Book on African-Jamaican heritage a must-have

AFTER THE scourge of slavery and the challenges of colonisation, Jamaica evolved into an independent nation which has captured the imagination of the world to which we have given reggae music, top-class sportspeople, Rastafarianism, super-talented musicians, etc. We also have our own folk forms, and a folk religion called Revivalism.

Because of these, we are a proud people among which there are many who cannot talk with much authority and credibility about the things we consider dear to us, and which make us the nation we are. And if they really want to be know, they can start by getting a copy of A Reader in African-Jamaican Music – Dance – Religion, edited by Markus Coester and Wolfgang Bender.

Published in 2015 by Ian Randle Publishers, it is a gem of a book on Jamaican cultural forms, which should be on the bookshelf of every Jamaican who is interested in, and want to know more about, his/her indigenous culture. School libraries, relevant agencies and departments of government must have it in their archives, for, the content of this 733-page high-gloss paperback is revealing and enlightening.

“In this reader, Coester and Bender have compiled some off the most important ethnographic work by noted researchers which,although previously published, have been exceptionally difficult to access by the growing community of scholars of African-Caribbean and Jamaican studies. Several seminal articles on aspects of African-Jamaican culture are included in this rich and valuable collection that describes and analyses the elements that make up a distinctive African-Jamaican ethos,” the publishers write on the back cover.

The scholars and researchers whose work are included in this composite are Walter Jekyll, Astley Clerk, Helen A. Roberts, Ivy Baxter, Sylvia Wynter, Judith Bettleheim, Cheryl Ryman, Kenneth Bilby, Monica Schuler, Elizabeth Pegou, Martha Warren Beck with, George E. Simpson, Edward Seaga, Verene Reckord, Barry Chevannes, Pamela O’Gorman, Garth White, Olive Lewin, Adina Henry, Maureen Warner-Lewis, Fu-Kiau Kia Bunseki, Hazel Carter, Abiodun Adetugbo, Donald Hogg, Douglas R. A. Mack, Elliott Leib and Laura Tanna, and whose photograph is on the front cover.

“Many of the scholars represented in this reader worked together in various ways to research on African-Jamaican traditions. Some of us had lived in Africa and been trained in aspects of African studies … Others who had not been in Africa still had specialised fields of expertise which they apply to Jamaican areas having African retentions,” Tanna writes in the foreword.

Digging songs, ring songs, dancing tunes, music, drums and drum rhythms, folk songs, social dances and dance steps, jonkunnu, gumbay, myal, African religious traditions, religious cults, Revivalism, tambu, Emancipation songs, bruckins party, dinki mini, kumina, Rastafarian music, Rastafari movement, political cultism, Kromanti dance, the Yoruba in Jamaica and African retentions are the topics of research.

“This reader goes a long way towards picking up the scattered fragments of public research that gradually developed into a more cohesive understanding of Jamaica’s African heritage. It is no surprise that Germans scholars were responsible for working with a Jamaican publisher to do this.

“The articles reprinted here demonstrated that American, Bajan, British, Congolese, Ghanaian, Guyanese, Nigerian, and Trinidadian scholars have worked with Jamaicans over the decades endeavouring to understand, preserve and disseminate knowledge of Jamaica’s complex culture, sometimes for a general non-academic Jamaican audience via conduits, such as The Gleaner newspaper and sometimes via international academic journals, but always with the intention of bringing greater respect and insight into Jamaica’s African heritage,” Tanna also said.