African continuities in Jamaican culture: A talk given by ‘H’ Patten at the British Museum, 19th October 2011

Today (19^th October 2011) I visited the British Museum to hear a talk being given by ‘H’ Patten, on African continuities in Jamaican culture. He introduced himself as a dancer and storyteller but whose journey started as a visual artist. ‘H’ Patten is also a lecturer at Surrey University and is currently researching for his PhD - Moving in the Spirit of Jamaican Dancehall: Continuities and change between traditional African Dance and the Dancehall genre.

Matching historical similarities between West Africa and in particular Ghana, with the island of Jamaica which is located in the Caribbean, through mental state, spiritual connection and physical form. The talk began at the Tree of Life; which is made from weapons of war and destruction.

Patten started here because of the similarities between it and The Kinder/ Kindah Tree of Accompong, a village in the parish of St Elizabeth, Jamaica. Accompong; It is the belief that it is here that the enslaved Africans who had evaded their captures had fled too, during the 400years plus of the African Slave Trade. 

The Kinder/ Kindah Tree of Accompong is symbolic of the crossroads between the physical and the spiritual world. Every year on the 6^th January the Maroon people of Accompong celebrate the 1739 signing of the treaty between the Maroon’s and the British.

Patten went on to talk about the native Kromanti, language of Accompong, and that it is similar to; if not the same as the Twi language of Ghana, strengthening the belief that the Maroon people were those Africans that managed to escape their captures. They were creative people and had to be, their survival techniques included hunting, cooking, bathing and basic everyday necessity all carried out in a way as not to get caught. Survival meant that they had to stay one step ahead of their opponents and continuously design ways to outwit the enemy. Using tactics of camouflage and illusion, I agree with Patten that ‘creativity saves us’. Again manifested in the erection of this tree, the craftsmanship is equally as aesthetic as it is frightening.

Kromanti is not only a language it is also a dance and a place in Ghana, around the installation of the Tree of Life in a circular form Patten engaged us in a Kromanti song. Clapping the rhythm that would be played on the gumbe drum, our call and response assimilated the calling of the spirits for knowledge and guidance through this ritual.

Nanny Maroon was the leader of the Maroon people, the free Africans, once enslaved but who rose up against their situation and bought their fight game into play. She, being a woman not only led her people into freedom but as a woman she would of undoubtedly had struggles of her own to become a leader. Like Yaa Asantewaa before her who led armies, Nanny found that African sense and sensibility to change their circumstance and position in a situation.

The Junkanoo festival of Jamaica, where masquerade and dress takes precedence over everything you have done in the year, the masks instilled morals and values of traditional society and the spirited self. Patten asked “if you saw a cow head coming towards you, wouldn’t you begin to think about and ask forgiveness for all wrong doings throughout the year, especially if you were a child?’ The spirituality and social order element of the festival has become less prominent and more or less removed over years.

Moving onto Benin bronze plaques Patten told the story of Kalimbe, the father of carvings in Jamaica. Stating that on each and every corner of Jamaica you will find carvings being sold, and that these carvings were all produced at the hands of the family of Kalimbe, through the skill that has been passed on through generations. That the carving continues the spirit of the person and the life of the tree in which the wood has been taken from, reflecting signs of the times and holding onto memories. Similar to the bronze plaques held by the museum that depict the ruling countries through the dress of the soldiers, the story can be retold and comprehended. Again like Africa and Africans, Jamaica and Jamaican’s have sizeable families; which also continues to carry the spirit of the elders and the mentioning of their names continues their lives.

Patten closed the talk by speaking on Dancehall and its resistance to oppression. Suggesting that the songs sung today, are no different to those sung by the ancestors and the reasons behind such music and dance are the same. He stressed that it too is part and parcel of the Africans struggle as a Jamaican. The masquerade and dress is all the same, the bashment, where you go, look and feel a certain way. That tonight we party even though we know tomorrow’s survival is not guaranteed. How the warrior spirit comes through in the music and the dance, the call and response, the puffed up chests of the men that take the stage in all their glory and the woman that rule at the top of the hour until the sunrises. 

Reflection

In all my 35 years I cannot remember one day where I could explain what it meant to be a Jamaican but I saw, felt and witnessed myself for the duration of the talk. Unequivocal to anything that I have learned, being is not about where you were born it is about the life that you live. I am the woman that will lead, honing the soft power to instil morals and values into family and friends in an effort that they will do the same for me. That my fight is the fight of many, therefore I will never stand alone, knowing that we are a nation of people who know that the balance does not equal fair and the upper hand is held by a few. That the flight or fight is real and is what you face everyday of your life, so if you cannot run you are innately born with the will to survive.

My coping mechanism in life is the dance, as an adjective, as a noun and as a verb; I thank my ancestors for that.

By Yassmin V Foster, November 2011