Early Banjo Traditions in Haiti
Added 2020-07-01 19:07:04 +0000 UTC"Cahouet, coachman, age 24 or 26, height 5 feet, stocky and hunched, great player of the bansa, singer, and engoleur* of the blacks,always at the dances on the plantations. Thosewho have knowledge give notice to M. Linas of Le Cap, to whom he belongs..." - Les AffichesAméricaines, 15 December 1784, https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00000449/00027 "AFRICAN DIASPORA COLLECTIVE ACTION: RITUALS, RUNAWAYS, AND THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION," C.N. Eddins (dissertation), Michigan State University, 2017
* "That word is particularly intriguing, because it's a neologism of sorts—an invented word perhaps attempting to describe the kind of musical performance Cahouet carried out. It’s root seems to be the word 'engueler'—to shout—and can therefore be translated something like 'a shouter of the Negroes.' We can imagine what that might have meant: that he led them in choruses or call-and-response, or perhaps that he was a story-teller. His services seem to have been much in demand..." - Laurent Dubois https://sites.duke.edu/banjology/
Comments
You got some good stuff here. I love the history stuff
Dave Moy
2021-01-01 20:21:57 +0000 UTCThanks !
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-15 01:36:54 +0000 UTCYes, Jeff is easy to find online. He calls his business Menzies Instruments on social media.
Clifton Hicks
2020-07-15 01:00:05 +0000 UTCJeff Menzies, would love to get in touch with him. Can I find a contact on the internet ?
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-15 00:41:18 +0000 UTCSorry, can’t replie directly to your comments. Oh yes, that was different from his 4-string banjo, this was the “old time, traditional” banjo. He was amazed I could play a little bum-ditty on it.
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-15 00:40:17 +0000 UTC🤯 Do you understand what he meant, exactly, by calling it 'banjo de menestrel?' Is that different from what he calls the 4-string banjo?
Clifton Hicks
2020-07-14 23:28:57 +0000 UTCYes, I have read at least parts of Slave Songs of the US on Google. Published in 1867, it is a rare resource. What part of the Caribbean are you in? I had the honor of working one summer for the Jamaica National Heritage Trust in Kingston, years ago, and have been terribly fascinated in Afrocaribbean history ever since.
Clifton Hicks
2020-07-14 23:00:46 +0000 UTCBtw I have met one guy here in Martinique, FWI, who plays the 4-string banjo and I showed him my minstrel banjo, which he immediately recognized as being a “banjo de ménestrel” which is the exact transcription of minstrel in French.
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-14 23:00:15 +0000 UTCI would love to find this book in pdf, unfortunately it takes months to have a book delivered in the Caribbeans... and yes I have read slaves were sold at a better price when they could play music. Did you read this book called Slave Songs of the United States ? Very disgusting as well as interesting. Written by William Francis Allen. If not, google it, it’s free to download (digitized by Google)
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-14 22:57:25 +0000 UTCThat is VERY interesting. Have you read Laurent Dubois' book, The Banjo: America's African Instrument? Also, if you've not seen it yet, Dubois' maintains a website here: https://sites.duke.edu/banjology/ Most of his research focuses on the early banjo in Haiti and French-speaking Louisiana.
Clifton Hicks
2020-07-14 22:50:01 +0000 UTCSing while you slave...
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-14 22:44:09 +0000 UTCBy the way there is a slave song called Musieu Banjo (mister banjo) where the banjo player is described as proud, with his hat and boots, maybe because he was better considered. He’s even called a mulet (donkey)
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-14 22:39:46 +0000 UTCInteresting. I know nothing of the French language, sadly, but from what I know of plantation life there would've been a lead singer who "called" to which all field hands would sing back in "response." My assumption was that this "engoleur" was the lead singer who picked the songs and set the pace of the work. On at least one Virginia plantation, this singer was called "Captain" by the other hands.
Clifton Hicks
2020-07-14 22:38:28 +0000 UTCIn nowadays French langage engueuler means shouting at someone because he did something bad. In those days of slavery it might also have meant the guy was shouting at the slaves for them to work more 😢🤬
Jean-Pierre DEVIN
2020-07-14 22:33:43 +0000 UTCSuper cool!
Seth
2020-07-12 20:13:55 +0000 UTC
