Rock It Come Over: The Folk Music Of Jamaica

"Rock It Come Over" Ruthor Olive Lewin listening to Queenie who is holding a sick child "Rock It Come Over" The Folk Music of Jamaica With special reference to Kumina and the work of Mrs Imogene "Queenie" Kennedy Olive Lewin THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES PRESS Barbados • Jamaica • Trinidad and Tobago University of the West Indies Press 1A Aqueduct Flats Mona Kingston 7 Jamaica ©2000 Olive Lewin All rights reserved. Published 2000 05 5 4 3 2 CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA Lewin, Olive "Rock it come over": The folk music of Jamaica with special reference to Kumina and the work of Mrs Imogene "Queenie" Kennedy / Olive Lewin. p. : ill.; cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 976-640-028-8 1. Folk music - Jamaica - African influences. 2. Kennedy, Imogene "Queenie". 3. Kumina (cult) - Jamaica. 4. Music - Jamaica - African influences. I. Title ML3565.L58 2000 781.62 dc-20 Set in Palatino 10.3/15-16 pt Book and cover design by Alan Ross Page composition by Donavan Grant Printed in Canada To my mother and father, and to Johanna, Gillian and Jason JAMAICA - ITS PARISHES Location of main cults in 1987 LEttu 2. Goombeh 3. Kumina 4. Maroon 5. Nago 6. Tambo Revival (islandwide) Rastafarian (islandwide) Contents List of Illustrations Foreword ix Introduction xi Preface xv Acknowledgments mil xvii I Introduction 1. The Making of a Musician 3 2. Slavery: Old Souls in a New World 23 3. Conflicting Concepts of Wealth 39 II Non-Cult Traditional Jamaican Music 4. Music for Work, Play and the Spirit 55 5. Mento and Other Styles for Dance, Entertainment and Ceremony 103 III Cults and Cult Music in Jamaica 6. Maroon, Tambo, Goombeh, Ettu, Nago 7. Revivalism and Rastafarianism 189 147 IV Kumina and Queenie Kennedy 8. The Kumina Cult 215 9. Queenie Kennedy: Her Life 255 10. Queenie Kennedy: Her Teachings and Her Work 11. Conclusion 305 277 References 315 Index 323 vii Illustrations Dinki-mini dancers 143 Benta, an instrument used for Dinki-mini 143 Maroon area of Cockpit Country 157 Maroon abeng 162 Goombeh Maroon drum 162 Maroon prenting drummers 162 Maroon prenting drum 162 Ettu drummer and dancers 182 Kapo, Revival Shepherd, leading a chorus 196 Kumina setting 226 Queenie dancing with a glass of water on her head 237 Kumina dance positions 237 Kumina drummer 239 Kumina drums 240 Goatskin for making kumina drum 241 Ashes being applied to goatskin to loosen hair 241 Scraping hairs off goatskin with a bottle 241 Log being hollowed for drum 241 Testing newly made Kumina drum 241 Finishing touches in making a drum 242 Elijah Alexander consecrating new drum-head with rum 242 viii Foreword Jamaica is one of the few countries which have made the transition from a folk-based musical culture to a popular international music form. As the focus shifts from the traditional to the popular, so do public attention and recognition. Special steps have to be taken in such cases to preserve the treasury of folk heritage. Several positive steps have been taken in Jamaica to record its musical heritage. The Jamaica Festival provides a platform for annual performance of the arts in which folk music is well represented in song and dance. What is more, the performances are largely school presentations, ensuring that the music is nurtured for each succeeding generation. More important to the future is a record of the past. That immense responsibility was assigned by me officially to Dr Olive Lewin more than thirty years ago during my tenure as the minister responsible for culture. Dr Lewin was eminently suitable for a programme to collect our folk music in recordings and for transcribing many works to sheet music. Her qualifications