Bamboula Dance and Music - Then & Now, Part 2 (complete 2026 reprint of a 2012 post)

Edited by Azizi Powell

[This is a complete reprint of Part II of a four part 2012 pancocojams series of posts on the African roots, and the music & dance traditions of the Bamboula in the Caribbean, and in the United States. All of the 2012 posts in this series are still available on this blog.]

This post focuses on descriptions of the Bamboula dance in the Caribbean, and features several videos of the Bomba, which is considered to be similar to the Bamboula.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part.html for a 2026 complete reprint of Part I of this series that was published in 2012. That post provides an overview of the Bamboula, and features several videos of dance traditions from a few African ethnic groups in West Africa, the region from which most Black people who were enslaved in the Caribbean and the Americas came.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_10.html for Part 3 of this series. That series focuses on the Bamboula in the United States, features a 19th century sound file entitled "Bamboula", features selected videos of contemporary gatherings in Congo Square in New Orleans, Louisiana. 
Part IV focuses on showcasing selected videos of music that was inspired by the Bamboula and/or Congo Square.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_2616.html for Part 4 of this series. That post showcases videos of records that are inspired by the Bamboula and/or by New Orleans' Congo Square.

These posts are presented for historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to all the publishers of these videos on YouTube. 

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Part II

DESCRIPTION OF THE BAMBOULA DANCE IN THE CARIBBEAN & SOUTH AMERICA
From http://virginvoices.vi/Dancing_the_bamboula
"Drums and heartbeats by Ella Laloba

The bamboula a dance, and music and drumming tradition, with African origins, is cousin to the "bomba,” a folkloric tradition, which still thrives in Puerto Rico. Brought to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans, the bamboula is a dramatic dance of rebellion and determination.

Versions have survived in Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Marked by swaying hips, trembling of the body and dramatic drum accents, the bamboula dance can go on for hours, with audience members joining in.
A traditional heartbeat played on the drum speeds up and inspires the dancers’ movements, which accelerate and climax in response to the drums.

Chenzira Kahina, managing director of Per Ankh Institute in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands dances the bamboula at cultural events and teaches it too. She says it’s a powerful dance, where the dancers and drummers are both animated, and "the dancers are fully engaged with feet, shoulders, waist, hips and breasts."
-snip-
From "Candombe, African Nations, and the Africanity of Uruguay" by Tomas Olivene Chirimini in African Roots/American Cultures: Africa In The Creation Of The Americas (Shiela S. Walker, ed.; London, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,2001; p. 262)
"The bamboula, based on a syncopated 2/4 beat, was similar to the calenda, the choreography typically picking up speed toward the end of the song. A group of women dancers circled around the musicians and around one or more male solo dancers, who sometimes executed athltic flips. The dancer's ankle bells provided additional layers of rhythmic complexity.

The chica or congo was also performed in much of African America. The basic moves, characterized by early chroniclers as erotic, were made with the shoulders, hips, and arms, while the rest of the body remained immobile evidencing the bodily isolation characteristic of much Central African and related African Diaspora dance styles. The dance continued to be dance out of the view of whites in th same way that so many other African cultural expressions prohibited by white ecclesastical and political authorities continued to exist in various guises. The semba or zamba was an evolution of the calenda, bambula, and chica, with a slower rhythm and cadence. Sembam in Kimbunda, means navel, referring to the coming together of navels in the pelvic thrust."
-snip-
Also, read the comments in Part 1 of this series about the Bamboula and the Chica which are quoted from Lynne Fauley Emery's book Black Dance from 1619 to Today.
-snip-
Similar to what I wrote in the first post of this series, if researchers believe that the Bamboula dance might have be similar to the Bomba or other Caribbean (and South American) folk dances, wouldn't it make sense to familiarize ourselves with those dances? The few videos below are interesting and-for me-aesthetically pleasing examples of what the Bamboula dance might have been like.

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VIDEOS OF THE BOMBA DANCE
[Videos in this series of posts are numbered in consecutive order throughout the entire series. No order of preference is given to these selected videos.]

Video Example #5: BOMBA (Puerto Rico)



Uploaded by disk0ne on Jun 25, 2007
-snip-
A commentor on this video's viewer comment thread wrote that this clip was filmed in 1957.

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Video Example #6: Bomba in Loiza, Puerto Rico #1 (Puerto Rico)



Uploaded by gyenyamesankofa on Aug 9, 2008

This is one of several videos that I will be posting from my trip to Puerto Rico in July 2008.

This clip features Bomba drummers and dancers at Raul Ayala's house in Loiza, during La Fiesta de Santiago Apostol.

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Video Example #7: JAM YARD-Brukkins Dance Falmouth Jamaica March 2011 [Jamaica]



Uploaded by JAMYARDVIDEOS on Apr 15, 2011

This Dance is called Brukkin- its a traditional folk Dance,check out the musical instrument,and movements of the Dancers.
JAM YARD sharing a piece of our Jamaican culture with u.

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Video Example #8: Batuque de Umbigada Revelando São Paulo [Brazil]



Nascimento Ferr, Uploaded on Sep 20, 2009

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Comments from the 2012 version of this post.

El PolacoJune 28, 2013 at 12:54 AM

Of interest here for you - within Puerto Rican bomba, there are included a number of distinct rhythm/song/dance forms, all with their own names and the majority of which are shared with other cultures across Afro-America - particularly territories influenced by the French slave trade such as Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Trinidad, St Lucia, Eastern Cuba, and New Orleans. In the first above clip, from Ponce, PR, is an example of the son de bomba "Leró", and the second video from Loiza is of a rhythm called "rulé". To this day in Puerto Rico the terms calindá (kalenda), sicá (chica), yubá (djouba), cunyá (Kounjaille), and bambula/bambulaé (bamboula) among many others are alive and well, as designations for specific sub-styles of bomba. Thank you for posting these clips from PR in this context. Due to the influence of colonized mindsets, people tend to classify PR as an essentially "Hispanic" country, yet of course history, culture, and lineage tie the island strongly to Africa, its non-Hispanic West Indian neighbors, and the broader Afro-Atlantic...
cunyajelemue@gmail.com

ReplyDelete

Replies

1. 
   Azizi PowellJune 28, 2013 at 8:49 AM

   Thank you, cunyajelemue for sharing that information.
   
   I appreciate it!

   Delete

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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
 
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Bamboula Dance and Music - Then & Now, Part I (2026 reprint of a 2012 post)

Edited by Azizi Powell

[This is a complete reprint of Part I of a four part pancocojams series.  Part II is also a complete reprint. Both of these posts and the other two posts are still available on this blog.

I reprinted only these two parts of this series because they focus on the history and origins of the Bamboula and other dance traditions in New Orleans. The information about and videos of contemporary New Orleans second lining in Part III and Part IV are available in other more recent pancocojams posts.]

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This is Part I of a four part series of pancocojams posts on the African roots, and the music & dance traditions of the Bamboula in the Caribbean & in the United States.

Part I of this series provides a general overview of the Bamboula dance, and features several videos of dance traditions from a few African ethnic groups in West Africa, the region from which most Black people who were enslaved in the Caribbean and the Americas came.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_01914410303.html for Part II of this series. That post focuses on descriptions of the Bamboula dance in the Caribbean, and features several videos of the Bomba, which is considered to be similar to the Bamboula.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_10.html for Part III of this series. That post focuses on the Bamboula in the United States, features a 19th century sound file entitled "Bamboula", features selected videos of contemporary gatherings in Congo Square in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_2616.html for Part 4 of this series. That post focuses on showcasing selected videos of music that was inspired by the Bamboula and/or Congo Square.

These posts are presented for historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and all those who are featured in these videos.

Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. 

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Part I

OVERVIEW OF THE BAMBOULA
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboula
"A bamboula is a kind of drum made from a section of giant bamboo with skin stretched over the ends. It is also a secular dance accompanied by the drums. Both were brought to the Americas (notably New Orleans and the Virgin Islands) by African slaves."

In her now classic book Black Dance from 1619 to Today Lynne Fauley Emery writes this about the bamboula:
"One of the drums used to accompany the Chica [dance] was known as the baboula. The dance called the Bamboula undoubtedly derived its name from this drum. This dance is discussed by a few authors, but a careful examination of the descriptions leads to the conclusion that the Bamboula is in fact another name for the Chica.

In his 1823 book J. Stewart wrote of a dance performed by a man and woman inside a ring. "When two dancers have fatigued themselves", he said, "another couple enter the ring." (Princeton Book Company, second edition, p. 26)"

Lynne Fauley Emery reports that in 1774 Edward Long wrote this about the Chica or the Calenda, a similar dance done by Black Jamaicans:
"The female dancer is all languishing, and easy in her motions; the man, all action, fire, and gesture; his whole person is variously turned and writhed every moment, and his limbs agitated with such lively exertions, as serve to display before his partner the vigour and elasticity of his muscles (op.cit, p. 25)."

In 2008 a blogger using the screen name "knight" wrote on Yahoo's Answer page for the UK & Ireland asking "Which part of africa do most jamaicans descend from?". Here's an excerpt of the comment written by dadude70 which knight ranked as the best answer:
"The majority of the slave trade was conducted along the West african coast in what is the coastal areas of the modern african countries of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Nigeria, Benin, Sierre Leone, Togo, Ghana, Congo and Angola.

Some of the biggest linguistic groups within these areas are the Yoruba, Ibo, Ijaw in Modern Nigeria the Ga, Fa, Twi of Togo and Ghana as well others. These will be the main constituents of the country of Jamaica.http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090328161833AANoSPq"
-snip-
If (or because) the Bamboula very likely originated in West Africa and/or Central Africa, it seems to me that some hints about the Bamboula might be gleaned by researching the traditional music and dances that are still performed among those populations from those African regions. The videos that follow provide a hint of that study.

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VIDEOS OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN DANCES
Videos in this series of posts are numbered in consecutive order throughout the entire series. No order of preference is given to these selected videos. The selection and presentation of these videos aren't meant to infer that I think that any of those dances are necessarily a precusor to the Bamboula or any other 18th or 19th century Caribbean or American dance.

Video #1: Atilogu / Atilogwu Dancers (Nigeria)



uploaded by zookat; July 04, 2008

Atilogu/Atilogwu Dancers as filmed by famous Cream drummer Ginger Baker & crew at Ikoyi, Lagos-Nigeria, 1971

The Atilogu dance is perhaps the most intense African cultural dance form performed as a group.

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Video #2: Vulolo (Ghana)



Uploaded by zotorglo on Mar 9, 2009

Sample clip from an upcoming DVD featuring the dance-drumming of the Dunenyo Haborbor of Three Town, Denu. For more details see our website: www.cepafrica.org

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Video #3: Benin-Alekpehanhou- nou wa boyi mè [Benin]



Uploaded by EHUZU1 on Mar 23, 2008

Zinli traditional music from benin

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Video #4 (Senegal)



Uploaded by diattacounda on Nov 15, 2007

Fête célébrant la fin des luttes. Sport national du Sénégal qui rayonne jusqu'en Guinée Bissau et au délà dans toute l'Afrique de l'Ouest.
-snip-
Here's some information in English about this video. (I'm combining two comments from the same writer):
"i will try and explain a few things. i am from Casamance and some of my roots are related the Cabrousse people. Cabrousse is one component of the wider Diola nation which is made up of over 60 sub groups.

The Diola have a number of celebrations which all involve singing, dancing, bombolong and drums playing (bombolong being a tree trunk with an internal excavation that emits particular sounds). in this video, you have a mix of drum and bombolong. This here is celebration of the harvest."
-jongandal; 2010
-snip-
Could the "bombolong" drum be the father (or mother) of the "baboula" drum that Lynne Fauley Emery wrote about? Could the Bomba dance be a folk etymology form of the Senegalese word bombolong? Inquiring minds want to know but we might have to settle for speculation.

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This concludes Part I of this four part pancocojams series.

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A Comparison Of Various Calenda-Like Dances

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides videos of dance performances in the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa that remind me of descriptions of the 17th and 18th centuries Caribbean and United States dance the "Calenda".

I'm certain that these comparisons have already been documented by dance historians. However, they are noteworthy to people like me who approach YouTube videos as an introduction to various music & dance traditions and as a way of comparing aspects of those traditions.

Here's a brief description of the Calenda for those who may not be aware of that dance or dances:
From Lynne Fauley Emery: Black Dance From 1619 to Today, Second Revised Edition (Princeton Book Company, 1988, p. 24)
"The Calenda, according to most accounts, had certain characteristics: it was performed by one or more couples encircled by a singing, clapping ring; the movement of a couple consisted of a rather shuffling advance and retreat, with most of the movement originating in the hips, while the limbs played a very small part of the dance. Except for the description given by Labat, there was no physical contact between dancers."
-snip-
Here's the description of the Calenda dance in the Caribbean that was written in 1698 by the French monk Father Jean-Baptiste Labat:
"The dancers are arranged in two lines, facing each other, the men on one side and the women on another. Those who are tired of dancing form a circle with the spectators around the dancers and the drums. The ablest person sings a song which he composes on the spot on any subject he considers appropriate. The refrain of the song is sung by everyone and is accompanied by great handclapping. As for the dancers, they hold their arms a little like someone playing castagnettes. They jump, make swift turns, approach each other to a distance of two or three feet then draw back with the beat of the drum until the sound of the drums brings them together again to strike their thighs together, that is, the men's against the women's. To see them it would seem that they were striking each other's bellies although it is only the thighs which receive the blows. At the proper time they withdraw with a pirouette, only to begin again the same movement with absolutely lascivious gestures; this, as many times as the drums give the signal, which is many times in a row. From time to time they lock arms and make several revolutions always slapping their thighs together and kissing each other, it can readily be seen by this abridged description to what degree this dance is contrary to all modesty.
(quoted in Emery: pps 21-22)

Emery goes on to describe a men's stick dance that was also called "Calenda". That dance is not the focus of this post.

The Calenda is documented to have been a popular dance in 19th century Congo Square, New Orleans, Louisiana. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_10.html for descriptions of that dance.
-snip-
Without any further comments, presented in no particular order, here are three Youtube videos of dances that are somewhat similar in format if not in their entire performance to Labat's description of Calenda:

Welsh Folk Dance "Jac y Do"



Uploaded by Pluckandsqueeze on Jan 22, 2010

The Welsh folk dance is "Jac y Do" (the Jackdaw) which is also the title of the first tune, and has an uncanny resemblance to the The Grand Old Duke of York.

The venue was a the Temple of Peace in Cardiff Civic Centre, with a beautiful Art Deco interior.
We played as a three piece band with Heulwen on fiddle, Lorna on accordion and Peter on guitar, with Alun calling the dance steps.

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Video #2: Bèlè - Mabello - Bourg de Schoelcher



MrDjipe, Published on May 4, 2012

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Video #3: Zambia Wedding Dancing



Uploaded by daviddamberger on Jul 4, 2009

One of my favorite parts about Zambia weddings are that the wedding party, the flower girl, the knife boys and pretty much anyone else involved in the wedding enters into the room dancing.

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The two dance characteristics in those videos that remind me of the Calenda are the "longways set" formation (a line of men facing a line of women - although the Mabelo wasn't always danced in that line formation), and the approaching & retreating movement with physical touch (Martinique, and Zambia) and without physical touch (Wales).

I happened on the video of the Mabelo and then found the video of the Welsh dance which looked so much like it (except for the absence of the belly thrust and hip shaking). The southern African nation of Zambia was colonized by England from the end of the 19th century until 1964 when it declared its independence from colonialization. Therefore, in hindsight, it's not all that surprising that Zambians would have the same Calenda or Calenda-like dance tradition as people from other formerly English colonized nations.

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For more videos of Mabelo, click this post of my zumalayah blog: http://zumalayah.blogspot.com/2013/04/videos-of-mabelo-folk-dance-from.html
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For more videos of South African wedding dances (known as masteps), click this post of my zumalayah blog: http://zumalayah.blogspot.com/2013/04/contemporary-southern-african-wedding.html

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Bamboula Dance and Music - Then & Now, Part 4

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest update - September 6, 2026

This is Part IV of a four part pancocojams series of posts on on the African roots, and the music & dance traditions of the Bamboula in the Caribbean, and in the United States.

Part IV showcases selected videos of music that was inspired by the Bamboula and/or Congo Square.

Part I of this series provides an overview of the Bamboula, and features several videos of dance traditions from a few African ethnic groups in West Africa, the region from which most Black people who were enslaved in the Caribbean and the Americas came.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part.html for Part 1 of this series.

Part II of this series focuses on descriptions of the Bamboula dance in the Caribbean, and features several videos of the Bomba, which is considered to be similar to the Bamboula. Click  for Part 2 of this series.

Part III of this series focuses on the Bamboula in the United States, and features a 19th century sound file entitled "Bamboula" and contemporary gatherings in Congo Square in New Orleans, Louisiana. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_10.html for Part 3 of this series.

These posts are presented for historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

Videos in this series of posts are numbered in consecutive order throughout the entire series. No order of preference is given to these selected videos.

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VIDEOS OF SELECTED RECORDINGS
[Showcased without any editorial comment.]

Video Example #15: Sonny Landreth & Derek Trucks - Congo Square



Tim Burktu, July 16, 2018

Crossroads Guitar Festval 2013 ( DVD )

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Video Example #16: Congo Square - The Neville Brothers



Uploaded by Tulip Jackson on Jul 13, 2008

Slideshow Neville Brothers

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Video Example #17: Odadaa! Excerpts from "Congo Square"



Uploaded by aminaaddy on Dec 25, 2009

Odadaa! Excerpts from "Congo Square"

Excerpts of elder Ghanaian drum master Yacub Addy and his exceptional ensemble Odadaa!'s performance of "Congo Square", a 2-hour co-composition by Yacub Addy and jazz titan Wynton Marsalis, at the Montreal Jazz Festival 07. "Congo Square" is the ground-breaking 2-hour co-composition by Yacub Addy and Wynton Marsalis that celebrates the historic Congo Square in New Orleans. The only place in America where African slaves were allowed to perform their own music and dance in the 1700s-1800s, it established the roots of American music by providing a means for African music to enter and mingle with American forms.

An exceptional ensemble of artists from Ghana, Odadaa! includes drummers, instrumentalists, singers and dancers of the Ga ethnic group, and a single American-born singer.

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Video Example #18: "Congo Square" Premiere



Uploaded by aminaaddy on Dec 25, 2009

April 23, 2006 a historic new composition was premiered in New Orleans - "Congo Square", co-written by Ghanaian drum master Yacub Addy and Wynton Marsalis. Presented in historic Congo Square for a wildly enthusiastic crowd, it was intended by it's creators as spiritual support for the Crescent City's recovery from the ravages of Katrina. The ground-breaking work, which combines Ghanaian percussion and vocals with jazz forms, was performed by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and Yacub Addy and Odadaa!. Part of the opening selection is currently being used by HBO in it's promo for the new series "Treme".

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Bamboula Dance and Music - Then & Now, Part 3

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision - September 5, 2026

This is Part III of a four part pancocojams series of posts on the African roots, and the music & dance traditions of the Bamboula in the Caribbean, and in the United States.

Part III of this series focuses on the Bamboula in the United States, features a 19th century sound file entitled "Bamboula", features selected videos of contemporary gatherings in Congo Square in New Orleans, Louisiana. Videos in this series of posts are numbered in consecutive order throughout the entire series. No order of preference is given to these selected videos.

Part I of this series provides an overview of the Bamboula, and features several videos of dance traditions from a few African ethnic groups in West Africa, the region from which most Black people who were enslaved in the Caribbean and the Americas came.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part.html for Part 1 of this series.

Part II of this series focuses on descriptions of the Bamboula dance in the Caribbean, and features several videos of the Bomba, which is considered to be similar to the Bamboula. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_01914410303.html for Part 2 of this series.

Part IV showcases videos of selected recordings that mention Bamboula and/or Congo Square. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_2616.html for Part 4 of this series.

These posts are presented for historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

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Part III

OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF BAMBOULA IN THE UNITED STATES
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creole_music
"Central to Creole musical activities was Place Congo (in English: Congo Square). The much quoted 1886 article by George Washington Cable offers this description:

"The booming of African drums and blast of huge wooden horns called to the gathering... . The drums were very long, hollowed, often from a single piece of wood, open at one end and having a sheep or goat skin stretched across the other... . The smaller drum was often made from a joint or two of very large bamboo...and this is said to be the origin of its name; for it was called the Bamboula."

Cable then describes a variety of instruments used at Congo Square, including gourds, triangles, jaw harps, jawbones, and "the grand instrument at last", the four-stringed banjo. The bamboula, or "bamboo-drum", accompanied the bamboula dance and bamboula songs. Chase writes, "For Cable, the bamboula represented 'a frightful triumph of body over the mind,' and 'Only the music deserved to survive, and does survive...'"
Among other Creole dances mentioned by Chase (p. 312) are the babouilee, the cata (or chacta), the counjaille (or counjai), the voudou, the calinda, and the congo. "Perhaps the most widespread of all was the calinda..." The melody "Michié Préval", for example, was sung to the calinda. In Spanish, the name of this dance is calenda."
-snip-
In 1886 E.W. Kemble drew a picture entitled "The Bamboula". That picture shows a young Black man holding the arm of a young Black woman toward the center of a semi-circle of other Black folks. The shoe-less Black man wears nothing but cut off pants tied on the side of his waist. The shoe-less Black woman has a scarf on her head and appears to be wearing a shirt & midi length skirt. In front of the semi-circle to the right, drummers are crouched down to the ground. All other people forming the circle are standing. This drawing is found on page 161 of Lynne Fauley Emery's book Black Dance From 1619 to Today (second, revised edition).

Th following description from Henry Didimus of a dance that he identified as the Bamboula is also found in Emery's book:
"Upon entering the square [Congo Square in New Orleans, Lousiana] the visitor finds the multitude packed in groups of close, narrow circles, of a central area of only a few feet; and there in the center of each circle, sits the musician, astride a barrel...there, too, labor the dancers male and female...The head rests upon the breast, or is thrown back upon the shoulders, the eyes closed, or glaring, while the arms, amid cries, and shouts, and sharp ejaculations, float upon the air, or keep time, with th hands patting upon the thighs, to a music which is seemingly eternal.

The feet scarce tread wider space than thir own length; but rise and fall, turn in and out, touch first the heel and then the toe; rapidly and more rapidly, till they twinkle to the eye, which finds its sight too slow a follower of their movements.
quoted on pages 160-162 op. cit."
-snip-
Emery indicates that Didimus' description of Bamboula was unlike other descriptions of that dance and "sounded nearly like a Don Petro dance". (page 162).

Didimus was the biographer of White New Orleans musician and composer Louis Gottschalk. One of the most famous compositions by Gottschalk was inspired by his observations of the Bamboula dance in Congo Square.

Video Example #9: Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Bamboula (Dance des N'egres)



Uploaded by sonictravelers on Aug 26, 2011

Composed in 1859
-snip-
Notwithstanding the importance of Congo Square to the music & dance legacy of African Americans & other Americans, it should be noted that, contrary to the often repeated assertion, Congo Square wasn't the only public place in the United States where enslaved and free Black people ever congregated to dance and make music.

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkster#Impact_on_African-Americans to read about the New York state holiday called Pinkster. Here's a brief excerpt from that page:
"Pinkster as an African-American celebration reached its height in New York between 1790 and 1810. Before the holiday, temporary shelters were built, frequently based on styles imitating African shelters. The festival could continue for three to four days, including sports, dance, and music. The highlight was the Toto or the Guinea dance, performed to the beating of drums...

Their dances were combinations of African and European steps and elements, creating new dances that were precursors to modern tap and break dancing."
-snip-
An observers' description of the scene and the drummers but not the dancers can be found toward the end of this page http://www.albanyweblog.com/2011/05-May/05-08-11.php

Nowadays, there is still drumming & dancing held in Congo Square. While there are drum "circles", the formation doesn't usually appear to be a semi-circle or a circle. Instead, numerous videos of Congo Square gatherings mostly show observers standing in front of the drummers & other musicians, taking photographs & videos with their cameras. Instead of crouching down to play their drums, these modern day Congo Square drummers either stand erect facing their audience of sit on chairs and benches. Also, it appears that most of the observers aren't potential participants in the dance as was the case in the very old days of Congo Square. What dancers there are do their movements in the "stage" area in front of the musicians. Furthermore, when there are dancers in the center of the semi-circle or circle, or in front of the drummers, they aren't dancing as male/female couples or any other kind of couple. In videos that I have seen dancers are either "doing their own thing" or they are doing a choreographed dance routine.

This is far different from the descriptions of the Bamboula and other old Congo Square dances. In addition, notice that a considerable number of the Congo Square observers, and some of the dancers and drummers in the following videos are either non-Black (or appear to be non-Black.) Obviously, some of the observers of the 19th century gatherings in Congo Square were non-Black, as evidenced by the quoted passages found on this page. However, the active participation of non-Black individuals in Congo Square dancing and music making is worthy of notation, although that integrated participation does not mean that the United States is post-racial.

Video Example #10: Congo Square Fest New Orleans 9.30.07



Uploaded by SneakinSal on Oct 23, 2007

Congo Square Dancers and drums at the fest Spet. 2007

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Video Example #11: The New Generation Jam in Congo Square // "Lil Liza Jane"




Uploaded by nolamml on Jun 12, 2011

Sunday June 12th, 2011, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
"The New Generation Jam in Congo Square"

Positive Vibrations Foundation and the Congo Square Foundation present "The New Generation Jam in Congo Square" in partnership with the Golden Feather. Youth organizations, Mardi Gras Indian organizations, artists, parents, and the general public are invited to join the Jam this Sunday. Luther Gray will lead the drum circle and give an educational presentation on the history, beats, rhythms, and traditions of Congo Square. People are encouraged to bring drums, instruments, their voices, and smiles. A limited number of drums will be provided for the event.

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Video Example #12: Louis Martinie Drumming The Bamboula Voodoo Rhythm



Uploaded by KRaynewolfe on Jun 29, 2010

Louis Martinie of the New Orleans Voodoo Temple Sharing the Bamboula "birth" rhythm (The House is Brought to Order --"Settle Down and Focus Up" ) June 13, 2010 during a visit to Our Haven in French Lick, IN. Recorded at Dragon Circle during some beautiful evening thunderstorms and lightning. Background drummers included Za El, Kat, and Kay...

"This rhythm can be traced back to the dances on Congo Square (Luther Gray, Bamboula 2000) during the time of Marie Laveau and Dr. John . It is at the heart of New Orleans second line drumming. This is the name of our most sacred rhythm and Bamboula is the name of the spirit honored as the loa of the drums.

Congo Square was a great market, loud and colorful and mysterious in a way that all markets are mysterious. The physical space it occupied stretched outward from New Orleans ramparts (now Rampart Street) into the far reaches of the imagination. Free and enslaved Africans talked and laughed and bargained. Native Americans sold and traded produce. Poor Whites, new from Ireland and famine marveled at the profusion of food. The sellers vied to attract the buyers. Objects and foods were waved in the air to be appraised and purchased or passed by. Bargains were struck and arms filled with food and fabrics. Drummers and dancers gathered into small groups playing the rhythms of their homelands in Africa. One group seemed to be a bit larger, a bit more organized. Here Priestess Marie Laveau presided and Dr. John drummed. Here the Bamboula sounded."

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