Big Drum, Saraca and Tombstone

Tombstone-Big Drum-Saraca

Tombstone

Carriacou is a small community, largely sustained, since the abolition of slavery, by the proceeds of migrant labour, and the collective wisdom of experience, embodied in the relationship of the living to the Old Parents, has been an important element in developing and sustaining ways to survive against the odds. Constant awareness that the past is immanent in the present has also meant that Carriacouans or Kayaks, sometimes written as Kajaks, have retained a knowledge of individual regional and ethnic African identities. Embodied in the different Nation dances and rhythms that are part of the Big Drum music, alongside the Creole and ‘frivolous’ rhythms, which have African elements, but were created in the Caribbean.

The Tombstone Feast is the final part of the rites associated with death and burial, and takes place when the grave of the departed is marked by the placing of a stone. As described in the review of Rounder 1726, until this can be done (which is dependent on funds being available, and the ability of those involved to travel home for the occasion), the memory of the dead person must be honoured each year, by a mass, prayer meeting or Big Drum. (Which of these is required is often specified by the deceased in a dream visitation, and if the commemoration is not carried out, a Beg Pardon [forgiveness ritual] will be necessary.) Once the stone is set, however, the spirit will rest comfortably. The Tombstone Feast is thus an important ritual it maintains respect for the ancestors and the Old Parents, it unites and reunites the generations, and it brings Carriacouans who have emigrated back home to friends and relatives left behind.

The Big Drum music of Carriacou carries a huge freight of tradition, history and social meaning, but even such a simple aspect as being unable to see the dances that the music is played for constitutes a major barrier to one’s understanding of the processes and systems involved. (The dancer ‘conducts the cut drummer’s statements with her danced rhythms and dictates the end of the song by touching the head of the cut drum with the hem of her skirt.’) The drinking of jack rum, the ritual sharing of food, the ‘wetting’ (libation) of the dance area with whiskey, rice and water, the story telling, the opportunities for youngsters to flirt discreetly - all these are present in the Tombstone Feast, but absent from our experience of it.

Saraca - Funerary Music

One of those tidal pools, Carriacou is a tiny bead on the string of islands called the Grenadines. Quoting from Donald R. Hill in the liner notes, "Carriacouan funeral music and ritual are part of a complex belief system centering on reverence for the 'Old Parents,' the 18th century African founders of Carriacouan society and on obtaining guidance for the living from the more recent Dead."

A Saraca is a kind of funerary rite endemic to the Grenadines and Carriacou involving food for the celebrants as well as the deceased, music, special ritual and Nancy or Ananzi stories. This collection of songs includes lyrics derived from African ethnic traditions like the Cromanti, Manding, Igbo and others as well as English and French Creole. There are Big Drum songs, arguably the most important way the living entertained the dead. There is a Nancy story, a traditional instructive or cautionary tale, about the young woman who is the purported ancestress of all the people on Petit Martinique, another of the Grenadine chain of islands. African call and response shows up in lots of the renditions of spirituals like "Gone to Nineveh," where the anthem is performed with trumping set as rhythmic motifs behind the call and response phrases.

The singers are some of the first proponents of Big Drum music to perform in the United States, thanks to Lomax and the American Museum of Natural History in 1975. Some of the performers, such as Sugar Adams and May Turner, were quite old at the time of this performance and were actively teaching the younger generations in the Big Drum tradition. The younger singers, Lucien Duncan and Canute Caliste, are still going strong today. Caliste is a painter as well and his painting of a Saraca is on the cover of the CD.

Anyone who is seriously interested in investigating the African source of most popular music today owes a great debt of gratitude to Lomax and his collaborators for recording and archiving this exciting collection of Caribbean musics. The link with Africa comes through traditions like these and we're fortunate to have this kind of documentation.

The music is exciting, the stories interesting, the singing heartfelt. This is not music for entertainment particularly and it's certainly not background music. It's music for understanding and would be a valuable addition to any collection that aims for a consistent historical context.

[ by J. Higgins-Rosebrook ]
Rambles: 14 July 2001

Tombstone-Big Drum-Saraca

Tombstone

Saraca - Funerary Music

Sandy Island Carriacou

Sailing in the Grenadines