Celtic retentions in Italy and Spain

In common parlance, the countries Italy and Spain, are not known as “Celtic nations”: that is more associated with certain marginal areas, be it independent “countries” of the British isles (Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), with often added French Brittany (Bretagne), part of France. This is mostly a linguistic definition, as there Celtic languages survived to varying degrees, but with often a cultural connotation, due to certain nationalistic/cultural – or now “identity” – movements. Leaving linguistics apart, often parts of Northwestern Iberia (Galicia, Asturias, and surroundings) are – due to their folk culture characteristics - often part of a broader “cultural” definition of “Celtic nations”, even though speaking (now) Romance languages.

VAGUE

Here it becomes more problematic, or rather vague. Spain, Portugal, and Italy, but even most of France, are more known as (similarly vague) “Latin” countries culturally, whatever that may mean, but mostly linguistically determined. Parts of Northern Italy (Lombardy, Piemonte) – including in nationalist “Northernist”, separatist circles (Lega Nord political party), self-define often as with (largely) Celtic roots, to distinguish themselves from other parts of Italy.

Similarly, Galicia and Asturias in Northwestern Spain, claim their Celtic roots to set them as regions apart from other parts of Spain. Some critics of this, also within Galicia and Spain itself, argue that this is largely a later “fabrication”, and that Galicia’s “celticity” is a myth, something like an all-too-inventive “identity” search, based on little. Even that is not so uncommon: culture and ethnicity do seldom combine fully one-on-one, as e.g. the spread of Islam shows, and other “dominating” cultures throughout history, adopted by subjects, at least partly. DNA studies confirm this in many cases.

“Based on little” - this Galician “celticity” as supposed myth - is, I think, too much to say. There is evidence of Celtic presence in large parts of Spain, including in Galicia. Whether this remained “pure” or soon mixed is another issue.

DNA

Historical studies, and (since the 1950s) historical DNA studies gave some interesting insights into this “Celtic” history. It also shed light on what is “substantially proven” about Celtic roots, and what “myth”.

Strictly looking at DNA, genetic remainders in current indigenous populations, make present-day France much more a “Celtic nation” than neighboring, more Mediterranean Italy or Spain. Folk traditions and cultures that survived even outside of “Celtic stronghold” Brittany in France, notably in Central France and the Auvergne and Alpine region, confirm this culturally, if not linguistically (safe in substrate influences in language formation).

I find these genetic/DNA studies interesting from a historical perspective, as it shows how “traditional culture” develops in tandem, yet partly isolated from “genetics” as such, showing human agency, despite it.

The problem is only that – according to geneticists - “Celtic DNA” is not always distinguishable from other European populations, including the Latins and Romans (who became influential), but also Basques, or older groups present in Western Europe, upon Celtic arrival. By comparison, a Germanic DNA – more to the North - was easier to distinguish, studies showed, to show ethnic origins in certain parts of Europe, as was a “Slavic” DNA. Celts seemed more mixed from the start.

It might very well be that forefathers of the Celts (oldest sources date it to the Ukrain/Russia area), soon mixed with older peoples moving west, while the culture was still developing. Historians claim that in the Western Alps (Switzerland, NW Italy) – in a later stage – some cultural - and linguistic! -Celtic traits came to the fore, but not all that would later be known (like bagpipes, round brickpatch fortress houses, etc.). It was still changing, as cultures are never static.

DILUTED

The countries where my parents are from (father Northern Italy, mother Southern Spain) have proven, historical “Celtic” presence, but much more regionally limited and diluted than in France. Pure races or genetic peoples don’t exist (despite Nazi and other “race purity” rhetoric: also the Germanic tribes absorbed present people in Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, etc.), but one can say that Gauls (Celtic-speaking peoples in France) are among the “main foreparents” of most indigenous French, percentage-wise.

This cannot be said of neither Italy or Spain. The irony is maybe that one of the oldest “documented” Celtic languages and peoples found by historians - deep in pre-history - were as already mentioned traced to the Italian-Swiss border region, in NW Italy. For that reason, the “Alpine type” as genetic marker of a Celtic physical European type, is named as such (though as said, often hard to distinguish from others). It seemed that the very basic elements of Celtic culture were shaped partly in those (now Italian/Swiss) Alpine regions, before spreading to other parts of Europe. It differed from both the Germanic/Teutonic cultures more to the North, Slavic or Dinaric peoples to the East, or more “Mediterranean” peoples to the South, with sometimes not even Indo-European languages (Basque, Etruscan, Iberian, a.o.).

The Roman empire had a strong influence, culturally and linguistically, due to their domination up to around 400 AD, making also regions where once Celts lived Romance speaking. Further migrations and historical connections diluted this relatively “distinct” Celtic culture.

FOLK CULTURE

Yet: in folk culture aspects remain, albeit mixed. Traditional music and musical instruments seems the best, and most honest, evidence of this, as some aspects were there before a partly “artificial” Celtic identity was called upon for political/nationalist reasons (just copying examples from e.g. Ireland or Brittany). There are – in other words – actually a few Celtic folk culture/music/tradition “remnants”, truly indigenous, in parts of NW Italy or NW Spain (and Northern Portugal), before a “Celtic international identity” became a rhetorical/political issue.

Both parts of Lombardy (like Bergamo) and Galicia, for instance, have their own “bagpipes”, differing from the Scottish or Irish ones, just like several regions within France have own bagpipes. France is by the way the country with the most and most varied “bagpipes” in Europe, many people may not know. The ones in Brittany and Auvergne are just best known. While bagpipes are in origin not a Celtic instrument per se, they relatively early in history were adopted as such, and certainly “celtified”.

The same applies to some “old” dance and song forms, recurring musical structures (e.g. chord “jumps”), and some other instruments associated with Celts, such as harps, frame drums, fiddles (in some areas), and the “hurdy gurdy” string instrument (a bit fiddle-like as well – due to drones – bagpipe like), found in e.g. Galicia, and Northern Italy (as in Auvergne, France).

Here the “vagueness” comes in. Bagpipes are common in, yet not exclusive to, Celtic cultures, as also found among Slavic and other peoples (e.g. Arabs), neither are the fiddle, harp, or even the hurdy-gurdy, also found in Hungarian culture, and among Slavic peoples. The frame drums are traditionally common in Northern Africa (most common among Berbers), and later also in Spain and Italy, and probably meant an early international influence on the travelling Celts. The Celtic peoples after all once extended from what is now Turkey, in Anatolia, westward through Romania, The Northern Balkan, the Alpes region, France, to Ireland. Probably the most heat-resilient Celts went to Anatolia or Iberia.

ABSORBED

On the border regions – or where other ethnic groups were more numerous – they encountered and mixed with e.g. Germanic peoples in N. France, Belgium, and South Germany, Etruscan and Venetian peoples in Emilia-Romagna and Trentino/Veneto (NE Italy), and Basques and Iberians in southern France and the Iberian Peninsula.

Where Celts became more dominant (numerically or culturally) present populations with older DNA were absorbed by the Celts, including those that built the “dolmens” stone structures (similar to Stonehenge), later adopted by the Celts.

Such stone structures pre-date the Celts, but also Germanic peoples, as similar “dolmens” as in e.g. Galicia or Wales, are found in England (Stonehenge), as well as the province of Drenthe in the Netherlands, pre-dating Germanic/Saxon arrival, as the Netherlands became primarily Germanic/Teutonic (absorbing also present people).

That is why historical DNA studies, developed since the 1950s, are interesting. They contradict the Nazi “purity” idea of Germanic peoples, discarding both the purity and – of course! – the supposed “superiority” to all other people and racial types in the world, as nonsense. On the other hand, these same studies did confirm the existence of a typical “Germanic” DNA. Of course not in any way that it meant that they were a “superior” Herrenvolk. A Celtic DNA proved harder to define, though with indications.

In Central and South Spain and Portugal, Celts arrived, but found more numerous and culturally advanced groups (Phoenician/Carthaginian/Egyptian/Iberian-influenced). The Iberians and Tartessians/Phoenicians – speaking proto-Semitic languages in part - in Iberia had a writing system and more advanced societies with links to the Mediterranean and Egypt. Thus arose the Celtiberian culture in Central Spain, while in South Portugal and South Spain (even in parts of Western Andalusia and Extremadura Celtic groups arrived since around 600 BC) larger groups had to be absorbed by the Celts, or rather: the other way around, though Celtic languages kept being spoken.

Genetically and culturally, as the culture became more Mediterranean/Semitic, later Roman and Moorish, in South Spain and Portugal. Few Celtic cultural remnants remained in Southern Spain, safe certain customs and place names, while in more isolated, less-dominated areas, like NW Spain (Galicia and Asturias) and bordering N Portugal, these Celtic influences on traditional culture seemed stronger, and still living on. In rural architecture, as already mentioned music and dance, festivities, other customs and beliefs, albeit influenced by Roman and later Central Spanish and international culture. It gave regions like Galicia and Asturias their own characteristics within Spain.

BAGPIPE REGION

As in Africa you have a specific, restricted “Djembe region”, where that type of drum is traditionally played, mostly Mande-speaking, Sahel areas from Senegal to Northern Ghana, in Europe (and Spain) you also have a Gaita (Spanish for “bagpipe”) region, limited mostly to the Northwest of Spain, and bordering areas. The non-Celtic speaking Basques know a type of “bagpipe” too, as does more Iberian Aragón, but Galicia and Asturias (and parts of Northern León and Castile) are most known for and specialized in it. Bagpipe (Gaita) use is Spain thus mostly connected to regions with Celtic pasts.

Other “stereotypical” Spanish instruments, like the Spanish guitar (Andalusian in origin), and the castanets (percussive, wooden clappers) are more associated with Central and Southern Spain, with the Castanets – probably originally from Egypt - dating back to the Phoenicians or before. Tambourines (and later with national unification also Castanets) tend to have spread more peninsula-wide from early on. Bagpipes/gaitas remained regional.

LINGUISTICS

Linguistically, Celtic languages disappeared in Spain and Portugal, safe loanwords. The what they call substrate influence (shaping new languages from older spoken ones) of Celtic tongues are found in the developing Galician languages (later developing southward into Portuguese), and Asturian dialects/languages, but less in Castilian Spanish, which had more Basque as substrate influence. The early Kingdom of Castile bordered Basque areas, soon outweighing Celtic connections.

Substrate influence of Celtic languages have also been confirmed through studies in some other Romance dialects, such as in Lombardy, Piemonte, or Emilia (NW Italy) – known even as Gallo-Romance languages -, Central France, but also in specific German accents/dialects in SW Germany (Schwaben), the Alsace, and Switzerland, and types of English in NW England and Scotland.

Languages/dialects in Northern Italy like the Lombard and Piedmonte languages have, like French, the “u” sound as in English picTURE, or French Bien SUR, or close to this as in English FUR or French LEUR. Formal Spanish or Italian don’t have those sounds: only the open latin vowels, but French and Gallo-Italian dialects like Lombard do: it must be due to stronger Celtic substrates there. Neither does Galician or Asturian, but they have similarities with Gallo-Italian dialects/languages, that Spanish lacks: vowel extension or change, for instance, and the common, “slissing” “sy” sound.

I find interesting that certain phonetic or grammatical “pan-Celtic” characteristics somehow recur between French, Lombardian, Schwabisch Deutsch, and , say, Scottish English. More “long-voweled”, “meandering” or semi-mumbling “sing-songy” is sometimes said, while the “nasal” element in French, or (hinted at) in e.g. Irish or Galician/Portuguese probably are also Celtic in origin.

Formal Italian developed in Tuscany, so was probably Etruscan (non-Indo-European/Anatolian)- influenced, while Latin of Rome developed from local, more Mediterranean Italic groups in Central Italy. Evidence showed that Celtic groups actually reached parts of Italy South of even Rome, but as a less influential minority, not unlike Southern Spain.

REGIONAL

One can conclude that the Celtic influences in Italy and Spain remained regional – rather than national -, reflecting in local folk culture primarily. DNA studies give an indication, but no guarantee. Celts absorbed local (Neolithic) groups to differing degrees and mixed somewhat more than e.g. Germanic/Teutonic peoples, and DNA-wise, the Basques differ only in some details from surrounding peoples (linguistically much more), Celts or otherwise, while the genetic difference between SW Spain (where Celtic-speaking people lived) and Eastern Spain (where Iberians lived) is remarkably small, shaped throughout history, with admixture of Germanic peoples, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors (Arabs, Berbers), Jews, and internal migration. Genetically, it is as usual all very mixed, with some regional accents. That accent is there in Galicia and Asturias, but even there Moorish DNA entered (via later migrations, is assumed) and after the Romans, in the 5th c AD, also Germanic DNA by Suevi and Goths in Galicia (part of so-called “Barbaric” Nordic hordes invading the fallen Roman Empire).

That “Germanic” DNA, that exists as distinguishable, according to scientists, is less common in Spain than elsewhere in Europe, even lower than in Italy (less than 4%, is estimated). The genetic maps earlier in this post showed that. Some parts of Galicia (Suevi), Northern Portugal, and Catalonia (Franks, Goths) have relatively higher Germanic DNA percentages, and even – according to strange studies – more “blond” hair and blue eyes. This percentage never surpasses about 8 % though, while the Celtic DNA (though harder to distinguish as said) attributed much more to Spaniards (around 30%, they think), representing thus a connection to France and other parts of Europe, though not an overwhelming one.

Not overwhelming (and with a lot of genetic admixtures over time, as elsewhere), and in this sense the DNA more or less correlates with Celtic folk culture in Spain and Italy. Not really a central part of either Italian or Spanish “national culture”, but confined to regional folk culture, to which attest in specific regions e.g. the bagpipe music, specific folk songs and music styles, material culture, like housing and clothing, and folk spiritual ideas (Celts had a magical bond with trees, woodlands, and nature, the oak being a sacred tree, for instance, wood spirit stories, etcetera. And Galicia and Asturias are in a “green”, wooded part of Iberia).

Galician/Asturian, but also Lombard and Piedmonte folk music in Northern Italy preserves some of this, also used as “revival” by modern composers or musical artists and singer/songwriters, such as Angelo Branduardi, who draws on folk traditions, also from Lombardy, and several artists from Galicia and Asturias, even “pop” artists like Asturian-born Victor Manuel, drawing at times on Asturian folk bagpipes or song styles, or revival “fusion” groups in Galicia, like Milladoiro, or more modern local pop/rock (and even hip-hop) groups using Gaitas and folk music. An example is the Galician hip-hop/pop group Os Resentidos.

TRIBUTE

Regional as it remained, this Celtic heritage in NW Spain still received somewhat of a tribute on the famous album by Miles Davis, Sketches Of Spain (1960), on which the Jazz artist/trumpeter explored several Spanish “known” folk genres. Besides a predictable emphasis on Castile and Andalusia on this album, due to the rich and influential legacy of genres like Jota, Fandango, and Flamenco, one song of that album – or rather: instrumental composition -, called The Pan Piper, is based on more marginal and local folk music from around Vigo in Galicia, a style known as Alborada.

The counter-patterns and –melodies to Miles’ trumpet on the track The Pan Piper, show these Celtic musical (meandering/chord-jump) forms, still characteristic in much Galician folk music, and certainly comparable to other Celtic music (e.g. of Ireland, rural Lombardy or France, etc.).

Equally interesting are similarities between two “pop” songs by Italian Angelo Branduardi – his “big hit” Cogli La Prima Mela, and the song Quiero Abrazarte Tanto by Spanish singer Victor Manuel, both drawing loosely, if recognizably, on Celtic traditions from their regions (Lombardy and Asturias, respectively), combined with other influences (folk, rest of Spain/Italy, pop, rock, Latin American, etc.). They are both catchy, lively, and danceable songs, by the way.

At the very least, in parts of Northern Italy and Northern Spain – especially rural parts - a genuine Celtic-influenced folk culture was indeed kept alive, beyond mere “inventions of tradition” for politicized, nationalist/regionalist identity ideologies (such as by Lega Nord or Galician nationalist groups), making it in part a real, non-artificial cultural retention (albeit sometimes modernized/mixed) in these parts.

Some musical artists use this heritage well, giving the world their art, as happened more often, such as with the African retentions to differing degrees in “Black” music from the Americas or modern African pop genres, South Spanish “Flamenco-pop”, or Indian/Bhangra- or Arab-influenced modern pop.

Use what you got and know from your culture to shape your art, seems to be a lesson here.

FAKE?

Finally, I come back to the critical claim – even within Galicia - that Galicia’s supposed cultural “celticity” – with after all unlike Brittany, Ireland, or Wales NO surviving spoken Celtic language – is a mere “myth”. In other words: actually “fake”, as the critique goes. I think that this accusation of “myth” or “fake invention” may sound spectacular and assertive, but is at least exaggerated and simplistic. Simplistic, because people with that critique forget that “cultural formation” – of many peoples in this world - involves mixture and adoption over time, and indeed the Celts from early on – way in European pre-history, showed this flexibility, when interacting both with changing natural environments and other peoples. Over time something like an own “Celtic culture” formed, which stood apart from “ethnic purity”.

That latter romantic, racial “purity” idea was common in parts of Europe in the Early 20th c., and also the German Weimar Republic, mixing with Romanticism as cultural movement. It became less “innocent” when it – according to historians – influenced Nazi and other (e.g. Italian) Fascist ideologues connecting “race” and culture, and this in turn with “superiority”, e.g. power politics.

Though a Germanic DNA seems to exist according to geneticists, it is historically (geographic travelling, conquering patterns) and maybe culturally interesting, but not much more than that. It shows funnily that the English share more DNA (mostly Germanic) with the Germans than many English would wish to have (since Hitler and WW II), haha. Similarly, while Dutch and Flemish people in my experience are more realistic and quite reasonable about their Germanic heritage (less absurd denial), after WW II and the Nazi German invasion of the Low Countries, a “Germanic identity” as a nation is seen as a bit contaminated in the present-day Netherlands, and, in an international world, also too limited.

That Celtic cultures seem to have a stronger folk culture and music than the more meager heritage of Germanic peoples (Irish are known as more musical than English), but parts of Germany, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands, do have own (also musical) customs. Perhaps earlier industrialization/modernization of Germanic peoples limited their folk culture, compared to more rural and marginal Ireland, Wales, Galicia, Auvergne, or Italian Alps.

Or – also possible – the earlier mixing, travelling and adopting early on (since 2000 BC) by Celts, when travelling through Central Europe, later to more populated Western and Southern parts, enabled flexibility, in turn inspiring a richer and more varied culture. A matter of human agency in cultural formation and distinction. There is nothing wrong with that. It is in fact the very flexible creativity that tends to give birth to the intriguing variety of folk culture world wide..

Partner dances?

"Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never do any harm to the world" ~ Voltaire.

"Partner dances (or couple dances)" is a field I have not concentrated on very much, I admit. I love dancing, and soon in my life I concluded that moving your body rhythmically to music, "dancing" was natural and in fact required to enjoy much music. You had "listening" music and "dance" music, but to dance music and "in-between" (danceable and content) music, I tended to dance. At home, alone in my room and later house, and in time at concerts and in clubs too. Whereas some people I knew preferred to sit on the venue's balconies, I preferred the floor in front of the stage: I wanted to dance.

I danced, however, alone, in my own space. I saw and see it as a personal and, well, spiritual connection to the music. I developed my sense of rhythm, soon feeding into my musical activities, as I played more and more percussion instruments. This was a personal trajectory.

Dancing, thus, had no "mating" or "social" function for me. Not primarily anyway. To be honest, I considered it unnatural when I "had" to dance in pairs, even if with a nice lady. I could see the joy of that (when in love?), but when I took some Salsa lessons in Cuba (good place to learn it, that is true), I liked it a bit on the one hand, but found the "stylized" rules and proscribed steps too "rigid" and conservative. Added to this were old-fashioned gender roles of a "leading man", of course as a form of theatre, but still.. I preferred my own free, rythmical dancing.

JAMAICAN DANCE

As a Reggae fan since my early teens, my dancing became loosely based on Jamaican dancehall dances since the Rocksteady era. it was with Rocksteady and Reggae that staying on one spot ("rent-a-tile" was an expression in Jamaican dances), and moving your whole body while on that same spot, frontways and/or sideways, became more socially accepted. A bit more theatrical but natural dances were at times popular in Jamaica (1970s and 1980s), like "water pumpee" or "cool and deadly", and these had a few (loose) "rules". A more moderate, but similar individual "skanking" variant became a norm at Reggae dances, both with Roots Reggae and Early Dancehall.

On more "dynamic" later, also digital Dancehall in Jamaica, becoming more influential since the late 1980s, some "sensual" partner dances were more common, including "whining" , "dutty whine", and "daggering". All dances that leave little to guess about eventual sexual meanings. Actual sexual attraction (or arrousal) might change my attitude, but under normal circumstances I neither liked these dances very much. I preferred to dance in my own way - and alone - if I liked the Dancehall songs- , just following the rhythm.

Yet, also in modern Danchehall era in Jamaica, a lot of new individual dances - fitting specific songs and their lyrics - appeared, and became commonly practised, sometimes temporarily, in the dancehalls in Jamaica and abroad.

OTHER DANCES

Some Jamaican (Reggae) dances I know a bit (Water Pumpee a.o.), I even like some of those new Dancehall ones (Bogle Move a.o.). I am intrigued further by some (solitary) folk/spiritual dances in parts of Africa I saw, and also by elements of other dances like Break Dance. I like moves in some forms of Flamenco and Spanish folk dances. Mostly, though, I just move loosely and freely to the music, following the rhythm, in my own way, albeit thus influenced.

I also wonder, despite all this, that there might be more interesting aspects of "partner dances" that I do not know. Partner/couple dances that maybe even inspires a solitary dancer like me.

Being interested in African and Afro-American cultures, the cultural dimension of dances can be interesting. Some of the globally best-known, almost cliché, partner dances developed in Latin America: the Tango, the Salsa, the Rumba, while other known ones were originally (largely) European, such as the "ballroom dances" the Waltz, the Foxtrot, the Quadrille, Paso Doble, Flamenco, etcetera. Names many people know, or what it looks like, but do not really know how to dance themselves..

The waltz has the most "stiff" image, and is indeed regulated and proscribed, while the loose improvisational Flamenco and Bolero from South Spain have a different, a bit more African "vibe", even if danced with partner. Some of these European dances seem to confirm the idea that in European/"white" dances more often are independent from the actual music heard. Flamenco, and some other folk dances in Europe, being exceptions (music-dance interaction).

Dances in the Caribbean and South America, though, while influenced by these European models from their colonizers, added interesting African and native aspects to the cultural mix, in cases even dominantly African ones.

I like Salsa music - and its roots in Cuban Son - better than the dance of the same name: nice to try, but too rigid and limiting for my taste. The same applies to Cuban Salsa-derived dances, elsewhere (Merengue, Bachata). I have seen the Tango, and found it a bit more appealing, though not so convincing or life-changing to take me away from my "good old" solitary dancing.

LAMBADA

The same applies to Lambada. I have seen that Brazilian, sensual dance through the media and the well-known world hit(s) by Kaoma (1989) - like many people- and a few times in real life by experienced dancers. Kaoma actually had two relative "hits": one simply titled Lambada, but melodically based on a Peruvian folk song (Llorando Se Fue), translated to Portuguese, and one called "Dançando Lambada", also helping to internationalize the Lambada craze.

I could understand the appeal of the Lambada dance a bit. Mainly because of the "hip swaying" which was a bit less present in Salsa, and almost absent in the stiff European dances like the Waltz..

That hip movement could work nicely when the dance partner was "in sync", I imagined. Of course, the macho "male leader" role also here, but this "gender division" is best to be taken playful, with humour. As are the sensual aspects of it, making Lambada being called "the forbidden dance", earlier in Brazilian history. Others speak of a unique "flowing wave" motion, the Lambada dancers' reproduce, that even I - as couple dance sceptic - find intriguing.

Lambada originated in part in the northern Brazilian state of Pará (with many mixed/Amerindian influences), and spread eastwards to the strongly Afro-Brazilian state of Bahia, adding influences from the Forró genre..

It went accompanied by an own music genre, that I found quite groovy and lively. Music that was quite rhythmical, showing African and some slight Amerindian influences. It - the music form that is - faded in popularity over time in Brazil, however.

ZOUK

Lambada as music genre became less common or mainstream by the 1990s, and other music genres became more popular in its place in Brazil, even foreign ones. Notably Zouk music from the French Caribbean (Martinique, Guadeloupe) - with the band Kassav' being its best known representative - reached the north of Brazil and dances there. Kassav' might be what Bob Marley is to Reggae: the best known name.

Zouk itself developed in the Caribbean from a combination of influences, including the Gwo Ka and Biguine from Martinique and Guadeloupe, Haitian Compa, and Calypso. I discussed Haitian music in another blog post by me, and its influence on smaller French Caribbean islands Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Like Compa, Zouk has a distinct rhythm or groove that I would like to call "swaying", characterzining its relatively fluid, gentle nature. This differs from other rhythmic Afro-Caribbean, more "metronomic", "staccato" or "pumping" music genres, such as in Cuba. An interesting difference that might relate to different colonizers or to specific African origins of the enslaved population in the French Caribbean. Or both.

Relevant to this post. I think that "partner dances" fit better with such "fluid" and "swaying" music than with "straight up, groovy" music of whatever character (James Brown's Funk, much Reggae, Ska, Rocksteady, Dancehall, Salsa). Relatively "slower" music too, but it is - I think - not just in the tempo, but rather the type of rhythmic flow. The Lambada's flowing "hip swaying" could be nice with a partner and not just alone, as an interesting symbiosis/synthesis, even if not deeply in love with that person, which would make it even nicer and more magical. That is what I felt: sensual swaying.

In other genres it is just my own body and the rhythm/drum, that is satisfying and inspiring enough for me.

BRAZILIAN ZOUK DANCE

The interesting thing is that while the more dominant music genre in Northern Brazil changed to Zouk and Zouk-like rhythms, the way that people danced to them remained strongly influenced by the preceding Lambada dance, the moves and hip swaying, and flowing.

This was helped by the fact that there were some similarities between Lambada as music, and Zouk as music, although also differences. Lambada - while distinct - also had some musical similarities with Colombian Cumbia, by the way (which has a quite different dance). Of course, there is a shared African heritage, but besides this, there are similarities in "rhythmic flow". The Lambada as dance thus could be easily adapted to Zouk rhythms.

Thus developed in the 1990s what was called Brazilian Zouk, a partner/couple dance. Some find that the Brazilian Zouk seems even more sensual than its precursor the Lambada.

Where in Salsa, hands are used to lead the dance and moves of it, in Brazilian Zouk this is done (also) be other body parts, notably the hips. It includes a lot of "swirls", especialy by the woman. Some see this dance as more sensual - since it is a partner dance - , but it also can be seen as "fuller" (physically). This fuller, whole-body approach to dancing is what I like, seeming to me more complete and loose than hands-led partner/couple dances like the Waltz, Foxtrot, or the Salsa.

SENSUAL?

The phenomenon of "partner dance" seems by its very nature sensual. The historical male-female partners in the older dances represented or referred to hetrosexual intimate relationships. they were not just good friends (as portrayed in the dance). Of course it is theatre, performance, and over time dancers began to only pretend to be lovers with the partner for the dance.

RUMBA

One variant of Afro-Cuban Rumba music and dance, Guaguancó, offers another dimension. In Guaguancó in the dance a "pursuing battle" - or nicer: flirtatious game -is performed/danced between a man and a woman. The woman keeps refusing his advances while both dance: she dances away from him, but also keeps flirting to attract him. Dancers follow the basic rhythm pattern of guaguancó, mostly conga- and clave-led. I studied that nice pattern as a percussionist - for congas. A bit later saw the link with the "suspenseful" drum/rhythm pattern of guaguancó: a man pursues, a woman resists, playfully.

Again, conservative gender roles are confirmed, as in other (European and African) partner dances, but of course it is playful theatre, and, well, some men argue that men are indeed more desparately pursing women, as women get men more easily and do not need to. In that sense, the Rumba Guaguancó is somewhat realistic. Moreoever, guaguancó represents a flirting game, with the willingness of also the woman implied. In reality, it can be seen as a "fertility ritual", known historically in several cultures.

It has similarities with the Salsa, and is in fact a Cuban precursor to it. The Salsa dance as such is based on Cuban models, just like the music genre of the same name, Salsa, is based mostly on Afro-Cuban music. Both developed outside of Cuba though, in the New York area, among many Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and others, besides Cubans.

Rumba Guaguancó now is a precursor dance to Salsa (feeding into it historically), along with another Rumba style, the Yambu (also mostly for couples). Interestingly, the other, faster style of Rumba, called Columbia, is meant for a solo male dancer.

Actual moves and patterns of Guaguancó are consequently echoed in later salsa dance, including hip movements, and steps.

Crucially, the dancers in Guaguancó do not or hardly touch each other, and some authors such as Robert Farris Thompson and Nathaniel Hamilton Crowell, Jr., regard this a heritage of African dances from the Congo region. Hamilton Crowell discusses this in his article 'What is Congolese in Caribbean dance' in the collective volume ' Caribbean dance from Abakuá to Zouk' (2002), edited by Susanna Sloat. Hamilton Crowell also mentions in it a recent dance arising in Angola, Africa, called Kizomba, as related though more original to Zouk and other dances.. He also points out in the article how " hip rolling and hip swinging (that) distinguishes Congolese dance".

This can be found to differing degrees in several dances, including partner/couple ones throughout the Americas, Salsa, Rumba, Zouk, Samba, Cumbia, and others. Indeed, among the enslaved Africans in Cuba, relatively many were from the Congo (Bantu) region in Central Africa. Estimates say about 40% of the Africans in Cuba, with a similar percentage of Congo/Angola origins of Africans in Brazil, by the way. The secular Bantu dance called Yuká is seen as a precursor to Rumba. This influence is there, with even stronger Congo influences in Eastern parts of Cuba, around Santiago de Cuba (where Son originated).

Allow me a small digression, to return later to the theme.

CORONA CRISIS

As I write this in October 2020, the world is quite dominated by what is deemed a pandemic of a coronavirus/covid 19. this started in march 2020 and led to continuous "lockdown" policies on national levels, with differing degrees of intensity, to stop the infection spread of the new coronavirus/covid 19, first described as a "lung virus", with further similarities with the influenza, but - some asserted - worse.

This general lockdown - all over the world - including of healthy people, to limit infection and spread seemed to point at an unprecedented danger and risk, requiring such draconian measures. Public and social life was shot down during weeks, then partially opened, depending on supposed infections ("supposed", because testing for infection is not secure with current pcr-tests)..

Meanwhile more facts came out about this new "lung virus" Covid 19, and it became clear even from official sources that the mortality rate did not rise much above the (severe) flu levels of earlier years.

PROTESTS

People started then wondering: worthy of attention, yes, like influenza before, but national and regional "lockdowns"? Isn't that disproportionate (in light of data and figures), especially as it hurts the economy, limits cultural life, complicates normal human gatherings and events? Even worse: it increased the inequality and poverty in the world, including hunger, due to distribution stops.

These questions and objections are in my opinion legitimate, and some intellectuals and activists made this protest manifest openly in several countries. Large demonstrations followed in several cities: Berlin, London, Madrid, and lockdown-related riots also occurred (in Mexico and elsewhere).

The response by political leaders, and the uncritical media, was in my opinion odd and troubling. Forms of ridicule and even censorship that should have no place in a democracy returned. The danger of corona/covid 19 was absurdly emphasized and exaggerated by media, thus increasing fear, while figures pointed in another direction. This was almost "Goebbelsian" (repeating lies until people start believing them) in dimension. With the virtual "ignoring" of mass demonstrations (including one in Berlin, visited by a known US politician Robert Kennedy jr.), and the trend toward more strictness among international politicians, referring to a "second wave" of the virus.

This is based on more PCR-tests, which - as I said - do not even give secure results (to know for sure if someone is infected with Covid 19 several tests are needed), and an error margin of about 30 %. Dubious, to say the least.

UNDEMOCRATIC

On top of it, some governments attacked or by-passed democratic structures, thereby effectively acting as dictator in formal democracies. De Spoedwet/Noodwet in the Netherlands (Emergency Law) was proposed last Month this year. This would authorize ministers or prime-ministers to by-pass the chosen parliament. Undemocratic in essence, but after negotiations made - let's say - a bit more democratic, with added required parliamentary input.

Still absurd, and relating to the global hysteria we are in - that it could have been proposed and - at first - accepted by most politicians and citizens. This is especially troublesome, because of the similarity - especially in its first concept - to the Law passed in 1933 by the Nazi's in Germany, making Hitler effectively dictator.

The same fear and hysteria (put) in people's heads made it acceptable - to many people at least - that Spanish prime-minister Pedro Sánchez in Early September 2020 ignored a legal decision forbidding a new lockdown of parts of Madrid (in this case poorer parts) for various reasons, yet ordered it nonetheless, overruling law. This is against the Trias Politica, and simply undemocratic and dictatorial. A relatively "young" democracy like Spain should have known better.

Since the virus seemed not that mortal/severe and the "pressure" on health systems could be handled well, more anti-lockdown spokespersons stood up to oppose the strict measures.

SPOKESPERSONS

Even more, anti-corona policy spokespersons gained prominence, despite mass media censorship efforts. They objected against the damage of lockdowns on poor people world wide,and specifically businesses, cultural organizations, musicians, bars, and on wider economy, as well as to the social "behavioural" change this whole crisis apparently had to include: keeping 1,5 meter (6 feet) distance between people, obligatory masks, forbidding free gatherings, number of people together, etcetera,.. not showing nice, happy times ahead. In addition, they trample personal rights of free movement, choice, and even physical integrity.

I agree with most of these objections at this point, because I know the real figures of Covid 19, and find these policies disproportionate. Better to protect and (humanely) isolate vulnerable groups (like older people) to this virus, than to shut down whole countries, which is as absurd as it sounds.

This post is not really about that, but this digression has a point to it, however. It is not just an "off-topic rant", haha.

The reason why I bring it up here, is that one of those anti-corona policy activists/spokesperson here in the Netherlands is Willem Engel. He studied Biochemistry, so has relevant knowledge, seemingly knows how to organize and find experts (legally and otherwise), so he seemed a good spokesperson for that cause. I personally like his relaxed, humourous approach too. Some see his focus on "love" and compassion as soft, or hippy-like, but he talks little or no nonsense, in my opinion, and mostly factual.

DANCE TEACHER

This Willem Engel, often criticized in the Dutch pro-corona measures-mainstream media, became - after his time in biochemistry and science - a Rotterdam-based dance teacher, mainly specialized in Brazilian Zouk, knowing some other Latin American dances too.

In these absurd, difficult times, this has a symbolic appeal: a "dance teacher" against a threatening Covid 19-based "dictatorship", or at least undemocratic political repression of human rights and freedoms- with a sanitary excuse. I opine that these harken in aspects even back to Fascist times, forgotten in current normalized "democracies" in Europe, like the Netherlands, and Spain since 1975.. Suddenly, the political elite speaks of a "new normal" (why is that needed?).

Conspiracy theories abound, but besides people with still just "well worked-out speculations", there are some with more information and plain facts. Still.. the existential fact remains that "evil" or immoral intents are hidden, even from conspiracy investigations. If there is a wicked plot behind it, it is hard to find out, let alone prove. This is however not needed to be against this policy, just the current, unbiased facts are immoral and wrong enough. Of course, this is my opinion, based on neutral facts I found. Others may not care about these, or have other more alarming facts and figures, that seem so difficult to find.

All that is known, and mistrusted by many, is that a "vaccine" is promoted as only secure answer (and end) to the lockdowns. A gloomy perspective of a changed, colder, "soul- and cultureless", and restricted world. If not, no concerts, parties, closeness, hugging... Too absurd for words, what is happening now, almost impossible - I find - to conceive all at once.

A man promoting this - his - vaccine/vaccination is Bill Gates: not an elected politician, but a wealthy merchant, but also "philantropical". Promoting his vaccine, unashamedly, apparently having struck a deal with many governments world wide. This whole crisis to sell those vaccines for profit? In light of the proven influence of the pharmaceutical industry on science (not just a conspiracy theory), this is one of those conspiracy theories that might end up being true.

Willem Engel, a now dance (Zouk) teacher, former biochemical scientist, is an activist in the Netherlands against this whole policy: it has a nice poetic, even humourous touch to it, so welcome in these worrying times.

Engel teaches and dances a dance with certainly some African characteristics - the Brazilian Zouk -, like the Lambada with important hip movements, but with overall "sensual" yet playful dimensions, with room for artistic improvisation. I saw it performed a few times, and liked it at least aesthetically, and the couple in question seemed to have some sense of rhythm, so followed the music well enough. Also images of Willem Engel when dancing on YouTube show this.

VACUNAO

Quite sensual, and with body touching, with hip on side or belly a.o.., on mostly mellow, swaying music (Brazilian Zouk dance). That is the difference with the Rumba Guaguancó, I mentioned before, showing mostly Congo African influences, but with similarly important hip movements and swirling and likewise a partner dance, but without the touching, though the man tries to do this. The woman - flirtatiously/playfully - refuses his efforts while dancing. That is the game.

The accompanying music, including conga drums, other drums, shakers (chequere's), clave sticks (beating the characteristic Rumba 2-3 pattern), blocks, and often vocals, similarly shows retentions from the Congo region, as of some other parts of Africa (Yorubaland, Efik/Calabar area, a.o.), as musicologists noted.

An added move performed in the Guaguancó dance is a kind of "victory" moment for the man, when the man imitates a "penetration" motion toward the woman, and succeeds in "conquering" the woman in the end. This is a "touching" that the woman dancing before kept both attracting and refusing, as part of the playful "flirting game".

Again conservative gender roles, with the "macho" man dominating the woman with his penetration of her, thus conquering her, making her his. All symbolic, of course.

Well now, this (theatrical/metaphorical) penetration move within the Guaguancó dance by the male dancer "conquering" the first refusing woman, is called in Cuba el "vacunao", Spanish for "vaccine" or "vaccinated". Done mostly via the upper leg.

Some even go so far to replace the name of the dance Guaguancó with the less correct term "Vacunao" dance.. Not me..

Can we see the Guaguancó dance as an allusion to this corona crisis now?

Some differences: this is real, and by rich white men. Another difference: the woman in Guaguancó, is in reality willing but "plays around": people of this world are made afraid of hyped-up Covid 19, but not really willing (I would say: confused).

The similarity with the (inevitable?) vaccine is there, at least metaphorically in the case of Guaguancó: and all to real with this crisis.

So one could say, that this corona crisis is like a cynical, fake, "white-man" Guaguancó dance. The man representing the powers that be (or "Babylon" as Rasta people say), and the woman the common citizens of the world: pursued.

Other main - and depressing! - differences are the the actual leaders/elite forces in this crisis: they cannot dance, have no rhythm, they include no good music, unlike with Guaguancó, and they are not playful.. Plus: the other party they do not seduce/convince, but intimidate.. No rhythm, no music, no "soul", no love.. Toward a loveless "vacunao"?

CONCLUSION

I can conclude from all this, that there is quite a variety among the so-called "partner dances", looking only at some examples, as here. Salsa I knew already, so I looked at other dances here more in detail (Lambada, Zouk, and Guaguancó). Some are seduction/flirting games without initial touching, others are perhaps a "lovey dovey" stage further, when the flirting has gone over into an intimate, sensual relationship, embraces and touching. I liked some of the moves, and the magical "flowing" of bodies, when good in the rhythm and music.

I myself am hesitant, though, of too much mixture of sexual relationships and music, seeing music as a valuable art form of itself. Using it for one's own sexual needs seems to me egotistical and, well, degrading and downplaying the art that is music. Even sacrilege and corruptive, in some cases.

On the other hand, I am neither too tight or prudish about this, knowing very well it is part of life and natural human relations. Such "fertility" dances moreover have existed in many cultures. I can enjoy it on occasion too. I just personally prefer, overall, individual, free dancing to the music and rhythm.

Anyway, in whatever form: more music and dance is what the world needs now, along with love, understanding, and humble curiosity. Not the sinister and "cold" world of 6 feet/1,5 meter distance from other humans. They call this "social distancing", which is a misnomer: it is "physical distancing".

Added to this were dictatorial "orders" ("emergency" laws) impeding too much people gathering. Closing down bars/clubs, and even "befehlen" (orders) to "stay home", many out of fear even accepted. Locking (mostly free and healthy) own citizens up in their own home, basically.

When concerts or gatherings were hesitantly allowed, here in the Netherlands, the authorities even had oddly specific mandates, with instructions to remain seated and not dance (let that sink in..), personnel in clubs/venues ordered to control whether visitors stayed seated. In some strict places, one standing up and dancing by him/herself (on one spot) - not approaching other persons - was even forbidden. In the Netherlands in 2020! To adult, free, and healthy persons!

I am not making this up. I see no link with a virus, of such absurd rules, perhaps only explained by a very "White"/ European interpretation of "dancing". People who know how to dance with their body need not move about. Moreover, in African and other cultures there is an intricate relationship between music and dancing, these obvious "white man" laws, ignore and restrict.

The governments clearly interfer with our privacy, rights, and freedoms, and attack our physical integrity. In an absurd way, with a sanitary excuse. Only accepted because they exaggerated ("hyped up") the danger of the Covid 19-virus, even after more facts came out.

Irrational belief in its extreme danger and mortality -against all known facts - took such forms, and was so massive, that I sometimes feel I ended up in a "twilight zone", an absurd reality or dystopia. A "bad horror film", I called it a few months ago, especially after I saw so many signs with photos of the virus throughout Amsterdam.. Absurd.

Instead of this, let us go to world of love, dancing, music, releasing stress, partying, gathering: all healthy for our immune systems, and yes: also hugging and touching when wanted by all parties. That is natural and human, and always have been. Just as natural and human as wanting to help the weak, when infected and a weakened immune system, when necessary.

We do not need to change our natural humanity and natural social behaviour for that.

Unless you want to control and oppress people, make the rich richer, and sell your vaccines. Or the virus is man-made, etcetera etcetera..

Yet - like I said before - this corona crisis in 2020 is so wrong and absurd, affecting the already poor disproportionately, that it does not even need (hard to prove) "conspiracy theories", however plausible or realistic, to oppose it. The facts are enough. Still many don't rebel, and just go along..

"Fear is a state of nervousness fit for children and not men. When man fears a creature like himself he offends God, in whose image and likeness he is created. Man being created equal fears not man but God. To fear is to lose control of one's nerves; one's will, to flutter, like a dying fowl, losing consciousness, yet alive".
~ Marcus Garvey

Jamaican Warriors : Reggae, Roots & Culture: a book review

It is a book I have had in my possession for quite some years now. Over ten years, I imagine. I vaguely recall having bought it at a book section of a record store in central Amsterdam, a record store now out of business. This might even not be the case, being so long ago. It does not matter that much, of course, but it illustrates that I bought it long ago, and cannot remember well.

Yet, I never got around to read it up to recently. During those years, there was one thing that dissuaded me from reading it. The title and theme were appealing enough - “Jamaican warriors” - as was the subtitle and short summary, and the cover photo. Its author was Stephen Foehr, a travel writer from the US, living in Colorado.

What discouraged me, was a review I read once that was partly negative about it, describing the book as one clearly written by a non-Rasta, or someone disapproving of it, so even anti-Rasta. Since I was entering and later entered the (Rastafari) Livity around that time, I felt an apprehension to delve into this book. I heard that anti-Rasta, quasi-intellectual (quasi-, not really intellectual) critique a bit too much, consisting often of gratuitous observations, and irrelevant if historical facts, missing the spiritual and fundamental importance of Rastafari.

Recently I read it, and I’ll start positive: I was pleasantly surprised by this book ‘Jamaican warriors”. It was not noticeably written by an anti-Rasta zealot, but rather by a travelling journalist, sincerely interested – and appreciative! – of Jamaican culture and music. The way he wrote he seemed to me to be a Reggae fan. These nonetheless still can – of course – have some critique of aspects of Jamaican culture, or of Rastafari. I know Reggae fans, even some self-proclaimed Rastafari-adherents here in the Netherlands, that do not see Haile Selassie as divine, thus disagreeing with most Rastas on that, for instance. Others, even worse, reject Selassie as an outdated, absolute and undemocratic monarch.

The pleasant thing about Foehr’s book, however, is that such criticism on Rastafari does not seem to be a main focus. That focus seems more positive and investigating. Open-minded, neutral reporting, so to speak, on his experiences in Jamaica, and with its culture and music industry. He is used to writing travel stories, and the book can be seen as a travel account, centering on various experiences and aspects of Jamaica, but emphasizing music and culture.

NEGRIL

I have been to Jamaica too, and recognize some places he describes, so I can compare a bit with my own experiences. The book was written around 2000, and I went there in 2006 and 2008, so not that long apart. He describes his stay in Negril, which I have visited too: a tourist centre on the West Coast of Jamaica. I did not like it there. The days before, elsewhere in Jamaica, in much less touristy Kingston city and areas of the St Ann’s parish, I enjoyed much more.

This has largely to do with Negril being a very commercialized tourist resort of the more cynical type: poverty, inferiority complexes due to a colonial past, racial obsessions, and, well, commercial greed, all combined to having Jamaicans acting like manipulative gangsters approaching you, often – like a pimp - using a girl to lure White men, and when with the girl, a guy comes along to help rip you off. These were hardened criminal hustlers, with too much “street savy” and psychological, intimidating conning skills, built up over time.

Some offered cocaine to me, even after a semi-friendly – or quasi-friendly – conversation. I was as good as my money there, whereas the Jamaicans I met in Kingston were sometimes hustlers, but more often trustworthy, pleasant people, who might even be friends, with in some cases even character similarities with me, even though I’m a Dutch-born (originally Italian-Spanish), Amsterdam-residing European. You could even talk quite openly and personally with Jamaicans there, something which I not even always achieve well up to today with many (of course not all) Dutch people, or other Amsterdam residents.

Negril was on the other hand not so pleasant, I found. I walked the streets, entered a few bars, and talked with some Jamaicans in Negril. The few conversations with some substance (i.e. actually getting to know someone personally, and learning something new) – with a girl – was still in the context of manipulation: her “pimp” wanted her to make money off me (through sex, became clear), not have a loose conversation, and he became impatient and intervened. So I stopped that whole relationship – a manipulative threesome, as I can describe it -, before it was too late and I was robbed, after following eventual sexual arousal: a common trick. Cute and funny how she opened a bottle with her teeth, that I must admit, but the guy kept intervening, even slapping her at times. Brr.

Not very nice, all this, and a beach resort, like Negril is, can be nice, but was too corrupted. I had enough nice beach experiences elsewhere in Jamaica (Portmore, near Kingston), Cuba, or even in parts of Andalusia, Spain where I moreover had family living.

Well now, Foehr describes the offering of cocaine, the commercial, “artificial”, touristic atmosphere, and the general untrustworthy environment in Negril quite well, including a promised “concert of reggae stars” that never came. He even sets out consciously to find a female companion, as other hedonistically minded tourists there did too. Without success. That is however just one chapter in the book.

MAUSOLEUM AND MUSEUM

Chapters before it and after it, dealt more directly with music and culture, and related trips in different parts of Jamaica. These included again some places I also visited, such as Bob Marley’s mausoleum in the parish of St Ann’s (Nine Miles), close to the North Coast, or the Bob Marley museum in Kingston. The author seems really interested in Bob Marley as artist and person, plus he describes it well. It was – predictably – touristy, that mausoleum in Nine Miles, but without the cynicism and hardened criminal hustlers as at Negril. One a bit more persistent hustler wanted me to buy a spliff (marijuana joint) of him. Not that bad, nor disturbing.

Foehr had a similar guided tour through the Bob Marley museum (in a relatively wealthy, “uptown” part in Kingston: where Bob went to live as he got more successful), as I have had in 2006. Other epochs describe Trench Town (that I visited too), and other parts I went and not went.

He had a coffee-related trip, that is not really in my field of interest, although Jamaican coffee is known among experts for its distinct quality. He describes that trip engagingly enough, but I would not have made that effort, I think.

Later in life, I found out that there are only a few types of coffee I really got to like (the real, original Ethiopian coffee, with a nice taste), perhaps some cappuccino, but most often coffee was something I had to, rather than liked to, drink.

RASTAFARI AND LEONARD HOWELL

Foehr, in other chapters, investigates the history of the Rastafari movement, and the pioneering “first Rasta” personality Leonard Howell, and his life. He travels to the community Howell set up at Pinnacle Hill in the 1930s, using Jamaican contact persons to gain access, knowledge, broadened with historical documentation. Foehr gives an historical contextualization with those trips, including about Rastafari’s development over time and Marcus Garvey, that seems mostly correct, though not always. Howell sought to promote the worship of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, as African saviour for Black people, spreading flyers and such. Foehr comments that Marcus Garvey did not allow spreading these leaflets by Howell at his headquarter. I do not know if this is true, but I read in other, objective and academic historical sources, that Howell and Garvey as persons went along well, met sometimes amicably, and shared ideas. They maybe disagreed at points, but were not foes.

INTERVIEWS

As a journalist, Foehr further not only travels through parts of the island, but also talks and has interviews with several people, important in Reggae, Rastafari, and folk culture. These include important and interesting personalities like Mortimmo Planno, a Rasta elder and teacher, scholar Kwame Davis, musicians like Skatalite Lloyd Knibbs, Toots Hibbert, Freddie McGregor, President Brown, Sugar Minott, Yami Bolo, U Roy, David Hinds, Ken Booth, Marcia Griffiths, the Wailing Souls and others, thus representing different generations in Jamaican music. Foehr does not really devote separate chapters to each interviewee, but rather spreads the conversations out through the travel accounts, and historical and general descriptions.

This might seem haphazard and chaotic, yet he keeps all this quite readable, I must say, showing he can write well, in an engaging way. Moreover, he did not criticize Rastafari so much as I feared. He is seldom disrespectful, but rather objectively descriptive, expressing some skepticism here and there, but reserving the same skepticism for established Western religions. Overall, he sees Rastafari, and the Roots Reggae it influenced, as a positive force, when compared to other “influences” in Jamaican society and music, before and after: the history of anti-African colonialism and slavery, as well as - increasing since the 1980s -: Western materialism values in Jamaica, gun crime, shallow or negative “slackness” lyrics in Dancehall music, moving away from the positive, edifying message in earlier Roots Reggae.

DIGITAL

Also, musically he discusses the change toward more “digital” Dancehall riddims since the late 1980s. Again, Foehr takes on a quite neutral approach, even arguing that there is “quality Dancehall” too, while deploring the general trend of moving away from acoustic or live instruments. That shift was never absolute of course, but a part of Jamaican music became digitally made in the Late 1980s and 1990s, while live musicians were likewise active.. Foehr, and most interviewees, favour a return to music with real instruments, and with more conscious lyrics.

This return already started with the rise of DJ’s with more “conscious”, Rastafari-influenced lyrics, turning away from their slack lyrics from before, like Capleton, or other upcoming artists (DJ’s and singers) with more conscious lyrics. This book was published in 2000, so some artists mentioned in it are still “rising” stars in this book, while more known or “household names” nowadays (Luciano, Buju Banton, Sizzla, who started around 1990, and others). 1990s developments are certainly included in this book, though.

FOLK BELIEFS AND TRADITIONS

Another strain throughout this work is “folk tradition” as such, of African heritage, surviving in Jamaica. Nearby Caribbean islands are well-known for such belief systems, notably Vodou in Haiti, and Santería in Cuba. In Jamaica, similar African-based “spirit possession” and ghost-related beliefs exist and live on, but became less an “export article” as for instance Vodou, including as simplified stereotypes (Vodou dolls) in popular culture and even Hollywood films.

There are several books I have meanwhile read about Reggae and Rastafari, and their history., including some scholarly ones . The same I can say for other themes Foehr treats in this book: the Maroons, colonial history. These segments largely repeat information from elsewhere, in that sense. He explains well the differences between Maroon communities within Jamaica: the one, with Queen Nanny, more rebellious and less complacent than the other one, that just secured its own independence, while at times even capturing escaped slaves to give back to English masters. Not everyone knows of these differences, I imagine. It has been written elsewhere too, though.

Foehr, however, makes his book a bit more unique by paying attention to such folk beliefs, even among common Jamaicans. He speaks with adherents of Kumina, a spirit-based faith found especially in the St Thomas parish in Eastern Jamaica, but also discusses Myal and Obeah, as other “spirit”, “magical”, or “healing” traditions, with African origins. “Obeah” is the magic that has a worse name – more used for evil “casting spells” on enemies or foes – whereas Myal is more known as good and healing.

While African retentions, the Rastafari movement largely took distance from most of such practices, especially the negative aspects of Obeah, as can be heard in many Reggae lyrics. Some aspects, musical (drumming) patterns from Kumina and Burru, and folk medicine for instance, found a way into Rastafari, though.

Besides this, Foehr, also points at a common belief in “duppies”, by at least a part of the Jamaicans. Duppies are ghosts out to get you, when you are least prepared, preferably on straight roads, it seems. Another African retention: in some parts of Africa today, roads and paths are still deliberately made winding, because straight paths may invite evil ghosts.

This all might seem superstitions by uneducated people, having no more intellectual sources to make sense of their world. This might even be true, but devalues it too as less culturally, perhaps unjustly. All cultures have this kind of “magic”, sometimes connected to the natural environment, such as the ancient Celts of Europe, for whom for instance the oak tree was “sacred”, and these trees and other natural aspects harboured “special powers”.

It is in a way interesting that all these beliefs and cultural legacies coexist, I find, in Jamaica. Interesting also, how Jamaicans developed an own culture out of all this. The good and bad. The colonial history with dehumanization and cultural deracination, or attempts of it, of transplanted Africans brought by force to the West, losing their names, and part of their culture. Persisting poverty of the majority in Jamaica, up to the present. Christianity as a colonial legacy, but reinterpreted as an African consciousness arose in Jamaica, returning to the roots, and centralizing an African Emperor in the case of Rastafari. These other beliefs (Obeah, Myal, Kumina, etcetera) only confirm that an Africanness lived on in Jamaica, on which Rastafari was founded, even if many Rastas, ironically, reject certain aspects (spirit possession), or translate other aspects differently, more symbolically (“ancestor worship” for instance).

CONCLUSION

All this combines to make Foehr’s book well readable, and quite unique. He can write engagingly, I must admit, but he does not just “repackage“ well the same information, found in other (scholarly and other) sources. That is a quality that should not be underestimated, by the way. Complex themes or histories are explained better by some than by others, as one may know from own experience. The didactic “now I get it!” effect.

Beyond this, though, Foehr’s book ‘Jamaican Warriors : Reggae, Roots & Culture’, published in the year 2000, adds an unique quality because of the time of its release, and dealing with happenings/developments in the 1990s, giving insight in that specific period in Jamaica.

A time of crossroads in music (digital versus real instruments, slackness versus conscious lyrics), culture, social developments (increased violence and crime in Jamaica since the 1980s). Foehr intertwines these various dimensions skillfully through his travel accounts and interviews, interrelating his own impressions as a White US “outsider”, with interesting and knowledgeable descriptions by Jamaicans themselves, who know best from their experience. As in the better traditions of journalism..

Therefore I am glad I - finally! - read this book, not just because I felt I had to, as a task to be fulfilled or a burden to bear, but because I actually enjoyed it: also due to recognizing, or expanding on what I knew - .. and I even learned a few things from it I did not know yet.

And no, it was not an anti-Rastafari book as such. Foehr openly questions in one chapter some assumptions Rastas have about Haile Selassie, and also is slightly skeptical elsewhere, but it does not go much beyond that, and remains quite objective.

Some things Foehr wrote I considered not really correct, or had a few mistakes, though not often. He had mostly good sources, apparently. I mentioned already that Garvey and Howell in fact were not enemies, as Foehr seems to imply.

Regarding Jamaican music and lyrics, I largely agree with him and especially with what the ”conscious” artists say about the need for more positive lyrics, and “realer” music.

That the “African heritage” in Jamaican music got limited or to the background with the rise of Digital Dancehall is tempting to believe, but a bit simplistic. Purely looking at “rhythm”, Danchehall – even with digital sounds – kind of revives African polyrhythmic musical traditions, you can also say. Many do in part, at least. Not dissimilar to the Funk James Brown started to make, with more rhythmic patterns than in earlier R&B. More modern, yet with retained African, polyrhythmic traditions.

These are overall, however, minor points of critique to an overall well-written, readable book, with quite some information, though largely repeated from other sources, many of which I happen to know or have read already. This information is however placed in another context, making it even for me somewhat relevant in the whole.

The interviews I found also interesting, all the more because some of these were with artists not or rarely interviewed in other “Reggae books or documentaries”, like President Brown, Yami Bolo, the Wailing Souls, and others.

Moreover, a few of the places in Jamaica he visits – not all – I visited too. Some, on the other hand, I did not get to go to, so those descriptions were insightful for me.

Worth the effort and pleasant enough, perhaps even recommendable, reading this book ‘Jamaican Warriors’.

Bredda (and Sista!) Bee

“Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt—marvelous error!— that I had a beehive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.”

From poem 'Last Night As I Was Sleeping' (translated from Spanish), by Antonio Machado (about Antonio Machado)

Growing up in the Netherlands, and reading relatively much since young, I encountered the folk figure “Broer Konijn”, Dutch translation of “Br’er Rabbit”. This was in a comic series ‘Donald Duck’, from Walt Disney, sold in several stores (Dutch-language version) . I read this quite regularly, I remember, from between my 5th and 10th age.

I recall I always seemed to partly get the illustrated stories of different figures in that “Donald Duck” comic weekly. I found it overall entertaining, but with some stories even more intriguing, while not always getting all symbolic or contextual nuances, at that young age. The fictional town in the magazine was called “Duckstad” in Dutch, “Duck town”, with nonetheless heavy car traffic: humanized ducks behind the wheels. I did not always get main intentions of centralized figures, in these Disney comic strips: Mickey Mouse, the seemingly more socially clumsy Donald Duck, both with female version of the same animal. Then, there was a big rabbit walking with a bag-on-stick on his shoulder, doing something among other people (or animals, better said): Broer Konijn (Brother Rabbit).

Having done some studying since then, I found out the historical and cultural context of Brother Rabbit or Br’er Rabbit. It is a figure in folk stories in the US South, originated among African Americans, with African origins. The rabbit or “hare” is in those stories mostly a trickster figure, outsmarting competing animals. This historical folk figure was in time more or less incorporated by the Disney company.

ANANSI

Relatedly, I found out about traditional Anansi (or: Anancy) tales in the Caribbean, also of African origin, with the spider being here the protagonist trickster animal. These are usually stories to tell children. The difference in animal stems from the different parts of Africa the stories originate from, related to where slaves ending up in the West came from. Anansi, the trickster spider comes from the Ghana region, whereas the hare (or rabbit) as trickster is found more in Central Africa (Congo) and Southern Africa. In certain parts of the US South there came indeed quite some slaves from the Congo region. The Anansi stories are found in mainly Jamaica, Suriname, and Curaçao, with relatively higher percentages of slaves from the Ghana region.

Having learned more in time, some aspects of it still puzzle me a bit. I guess you can say: left me with mixed (positive and negative) feelings. First of all: why should animals be tricksters?: animals tend to be straight-forward: they just want to eat, play, and rest. I kind of like that about them. Perhaps they need to invent tricks to get the food? I don’t know.. It is understandably related to the past of slavery; some slaves needed to be a trickster to outsmart the oppression and the master during slavery.

Anyway, being a trickster suggests a mental craftiness or “wickedness” not really characteristic of animals, as Haile Selassie I , Emperor of Ethiopia, once said: “It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked.”

Another “humanizing” aspect of the Brer Rabbit stories is the addition of Brer, from Brother. This could be a linguistic trait, but just as well a cultural one. Maybe in societies more in balance with nature and animals – such as in Africa historically - , animals are earlier seen as “family” in some sense: a related and biologically connected being, a brother or sister.

Indeed, in many Reggae lyrics (from Jamaica) – and in the Jamaican Creole language in general – “Brother” (as Bredda) is often placed before animals, also outside of animal-based folk stories like Anansi. There are several examples in Reggae, but one is in the Israel Vibration song Vultures, using animals in interesting symbolic metaphors. One must know, though, that the word “bredda” is often also used among Jamaicans in the broader meaning of “friend” or “mate”. But still..

This all came to influence me, as I at times – mostly half-joking – now for some years refer to animals as such, adding Brother, Bredda (or the Dutch “Broer”) to the animal, as in: ”bredda bee on my book”, or “bredda cat (not my own) in my garden”, as happened sometimes when stray cats visited several home gardens in a row.

There is a gender issue, so at times I thought: or Sista Bee, Bredda or Sista Bird?

BEES

Recently I paid more attention to the bee, loving in fact that breddas (or sistas?) bee sensed a free haven in my semi-wild garden.

The bee is after all endangered, and therefore we are endangered. That consciousness has begun to grow in recent times, as the importance of bees for pollination of fruits, plants, and vegetables is emphasized. Without the bees, our diet would have to change for 80%.. if we survive at all. If bees would truly disappear, the birds would be the first to follow in extinction, part of a general decline of our natural environment.

It is a cause for worry. Likewise it is simply part of the gradual man-made environmental destruction taking place since agriculture and industrialization.

QUEEN OF THE SUN

I knew this more or less: the threatened bees and its consequences for the natural world and human kind. I must admit, though, that this knowledge remained mostly quite superficial. A documentary I saw recently (the 23rd of May, 2018), 'Queen Of The Sun : what are the bees telling us?' (from 2009 already), dedicated to the threatened bee, therefore turned out to be quite informative for me. The kind of documentary that answers questions I wanted to be answered, without me being even aware that I had these questions.

A beekeeper working for an organic food store cooperation, Odin, in the Netherlands introduced the documentary film, and told about his beekeeping, and answered questions.

HONEY?

While there are objections from vegan activists and environmentalists regarding beekeeping for honey extraction and sale – after all disturbing the bees’ natural order, especially when the honey is not expensive – this beekeeper said honey profits were not his end goal, but rather bee preservation.

I have some vegan people in my circle, and I heard them say that the only way honey could not disturb the bees is when it was very pricey, as not to impact bee activities too much. Usually, however, the need for cheaper honey is such, that honey is taken away, replaced with sugar water for bees to consume, thereby disturbing more the natural order.

Though I thought I felt a “vegan vibe” among some of the people present to see the film (as often surrounding “organic food stores”), this honey production problematic was not touched so much in the said documentary Queen Of The Sun, but rather the general decline of and threat to the bee population, due to broader agricultural and economic developments, especially in the Western world.

MONOCULTURE AGRICULTURE

The focus of the documentary was on the US, but broadened occasionally to the global situation. One main interviewee was a German activist farmer who went to live in the US, also to stimulate better bee environments (wilder vegetation, certain plants, variation), as part of general farming. This instead of the dominant large scale “mono-culture”, with only one type of crop, tree or plant. They gave the example of almond monocultures in California: bees don’t thrive there, because there is only one type of tree, no variation. As a consequence, they starve out, and become endangered. The German farmer in turn included a special bee haven part with varied, natural vegetation to have a good environment for bees, so necessary for the pollination of whatever crops grows on the rest of that farmland.

In the case of the Californian mass almond monoculture, bees are massively flown in from the entire US and even abroad – to pollinate the almond trees. Figures are staggering: something like 70% of all bees in the US are transported to there for almond production! A mass industrial operation. After that they disappear. Hardly a natural order, and of course disturbing.

Several beekeepers – some inevitably a bit too self-congratulatory – in different countries, US, France, New Zealand, Britain, Italy, talked about their activities with and/or for bees.

VARROA MITE

Also adding to bee disappearance is the issue of the varroa mite, an external parasitic mite that specializes in bees, using bees to reproduce. This parasitic mite has infested and diminished bee populations over time. Once only found in Asian bees, it spread to other bees when Asian bees were introduced on other continents – human interference with nature again! – causing problems.

One argument in the documentary was that this problem was confronted by the industries with chemical pesticide measures, hoping to get rid of the varroa mite. In the documentary was explained – however – that instead the varroa mite became resistant to the “miticide” chemicals, becoming even more resilient in the process. Again, letting nature follow its course: letting the bee endure and over time fight off the mite organically, would be more beneficial for the bees themselves, in the long run. The man-made chemicals only made it worse.

DRONES

I learned more things, such as regarding bee biology. I thought that the honey bees were male, while the leading, large queen bee was their leader. It turns out that those worker bees are females, as also the beekeepers in the film referred to them. So Bredda AND Sista bee, I really should call them. In fact, the leading queen bee goes out the hive on “mating trips”, to mate with several male drones. These are the male bees. She is certainly polygamous, collecting sperm from several drones for laying eggs of new male and female bees. I did not know that in English these sperm-delivering male bees are called “drones”. This gives me a strange feeling about the other airplane-camera-like things, called after all “drones” too. The bee drones’ function is anyway to mate and fertilize. This is what I mean with nature being straight-forward, haha.

Come to think of it, another use of the word “drone” I encountered is as musical one, as sustained sound or note. This goes back to an older linguistic, Germanic and English word meaning “to hum”. The airplane called drone is however named after the male bees (also just for the humming sound.. or so they say).

Most sources seem to separate this fertilizing/mating function from actually “working” as the female bees (outside the queen bee) do. Some may be of the opinion that it is work too. The queen bee tends to test the skill of the drones, anyway, during mating, such as by flying higher, thus selecting the best seed. So, it’s not all fun, haha (I am joking, sorry).

Maybe some humans get sexually aroused by this whole imagery, who knows, haha, but this is not my intention.

Further, in one of the featured cities, New York, there was a female beekeeper active, on a rooftop, pointing out that beekeeping was then (before 2009) outlawed in New York city. This prohibition was however lifted after protests. In London, also a “rooftop beekeeper” was interviewed.

Content-wise, this was more or less the core of the Queen of the Sun documentary, one that I would certainly recommend.

Q & A

Almost equally interesting, though, was the Q and A afterward with the Dutch beekeeper, who was not from Amsterdam, having his bees in another part of the Netherlands (near Tiel).

He worked for the organic food store cooperation Odin, having shops all over the Netherlands, though certainly less than well-known EkoPlaza, for instance: its biggest (organic) competitor store in the Netherlands.

He had some interesting things to tell, giving also useful tips and advice for those wanting to help bees even while in the city Amsterdam, such as by adding certain flora attracting bees to balconies and gardens. He pointed at the extreme natural sensibility of the bees, affected for instance even by explosions on the sun – far from the earth -, triggering their migrations.

The same sensibility applies to the human presence, notably the mobile phones and signals these involve, also crossing nature. This affects bees negatively, reason why the beekeeper keeps the mobile phone off or away from the place where he keeps the bee. These rays of mobile phone communication, by the way, have been proven to affect all nature and beings – not just bees -, including humans, to differing degrees negatively.

He also elaborated on the difficulty in outlawing internationally the chemical means – miticide - to fight the said parasitic varroa mite. This is hindered by certain powerful states (China, US) and big companies, with vested economic interests in either the chemicals or certain crops or honey. Sad and enraging, in some sense.

MENTALITY

In introducing the documentary, the beekeeper – while highlighting the indeed beautiful poem opening the documentary, by Spanish poet Antonio Machado (actually part of a larger poem) – he also pointed out that one of the points made in it, such as by the said German farmer in the US, that a “change of mentality” toward the bees and nature among humans is what is ultimately most important.

Our relationship with animals and the natural environment is what is the issue, here. How to stop further environmental destruction. One might argue that in the Western, industrialized world, the balance with nature has been long lost, gradually since agricultural and industrial expansion, diminished forests and variation in ecosystems, all affecting negatively the bees, being so crucial in our food chain.

The mentioned Brother Anancy/Anansi, or Br’er Rabbit stories, from Afro-American folk culture in that sense seem to point at a more balanced state between man and nature once in Africa, attributing after all kinship to animals, especially by adding “brother”. Animal stories are historically also found in other cultures, such as Europe and Asia, of course, often likewise “humanizing” animals.

FROM QUASHIE AND ANANCY TO RASTAFARI

The “trickster”, cunning figure of the Anancy spider is viewed more critically also within the same culture, such as among the Rastafari adherents in Jamaica.

This is described in the interesting 1998 article: ‘The epistemological significance of ”I-an-I” as a response to Quashie and Anancyism in Jamaican culture’, by Adrian Anthony McFarlane. This article was part of the academic collective volume ‘Chanting Down Babylon : the Rastafari reader’ (Temple University press, 1998), wherein several authors discuss different historical and cultural aspects of the Rastafari movement, that first arose in Jamaica in the 1930s. The Rastafari movement originated among poor Black people, and has a pro-Africa focus, a theological and spiritual nucleus in Ethiopia and Haile Selassie, further combined with a certain “nature-based” practical and spiritual world view, distancing itself thus from the Western system, enslaving them in the first place.

Aiming at emancipation and redemption through Africa, a righteous living, and a moral stance, many Rastas began to object against the Anancy “role model” within Jamaica, known for confusion and cunning. While this tries to escape the system, it neither is a clear, majestic moral stance against this Western, oppressive “Babylon” system, as Rastas call it. They prefer – animal-wise – the majestic African lion as a more moral and prouder model, rather than the trickster spider.

The trickster as hero, in addition, meets also objections among Rastas because of its inherent divisiveness. This trickery and fooling does not stop with actual powerful oppressors (White and Black, including the sell-out Quashies), but causes also internal strive. As also heard in many Reggae lyrics by Rastas, the “false” or “fake” Rastas within the Rastafari movement (often similarly wearing long dreadlocks), are a persistent problem, being not only too ignorant, but often even intruders with evil, selfish intentions against the Rastafari goals, from within.

I AND I

The Rasta expression “I and I” - listeners of Reggae hear this expression a lot - relates to their world view. It is a type of heightened consciousness beyond the trickery of Anancysim, or even more beyond what came before it, the “Quashie” figure in Jamaican folk stories, having lost its African, human soul in the West, and being a mere puppet. This is the line of argumentation in McFarlane’s said article: rising from Quashie, through Anancy, to the Rastafari’s I and I, and eventually heightened consciousness and pride.

This I-an-I philosophy among the Rastafari is actually relevant for this post. The I relates to other I’s (beings), pointing at a communal world view, between all humans, but also other living beings in nature. It is in that sense also an expressed preference of balance with nature, flora and fauna. Including of course the bees, having a crucial pollinating role. This also concerns the fruits, and other natural, vegetable foods from the earth the strictest of Rastas have as diet. Vegetarian and vegan, but really a step beyond it, many Rastas prefer also unprocessed, natural food, called Ital food. The bees are crucial in this, and relatively undisturbed contribute to it.

Rastafari principles and the earlier Rastafari example, I therefore argue, simply help provide directions for a change of mentality beneficial for bee survival, the documentary Queens of the Sun called for, in response to the increased awareness and deploration – also in the Western world - of the threatened bees as part of general environmental destruction.

SYMBOLS?

Since we are dealing with symbols now, one could discern certain symbolism in the documentary Queens of the Sun too, in relation to all I said till now. The already discussed varroa mite belongs to the family of spiders (like Anansi/Anancy!). This inevitable parasitic mite is something the bee has to endure to prosper. Just like Rastas want to move beyond Anancyism. At the very least an interesting symbolic parallel.

Also suggested in the documentary is how certain wasps seem to give bees a bad name, by somehow being among them – looking a bit like them – but with more aggressive, negative behavior among them, and toward humans or other creatures. These can be somehow compared to the mentioned “false Rastas” as wolves in sheep clothing, for bad intentions (jealousy, own gain etc.).

On the other hand, in my experience - getting more of that since I am getting older of course - one must be cautious with “symbolism”: it can seem in your favour, but also later turn against you. This applies to all linguistic issues (as symbols are), after all manipulable and corruptible by self-interested humans.

The truth remains the same, however, and that – unpleasant - truth is that in this time the bees are as a species endangered, threatening humans and the environment.

The documentary Queens of the Sun explained this well and quite factual/educational and convincing, already in 2009. It also increased recently my knowledge of certain aspects, having seen it not long ago.