Bamboula-Olasee Davis-Answers to lesson 2 chapter 1 Questions PDF

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Dear editor; By Olasee Davis Recently, I conducted a full moon hike to the historic site of Maronberg (in English Maroon Hill) at Ham’s Bluff where the Danish lighthouse stood on the northwest side of St. Croix. As we hiked up the hill almost to the top of the ridge, there was the moon beginning to come over the horizon of the mountain lighLng up the dark heaven with its bright orange yellowish lights reflecLng on the Caribbean Sea. Runaway slaves once occupied this sacred site of Maroon Hill. As I discussed the history of the site to the hikers, one hiker asked about the bamboula dance among runway slaves. Oral history has it that slaves oNen pracLced the tradiLonal bamboula art form in the “bush.” Bamboula is a dance originated from Africa and spread throughout the West Indies, South, Central, and North America and other reigns of the Western Hemisphere where Africans were imported as slaves. The Bamboula dance is the soul beat of the drum on goatskin, which players pounded with fingers and the heels of the hands to alter the Lmbre. It is a powerful rhythm sound transcending you physically and spiritually. In the West Indies, and wherever the bamboula dance ritual was performed during the colonial period of the west, white planters were afraid of the enslaved Africans music. They felt threatened that a slave revolt might occur impacLng the plantaLon economy. Case in point, on August 8, 1672, Governor Jorgen Iversen ban bamboula dancing on the island of St. Thomas. Slaves who caught dancing bamboularisked imprisonment at Fort ChrisLan and ge^ng a public lashing. Richard Haagensen, a Danish observer menLoned in a small-published pamphlet in 1758, Ltle Beskrivelse over Eylandet describing St. Croix about the slaves and their dances. “Drums sounded in the warm dark night and the jungle came to life again … here something was happening which the white people did not understand and which they feared… At first the planters laughed at the monotonous music and the violent dances, but deep down they feared that this recreated jungle atmosphere might create rebellion… so they passed numerous laws forbidding these dances”, wrote Haagensen. Laws or no laws, slaves found ways to keep their bamboula dancing alive throughout the 17th , ,and 19th century in the Danish West Indies. Although the older generaLon of white planters in the Danish West Indies were fearful of the bamboula dancing, many of their children returning from Europe to the islands with their sophisLcated musical educaLon began to search and publicly revive the African rhythms of the islands enslaved Africans music. On top of their list was the “Bamboula music.”

18th,

Andre Pierre Ledru, a French naturalist born in Chantenay, France in 1761 talked a great deal about the bamboula and its origins. His lengthy study of habits and customs of enslaved Africans in the West Indies appeared in two volumes under the Ltle: Voyage auxisle de Teneriffe, La Trinite, Saint Thomas, St. Croix et Porto Rico, execute par order du gouvernement Francais depuis le 30 September,1796. According to Ledru, bamboula came from off the coast of Guinea. Then it moved north becoming popular among the colonists of North Africa and the Canary islands off the coast of Africa. He first saw bamboula performed in Teneriffe, the largest of the Canary Islands. Ledru said strange to say, the performance was not by Africans, but by Spaniards. In 1801, Ledru saw bamboula performed in a church as part of the religious ceremony.

Ledru could not believe his eyes what he called a violent pagan manipulaLons of the body dance incorporated into Catholic religious services. The nuns also danced bamboula on Christmas night on a plahorm se^ng in the yard of the church. The only difference Ledru said that disLnguished the dance from when Africans dancing bamboula that men in church are not permiied to join in with the women. Later on, the church turned against bamboula dancing because of what they say of the physical and sensuous exaggeraLon of the moment. As Lme change in the Danish West Indies, the dance that appeared in the ballrooms of the great houses were the bamboula dance. Planters selected teams of talented slaves to perform the dance because no white man could. At Lme, some of the planters’ children were trained by their slaves’ teachers how to dance bamboula, along with their parents and friends joint in on the dance floor of Danish parLes on the islands. The young generaLon of white children in the Danish islands shown deep feeling for their servants and plantaLon slaves. Slaves who raise white children played an important role of their childhood. Thus, bamboula dance was not only handed down from slaves to slaves, but also to white planters’ children. Robert Ramsay who visited St. Croix in 1820 and stayed as a guest at Schimmelmann’s plantaLon at La Grande Princesses observed how white children admired their slaves’ nanny. He said, “…youngsters showed as much devoLon and deep feeling for these Negro domesLcs and slaves as they did for their parents and relaLves.” On New Year Day, the bamboula dance was tradiLon in the islands where the enslaved populaLon rang in the year of joys, laugher or just socializing with their best ouhits for the year. Victor Schoelcher’s, a French humanitarian who devoted his life to the aboliLon of slavery in the French colonies also wriien about the bamboula dance when he visited St. Croix in the 1840s. Nonetheless, slaves also used Bamboula as protest. On September 1892, Queen Coziah led a protest with two hundred bamboula dancers at the port down town Charloie Amalie, St. Thomas. The business people on St. Thomas were cheaLng the female mine workers out of their pay with a Mexican currency. Here are some of the lyrics to the bamboula song. “Ah went to the shop with a quart to buy 15cent thing ,When ah look in meh hand Dem shopkeeper gimme tally For change, Roll, Isabella, roll, Roll ( beat) the drums! Call the people to acLon! Today, bamboula dance is rare in our culture, but Dr. Chenzira Davis kahina and others are keeping the dance alive. Olasee Davis, 340-692-4053...