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Junkanoo - ageless cultural icon
WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2006
Junkanoo - ageless cultural icon
A uniquely Bahamian celebration
Junkanoo - A wild, night-time street extravaganza that captivates everyone who sees it - fuses the fragile beauty of a butterfly to the unstoppable energy of a freight train.
World travellers compare Junkanoo to Brazil's Carnival and New Orleans' Mardi Gras, but quickly add that it's really quite different, something uniquely Bahamian.
Neville Wisdom, former Minister of Culture, agrees. "Junkanoo helps to define who we as a people are culturally. It is the one cultural expression that is indigenous... to The Bahamas, and it is a spirit that envelopes the total imagination of The Bahamas," he says, adding that "Junkanoo goes to the core of human emotion."
As minister, Wisdom was the impresario who ran the Junkanoo celebrations. A former performer and administrator himself, Wisdom has been involved with Junkanoo for more than three decades. It is now "a part of me," he says today.
Brian Adderley feels the same way. "It is our cultural national pastime. Former Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling used to say, "Every Bahamian is a Junkanoo and feels the spirit of Junkanoo'... It is our national soul."
Adderley chairs the management team of the Valley Boys, one of the major competitive groups in Junkanoo. Frequent champions, the Valley Boys won both the 2005 Boxing Day and 2006 New Year?s Day competitions. Other top Junkanoo groups include the Saxons, Roots, One Family and The Music Makers.
Junkanoo is an annual explosion of dancing, music, costumed finery and parade called a "rush." Dating back to the early days of slavery, celebrants donned masks and paraded on Boxing Day, and then again on New Year's Day. Now as then, they get an early start; the programme begins just after midnight and continues until well past dawn. As a prelude, Junior Junkanoo, performed by school kids, takes place before the regular celebration, in mid-December.
Experiencing Junkanoo is sometimes defined as "a total sensory adventure."
"I often describe it as the largest live experience in the world," says Wisdom. "I say that because, if you go to any of the carnivals or Mardi Gras, what you experience to some degree is recorded music and music on wheels." All music in Junkanoo is played by live bands, some with more than 100 instruments.
The music throbs in the warm night air. Traditional goat skin drums, whistles and cowbells are sounded, along with tubas, trumpets, saxophones and trombones to create an unforgettable sound. Hybrid instruments - modified conch shells with trumpet and trombone mouthpieces - blend the traditional with the modern.
Minister Wisdom takes pride in his reputation as a "black horn" player - the black horn being a modification of the horns used by large trucks.
Only in The Bahamas
Junkanoo music is uniquely Bahamian. Nassauvians identify with the distinctive beat as readily as New Orleans residents do to When the Saints Go Marching In.
Secretary of The One Family Junkanoo and Community Organization, Arlene Nash Ferguson, says, "Junkanoo is a drum that beats deep within our souls that we respond to instinctively." It is, she feels, a "direct link to Bahamians as a people."
Visitors get into the act too - particularly the children. Ferguson has seen them respond, and she encourages people to "get your feet moving... that's what happens when you hear a Junkanoo drum."
The big goatskin drums, heated before the performance, have the power to liberate even the most timid souls from their shyness. Dancing in place is the general response.
The Junkanoo parade is served up like a well planned dinner. As an appetizer, you hear the music coming toward you from far down the street. Then, as the performers come into sight, wildly colourful costumes are the second course followed by the main course, a captivating live performance a few feet in front of you.
As paraders move down the street, their music reverberates off the buildings along Bay Street, amplifying the intensity.
When they come into view, performers dominate the scene. Dancers react to the African-based rhythm with an impassioned intensity of their own, leaping, prancing and gyrating in sync with the breakneck beat. The dancing incorporates many different styles, including soca, meringue, quadrille, even New York chorus line kicks.
Strong men hoist and propel two-storey-tall floats that fill the width of the street, while marshals rush here and there ensuring the parade remains well-paced and orderly.
All the rushers are in costume, ranging from crepe-paper simple to unbelievably ornate. Together, they transform the street into a pulsating rainbow of colour and movement with a score of groups passing by, one after another.
A year-long effort
Although the once spontaneous parade is now organized by government, the parading groups are autonomous associations of families and friends. It takes many people to orchestrate a Junkanoo performance. The Valley Boys, for example, have between 600 and 750 members. Each contributes many hours of work. Adderley estimates that he donates 1,800 hours a year. "It was born in me, and it's been part of me for 32 years now." Like so many devotees, Adderley started participating in Junkanoo when he was in grade school.
Junkanoo groups spend much of the year creating their programmes and costumes, as well as practicing their routines and music. On Boxing Day and New Year's Day, the performances are rated by knowledgeable, well-trained judges.
The groups compete for pride and the honour of winning but also for cash. These prizes - $24,000 for first place in 2005 - give additional incentive, although they cover only a small part of production costs. The time spent in building, practicing and planning is all volunteered.
Commercial sponsorships help underwrite the groups' endeavours. Fielding a performance on both Boxing Day and New Year's Day can top $120,000, according to Adderley.
Origins lost in time
Origins of the name "Junkanoo" are obscure. According to a 1935 Nassau Guardian article, the word may have come from the French gen inconnus, which translates as "unknown people," alluding to the costumes that conceal a performer's identity. Another suggestion of French derivation is Jeunes Caneurs, or "young sugar-cane cutters." Others believe the name might have come from Scottish settlers who said "Junk Enoo," meaning "junk enough," a reference to the masks worn by paraders.
The most common explanation is that Junkanoo comes from the anglicized name of a famous African tribal leader, Johnny Canoe.
The origins of the event itself are as lost in time as the name. It's believed that slaves, enjoying their traditional Christmas break from work, started what became today's Junkanoo when they celebrated with dance, music and African costumes.
"It's like a mirror that reflects the essence of the spirit of the people of The Bahamas," Ferguson says. "Junkanoo was a survival mechanism for the Africans who found themselves in such a dire state."
Whatever its origins, Junkanoo is now the premier expression of Bahamian culture. Ferguson sees Junkanoo as a direct link between the slavery of the past and today's majority-ruled independent country. She is delighted that "probably more are involved now than ever before."
"I want to invite the world to come and enjoy this very special event," says Minister Wisdom. He particularly encourages parents to bring their children to the Junior Junkanoo parades. They will be "in for a treat," he promises.
To Ferguson, Junkanoo not only helps to define the national identity, it also explains it. "I am proud of the fact that, (while) The Bahamas is... only 50 miles off the coast of the United States... we are very different (from North Americans)."
To fully understand The Bahamas, one needs to experience the vitality and spirit of a Junkanoo celebration, say both Wisdom and Ferguson.
Even if you are not here to see Junkanoo in the winter, lively mini-Junkanoo programmes are held in June on Arawak Cay, a very big draw to a popular cultural venue.
While the biggest Junkanoo is held in Nassau, another large one is held in Freeport, Grand Bahama, with smaller ones on several of the Out Islands.
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