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"So what is this strange thing that we call Junkanoo? Why, year after year, do we Bahamians engage in this ritual about which most of the world knows nothing? To Bahamians, it is a most natural part of life, as vital, energizing, and soul quenching as water. Even most of us "Junkanoos" find it hard to explain. It is a door that swings open to that secret place deep within Bahamians, where we keep the real 'us'." Arleen Nash Ferguson
Nassau On Potters Quay, just aside the bridge that separates workaday Nassau from glitzy Paradise Island, something akin to magic is going on. It's 8pm and my nineteen year old son and I are witnesses to three hundred Bahamian men beating a wild Congolese rhythm on "Goombay" drums made from food, oil and rum containers. The hypnotic beat sets my heart to race. The men, aged 17 to 70 are as disciplined as soldiers marching into battle. In fact, their two step forward and one step back march is that of the Ashanti warrior. The men are beating on drums as large as garbage cans which are suspended from their shoulders by old pieces of carpet. Their hands blister with the incessant beating but they've just started and there's four more hours to go. In the moonlight, faces gleam as if with oil, but it is not oil. It is sweat from the labor of percussion and the heat generated by the enormous bonfire where they periodically heat their drums. The goatskin of the goombay drum goes flat after 40 minutes so they must lay it by the fire for a few minutes to tighten up again. Some beat drums which hold a fire inside to keep the skin tight all the while they play. The drummers' steps are slow but their beat is frenetic - out of Africa. In the blackness of night, my son and I are watching The Valley Boys practice for Junkanoo. Junkanoo is the annual celebration that Bahamians in Nassau hold in the early hours of the morning twice a year: on Boxing Day (December 26) and on New Year's Day. The celebration on colonial Bay Street is marked by a spectacular parade of music, dance, and costume. Yet Junkanoo is more; it is the very essence of Bahamian culture. And though Junkanoo exists in other parts of The Bahamas, in Nassau, Junkanoo is an obsession. People in Nassau don't just celebrate Junkanoo, they are Junkanoos. The Valley Boys are one of the several groups that each year compete in dance, music and costume for the Grand Junkanoo Award. In fact, they're are one of the two top groups and the previous year the other top group, The Saxons Superstars, won. So this year, The Valley Boys, are fighting to win. With only six days to the Junkanoo parade on Boxing Day, the tension's high, the practice, hard. Just ask Gus Cooper, the Musical Director for the past thirty years. Gus is "working the line," which means he is walking among the drummers, making sure their steps are small, they're in formation and they stay within the ropes he's stretched out to mark a border that approximates the width of Bay Street. " Junkanoo is an emotional event, he explains, "yet you got to stay disciplined. You don't want people straggling off into the spectators. "Got to stay tight." After a couple of hours, I make my way to the pick up truck at the side of the quay to get a couple of cans of the local soda called Junkanoo Juice, and conch fritters. Suddenly it sounds like Judgment Day. Here come the Horns! Hundreds more people have arrived and not just with trumpets, tubas and trombones, but with bicycle horns, fog horns, conch shells, kazoos, police whistles, "black horns" that have fifteen or so horns attached to one mouthpiece and other odd horns that look like bagpipes for octopi. Behind the Horns, march the Belles - the cowbell ringers who wear yellow dishwashing gloves to protect their hands from the long hours of ringing. With all the groups playing together now, the Valley Girls join in. The ladies dance a West African dance which they punctuate with Chinese fans, held in each hand. Soon they are joined by the male "Off the Shoulder Dancers." These are the ones who will wear the enormous 200-pound architectural costumes built high above their shoulders with wire and papier mache. Then most wonderful, the "Naked Dancers," (Not what you think.) These are dancers unencumbered by bulky costumes. At Junkanoo, the Naked Dancers are free to work the crowds and to express themselves in a joyous explosion of spontaneous dancing. As we watch, I realize my son and I are the only white faces in a sea of black ones yet I don't feel foreign. African dance traditionally uses rhythm to release the spirit from the body and tonight my spirit is out. The music pulses through my body like my own blood. In these moments, the dancers, belles, horn blowers and drummers combine to fulfill a wish of mine - to once again get a taste of Junkanoo. My initial taste was a few years ago when I heard a scrap of Junkanoo music played for the tourists in the lobby of the Atlantis Hotel. Something about its wildness made me love it in a way I still don't understand. But then, Junkanoo itself is wrapped in mystery. Junkanoo's origins reach back to the sixteenth century when the British slave masters in Nassau gave their slaves two days off a year (Boxing Day and New Year's) to "make noise on Bay Street." As Junkanoo educator Arleen Nash Ferguson puts it, "While the West African slaves didn't understand what Christmas was, they knew it meant a celebration, they knew it was a time for the soul to go home." The slaves celebrated by making colorful costumes and their own music and dancing in the dark streets. The word Junkanoo may have any one of many origins--- from the junk of which their costumes were made, from the French gens inconnus, (masked, unknown people) or from the legend of John Canoe, a legendary 16th century African ruler and slave trader. This last explanation is now thought by scholars to be the most likely as remnants of a "John Canoe Festival" exist in a few other former British colonies such as Belize and Jamaica. Whereas in these other nations, the John Canoe tradition of merrymaking is extinct or very small now, in The Bahamas, it's bigger than ever. Junkanoo used to mean free-for-all street dancing in homemade costumes from readily available materials such as newspaper, plants and sponge. Today corporate sponsors donate thousands of dollars to the Junakanoo groups and large cash prizes are awarded for the best theme, costumes, music and dancing. Now the groups need to prepare a year in advance. They meet secretly in "shacks" enormous crude buildings where the costumes are created. By September everyone from street sweepers to surgeons metamorphose into Junkanoos. Many people in Nassau literally live in the shacks. Just ask Kool-Aid Bain. Kool Aid is the costume designer for the Saxons Superstars, the Junkanoo group that he started in high school more than 38 years ago. Kool Aid designs the spangled Junkanoo costumes. "For me Junkanoo is a complete way of life. I'm thinking and working on the costumes 12, 16, sometimes 20 hours a day. In the shack I find the solitude to dream. I'm so into the Junkanoo world that when I finally get home and eat my dinner, it doesn't taste right because it's got no glitter!" The competition to win Junkanoo is intense, even brutal and it galvanizes the entire Nassau community. Yet few in Nassau have ever been permitted to view the secret world in side the shacks. That's why I consider myself honored. ************************************ "Who's there?" In a weedy lot in the Centreville area of Nassau, called "the Valley," the metal door of a huge cinderblock building slides open an inch. I am looked at with suspicion until my Bahamian host explains that I'm a journalist I'll be discreet. I will not even allude to what I will see inside the shack until after Junkanoo. Of course they've taken precautions. This shack is one of twelve satellite shacks in which their work is dispersed so that if security is breached in one, the spy will not be able to comprehend the whole picture. When finally allowed in, I'm awed. All about are people working on the head dresses and costumes. Colorful crepe paper, glue guns and glitter are everywhere. The work is painstaking. The National Junkanoo Committee sets down rules and to keep to tradition, no paint is allowed. Men sit about cutting thin shreds of crepe paper that must be meticulously glued shred by shred to the papier mache head dresses and shoulder pieces. Some men are gluing "tricks" to the fringe. Tricks are sequins, glitter, small mirrors, fake gems, feathers etc. The tricks are what really make the costumes spectacular but they're expensive and not included in sponsorship money and must be paid for out of pocket but if it makes their production more beautiful, the personal financial sacrifice is worth it. What is truly awesome in the shack is "the banner," the most important visual element of Junkanoo. The banner is like a giant, vertical parade float and sums up the theme. It must be glorious because a prize is awarded for the banner itself. The Valley Boys banner is awesome, like the cell of an animation film that has magically become three-dimensional then enlarged a thousand times. This year's theme is "A Mystical Journey Into the Orient: Behold the Dragon!" and so the banner is a colossal fire-breathing dragon with gleaming eyes. The theme was not chosen arbitrarily. In fact one of the most surprising things about the Valley Boys is that even though they labor for months to put on a fabulous spectacle combining music, dance and art, at the heart of what they do is a well considered, intellectual political or ethical philosophy. This is the aspect of Junkanoo that is most missed by tourists. Junkanoo is about fun, yet the group's purpose is to make a serious social impact. Dromeco Archer explains that they chose a pan-Asian theme to get Bahamians to think more seriously about the economy. In an age of increased globalization, they want Bahamians to look to countries in Asia who are rapidly developing technology industries and a strong economic infrastructure, despite years of poverty. The Valley Boys have done their homework. They've studied Japanese fan dancing, Peking Opera, and martial arts to construct their fabulous banner, headdresses and costumes. As if that weren't enough, they are simultaneously creating a whole different banner and set of costumes for the New Year's Day parade whose theme, by the Junkanoo rules, must be different. Their New Year's theme is the protection of the beauty and the value of the Bahamian dollar and the encouragement of foreign investments. The Valley Boys have printed a manifesto of their ideas of cultural exchanges between the Bahamas and Asia and one on their beliefs concerning "Bahamanizing" their nation's economy. The Valley Boys have more than a thousand members and is set up like a corporation with committees for finance, PR and social and welfare. Ronald Simms, director of the Brass Section, is affectionately called their "Resident Futurist." He says they've recruited hundreds of middle school and high school kids to work in the shacks on both themed parades. "We have the ability to galvanize a large number of young people and have them do productive and creative endeavors. We get them thinking about our country. We have numerous workshops in the summer for our youth for our goal is to contribute to the social, cultural and economic development of our country all year round. We teach young people how to be disciplined, to have respect, how to carry themselves not only during the Junkanoo parade, but at all times -- in the shacks and in the streets. We provide a place for them to assemble, do a wholesome activity, and get counseling. We have no age division. All ages can be a Junkanoo. We have a radio show now where we promote our ideas for we want people to feel a part of what we do. Our attitude is inclusive. It's " I'm a Junkanoo, but you're a Junkanoo too." Indeed it seems that the deeper you look into Bahamian culture, the more Junkanoo you discover. Besides its social influences, Junkanoo influences the music, the tourist industry, and most recently the unique Bahamian painting style of vivid colors, swirling lines and emotional themes that some of the finest Junkanoo banner artists who are as well fine artists, developed more than a decade ago. One of these major artists is the architect, Jackson Burnside, founder and president of Doongalik Gallery, an art gallery dedicated to keeping the artistic techniques of Junkanoo alive.Jackson Burnside believes that Junkanoo is one of the least understood, genuine products of the New World. Few, he says, understand the dynamic, social context in which this art form is created. " Junkanoo, is part of the ancestral memory of our people as long as we've been here. It's manifested in our buildings and utensils and artifacts as well as our paintings." It's a form of informal expression of who we are." Jackson and his artist brother Stan Burnside formed their own Junkanoo group called "One Family." Their Junkanoo work, he explains, is all about thinking. " "We need to always think: What are we conveying? What are we bequeathing to the next generation? Beyond the color, flash and beads, we use Junkanoo as a kind of developmental tool to uplift and strengthen our community." To that end, One Family runs a summer camp and gets involved in issues of teen pregnancy and substance abuse. When a member dies, the deceased gets a "Junkanoo Funeral." Each year more than four million people visit The Bahamas, yet few have ever heard of Junkanoo, let alone seen it. The Bahamian Ministry of Tourism would like to see that change and is bringing Junkanoo to the forefront in publications and activities geared to the tourist. Yet, no tourist, nor even a privileged guest of a Junkanoo Group as I was, will ever really know the adrenalin rush and emotional power of being a Junkanoo. So entwined in Bahamian identity is Junkanoo, that in those dark pre-dawn moments when thousands of men, women and children enter the shacks to get their costumes, they say the words, "I come to get me." Arlene Nash Ferguson, Junkanoo educator and author, sums up what she felt as a child "rushing" Junkanoo, what she feels to this day. " I come to get me... with these words, the door to our heritage slowly opens again, and our forefathers are reaching out across the centuries, bequeathing a proud and indomitable heritage through the power of Junkanoo. There is in those of us called to carry on the tradition, the subconscious realization that Junkanoo is the place to keep our souls. The real "me" emerges in our costumes, the colors of our character, the design of our personalities, the pattern of our tastes, our pride and our signature. On Bay, in our costumes, we feel complete. We reverse the trend of History and joyously proclaim the triumph of the Bahamian spirit.: parade it in the intricate steps of the dance, thunder it from the pounding of our drums, shout it in the sound of our cowbells. In the shack at Junkanoo I come home." Postscript: The Valley Boys took all the major awards on Boxing Day including best music, best dancing best banner and best costumes. On New Year's Day, One Family won best music and dance and tied with the Superstars for best banner. Where and when to see
the Junkanoo Parade in Nassau Also, primarily for tourists, is the "Junkanoo in mid-June" for the Heritage Festival on Paradise Island Where to see Junkanoo
Art and Sculpture Where to See Junkanoo Art, Costumes and Banners
Junkanoo: Festival of the Bahamas
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©Maxine Rose Schur 2001. Reproducing or copying photos and articles is strictly prohibited unless expressly granted by the owner. All photos are by the author unless specified.
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