tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post4367356797085059018..comments2024-03-29T08:48:14.872-04:00Comments on pancocojams: Some Additonal Notes & Song Examples From Walter Jekyll's 1907 Book "Jamaican Song & Story" Azizi Powellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-5079114233867910492021-10-22T20:26:53.221-04:002021-10-22T20:26:53.221-04:00Furthermore, regarding that same example and Jekyl...Furthermore, regarding that same example and Jekyll's statement that crossroads are a favorite place of meeting, and a rum shop is generally to be found there", read this excerpt about crossroads:<br /><br />From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_(folklore)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_(folklore)</a><br />"In folklore, crossroads may represent a location "between the worlds" and, as such, a site where supernatural spirits can be contacted and paranormal events can take place. Symbolically, it can mean a locality where two realms touch and therefore represents liminality, a place literally "neither here nor there", "betwixt and between".<br />[…]<br />Hoodoo<br />In conjure, rootwork, and hoodoo, a form of African magical spirituality practiced by African Americans in the United States, the crossroads in Hoodoo originates from the Kongo cosmogram in Central Africa. It represents the rising and setting of the sun, and the human life cycle of death and rebirth.[7] The center of the crossroads is where the communication with spirits take place. During the transatlantic slave trade, the Kongo cosmogram was brought to the United States by African slaves. Archeologists unearthed representations of the Kongo cosmogram on slave plantations in South Carolina on clay pots made by enslaved Africans.[8][9] The Kongo cosmogram is also called the Bakongo cosmogram and the "Yowa" cross. The Yowa cross (Kongo cosmogram) "Is a fork in the road (or even a forked branch) can allude to this crucially important symbol of passage and communication between worlds. The 'turn' in the path,' i.e., the crossroads, remains an indelible concept in the Kongo-Atlantic world, as the point of intersection between the ancestors and the living."[10][11] "It is at the crossroads where many Africans believe one will witness the powers of God and emerge from the waters spiritually renewed."[12]<br /><br />Other African origins of the crossroads in Hoodoo are found in West Africa among the Yoruba people. For example, the Yoruba trickster deity called Eshu-Elegba resides at the crossroads, and the Yoruba people leave offerings for Eshu-Elegba at the crossroads.[13] In Hoodoo, there is a spirit that resides at the crossroads to give offering for; however, the word Eshu-Elegba does not exist in Hoodoo because the names of African deities were lost during slavery. Folklorist Newbell Niles Puckett, recorded a number of crossroads rituals in Hoodoo practiced among African-Americans in the South and explained its meaning. Puckett wrote..."Possibly this custom of sacrificing at the crossroads is due to the idea that spirits, like men, travel the highways and would be more likely to hit upon the offering at the crossroads than elsewhere."[14] African crossroads spirits were brought to the United States during the transatlantic slave trade. In the Vodou tradition, Papa Legba is the lwa of crossroads and a messenger to the spirit world.[15][16]<br /><br />In Hoodoo, there has been a practice that is believed to be hoodoo in origin such as selling your soul to the devil at the crossroads in order to acquire facility at various manual and body skills, such as playing a musical instrument, throwing dice, or dancing. It is believed that one may attend upon a crossroads a certain number of times, either at midnight or just before dawn, and one will meet a "black man," whom some call the Devil, who will bestow upon one the desired skills. This practice is believed to have originated from an African American Blues musician by the name of Robert Johnson. In the oral history of hoodoo it is said that Robert Johnson became a skilled Blues musician after he sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, and because of this, people began going to a crossroads at midnight to sell their soul to a devil to acquire a skill or to become better at a skill. The family of Robert Johnson have come forward and said this is not true."...<br /> Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-59043975046579844302021-10-22T20:23:57.423-04:002021-10-22T20:23:57.423-04:00With regard to this example LXV in Walter Jekyll&#...With regard to this example LXV in Walter Jekyll's 1907 book "Jamaican Songs And Stories...":<br />Aunty Mary oh!<br />Aunty Mary oh!<br />Aunty Mary oh!<br />Aunty Mary oh!<br />Aunty Mary oh!<br />Aunty Mary oh!<br />Aunty Mary Thomas,<br />O meet me a cross road.<br /><br />Before sharing that example, Jekyll wrote: <br />"We do not get many songs of the American plantation type like the following:"<br /><br />And after giving that example he wrote:<br />"(Cross roads are always a favourite place of meeting, and a rum shop is generally to be found there.)<br /><br />This is a monotonous form, and I am glad the musical bent of our people turns in another direction."<br /><br />Firstly, my guess is that this is a religious song.<br /><br />It's form was "monotonous" (as Jekyll characterized it) on purpose because repeating lines and motions helps to achieve the goal of the song (when it was used in a religious context). That goal was to help bring down the Holy Spirit (achieving an altered state of consciousness.)<br /><br />Secondly, it took me several readings before I realized that Walter Jekyll was referring to Afro-Jamaicans when he wrote that he was glad that "our people turns in another [musical] direction." At first I thought he was referring to White people when he wrote "our people" <br />Hmmm.<br /><br />Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-50885171427570377892021-10-22T19:07:54.498-04:002021-10-22T19:07:54.498-04:00Is "gungo" in example CIV a sexual euphe...Is "gungo" in example CIV a sexual euphemism?<br />"Mother Freeman, a whé me Gungo dé?"<br />[...]<br /><br />**<br />CLXVII interests me in part because of the name "Quaco Sam". "Quaco" is a form of the Akan day of birth name "Kwaku" and means "male born on Wednesday". I wonder how common those Akan day names were in Jamaica in the late 19th and early 20th century? Does the fact that this song retains the name "Quaco" suggest that it is quite old?<br /><br />Also, it seems to me that that song is praising Quaco Sam although in a back handed way. Notice these lines<br />"When the rain an' the breeze an' the storm an' the sun<br />I never see a man like Quaco Sam,"<br />[...]<br /><br />For he never build a house but he live as any man,<br />I never see a funny man as Quaco Sam.<br /><br />**<br />Is CLXVIII the early source (or an early source) for "The Naughty Little Flea" popularized by Harry Belafonte and others?r<br />"Anch a bite me a me back gully, gully;<br />Anch a bite me a me back gully, gully;<br />Anch a bite me a me back gully, gully;<br />'cratch me back, me will make one shirt fe you fe you."...<br /><br />Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-4756825367458417362021-10-22T18:54:02.354-04:002021-10-22T18:54:02.354-04:00Here's a question about some of the examples f...Here's a question about some of the examples from Walter Jekyll's 1907 book "Jamaican Songs and Story..." that are showcased in this particular pancocojams post:<br /><br />(These speculations and questions are given in no particular order of importance.)<br /><br />Is the "oh" at the end of the lines in several of these songs a retention of the Yoruba (Nigeria) and other West African use and meaning of "o"?<br /><br />Some examples from that book: LXV. "Aunty Mary oh!", LXXIII. "Cheer me oh!"; LXXXII "an' you will yerry them laugh oh!" and LXXX. "Me know the man oh!" (among many other examples)<br /><br />Here's a quote about the use of the word "oh" in Nigerian Pidgin English:<br />"The ‘oh’ at the end is usually added to a lot of words and phrases, a kind of conversational tick to add emphasis." <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/africa/nigeria/articles/15-nigerian-pidgin-english-phrases-you-need-to-know/" rel="nofollow">https://theculturetrip.com/africa/nigeria/articles/15-nigerian-pidgin-english-phrases-you-need-to-know/</a><br /><br />Also, read this short 2015 article <a rel="nofollow">https://www.legit.ng/534689-why-nigerians-say-o-in-every-conversation.html</a> "Why Nigerians Overuse "O".<br /><br />Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893219718076521675.post-84801968463930327362021-10-22T14:21:10.480-04:002021-10-22T14:21:10.480-04:00I'll write in more detail about certain exampl...I'll write in more detail about certain examples from Walter Jekyll's 1907 book "Jamaican Songs And Stories...".<br /><br />But here are some of my initial impressions:<br /><br />I was struck with how contemporary many of these songs were including the sayings, and names. Many of these songs read as though they could have been sung nowadays (in 2021) and not 114 and more years ago. I'm very sorry that I can't hear how they sound.<br /><br />I was also very impressed with how resilient these Afro-Jamaicans were and how they "made ways out of no way" (to paraphrase an old Baptist church song that I remember). They developed ways of building their self-esteem and group esteem during a time when their race and cultures were despised and when they were ostracized and could be killed just because of their skin color and the texture of their hair.<br /><br />Walter Jekyll- a White Briton who moved to Jamaica and became a planter there- saw Afro-Jamaicans as one population. However, from the examples given in his book, the Afro-Jamaicans didn't always see themselves as one undifferentiated population of people of African descent. It occurs to me that one reason for the colorism that is reflected in some of these examples was to help those people develop and build self-esteem. As I also read in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 book about African American rhymes/songs entitled "Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise & Otherwise", among the Afro-Jamaicans, colorism went both ways. Some of the Black people who weren't racially mixed looked down on the Afro-Jamaicans who were racially mixed, and some of the racially mixed Afro-Jamaicans (and some of the Black people who weren't racially mixed) looked down on the "Black" people.<br /><br />Furthermore, (as also shown in African American Thomas W. Talley's collection of rings/songs), some of these examples also document the classism [country folk vs town folk] that occurred among Afro-Jamaicans (which is another way of developing and reinforcing self-esteem and group esteem).<br /> <br />Also, apart from its spiritual benefits, some of the examples in Jeykll's book showed that belonging to a religious group was then (and is now) a way that individuals developed and reinforced self-esteem and group esteem. Hence the statement from one of the examples that I highlighted in Part III of this three part pancocojams series that is still so modern sounding today that a person is "Baptist till the day I die" (Nowadays, people might still say that religious denomination or substitute another denomination or the name of another ogranization such as a historically Greek letter fraternity and sorority).<br /><br />Overall, I'm also very impressed with the creativity that is shown in these examples of Afro-Jamaican singing games and songs. And I'm inpressed with the values that they displayed (for instance the importance of a person's name/reputation in their community as noted by many examples saying people should be ashamed).<br /><br />There's a lot more I want to say. I'll write more soon.Azizi Powellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14963772326145910073noreply@blogger.com