REDISCOVERING
THE HIDDEN CULTURE:
Folk Songs
Story
& Photos by
David Bowen,
Cultural Officer, Turks & Caicos Tourist Board
In my quest to
rediscover the hidden culture of the Turks & Caicos Islands, I've become
fascinated with our local folk songs and ring games (ring play). Since the
beginning of my research throughout the Islands with a number of senior citizens
groups, I have collected over 50 songs and I am sure there are many more to be
discovered. It is impossible to convey the melody of the songs in print without
providing the musical notation. In this article, I want to focus on the issue of
folk music in the Turks & Caicos and give you a general insight on the subject.
Many of the songs are
based on day-to-day life and actual events that took place in the Islands, so
they become a unique source of oral history, local folklore and social
commentary. The latest gossip was also expressed in song. Even to this day,
there are songs one must be careful of singing in certain gatherings. During my
research, the Chief Minister, Honorable Derek Taylor himself advised me to be
sensitive and very careful with what songs were chosen to be performed by the
cultural group because there are family members still alive who would take
offence to having unflattering songs written about someone in their family
performed in a public setting.
The
tunes and melody of many of our folk songs are derived from British, African and
American folk music, ring games, square dances and church hymns. The emphasis on
rhythm, as opposed to melody, is a prominent feature of our local folk songs and
ring games. With the ripsaw, goatskin drum, shakers and the triangle providing
the rhythmic foundation, many songs with varying melodic lines are strung
together in a continuous free flow.
Instruments like the
accordion, guitar or concertina provide the basic three-chord progression to
support the melody. Together with the rhythm and physical response, courtship,
language and vocabulary skills are significant ingredients of traditional folk
songs and ring games. The ring game "One & Twenty" introduced us to counting up
to one hundred and the song "See, The Moon is Shining," gives the boys and girls
during ring play a safe way to express their feelings for each other without it
being too obvious to adults.
See see see see, the
moon is shining
See see see see, the moon is shining
And I like your eyes, la la la la la la
And I like your face, la la la la la la
And I like your arms, la la la la la la
And I like your hips, la la la la la la
There is no limitation to
the list, so it provides the perfect vehicle to tell that special someone what
you really like about him or her.
Some folk songs can appear strange and confusing until the full story is told.
One such song is a little ditty out of South Caicos called "I Dig There."
I dig there
Garland
dig there
Garland
push his finger in my hole
In my hole, in my hole
Garland
push his finger in my hole
This song, written by Mr.
Julius Jennings, tells the story of two men in South Caicos who went looking for
turtle eggs and one of them took the eggs out of a hole his friend had dug up.
For many years, most people raised an eyebrow when hearing the song for the
first time without knowing that the line, "Garland push his finger in my hole,"
was describing someone putting their hand in a turtle hole (nest) looking for
eggs. According to Mrs. Tit Malcolm of South Caicos, the two characters in the
story were Mr. Clement Seymour and Mr. Sidney Garland. "I Dig There" was a
popular song with the ripsaw bands in
South Caicos.
Joe Robinson and Hugh Fulford featured this song on the album, "Bonefish
Biting," recorded in 1989 with the Turks & Caicos Cultural Group. The album was
unfortunately poorly recorded, making it difficult to hear the songs clearly, so
it did not make the cultural impact it should have in the schools as a source of
reference for local folk music. Next year, the Tourist Board's Cultural
Department plans to record a CD and write a book of local folk and ring games as
an ongoing drive to introduce a new cultural curriculum in the education system.
Not
all songs were based on actual events. Some were just plain silly and humorous,
while others are ambiguous and have cleverly hidden sexual overtones. The song
"Conch Style," taught to me by my aunt, Mrs. Mary "Titta" Quelch of Overback,
Grand Turk, is a good example of a humorous folk song. The "Conch Style" is also
a folk dance where the dancer hooks one foot around the back of the other ankle
with a quick shuffle step in-between to change legs. Hooking the foot represents
the claw or foot of the conch.
Monkey married to
baboon sister
Kiss his lips and make it blister
What you think they had for dinner
Black eye peas and monkey liver
Conch style, oh aunt Johnny
Conch style, oh aunt Johnny
This song is obviously
African in origin, for we have no monkeys or baboons in these Islands. This is a
good example of the mixture of the two cultures as the conch and black-eyed peas
formed a basic part of the local Turks & Caicos diet in the early years.
The songs "Sugar You
Come," a dialog between a boy and a girl and "Bonefish Biting," about young
single women, are good examples of the ambiguity of some of the tunes.
Sugar You Come
Boy: Sugar you come?
Girl: Yes I come again
Boy: What you bring?
Girl: Cake and sugar plum
Boy: Give me some?
Girl: I can't give you none
Boy: Oh sugar, Sweet sugar
Bonefish Biting
Bonefish biting' no one to catch them
Every married man got his own bonefish
Throw out your line catch a bonefish
Throw out your line catch a bonefish
In "Sugar You Come," the
boy is interested in the girl's "cake and sugar plum" and being the good girl
she is, she refuses, "I can't give you none," but the boy still tries, "Oh
sugar, sweet sugar."
"Bonefish Biting"
speaks about the fact that there are many single girls looking for a husband,
"bonefish biting," but there are not enough available single males around, "no
one to catch them," while all men in the settlement have wives, "every married
man got his own bonefish," any unmarried man could have his pick of the many
available single girls, "throw out your line catch a bonefish."
The structures of our
folk songs are simple and usually last for one verse and are then repeated over
and over. This works well during ring play games where each person in the circle
gets a turn to dance and sing in the ring. However, to break up the monotony in
a dance and party setting, several songs are woven together in a medley and can
go on for hours, switching from song to song supported by hand clapping and a
ripsaw rhythm section. The Providenciales branch of the Senior Citizens Club,
organized by Mrs. Marion Williams, taught four tunes to me that can be woven
together in such a medley, jumping from one topic to another without missing a
beat.
Bow Wow Wow
Bow wow wow my dog gon' bite you
Bow wow wow my dog gon' bite you
Throw the water in the door
So the door can't make no noise
Bow wow wow my dog gon' bite you
Went Jamaica
Went
Jamaica spend my holiday
Went
Jamaica spend my holiday
They give me ripe banana
They give me green banana
They give me coconut water
Spend my holiday
Send Her Home
Big, big sambo gal
She can't wash, she can't cook
Send her home to her mama gal
The gal can't wash and the gal can't cook
Send her home to her mama
Salt rakers sang this
last song as they transported sacks of salt to be loaded in the shiphold for
export.
Back Down Toby
Back Down Toby
Back Down Toby
Topsi right behind
Two more trips to make the load
And you knock off half past nine
The folk song is an
oral art, not a written one. When songs move through the Islands, some words and
phrases are altered, changed, mispronounced or just forgotten, making it
difficult to discover the origin and writer of the tune. During the mass exodus
in the 1930s through the 1960s of Turks & Caicos Islanders to the Bahamas
seeking employment and eventually settling there, many of our folk songs found
their way to Inagua, Freeport and Nassau. Over the years, these folk songs have
been integrated into the folk culture of that country and most Bahamians do not
realize how much of an impact Turks Islanders made on the musical and cultural
scene in the Bahamas. I will explore that issue more fully in my next article on
"Ripsaw Music and our Musical Heritage."
It is becoming
increasingly rare these days to find the youth of the country learning and
singing folk songs and playing ring games in school, at home or in leisure. Like
most developing countries, the Turks & Caicos is fast losing its folk heritage
due to the overwhelming dominance of foreign music, television and fashion
trends. This situation is not unique to the Turks & Caicos, but is echoed
throughout the
Caribbean. While it
is important for a developing nation to keep up with the rest of the world, its
people and government must insure that the unique folk heritage is not lost in
the process.
One of our local
legends, Mr. Lovey Forbes and his son Correy, with their combined bands of The
Lively Stones and The Rakooneers, have been instrumental in writing some of our
newest folk songs. "The Old Conch" and "Green Corn Time" are just two of the
songs finding their way into the folk culture of the Turks & Caicos Islands.
Lovey wrote "The Old Conch" in 1981 and I was amazed to discover that most
locals thought the song was around much earlier, perhaps during their
grandparents' day. The first verse and chorus (written below) are what most
people know and sing, but there are altogether three verses in the original
recording. This song appears in the primary school textbook, "Our Country, the
Turks & Caicos Islands." But in a perfect example of how the words of folk songs
are changed or altered depending on who sings and plays them, the publishers
printed this incorrect version. No one thought to contact Mr. Forbes.
The old conch is
sweeter than the fresh conch
The old conch is sweeter than the fresh
conch
Especially when you put it in peas and rice
I say the old conch will make it taste so
nice
You soak-um, soak-um,
You wash-um, wash-um
You cook-um, cook-um, You eat-um, eat-um
"The Old Conch" is an
infectious song and sure to be a folk classic. Should you ever visit Dora's
Restaurant on Leeward Highway in Providenciales, you can see the original lyrics
written by Lovey displayed in a frame hanging on the wall.
As the Tourist
Board's Cultural Officer, besides researching, collecting and recording folk
songs I have put together a number of cultural shows and productions with the
Turks & Caicos Cultural Group and the TUCA Folklore Company, with the intention
of exposing the school children and the general public to this rich part of our
cultural heritage. I am also encouraging young musicians, songwriters and poets
to not only learn and perform our local folk music, but also to write new songs
about day-to-day life and record what is going on in their communities and the
country in song and poems as a way to insure that the art of folk music and folk
songs survives for future generations.
With our growing
tourism industry, local folk and cultural groups will soon find themselves in
demand to perform at resorts and hotels for guests looking for the unique
aspects of our culture beyond the typical sun, sand and sea experience. I am
sure our folk music, with its mixture of oral history, humor and tradition, will
prove to be the perfect vehicle to achieve