Waiting on Banana Shout to come in the mail... damn snail mail! Anyway, completely excited to read it
Waiting on Banana Shout to come in the mail... damn snail mail! Anyway, completely excited to read it
You never see it coming ... and the next thing you know ... UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
Thanks for the tips guys! I just finished reading Walk Good. Loved it!
I just picked up The Dead Yard, Catch a Fire, and The Pirates Daughter from the library yesterday, should keep me going through our trip.
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Book Review: J'can folk tales at their best
Published: Sunday | August 16, 2009
Title: 'Jamaican Folk
Tales and Oral Histories'
Author: Dr Laura Tanna
Reviewed by:
Dr Rebecca Tortello
Anancy's place in Jamaican culture lies in the research of scholars, in the telling of tales from generation to generation, in popular theatre, in song and dance and in popular dialect where the word 'anancy' can be used instead of 'ginnal' to mean someone slightly devious or who uses wit to outsmart others.
One such scholar who has done much to ensure the survival of Jamaican Anancy tales is Dr Laura Tanna. With the re-release of her book, Jamaican Folk Tales and Oral Histories, and the newly updated accompanying DVD and CDs (Jamaican Folk Tales and Maroon Storyteller), Dr Tanna has not only created a valuable teaching package, but by digitising the material, has managed to preserve the vital footage she painstakingly recorded and analyzed over 30 years ago.
Tanna collected this anthology of contemporary Jamaican folk tales in the early 1970s travelling across Jamaica into some of the most remote areas to collect folk tales and record the storytelling, using the technology then available to preserve a dying tradition. Having studied African languages and literature and lived in Africa from the age of 14, where she first became intrigued by African oral traditions, she was well placed to do this research. Indeed, much of the book is based on her dissertation, the Art of Jamaican Oral Narrative Performance.
The book itself is well organised. The style is academic, but readers shouldn't be put off since the accompanying DVD and CDs break down the material, making it more appealing and likely more relevant to a wider audience. Through the entire package, Tanna takes you with her on her journey into a rich aspect of Jamaican oral culture. By writing in the first person and detailing how the tales were collected, she introduces readers to the performers as individuals and gives glimpses of their lives. We meet and get to know people like Miss Adina, Henrietta Barnes and Thomas Rowe and also see the familiar faces and hear the distinct voices of cultural icons, 'Miss Lou' and Ranny Williams.
We learn about the 'River Muma' water spirit and meet a greedy or "cub*****" girl named Nora who tries to keep all the ackee she collects for herself. Of course, we are also fortunate to spend time with 'Bredda Anancy'. Throughout the book, Tanna breaks down the wide range of oral material she collected by subject, ranging from songs and rhymes to duppy stories and trickster tales. She introduces each subject heading by explaining its origins and relevant historical context. She rounds out the text by including photographs of the storytellers as well as an important glossary for those unfamiliar with Jamaican patois and a useful bibliography.
Having used this material as a student in college when researching my undergraduate thesis which explored the evolution of Anancy tales and their role in Jamaican culture, I know how useful the material is as a window to aspects of Jamaican culture that are in danger of dying out.
I also appreciate how important Tanna's thorough analysis of both the structure and the meanings of the material are because each in their own way represents retentions from African traditions and adaptations to life in a creolised society. The book, DVD and CD set is certainly an important addition to any serious Jamaican cultural scholar's collection.
The deep respect Tanna has for the storytellers who shared their cultural traditions with her resonates in her writing when she shares how she met the performers and how, in many cases, she built lasting relationships with them, and in her use of both patois and standard English. She did not just show up and expect to record the material. Instead, Tanna came prepared to meet and learn about each performer, to meet their families, to better understand their homes and lives so as to be better able to understand their storytelling and its cultural relevance.
She deliberately did not translate the tales into standard English, instead, she preserved their integrity by transcribing them as they were recorded, intending for the reader to read the tale as it was spoken and thereby get a better understanding of how it was actually performed.
Of course, with the DVD and CDs, now those who buy the full set can read, hear and see the tales being presented for themselves and use the book, and Tanna's incisive introductions, to add greater understanding of the language, culture and of the role of oral traditions in Jamaican history.
For me, the highlight of the book is its collection of Trickster or Anancy tales - not only because I have a soft spot for Anancy. I also have great respect for him as a character because I understand that the survival of the trickster tale was not an accident. With his cleverness and unfailing ability to have an answer for every situation, Anancy reminds us that slaves were not ignorant, weak, passive individuals who merely accepted their fate and did nothing to challenge it. Part of Anancy's strength comes from the fact that before transplantation to the West Indies, he was grounded in an ancient African system of belief in a unified world.
On transplantation to the Caribbean these beliefs remained strong and animal trickster tales allowed the slaves to express their wildest fantasies and their deepest anxieties without fear of retribution. Anancy tales were and are measures of self-reliance and self-affirmation. Animal tricksters like Anancy who think like humans and experience human emotions without being treated as such, served to implicitly indict the dehumanising system of slavery.
In conveying the value of oral tradition, Tanna teaches that collecting the telling of a tale on video/DVD, audiocassette/CD or in writing, with or without photographs, can never equal the actual experience of participating in a storytelling session. This book, and accompanying CDs and DVD are as close as one can come. The historical value of this collection cannot be overemphasised.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...rts/arts7.html
"I beseech thee, my lord , let this venture be mine..."
-Sir Gawain
Thanks Monk-I defintley want to check out your suggestion...I love reading books about Jam-esp non-fiction as well history related..Out of many already quoted I truly liked the Dead Yard the best-some may think its negative but its an excellent look into modern Jam.. (I have feeling some may not like the brutal reality of modern Jam-)
I also really enjoyed:
The gathering of the healers by Robert Roskind. about rastas and trying to heal the nation..
The rise and fall of Falmouth-by carey robinson...Falmouth near my area,did you know its a world heritage georgian site??
Jamaica nice, you know- david palladini- about living in Jam (an no NOt negril)
A year, more or less in Jam- another book by david palladini about dealing with day to day living in Jam as ex-pat...
I'm probably one of the few people who didnt care for "Walk Good"...I thought it trite and too predictable... As I thought the same way about Negril sunset...
I still have many more to read...
Last edited by suzengrace; 09-03-2012 at 12:01 AM.
" Ones destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things." (Henry Miller)
No Woman, No Cry by Rita Marley
If you like reading the history of Jamaica, you might enjoy Pieces of the Past by Dr. Rebecca Tortello.
Also, Sunset Negril!Originally Posted by saeyedoc
For those of you that enjoy Jamaican history - "The Story of Westmoreland, A Jamaican Parish" by Marguerite R Curtin. A great read with lots of illustrations and photographs. It covers the period from earliest Taino to the emergence of Negril as a tourist destination. Published in 2010. She has also written The Story of Hanover (which I have not yet read). Unfortunately I have never been able to find either book at the normal book websites - I bought my copy of the Story of Westmoreland at a bookstore in Sav for $2000 JA (upstairs bookstore across from Texaco station).
Sbeth,
Apparently many feel like you do. For a bit more of those who feel the same, the credible review for the New York Times Book section goes into more depth for their take on the Dead Yard.
The New York Times review states about the British author Ian Thomson's book, " I wish I could join in this stately applause, but I am puzzled by it. On a purely aesthetic level, this book is a grind — it has no through-narrative, no argument, no grease. The author spreads out his research not in any kind of linear fashion but like a man having a rummage sale, inviting us to pick through it with him."
The review compares his take on Jamaica as having the "jumbled personality of a Wikipedia entry". They go on to describe him as "For all of his negative assessments, he’s not even agreeably cranky. He’s a blank."
They do say that most of the book is taken up by the interviews. And to that end they ask why arent there any interviews with the younger and currently successful Jamaicans. Mr. Thomson has seemed to leave them out. It seems that only the older are interviewed. They go on to explain, "I have nothing against old people and hope to become one myself. But by focusing on them so relentlessly, he gives us a skewed and brittle picture of Jamaica. These are people whose glory days are behind them. It’s no surprise that they think the country’s glory days are in the rearview mirror, too. It’s as if he’d written a book about modern Japan by interviewing the living World War II veterans."
For more here is a link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/bo...pagewanted=all
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
Maybe dead Yard doesnt give both sides of the coin...but it does give one-side and does provide factual info..For some a buzzkill no doubt but it is a reality of Jamaica.. A side that most tourists would not be aware of-just like many aspects of Jam,not everything is Irie all the time--and just like any other place on the planet there is the good ,the bad and the ugly..Just one of the realities to living in Jam.
If this isnt your cup of tea than just don't read it.....
ps.-I dont think interviewing younger and successful Jams would give a more rosier picture to difficulties and stresses one must deal with in living in Jam..
oh yes the history of westmoreland is outstanding-i bought my copy at the airport-fascinating read....
Last edited by suzengrace; 09-10-2012 at 01:57 PM.
" Ones destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things." (Henry Miller)
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