‘Jiizas A Go Baan this Christmas’ - Mouthfuls of patois at JDF’s carol service
Published:Friday | December 13, 2019 | 12:06 AMKimberley Small/Staff Reporter
Stringent military practice and protocol were evident in the planning of the Jamaica Defence Force’s (JDF) Open-Air Carol Service at Up Park Camp on Tuesday evening. The audience was asked not to applaud after items, to turn off their cell phones, and was made to stand for the singing of a majority of the carols. But despite those restrictions, it was quite the Jamaican Christmas. As the service carried on smoothly, with a generally obedient audience, attentive to the well-practised singers and musicians, there was no quieting the chuckles and giggles that burst forth during two smooth and entertaining readings from the Jamiekan, or Patois Bible.
A young sergeant was asked to read from Luke Chapter 1, verse 26 to 38. When he read: “ … Elizabeth did av baby in-a belly fi six months, God sen di angel Gabriel go a one town inna Galilee name Nazareth fi carry one message go gi one young woman name Mary, who neva sleep wid no man yet,” it hit like a punchline, and the crowd reacted.
The JDF carol service marks another instance this Christmas season, in which the text translated from English to ‘Jamiekan’, has been adapted for or has been included in an entertainment package. The other was the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jamaica and The Jamaica Choral Scholars’ recent presentation with the same title as the passage the young sergeant read, ‘Jiizas A Go Baan’. Staged at the Courtleigh Auditorium last week. The presentation featured songs for soloists and chorus, written with text mainly from the Patois Bible, with a classical music score.
groundbreaking work
According to choral director Dr Andrew Marshall, ‘Jiizas A Go Baan’ – the production – celebrates the groundbreaking work that the team at the Bible Society of the West Indies has done in translating the scriptures to the familiar Jamaican tongue. It is the first cantata written in the language of the common folk. ‘Jiizas A Go Baan’ was premiered in December 2017 and repeated in 2018. Marshall, who draws heavily on the cultural and historical themes of Jamaican life and Christian faith, has composed other such orchestral symphonies like Run-a-Boat, Nyabinghi, and Kongkongkraba. Other extended works in his catalogue include Revivalist Suite and Wa Jiizas Priich Se Pan Di Mountn.
Following the reading of Jiizas A Go Baan, the carol service’s programme maintained the ‘code’ switch, pulling on some Jamaican carols. From being stiff with reverence for God, or just reacting to the stoic soldiers all the around, the audience relaxed and rocked along as they sang She Rock The Baby To Sleep, Di Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy , and All For Jesus. And the audience was erupted in laughter again, during the reading of Luke Chapter 2, verses one to seven, when a very pregnant Mary and Joseph were on their way to register in Bethlehem. They read: “Di two a dem di engage to one anedda fi get married, and she did have baby inna belly. When dem deh deh, Mary tek fi have baby, and she have har fus pickney, one bwoy. She wrap him in a baby blanket and put him inna di box weh di animal dem nyam out of.”