Last week’s 1823 Bi-Centennial Cultural Festival and Concert, one of a series of theatrical events staged by the Government of Guyana to commemorate the 185th Anniversary of Emancipation and the 200th Anniversary of the 1823 Demerara Slave Rebellion, stimulated a brief analysis of African-derived performance traditions and venues in the Caribbean. These included traditional enactments of the street with folk performances reflecting the fear factor and devil mas influenced by customs brought from Africa or evolved in the Caribbean after emancipation.
Several of these are based on a varied and complex range of belief systems and mythical associations that are rich and fascinating. Today’s continuation pays a little attention to some beliefs and myths, noting this is a wide cultural field in the Caribbean, and in honour of the August emancipation theme, mostly restricting focus to African derivations.
Most of the jewels in the crown of West Indian folklore, religions and oral literature have disappeared completely, or repose in receding memories, loitering vaguely in the cultural heritage of some communities. However, there is one that has hung around for a very long time in the consciousness of contemporary villagers. It is a remarkable example of the existence of myth and belief still alive at the turn of the last century.
There is a village called Golden Lane on the island of Tobago in which three gravestones reside on a hill in proximity to the homes of villagers. One is said to be the final resting place of Gang Gang Sari, a late matriarch of the community, who had a very interesting and significant history. Gang Gang Sari was born and lived in West Africa, but travelled to Tobago to visit her relatives who had left Africa a long time ago, possibly as indentured labourers, or at some time later, it was not clear.
As the story goes, she flew across the Atlantic, not by plane, but by taking physical flight through powers that she had. When she was ready to return home, she could not, as she had lost the power to fly. Having crossed the ocean, and then being on a small island, the salt sea air had reportedly robbed her of her powers and she ended up remaining in Golden Lane.
This tale of Gang Gang Sari, a legend in Tobago, was only one of many told in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Guyana. At the root of those stories was a belief among enslaved Africans in the Caribbean that they, or at least some of them, had the power to fly. However, crossing the Middle Passage over the Atlantic Ocean, in complicity with long residence exposed to the salt air from the sea, as well as the eating of salt in their food, had rescinded the power and left them grounded. It resembles a similar belief among East Indians that by crossing the Kala Pani – the dark waters of the wide ocean, on that infamous voyage by ship from India – indentured Indians had been stripped of certain qualities and powers.
It was believed among the African descendants long after slavery, that there were people who were able to regain, or perhaps had not lost the ability to fly. There were stories of them going down to the edge of the island or the sea coast of Guyana and taking off in flight over the ocean to the continent of Africa. Such stories have been collected by researchers, including Adeola James in Guyana, and the myth is mentioned by Maureen Warner-Lewis in the publication Guinea’s Other Suns.
People taking flight is referenced in both West Indian and American fiction. It is an important component in the highly acclaimed novel Song of Solomon by foremost American novelist Toni Morrison. A hostile American society where a revolutionary situation is created sees a black man elect flight to Africa as a means of urgently needed liberation. It is also mentioned in the narrative of the Commonwealth Prize Winning novel Salt by Trinidadian novelist and playwright Earl Lovelace, where a man escapes by flying off to Africa. This places the myth among black Americans and West Indians alike.
A life of continuing and severe adversity in the Caribbean, especially a life under slavery, was easily seen as a disabling factor, capable of corrupting positive enabling African qualities. This would be intensified in a situation where people long for liberation from a life of bondage or deprivation. There would, understandably, be aspirations to escape and the power to do so, held by black people in the impoverished and violent slums of Port-of-Spain as described by Warner-Lewis, Gordon Rohlehr and Donald Wood.
The eating of salt is identified as a disabling agent in the belief system. This is likely to be related to the salt of the ocean and of the sea breeze. It is consistent with the attitude to salt in the tradition.
African feasts still exist in Trinidad and Tobago and are practised in the Guyanese Kumfa (Cumfa) tradition. These have survived from the religious beliefs in ancestor worship. They are spiritual rituals held by devotees for various reasons, from healing to thanksgiving or in response to dreams. Family, friends, well wishers are invited to a feast by the hosts, who also invite the ancestor spirits /deities. Part of the ritual is the placing of special servings of food in dedicated spots for the deities. This food is prepared separately from what is given to the guests. A main requirement of this food is that it must be free of salt.
It is not difficult to understand this given the powers attributed to ancestral spirits and the claimed loss of certain qualities in those negatively affected by salt. This may well correspond to a certain asceticism which might be consistent with the acquisition of spiritual or other powers.
On another note, rum is a positive spiritual agent. In Jamaica, white rum is the preferred variety. This is overproof rum with high alcohol content which is used for libation, in cases of spiritual possession and to bless or purify the drum.
A strong spirit is customarily used in the pouring of libation, which is a tribute to the ancestral spirits. Many ceremonies include pouring drops of rum on the earth in respect of the presence of deities. It is also used during the invitation rituals led by the drums. Rituals include and sometimes depend upon spirit possession in which a dancer or some other participant is possessed by a deity while dancing to the drum. That person becomes a “saint horse”, who is “ridden” by the visiting spirit. In Kumfa it is an expected part of the ritual for one to be possessed, and at the end, to be guided out of that possession. Improper guidance or a mere stoppage without the requisite ritual can be dangerous. Rum is used, as is control of the drumming.
In Jamaica the Kumina is a well-known tradition with a very distinctive drum rhythm and dance. It happens to be extremely entertaining and popular, so that quite often dancers and drummers perform on stage to an audience. It has often happened that a dancer becomes possessed and has to be led away. Drumming and libation are used to bring the dancer out of the trance.
Normally in the treatment, handling and care of drums no water or other liquid is allowed to touch the playing surface. Liquids can damage the skin of the drum, especially if it is not properly dried. White rum is the only liquid allowed to touch the skin. Naturally, it evaporates quickly and does no harm, but it is sprinkled and rubbed over the instrument because of its spiritual significance.
There is infinite interest and rich rewards in an investigation of these beliefs and traditions of African derivation in West Indian society.
