CHAPTER TX
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN
NEGROES
Creole Music— The Effect of Spanish Influences-
Obscenity OF Native African Dances — Relics in
THE Antilles — ^The Habanera — Dance-Tunes
FROM Martinique
The world over there is a most intimate relationship
■^between folksong and folkdance. Poetical forms and
rhythms are the effects as well as the causes of the re-
gulated movements and posings of the dance. Peoples,
like those of Africa, who have a highly developed sense
of rhythm also have a passionate fondness for the dance,
and it was to have been expected that the black slaves
would not only develop them in their new environment,
but also preserve the rhythms of those primitive dances
in the folksongs which they created here. This was the
case, in a measure, but the influence which was most potent
in the development of the characteristic folksong was
prejudicial to the dance.
The dances which were part and parcel of the primitive
superstitions which the slaves brought with them from
Africa necessarily fell under the ban of the Christian
Church, especially of its Protestant branch. In Louisiana,
the Antilles and Spanish America the Roman Catholic
Church exercised a restrictive and reformative influence
upon the dance; in other parts of, the continent the Metho-
dist and Baptist denominations, whose systems were most
appealing to the emotional nature of the blacks, rooted
it out altogether, or compelled the primitive impulse to
find expression in the "shout" — ^just as the same influences
led the white population to substitute the song-games,
which are now confined to children, for the dance in many
sections of the United States.
f 112 ]
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN NEGROES
Practically all of the dances described by African travel-
lers were orgies in which the dramatic motif, when not
martial, was lascivious, v Dr. Holub, in his "Seven Years
in South Africa,"! says that the Mabunda dance is of
so objectionable a character that the ft^groes refuse to
dance it, except in masks. In "From Benguela to the
Territory of Yucca," by H. Capello and R. Ivens, of the
Royal Portuguese Navy," the authors say of the native
dances: "As a rule, these are of the grossest kind, which
the women, more particularly, try to make as obscene as
possible; without grace, without cachet, but simply in-
decent and fitted only to inflame the passions of the
lowest of our sex. After three or four pirouttes before
the spectators, the male dancer butts his stomach violently
against the nearest female, who, in turn, repeats the
action, and thus brings the degrading spectacle to an end."
Dr. Georg Schweinfurth, in his "Heart of Africa,"^ describ-
ing an orgy of the Bongo, says: "The license of their
revelry is of so gross a character that the representations
of one of my interpreters must needs be suppressed. It
made a common market-woman droop her eyes, and called
up a blush even to the poor sapper's cheeks." In "Across
Africa," by Verney Lovett Cameron, C. B., D. C. L., com-
mander in the Royal Navy,* the author writes: "Dancing
in Manyuema" — a cannibal country — "is a prerogative of
the chiefs. When they feel inclined for a terpsichorean per-
formance they single out a good-looking woman from the
crowd, and the two go through much wriggling and curious
gesticulation opposite each other. The village drums are
brought out and vigorously beaten, the drummers mean-
while shouting 'Gamello! Gamello!' If the woman is
unmarried the fact of a chief asking her to dance is equi-
valent to an offer of marriage, and many complications
often occur in consequence."
There was none of this bestiality on exhibition in the
dances of the Dahomans, which I saw at the World's
1 London, 1881.
* London, 1882.
» Vol. I, page 3SS.
-• New York: Harper's, 1887.
[ 113 ]
AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS
Fair in Chicago in 1893, for reasons which can easily be
imagined; such spectacles as the travellers describe would
not be tolerated in a civilized community anywhere in the
world at the present time, though the equally frank
danse du ventre, which the Latin satirists scourged cen-
turies ago, was to be seen in the Midway Plaisance
under circumstances which seemed to have been accepted
as a palliative, just as the "tango" and the "turkey-trot,"
the former African in name and both African in dramatic
motif and purpose, are tolerated in circles which call
themselves polite to-day. The dances of the Dahomans
were war dances. These people have been in constant
contact with white traders for more than a hundred years,
but they probably take the same "delight in singing,
dancing and cutting off heads" now that they did when
Forbes visited them three-quarters of a century ago.
Indeed, a bit of pantomimic action, which I saw repeated
several times at the fair, testified, in a way almost too
vivid to be amusing, to the love of decapitation which has
been so much commented on by travellers,
A dozen or more names of dances, all of vague meaning
and etymology, have come dow^j to us in the books of men
who have written about the ppgroes in the Western Hemi-
sphere, and so far as can be learned all these dances were
more or less wild and lascivious. Lascivious they have
remained, even in the forms which they have assumed
under the influence of French and Spanish culture. There
is no doubt in the mind of Friedenthal, whose observations
were wide and whose descriptions are sympathetic, that
the rhythmical foundation of the fascinating Habanera
is a negro product upon which graceful melodies were
imposed. "We shall make no error," he writes,' in assum-
ing that the Habanera, as its name already indicates,
originated in Havana. Thence it conquered all of Spanish
and Portugese America {i. e., Brazil), and also the European
settlements in the West Indies, Central and South America.
But it is to be particularly observed that only the real
Habanera, the dance with simple rhythms, penetrated
1 Op. cit., pp. llS-116.
[ 114]
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN NEGROES
to these lands. Extended and complicated rhythms are
known only where the flegroes are to be found outside
of the West Indies, in Brazil and on the coasts of Venezuela,
Colombia, Central America and Mexico. In other
countries, as, for instance, the interior of Mexico, the
Plata states and Chili, where there are no ft^groes, ex-
tended and complicated rhythms are entirely unknown."
Commenting in another place^ on the influences which
created the dances of the American Creoles, he says:
Not much less can have been the share, on the other hand, which the
Spaniards and Creoles took in the dances of the blacks. Every day in their
hours of rest they had opportunities to see the partly sensual, partly grotesque
and wild dances of their black slaves, and to hear their peculiar songs. What
impressions may not these fascinating, complicated and bizarre and yet trans-
parent rhythms of the negroes have made upon the Spaniards who themselves
possess a refined sense of rhythm. Added to this the strange instruments
of percussion which, while marking the rhythm, exerted an almost uncanny
effect.
Here, then, two races confronted each other, both highly musical but
reared in different musical worlds. No wonder that the Spaniards also bene-
fited from and promptly took up these remarkable rhythms into their own
musk. Of all these rhythms, however, the simplest which can be heard from
all ftegroes is this:
/773
which, we have already learned, is the rhythm ofthe Habanera. The melody
of the Habanera, which we would derive from Middle or Southern Spain, and
the rhythm which accompanies it and had its origin in Africa, therefore re-
present, in a way, the union of Spanish spirit with African technique. We
thus get acquainted with a hybrid art in the Habanera, or Danza, but as
must at once be said here, the only hybrid art-form of Creole music.
The Habanera, as a dance, is not vocal, but its form has
been used most charmingly in vocal music, and in two
of its manifestations. Carmen's air in the first scene of
Bizet's opera and the Mexican song "Paloma,"
uLr'uirtlls
it is universally familiar. I have found a few Afro-Ameri-
can songs in which the characteristic rhythm is so persist-
ently used as to suggest that they were influenced by a
subconscious memory of the old dance; but the evidence
» Page 95.
[ lis ]
AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS
is not sufficient to authorize such a statement as a scientific
fact. I make room for one, "Tant sirop est doux," an
erotic song from Martinique, which M. Tiersot says is
widely known among French colonies inhabited by the
blacks.
The origin of the Habanera is perpetuated in its name,
and in this respect it stands alone. Other dances of which
writers on the Antilles have made mention are the Bam-
boula, Bouene, Counjai (or Counjaille), Calinda (orCalien-
da, possibly from the Spanish Que Undo), Bele (from the
French bel air), Benguine, Babouille, Cata (or Chata) and
Guiouba. The last word seems preserved in the term"juba,"
wjjich is now applied to the patting accompaniments of
negro dance-songs made familiar by the old minstrel shows.
The word Congo, as applied to a jjegro dance which is
still remembered in Louisiana, is, I fancy, a generic term
there, though it is also used in French Guiana for a dance
called Chica in Santo Domingo and the Windward
Islands. The Bamboula is supposed to have been so called
after the drum of bamboo, which provided its musical
stimulus. An African word seems to lie at the bottom of
the term Counjai. Long years ago Lafcadio Hearn wrote
me from New Orleans: "My quadroon neighbor, Mamzelle
Eglantine, tells me that the word Koundjo (in the West
Indies Candio or Candjo) refers to an old African dance
which used to be danced with drums." Perhaps some such
meaning is preserved in the Song "Criole Candjo." (See
page 1 1 8.)
The etymology of the other terms baffles me, but it is
of no consequence in this study; the dances were all alike
in respect of the savage vigor and licentiousness which
marked their performance. "The Calinda," say the
editors of "Slave Songs of the United States," "was a sort
of contradance which has now passed entirely out of use."
Bescherelles describes the two lines as "avangant et reculant
en cadence et faisant des contortions fort singulieres et des
gestes fort lascifs." It is likely that the Calinda disappeared
from Louisiana as a consequence of the prohibition of the
dances in the Place Congo in New Orleans, about 1843;
[ 116]
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN NEGROES
Tant sirop est doux
Allegro rlsoluto
Tant sirop est donz, Madejei-ne, Tant sirop est douz!
donx!
Ne
fai pas tant de broit, Made-lein' ue fai pas tant de bruit, Madelein', .
cri - ez pas si fort, Made-lein', ne cri - ez pas si fort, Madelein',
t- j, > ji Jij^ i i M'r r I jl h^' -^'-^' i ^' ^ I f
mai-sonn'est pas a nous, Made-lein', La mai- son n'est pas at nous.
A Martiniqae Song. Words and Melody coUected by Lafcadio Beam. Arrangement by the
Author.
[ 117]
AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS
Criole Candjo
Moderate
«Vi - ni, za - mie, pou' nous rire.»_
"Swit-hawt,meck mer- rie wid me."
[ 118 ]
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN NEGROES
«Non, Mi . ohe, jn'pas ou - le ri - re
"Naw sah, I dawn't want meek mer - - rie,
^m
I I I I f r ^^
mouif
me.
i ' '' d!i4l \ dJ%
Non Mi - ohe, m'pas ou - le ri -
Naw sah, I dawn't want meek mer -
^m
^
rie;
mom;
me,
Non, Mi - che, m'pas ou - le ri -
Naw sah, 1 dawnt want meek mer •
Non, Mi - che, m'pas ou - le ri
Naw sah, I dawn't wantmeek mer
re
rie>
[119]
AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS
2.
Mo courri dans youn bois voisin,
Mais Criole la prend meme ci min,
Et tous tans li m'ape dire,
"Vini, zamie, pou' nous rire."
"Non, Miche, m'pas oule rire moln,
Non, Miche, m'pas oule rire."
3.
Mais li te tant cicane moi,
Pou li te quitte moin youn fois
Mo te 'blize pou' li dire,
"Oui, Miche, mo oule rire.
Oui, Miche, mo oule rire moin,
Oui, Miche, mo oule rire."
4.
Zaut tous qu'ap'es rire moin la-bas
Si zaut te conne Candjo la.
Qui belle ia.fon li pou' rire,
Dje pini moin! zaut s're dire,
"Oui, Miche, mo oule rire moin,
Oui, Miche, mo oule rire."
2.
(I go teck walk in wood close by.
But Creole teck same road and try
All time all time to meek free —
"Swithawt, meek merrie wid me."
"Naw, sah, I dawn't want meek merrie, me,
Naw, sah, I dawn't want meek merrie."
3.
But him slide 'round an 'round dis chile,
Tell, jis fo' sheck 'im off lill while
Me, I was bleedze fo' say: "Shoo!
If I'll meek merrie wid you ?
O, yass, I ziss leave meek merrie, me,
Yass, sah, I ziss leave meek merrie."
4.
You-alls wat laugh at me so well,
I wish you'd knowed dat Creole swell,
Wid all 'is swit, smilin' trick.
'Pen my soul! you'd done say, quick,
"O, yass, I ziss leave meek merrie, me.
Yass, sah, I ziss leave meek merrie.")
The melody as written down by Mr. W. Macrum of Pittsburgh; English
paraphrase by George W. Cable, used by his permission and that of The Cen-
tury Company. A note to the author from Lafcadio Hearn (who, at that
time, was a resident of New Orleans), says: "My quadroon neighbor, Mam-
zelle Eglantine, tells me that the word koundjo (in the West Indies Candio
or Candjo) refers to an old African dance which used to be danced with drums.
The 'Criole Candjo' is, therefore, a sort of nigger Creole dandy who charms and
cajoles women by his dancing — what the French would call un beau valseur."
[ 120 ]
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN NEGROES
but it and other dances of its character have remained in
existence in the West Indies. Hearn says,> "Two old African
dances, the Caleinda and the Bele (which later is accom-
panied by chanted improvization) are danced on Sundays
to the sound of the drum on almost every plantation in
the island" (Martinique). As Hearn saw the Calinda
it was danced by men only, all stripped to the waist and
twirling heavy sticks in a mock fight. "Sometimes," he
adds, "especially at the great village gatherings, when the
blood becomes overheated by tafia, the mock fight may be-
come a real one, and then even cutlasses are brought
into play." The surmise lies near that the Calinda may
originally have been a war dance. Its name and measures
survive in some Creole songs, one of which will occupy my
attention when the use of song for satirical purposes is
reached.
The Counjai ("Caroline," p. 139) evidentlycameunderthe
personal observation of the lady who collected some secular
Creole songs in St. Charles Parish, La., which found their
way into "Slave Songs of the United States." They were
sung, she says, "to a simple sort of dance, a sort of minuet."
But they are in duple time, while the minuet is in triple
measure. The songs have a refrain, which is sung by the
chorus, and solo verses which are improvized by a leader
distinguished by his voice and poetical skill, who, in them,
compliments a dusky beauty or lauds a plantation hero.
The dancers do not sing, and the accompaniment seems
to be purely instrumental — a mere beating on a drum made
of a flour barrel and a rasping on the jawbone of an animal
with a key. This singular instrument has a prototype in
Africa in the shape of a notched board, which is rubbed
with a stick. Livingstone describes what he calls a "cas-
suto," a "hollow piece of wood about a yard long, covered
with a board cut like a ladder. Running a stick along it
gives a sound within which passes for a tenor." The de-
scription is Wallaschek's;the Chinese have a temple instru-
ment embodying the same principle — a wooden tiger with
a serrated spine. Hearn mentions primitive drums as used
» "Two Years," etc., p. 143.
[ 121 ]
AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS
Aurore Pradere
Briskly
An - rore Pra- dSre, belle 'ti fille,
Au - rore Pra-dere, pret-ty maid,
Au - rore Pra- ihte,
Au - rore Pra - d^re,
beUe Hi fille,
pret - ty maid,
An - rore Pra - dere, belle Hi fille, C'est
Au - rore Pra - dere, pret - ty maid. She's
li mo ou - le, c^est U ma pren. Ya moun qui dit U
just what I want and her I'll have. Some say that she'§ too
[ 122 ]
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN NEGROES
trop zo • lie, Ya moun qui dit Ij pas po - lie; Tout
pret - ty, quite, Some folks they say she's not po-lite; All
fa ya dit (Sia!) bin fou bin, C'est li mo ou- U, c?est li ma pren.
this they say, no foolam I, For she^swhat I waiit,and her l!u hare.
S. Anrore Prad^re, belle 'ti {ille,f<er.)
C'est li mo oule, c^est li ma pren.
Li pas mande robe moussiline,
Li pas mande deba brode,
Li pas mande sonlier prinelle,
C'est li mo oal6, (fest li ma pren.
Anrore Pradfere, pretty maidjCter.;
She's just what I want and her I'll have.
A muslin grown she does n't choose,
She does n't ask for broidered hose,
She does nt want prunella shoes;
O she's what I want and her I'll have.
The melody In the rhythm of a Coonjai. Uelody and words of the second stanza from"Slavo
Songs of the United States," having been collected on the Good Hope plantation in St. Charles
Parish In Louisiana. The arrangement was made by the author for George W. Cables essay
entitled "The Dance in the Place Congo',' which appeared in the Century Magazine for Febru-
ary, 1886. Reprinted by permission of Mr. Cable and the Century Co.
[ 123 ]
AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS
Remon, R6mon
Mo par-le Re-nion, Re - mon, li par. le Si - mon, Si •
Jtr J
S J\ -
F=^
=
^ N, - - =
i—
1 N 1
-^
ft " ■ >
•^ mon, li
1 1' p :±^r Jl
par,le Ti-tine, Ti -
-" ^' ^ J' .1 "' ■^■-11
tine, li torn -be dans cha-grih.
1 — 1, 1 . — t .- — .
(igb J I =
-t-
»i
=3*=
) » j^ *—
-^^-^
W 1 ^^
t ^
ME ' 1
femme Bo-mu-lus, Ohet Belle femme Bo-mu-Ius, 01 _
c^
■iM
— h-Vri —
—m f —
— ji — J*m — s —
1 Ji 1 II
-6-
femme
J' ■'^ P —
Ko-mu-Ius,
^
B&e
femme, qui 9a vou- le
> — .
z
«!' J —
mo fe.
^\> ^ ^, J^=jfa
i i-
? pgj-j^=^
-iV^^J-H
F ^ 5-
bi. f > f V 1
^^
^ i_j> ^
1' -1"
A Coonjai. "I spolie to Remon, he spoke to Simon, he spoke toTitine, who was stricken with
grief. O, woman Romulus, beautiful woman Romulus, you have done to me what you wished"
Words and melody from "Slave Songs of the United States'.' The arrangement by John Van
Broekhoven, printed in the Century Magazine in George W. Cable's essayi'The Dance in Place
Congo',' is here reprinted by permission of Mr Cable and the Century Co.
I 17.4 ]
DANCES OF THE AMERICAN NEGROES
in New Orleans in a letter to me dated January, 1885: "Yes,
I have seen them dance, but they danced the Congo, and
sang a purely African song to the accompaniment of a
drygoods box beaten with a stick or bones and a drum
made by stretching a skin over a flour barrel. As for the
dance — in which the women do not take their feet off the
ground — it is as lascivious as is possible. The men dance
very differently, like savages leaping in the air."
To Mr. Hearn I owe several examples of Martinique
folk-music, which were written down for him by a band-
master in St. Pierre. (Page 126.) A fascinating combi-
nation of African and Spanish elements is found in the
melody, which the collector called "Manmam Colette" —
unquestionably a dance-song. On the bandmaster's
transcription he had written directions that the first part
(allegretto) be sung eight times; then comes the dance
(allegro) ten times. The same directions probably applied
also to "Ou beau di moin tete ou bien pomadee." The
second part of the tune, to which the bandmaster gave
the title "Dessan mouillage acheter daubanes," has a
curious resemblance to a Tyrolean "yodel." It is probably
the melody to which a ballad to which Hearn makes refer-
ence is sung:
Moin descenne Saint-Pie,
Achete dobannes;
Aulie ces dobannes
C'est yon bel hois menmoin monte.
The spelling of the soft and musical Creole patois is a
matter of individual case, taste and fancy. The ballad
tells the story of a youth of Fort de France who was sent
to St. Pierre to buy a stock of earthenware water-jars
{dobannes), but who fell in love with a colored girl and spent
his father's money in buying her presents and a wedding
outfit. Hearn cites the song to illustrate a pretty simile.
The phrase "bel bois" is used to designate handsome people.
"Toutt bel bois ka alle," said Manm-Robert, meaning that
all the handsome people are passing away. "This is the
very comparison made by Ulysses looking upon Nausicaa,
though more naively expressed," comments our author.
[ 12s j
AFRO-AMERICAN FOLKSONGS
Three Dance-tunes from Martinique
N? 1. Manmam Colette
Allegretto
N9 2. Ou beau di moin tete ou bien pomadee
N? 3. Dessan mouillage acheter daubanes
|^j%T71p»P^ rTrT| 7 J% l p^lJJ j Jl J■jJJ
i jj j [flTi p ^ r r^Mp jTif ^ I jjj^ i j c^i
J - rgiiJ u"^ir [j i,FT] i ijj I i| j;jjj^.i
Transcribed by a Bandmaster at St. Pierre and sent to the author by Lafcadio Heani
[ 126]