ( y lo siguen siendo, más
sutilmente, tal vez ). En un tiempo lejano, todos fuimos negros, o de un color
oscuro. Son los orígenes de toda la humanidad. En EEUU, por ejemplo, todavía
hay muchísimo racismo, y a veces no se molestan ni en disimularlo ( también en
España, por supuesto). Bueno, el vídeo es encantador, y la música muy
contagiosa. Solo espero que no me fusilen por haber expresado ciertas ideas, y
que la USA Air Forcé no me bombardee."
Google translate from Spanish to English:
"How beautiful are the brown skins, and how much they
have been battered by the "white man" (and they are still, more
subtly, perhaps). In a distant time, we were all black, or a dark color. They
are the origins of all humanity. In the US, for example, there is still a lot
of racism, and sometimes they do not bother or disguise it (also in Spain, of
course). Well, the video is charming, and the music very contagious. I just
hope they do not shoot me for expressing certain ideas, and that the USA Air
Force did not bomb me."
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2018
16. Ravneet Bains
"My mum just told me thought this song was about Asian
girls back in the 1980's and she felt very offended at the time because she
thought they where being racist. Now she has got over once I told her that the
song is light skin black women."
-snip-
I believe that the color "brown" in this singing
game originally referred to all Black girls regardless of whether their skin
color was light brown, darker brown, or very dark brown.
ADDITIONAL SHOWCASE VIDEOS & SELECTED COMMENTS
Pancocojams Editor's Note: These examples are given in no particular order. The examples & their comments are numbered for referencing purposes only.
VIDEO #2 - Brown Girl In The Ring: Bahamian Expats In Los Angeles"
The Coconut Channel, Uploaded on Jul 24, 2008
At the July 2008 picnic celebration in Los Angeles' Griffith
Park of the Bahamas' 35th anniversary of independence from England, a group of
exuberant adults burst into the ring games of their childhood.
-snip-
This video documents performances of various "ring
plays" (circle game songs) that people from the Bahamas living in the
United States played. "Brown
Girl In The Ring" begins at 5:19 and
continues to the end of that video.
I wrote a comment on this video's discussion thread asking about the name of the game that was played before "Brown Girl In The Ring" and the words to the second and third verses of that song. Here are the responses to my question:
"The Game played before brown girl in the ring was red
rover. The lyrics to the other song goes like this "blue hill water dry no
where to wash my clothes, I remember that saturday night we had fried fish and
johnny cake. Man take one to satisfy woman take two she make a moo (move)"
-end of quote-
After thanking "dakingofheart" I asked if that
version that the people in the video sang was traditional. Here is her response
to that question:
2. Dannie (2012)
"Brown girl in the ring was not played properly. In
Blue hill water dry, they had "boil" fish and johnny cake."Fried
fish and johnny cake is not a Bahamian dish.Are any of them actually
Bahamians.Once the get all the lyrics and someone to teach them the melodies,
they'll be straight.
Yes
I am 100% Bahamian
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor- "They'll be straight" = They'll sing the song right. (the right way).
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Here are some other responses to Dannie's comment:
3. donald duncombe, 2017
"Dannie Fried fish and Johnny cake is true true Bahamain in
every respect. What you are experiencing is the difference in how cwertain
cultural expression even in The Bahamas had diversity since each commnity or
island may have had there own variation."
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4. donald duncombe, 2017
"Boil fish was normally breakfast for some while fired fish
would have been dinner. Soif its Saturday night then it most like fired fish."
**
5. Kimberly King-Burns, 2021
"they're singing boiled fish and johnny cake, and yes ... all
were born bahamian.
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VIDEO #3 - brown girl in the ring (guyanese reception )
SuperBollywoodboy, Published on May 22, 2013
Guyanese reception fun fun fun
-snip-
This wedding reception is from Guyana, Although Guyana is located in the northern coast of South America, it is considered part of the Caribbean.
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VIDEO #4 - San Andrés Colombia Es 7: Brown Girl in the Ring (Ronda de la Morenita)
Liceo Infantil Marco Cali, Published on Nov 1, 2013
Durante el recrreo los niños juegan y bailan la ronda tradicional Brown Girl n the Ring (la Morenita de la Ronda), mientras su maestra Ofelia saluda a su amiga Eugenia Robinson y la invita a que hable con los niños y les comparta su sabiduría sobre la cultura de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina...
La profesora Eugenia Robinson es un personaje real de las islas, le hemos querido rendir un homenaje a ella y a todos los raizales de la isla que inspiraron el trabajo realizado en este proyecto. Algunas de las líneas en el guión son sus propias palabras....
-snip-
Google translate from Spanish to English:
During recess, the children play and dance the traditional Brown Girl n the Ring round, while her teacher Ophelia greets her friend Eugenia Robinson and invites her to talk to the children and share her wisdom about the Culture of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina ...
Professor Eugenia Robinson is a real personage of the islands, we wanted to pay homage to her and to all the raizales of the island that inspired the work realized in this project. Some of the lines in the script are his own words. You can meet and learn more with her at:
-snip-
Here's information about San Andrés:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Andr%C3%A9s_(island)
"San Andrés is a Colombian coral island in the Caribbean Sea. Historically tied to the United Kingdom, and politically part of Colombia,[1] San Andrés and the nearby islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina form the department of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.[2][3] San Andrés, in the southern group of islands, is the largest of the department. The official languages of the department are Creole, Spanish, and English."
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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Here's a long comment that I included in another pancocojams post about "Brown Girl In The Ring" which I have since deleted:
ReplyDeleteSince at least the 1960s, in the United States almost all non-competitive singing games that are performed in a circle with or without any person in the middle (such as "There's A Brown Girl In The Ring" have been relegated to toddlers' and preschoolers' play.
In my direct experiences with African American children, these types of singing games are rarely performed independently (without school teachers and other adult direction and supervision). The exceptions to that rule (again, in my direct experiences) are "Ring Around The Rosey" (which is still independently performed by children up to and including pre-school girls and boys, i.e. up to and including children age 5years old) and "Going To Kentucky" (which may still be independently performed by elementary school age girls ages 5 to around 9 years old.
I have observed African American children play singing games in my role as an African American parent, in my role as a founder/leader of the after school cultural "Game song" group that I called "Alafia Children's Ensemble", in my role as a special performer (mostly for African American children in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area), and in my role as a substitute elementary school teacher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The last time I observed this game independently performed by girls was in 2012 when I was a substitute teacher. On two occasions, two different groups of girls ages around 5-9 years old independently decided to play the circle game "Going To Kentucky" during their outdoor school lunch recesses.
[continued from above]
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My conclusions regarding the ages and genders of African American children, pre-teens, or teens play those games without adult direction are playing singing games are particularly formed from my observations and interactions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from the 1960 to date. I don't know whether these conclusions also apply to non-African Americans. However, from watching YouTube videos of American children performing singing games, it appears that school teachers are teaching these games to children who didn't know them before. Almost all of the students in these YouTube videos of singing game performances appear to be White.
These conclusions regarding the ages of children who play non-competitive singing games appear to be substantiated by YouTube videos of singing games performances. This "singing game" category doesn't include non-competitive or lightly competitive hand clap games or competitive singing games in which the person slaps (lightly claps) the hand of the people standing on either side of her or him. Examples of non-competitive hand clapping games include "Down Down Baby", "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico", and "Tweeleelee". Examples of competitive singing games include "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky", "Stella Ella Ola", and "Little Sally Walker (was walking down the street)".
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I don't recall as a child playing any singing games that involved the center person choosing a partner who dances with her or him and then becomes the next center person. What I have experienced and later observed as a teen an as an adult is that there is only one center person in circle games, and the new center person is randomly chosen by the center person closing her eyes, extending her hand in a pointing gesture, and spinning around. The person who is pointed to at the end of the song becomes the new center person. That person quickly moves to the center, the former center person rejoins the circle, and the singing game immediately begins from the beginning.
For more comments about choosing the center person in singing games, click http://cocojams2.blogspot.com/2014/11/switching-places-ring-games-part-1.html for a post on my cocojams2 blog entitled "Switching Places Ring Games (Part 1-Description & Other Comments).