AS WE CELEBRATED the 50th anniversary of Independence and the breaking of the colonial ties with England, our cultural expressions took centre stage. However, some of our childhood traditions are ostensibly no longer practised or propagated by our progeny.
Children’s games and songs were an expression and a creative means of play. With the advancement of technology it is imperative to preserve our childhood cultural traditions as the loss of play has implications that inevitably affect education and learning. This must be done before aspects of the old culture become a thing of the past.
The definition of traditions are behaviours and actions that you engage in repeatedly – regular rituals that you perform at the same time and/or in the same way. Therefore our childhood cultural traditions of outdoor play and games have been marginalised due to technological advancement.
Barbados is a melting pot of cultures mainly from West Africa, which believe that our bodies are musical instruments, from clapping hands to stomping feet. A well-known musical form in West Africa is call and response. This method is seen in games like “Mother, May I go shopping”. The rule for the use of “may” and not “can” has become more informal. However, in proper context and being still very British in our educational ideals, the use of “may” is preferred.
Reinforcing of this type of learning was done through play. Children’s games have always been a way to entertain and educate. In certain cultures where there is no written language, a pattern exists of generational transference of information, where music was used to demonstrate how to survive and forage for food in their environment. This was then taught to their young in the form of games.
Growing up in the early 1980s, outdoor activities were the way of life as technological innovation was not mainstream and children had to entertain themselves. In hindsight, the lyrical content of the subjects was far above what should be for children, with adult undertones and suggestive movements. However, that was a time that was more innocent in its actions.
As times change, cultures change and gone are the days when it took a village to raise a child. The workforce is getting older and having a grandma at home to raise a child is a thing of the past. The television and technology are raising the children and thereby passing on Americanised cultural forms to the children. They no longer understand or have ties to the traditional songs like King Ja Ja. These have been replaced with Peppa Pig and Dora.
Traditions offer benefits to assist our cultural development. They provide a source of identity by means of oral traditions. “King Ja Ja”, a rich African King from Opobo, Nigeria, was kidnapped and exiled to the Caribbean because he stood in the way of British imperialist interests. While here, he fell in love with a Barbadian servant girl.
One of the main rituals of traditions is that it teaches values. Knowledge was inculcated through traditional songs and bedtime stories when familial solidarity was instilled. One such song identified as one of the only authentic Bajan lullabies is Go To Sleep Baby, Go Sleep! Passing on cultural heritage and connecting generations was found in other songs such as John Belly Mama.
It teaches us that there are two types of cassava: poison cassava and cooking cassava. This was a ring game with gesticulations, as John Bailey’s mother found out, resulting in her becoming swollen and puffy. The song was also an insinuation of John’s mother’s pregnancy.
Another ring song is Whole Peas And Rice, which demonstrates that children did not just recite innocent lyrics, but issues such as domestic abuse was put to limerick. A man comes home from a long day of work and proceeds to “lick in she Dimentina” because his wife had been tardy in preparing for his arrival.
Draw A Bucket o’ Water was a popular song when house girls used to bring water on their heads for “mi Lady an’ daughter”. Jessamine, another popular ring game, talked about the Jasmine or Jessamine plant as the fragrance of this plant is extremely pungent and was used by suitors to woo their mates. Frank Collymore mentions that “jessamine is sometimes used to refer to the frangipani blossoms”.
Johann Pestalozzi, regarded as the founding father of pedagogy, believed in the child as a holistic being in terms of learning. The regimented structure of chalk and books was seen by Pestalozzi as archaic, and that true learning was best derived from interacting with nature, analysing one’s environment and coming to your own conclusion. Pestalozzi suggested that by using this method, knowledge is easily retained, thereby giving the individual a better understanding. This was done through his three forms of learning through head, hands and heart: the intellectual, the moral and the physical.
Children’s play allows for several skills of cooperation, language, mathematics, concentration, perception and discrimination.
Outdoor games also provided children with valuable rehearsals for everyday life. Games such as Puss Puss Catch A Corner, Jacks, Marbles and Brown Girl In de Ring, highlighted physical, interpersonal and social skills, teamwork, hand/eye coordination and settling of disputes, among others.
The cross-pollination of cultures through migration, our history and heritage is passed to our progeny to constantly reaffirm identity. So many games were passed down, some dating back to the British and Roman Empire as military exercises. Hopscotch, also known as Kith-kith, was used by Roman soldiers to improve their footwork.
A poll conducted of over 100 adults indicated that the preservation of culture is necessary and the practice of traditional games that gave us endless days of outdoor social interaction no longer practised, is necessary.
We have to go back being the village if the preservation of our culture is to survive. The time is right to revisit some of these games and creatively breathe new life into them.
• Melissa Watkins is a student in the Division of Fine Arts of the Barbados Community College.