Emancipation Day

It's Emancipation Day here in Jamaica. It's also a public holiday so no work, yeah. This holiday leads into Independance Day on August 6th (next week), also a public holiday. This period is also my favourite time of the year in Jamaica because that's the time we get back in touch with our culture and Ole Time Jamaica. So, it's a showcase of old time dancing like brukking, maypole dance, Dinki Mini and some others (names of which have slipped me just now). I love this time of the year because it brings back wonderful memories of childhood days. Memories of waking up to Eric Donaldson's 'Cherrio, cherrio baby' or 'I'll neva leave you again, Jamaica, I'll never leave you again' - was it Tinga Stewart who sang that? Memories of running out unto the main road with the rest of Kingston to watch the Jonkonooo dancers pass by on Independence morning. Now, these were people dressed into some frightening looking costumes and all children were terrified of them. They don't dance Independence days anymore, so it's only when you attend the different events during festival time that you might see them. It's the time of year when we're treated to festival songs of old (meaning from the 70's,) that sounds -to me - much nicer than the present types. Back in the days (Gosh, I'm sounding like my grandmother here) the festival songs had more of a mento beat. As a matter of fact the festival songs contest has been renamed Popular Song Contest, which makes sense since they sound like any regular song on radio and lacks that special element which to me makes it a festival song.

Because today is Emancipation Day, the usual fare of slavery movies is on tv. It matters not how many times I see these movies, and I've seen them all, it's the same movies every year, I still feel angry all over at the injustice of slavery. It's the same movies that are shown during Black History Month. Years ago, I would feel a strong sense of hate for all white people whenever I view these movies and believe me I'm not racist in the least. I'm watching Roots now, and listening to slaves referred to as "Wenches who will breed plenty picanninies" and "young Bucks" and it just grates my soul. Grrrrrr.

On another note, there is a plethora of programme about Miss Lou (who is to get a State funeral). And no, this isn't a second tribute to the great woman even though I could wax lyrical about her for a week. Last night there was another nice little programme with her performing one of her songs with her late husband, Eric Coverley. Well, I'm not quite sure if she was the one who wrote this one, but it's an old time favourite:

It was unda de Coconut tree darling
It was unda de coconut tree,
It was dere dat you promised to marry to me
It was unda de coconut tree. Darling.

It was so nostalgic for me and needless to say, I was in tears. Again. I laid propped up on some pillows in my living room, singing along, amidst the tears and for a brief minute, I imagined that I was 6 or 7 years old again watching Ring Ding on tv and singing along. Oh well. I half expected to hear her shout the usual "Clap Dem" when it was finished.

Oh Well, after Roots (don't know why I'm watching this again) I think I'll go check out Augus' Yard happening at Ranny Williams Centre. They'll be having the usual cultural stuff that I mentioned earlier, Maypole dancing, etc and food (Roast Corn, yum-yum), and later showcase dancing from the different periods of Jamaica - from Ska to our current Dance Hall.