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The first ackee tree in Jamaica was planted from a seed brought to the island by the captain of a slave ship in 1778. The fruit is not widely eaten but in Ghana the flowers are used to make a perfume and the seeds are used as a narcotic to catch fish. The seedling was taken to England by Captain Bligh and there the plant was given the botanical name, Blighia sapida. Its original name was ‘akye’ from Twi language of West Africa. |
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With 450 years of cultural intermingling, there’s always something new – and old – to taste, to hear and do. Magical fables, stately estates, honoured traditions and natural charm…let us share our Jamaica with you. |
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 Ruby red poinsettias and sweet sorrel to sip . . . as if Christmas in Jamaica isn’t delightful enough, there’s also ‘Pitchy Patchy’ and his sidekicks carrying on their antics in a dazzling street parade. What an excitement! Spectacular displays of colourful costumes, swirling dances, dramatic movements and vibrant rhythms…In Jamaica’s villages, districts and towns, Jonkonnu (John Canoe) means Christmas ‘a come’.
Jonkonnu is a Jamaican Christmas tradition, started by slaves during the colonial period, but with roots in West Africa. In Africa, there was always cause for celebration, whether to mark the harvest of crops, commemorate the dead or praise ancestral spirits and gods. In the colonies, however, slaves were only allowed three days of holiday each year, and these days coincided with the Christmas season. This being the only opportunity to celebrate, all of their former festivals were lumped into one extravagant affair.
Masked and colourfully costumed, characters like ‘Devil, ‘Cow-head’, ‘Koo-Koo’, ‘Ass-head’ and ‘Belly woman’ performed on great house lawns, later spilling onto the streets and town centres. Until the 1950s, strains of mento music and shouts of “Jonkonnu a come!” drew people out of their houses to witness the pageantry of the festival. Often fuelled by potent white rum, masqueraders would showcase their elaborate costumes with exaggerated acrobatic dancing. Making quite a spectacle of themselves, they attracted laughter from some, and tears from others, especially the children.
Each character had its own significance, religious or otherwise. Revellers paid much attention to the details of their costumes, making each one unique. Props were essential – the policeman’s baton, the devil’s trident and belly woman’s pregnant bulge helped to make each role easily identifiable. Each participant added another hue to the amazing spectrum, Pitchy Patchy’s being the most colourful, a patchwork of shiny tinsel and strips of cloth in a rainbow of shades. Traditionally all the parts were played by men, some so convincingly, that occasionally male onlookers joined in the celebrations only to be unpleasantly surprised!
Like so many of our Jamaican customs and traditions, Jonkonnu incorporates influences from several other cultures. Interesting additions to the West African art form came from the European masquerade tradition. To mimic the planters, Jonkonnu bands would include a variety of English dances in their movements. Morris dancing, jigs, polkas and reels were all a part of the line-up. Another European addition was the character Koo-Koo or Actor Boy, a street thespian reciting a jumble of Shakespearean phrases. The end of the 19th century saw the addition of the ‘set’, and the beloved set girls from French Creole- influenced carnival celebrations. As time went on, what was essentially a West African affair became a true West Indian experience, the Jamaican motto ‘out of many one people’ ringing true again.
Today, for the most part, Jonkonnu celebrations are kept alive by national cultural organizations, like the JCDC (Jamaica Cultural Development Commission), which plans and organises Christmas events. In some areas of Jamaica, however, especially in the rural parishes, the Belly woman, Jawbone Jonkonnu and their friends still come out to play. Jumping in time with music from a scratchy grater and the infectious shaka shaka, the bands continue to imbue crowds with the fervour of an ‘old-time sinting’. |
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