Veni way Bongo

Dara Healy writes a weekly column for the Newsday.

Tonight is the Bongo night

Veni way veni way

Bongo!

We were asked to showcase traditional Bongo dances for a community event to commemorate October, Patois month, celebrate our Patois or Kréyòl traditions, and as part of a growing effort to revive the language as part of our heritage.

The request seemed fairly typical until they shocked us by asking if the songs to accompany the bongo could be sung in Patois.

The Bongo is a dance that celebrates the life of one who has passed from this realm, as they transition to the afterlife. Family and friends gather to remember the deceased, a ritual that is important to give peace to the departed, and to those who come to honour them.

“Following the traditions of the Asante and Yoruba peoples … on the night before the body was buried, as it lay in state at the dead person’s home, a festival involving eating, drinking, singing, drumming and horn blowing took place ... the dancers sought to outdo one another with twirling, spinning steps and deep knee bends”. The music would also include rhythms beat on qua qua sticks or bamboo. Fairly long, upright lengths of bamboo would be hit on the ground in varying sequences, or shorter pieces would be held in one hand or placed on the shoulder while hitting it with another piece of bamboo. The style using the shorter pieces of bamboo is still practiced in Paramin.

These traditions evolved during enslavement. Although Trinidad had been under Spanish control for almost 300 hundred years, very little progress had been made in developing a successful industry or a vibrant society. As such, in 1783, the Cédula de Población or Cedula of Population, was a decree by the Spanish monarch to allow French planters, their families and enslaved to come to Trinidad to boost the population and the economy. Only practising Roman Catholics were afforded this privilege.

Under the terms of the Cedula, planters were assured that the more healthy enslaved peoples they brought to Trinidad, the larger the plots of land they would be given. This was in addition to freedom from taxation for ten years and other incentives. Consequently, there was an influx of French speakers from other Caribbean territories such as Grenada, Martinique and Guadeloupe, who brought their foods, religion and of course, their language.

The French language combined mainly with African linguistic forms. Eventually our unique Kréyòl or Patois developed, influencing even the way we speak in English. So for instance, I needed to become familiar with Patois to understand why my grandmother would always warn us “not to count egg in chicken bottom”. I knew she meant do not count your chickens before they are hatched or do not spend money before you get it. But since she spoke Patois, sheprobably would have said “Fò pa konté zé an bonda poul (fau pah con-tay zay ahn bon-dah pool); bonda means bottom, poul is chicken.

Trinidad was politically controlled by the Spanish until the British conquest of 1797, so Spanish was the official language. However, after the Cedula and even after 1797, French, Patois or Kréyòl were the dominant languages. Additionally, increasing numbers of Africans were brought directly from the continent, strengthening the retention of African languages and culture, and their influence on all aspects of life.

Hence, the Bongo, an African ancestral dance and ritual, accompanied by songs in French, with contributions from Spanish, English and even First Peoples languages. On reflection, I realised the request was not really so shocking after all. Only in TT right? Aprezan, mwen ka alé, I gone.

Dara Healy is a performance artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN.