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Junkanoo madness
WBN10 - Feature_Junkanoo
Junkanoo madness
Annual showdown flourishes on Bay Street
A winter vacation in The Bahamas offers not only sun, sea and sand but the opportunity to experience Junkanoo, a spectacular and uniquely Bahamian street festival renowned for its kaleidoscope of sights and sounds.
Spectators who line Nassau’s downtown Bay Street during the wee hours of Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year’s Day may think they’ve been transported back in time to a ritualistic African jamboree.
On these two holidays hundreds of revellers dressed in flamboyant costumes parade through the streets, bopping to band music accompanied by cowbells, whistles, horns and drums.
It’s the New Orleans Mardi Gras and Trinidad’s Carnival all rolled into one.
Some Junkanoo performers cavort in wild, museum-worthy costumes while others pull elaborate floats and carry intricately designed banners. Musicians play their hearts out, blaring music with a beat that’s impossible to resist, as dancers help to whip the crowds into a near frenzy.
Costumes, floats, choreographed dances and musical selections all express each group’s chosen theme as they make two laps around the Bay and Shirley streets circuit.
Junkanoo is fun for everyone, but it’s also a fierce competition, with prize money and a year’s worth of bragging rights at stake.
Months before the annual showdown, participants spend countless hours “buildin’ and pastin’” at secret locations called Junkanoo shacks, while musicians and dancers sacrifice sleep for rehearsals.
Artisans use cardboard, felt, styrofoam, wire, feathers, sequins and glue to create extravagant regalia with themes such as “Return to Africa,” “Tinsel Town” and “Viking Invasion.” It’s a true labour of love for everyone involved.
Roots of Junkanoo
The celebration has almost 200 years of documented history, according to former Director of Culture and Junkanoo historian Dr Nicolette Bethel.
Although its origins remain in doubt, popular mythology says that Junkanoo is a contraction of the name John Canoe, who was a 17th-century African prince and slave trader. Canoe supposedly outwitted the British forces and captured their stronghold. African slaves thought him their hero and brought that idea to The Bahamas.
Others suggest that the name comes from the French gens inconnus, or “unknown people,” referring to celebrants who would otherwise be known but who hide their identity behind masks and costumes.
In the pre-emancipation era, Bahamian plantation owners gave their slaves a few days off at Christmas time to celebrate with their native music and dance. Wearing masks, the slaves often made fun of their masters, safe in their anonymity.
Whatever its origins, Junkanoo has survived through all the booms and busts of the Bahamian economy.
“When The Bahamas was prosperous, you had a different kind of parade from when The Bahamas was poor,” notes Dr Bethel, a sociologist and assistant professor at The College of The Bahamas.
In the late 1800s, when The Bahamas had fallen on hard times again, Junkanoo was little more than a riot of street gangs who cared little about costumes. That prompted parliament to pass the Street Nuisances Prohibition Act of 1899 to control the revelry.
“Nobody was building things” in those days, says Dr Bethel. “It wasn’t a pretty parade. There would be fights and so on. It was much less structured.”
Costumes then were anything but pretty, often made with discarded newspaper and sea sponges attached to street clothes–a far cry from today’s showy masterpieces.
When the US outlawed alcoholic beverages in 1920, a fleet of rumrunners used The Bahamas to meet the demand, and the Bahamian economy boomed once more.
In 1925, noticing that Junkanoo parades attracted tourists, the government created a Citizens’ Committee that offered prizes for the best costumes. Then junkanooers paid more attention to their costumes, invested in musical instruments and conducted orderly parades.
But when Prohibition ended in 1932, so did The Bahamas’ prosperity, and Junkanoo turned rough-and-tumble again.
Junkanoo ban and boom
After the Burma Road Riot in 1942–a workers’ uprising protesting low wages–the government banned Junkanoo. However, it was revived five years later as an attraction for tourists to enjoy.
Junkanoo groups began to organize themselves into formal companies by the late 1940s, and a few years later they introduced individual group colours and themes.
Those innovations spawned the first modern-day, major Junkanoo group, the Valley Boys, in 1958, largely inspired by a 15-year-old high school student, Winston “Gus” Cooper.
“We had a lot of dance performances, which later led to the choreographed and other dancing sections,” Cooper recalls today. “The other groups didn’t have that.”
The debut Valley Boys “rush-out” included about 30 participants. Today the group numbers about 1,500. In 1960 they won the growing competition with a Scottish Highlander theme.
Dr Bethel believes that particular performance had a profound effect on Junkanoo.
“All the young people at that point decided they wanted to create groups … to rush with groups and create themes,” she explains.
A second major troupe, the Saxons, appeared a few years later, followed by the Vikings. The rivalry led to further refinement in costume making and music.
Junkanoo music of the 1950s was “rawboned”–drums, cowbells, whistles and bugles–but that changed in the 1970s when another group, the Music Makers, introduced brass ensembles that played familiar tunes.
Metal drums began to replace the wooden barrels with goatskin heads in the late ’70s, and choreographed dances appeared in the ’80s, when costumes started to include resplendent skirts and lavish shoulder and headpieces.
In 1982, the government gave Junkanoo its official blessing by declaring it a national celebration. That “made people think in a different way,” says Dr Bethel. “It gave everybody a kind of ownership by calling it a national parade, as opposed to calling it just Junkanoo.”
Growing pains
By the late ’80s, Junkanoo had coalesced back into two main groups: the Valley Boys and the Saxons. The others were reduced to “scrap groups,” Dr Bethel says.
The Saxons introduced new ideas, and then the Valley Boys perfected them, resulting in a sharing of innovations, Dr Bethel explains. “It was a very exciting time. You never knew what you were going to see when you came to the parades.”
To increase the prominence of the festival, the government hosted its first Junkanoo conference in 1988. From that meeting came the idea of categories, based on membership size and also acknowledging community groups, such as the Fox Hill Congos.
New groups emerged in the 1990s. Some members of the Valley Boys broke away to form two groups: The Prodigals and Roots. Some members of Roots then formed the group Barabas and The Tribe. Others left the Saxons to create One Family, Conquerors for Christ and One Love.
Today there are about six Class A groups and between 15 and 20 Class B groups vying for top honors. For many fans, says Valley Boys leader Gus Cooper, the competition still comes down to only two groups.
“It’s similar to politics, where you have the diehards supporting either one of the two major political parties,” he says. “In Junkanoo, it’s either the Valley Boys or the Saxons.”
Whether that’s true or not, “Junkanoo is something we’re proud of,” says Dr Bethel. “It really is an incredible manifestation of a street parade.”
Sidebar:
Junkanoo all year round
Got a hankering to experience Junkanoo, but you won’t be here over the Christmas season?
Visitors can enjoy an authentic Junkanoo rush-out and live performances by top Bahamian artists every weekend in June at Arawak Cay. Junkanoo in June provides night-time entertainment that’s not to be missed.
For a taste of Junkanoo there’s also Marina Village–a 65,000 square-foot marketplace on Paradise Island that boasts top-notch dining and world-class shopping in one location. Short Junkanoo performances are staged, there every Friday and Saturday night.
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