Singers and Storytellers Page: 38
v, 298 p. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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SINGERS AND STORYTELLERS
Consider the last. This is a lively song with pronounced calypso
beat, accentuated by the drums. There is the suggestion of
dance. The jacket blurb identifies this as a Jamaican folksong,
a work song sung by the laborers as they load the banana boats.
The words are meaningless; some lines merely count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
there is however, a note of social and race protest.
The original folksong is much more effective, and honest. It
has a slow measured rhythm-there is no calypso in Jamaica
except as it is imported from Trinidad to the brassy hotels on
the north shore to serve the tourists. The original song is a
banana loading song, but let me give you the frame of reference.
You are on a banana scow in the harbor of Orcabessa, Jamaica,
watching the tedious business of loading the United Fruit
freighter, Belize, with sixty thousand stems of bananas. The
long procession of bearers, each with a stem of bananas on his
head, moves slowly up the gangplank past the tallyman. It is
like a giant centipede without head or tail. In the early part
of the night there is much laughter, much calling back and forth
from the bearers to the crowd gathered around; toward two
o'clock weariness sets in and you hear only the shuffle of bare
feet on the rough boards and the soft lapping of water alongside,
but punctured regularly by the tallyman's count as the bearers
pass before him: six hands, eight hands, bunch (that is, nine
hands or more), seven hands, six hands, bunch. As the night
wears on, the line grows slower; shoulders begin to sag; hands
go up more often to steady the heavy loads on the heads. Then
with the dramatic suddenness with which nature operates in
the tropics, daylight comes with a quickly widening streak of
light over the sea and with it the first puff of the trade wind.
Then somewhere along the line of bearers a slow and somewhat
mournful song starts. It passes along the line, reiterated over
and over, a work song helping them get through the last hours:
Day oh, Day oh
Deh de light an' me wan'a go home
Deh de light an' me wan'a go home38
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Singers and Storytellers (Book)
Collection of popular folklore of Texas, including personal anecdotes about storytellers and singers, as well as folk songs, myths, and ghost stories. The index begins on page 295.
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Boatright, Mody C. Singers and Storytellers, book, 1961; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67655/m1/44/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.