Junkanoo in The Bahamas: a tale of identity (Nassau, 2003)
Junkanoo, for Bahamians, is the ultimate national symbol. A street festival of West African origin held at Christmastime, it represents poverty and wealth, discipline and rebellion, competition and cooperation, creative genius and physical prowess. It is simultaneously viewed as the quintessential Bahamian self-conception and the best face turned to the visitor. Like street festivals everywhere, it can be classified as a ritual of rebellion,[1] a politico-cultural movement[2] or an annual invocation of the liminal. As a marker of identity, however, it provides Bahamians with a means of reflecting on current issues and criticizing social ills, while at the same time offering to tourists a spectacle full of colour, movement and sound; and it encompasses the ideals of family, neighbourhood and social commitment while accommodating individual self-expression.
In many respects, Junkanoo is similar to Carnival in Trinidad and elsewhere. Like Carnival, it is a street parade in which groups compete for prizes, with distinctive music and attire. These groups are judged on their costumes, music and performance; participants rush (parade) along the two main thoroughfares of the capital, Bay Street and Shirley Street. In recent years the majority of those who take part have belonged to one of approximately fifteen groups, about six of whom compete fiercely for cash prizes; these organize their presentations according to central themes, around which all the elements that they bring to the parade cohere. The rest, both individual competitors and small groups, participate for the fun of it.
Like Carnival, Junkanoo may be regarded as the culmination of the tales of identification told to the self (Bahamians) and to the other (tourists and other foreigners). Several scholars have examined the ways in which major street festivals elsewhere across the African diaspora similarly provide tales of identification. Bahamian Junkanoo tells the following tales of the self: it is simultaneously the central symbol of black Bahamians’ development, a metaphor for national progress, an affirmation of Bahamian creativity, an arena for social commentary and a ready tool for the education of the young. Perhaps the most enduring element of Junkanoo is found in the competition at the heart of the parade, a rivalry whose roots lie in the territories from which the groups originate. Here questions of place, land and identity are embodied in the practice of Junkanoo.
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In many respects, Junkanoo is similar to Carnival in Trinidad and elsewhere. Like Carnival, it is a street parade in which groups compete for prizes, with distinctive music and attire. These groups are judged on their costumes, music and performance; participants rush (parade) along the two main thoroughfares of the capital, Bay Street and Shirley Street. In recent years the majority of those who take part have belonged to one of approximately fifteen groups, about six of whom compete fiercely for cash prizes; these organize their presentations according to central themes, around which all the elements that they bring to the parade cohere. The rest, both individual competitors and small groups, participate for the fun of it.
Like Carnival, Junkanoo may be regarded as the culmination of the tales of identification told to the self (Bahamians) and to the other (tourists and other foreigners). Several scholars have examined the ways in which major street festivals elsewhere across the African diaspora similarly provide tales of identification. Bahamian Junkanoo tells the following tales of the self: it is simultaneously the central symbol of black Bahamians’ development, a metaphor for national progress, an affirmation of Bahamian creativity, an arena for social commentary and a ready tool for the education of the young. Perhaps the most enduring element of Junkanoo is found in the competition at the heart of the parade, a rivalry whose roots lie in the territories from which the groups originate. Here questions of place, land and identity are embodied in the practice of Junkanoo.
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