IN LIMBO: Plantation Life

By Adriana Murray


The Folklore is Our Culture


After having sat down with prolific writer and historian Trevor Marshall I quickly came to grips with how pertinent aspects of our culture reflect our journey post slavery and undoubtedly pre slavery. Let’s take the limbo dance…the dance is often demonstrated at carnival and cultural events.


Let’s take the old “plantation” show and more recently the Harbour Lights Dinner Show…the limbo dance a fun and exciting dance routine. However on the decks of the ships slaves were forced to display their athletic ability and agility by back bending and fitting their body under the ‘limbo’ stick.

1. The Oxford Dictionary defines folklore the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth.
2. Historian Trevor Marshall stated that folklore means what has been retained by a particular folk.

The Limbo of Folklore 


The limbo dance origins are tied to Trinidad but has been become a staple of Caribbean dance and culture. The dancer is expected to maneuverer under the stick without touching or dislodging the stick each the time the bar is lowered the dancer must be agile enough to make it under the bar without dislodging it. 


Let’s take the word “limbo” truly the word denotes the fate of the slaves on this perilous journey to the Caribbean facing the firm and tumultuous grip of the masters surely there they reached land alive or dead their lives were in limbo. 


Ironically the noun limbo has a dual meaning…firstly Oxford Dictionary defines limbo as the supposed abode of the souls of unbaptized infants, and of the just who died before Christ's coming (in some Christian beliefs).

Secondly the Oxford Dictionary defines limbo as an uncertain period of awaiting a decision or resolution; an intermediate state or condition.


Let’s talk the colonizers bringing with them the “true” religion now if we are discussing the term limbo for our purposes the Africans were surely in limbo spiritually and certainly physically. 


The dance itself ascertains its own relentless punishments, if slave were deemed unfit for labour

They were punishable by death, thrown overboard to the sharks which followed the slave boats in search of a bloody satisfying meal. 


The dance which took the form of a physical strength test seemed to be purely entertainment for the supremacist sailors.


Truly its origins are far from charming….


Today the limbo dance is infused the culture flare the sticks are set fire for exciting amusement dancers clothes in bright whimsical oufits and the upbeat of thudding of the drums urge the crowd to cheer them on. 

Far from amusing was the plight of our African Acenstors kidniapped from their natice countries and enslaved in lands far a sea.





Marshall candidly spoke about the reliance that is aligned with folklore as the theme has been used to entertain and simultaneously keep the lives and customary behaviours and stories of a particular group of people alive. 


Interestingly Marshall suggested the practice of giving children particular names also acted as a way of preserving the presence of a particular time. The names sometimes directly derived from a particular environment or period in time and acted to coumarate and preserve the particular instances. However the historian also depicted folklore as an leisure activities, persons would use to pass the time games like warri which you can play in a local restaurant today.


 House of Folklore - Warri 

Warri is game which is thought to have its origins in Sudan. The game has actually been desrcibed as the ‘first desdedant of a computer’. Warri is truly a game at the heart of folklore. In the native tongue Ijo warri can be translated as houses.  Of course like the native customs which the Europeans discarded the warri game was another traditional past time which they tried to undermine. 

The game is played of a staple 2 by 4 piece of wood with rocks or small seeds.  It is a strategic game and the board was made so it could be hid easily. The prettier the board the more likely it was to be destroyed by the hands of massa. However in Africa the boards for warri took various shapes, sizes and intricacy to which is thought to indicate levels of wealth or aristocracy.


Primarily the seeds from a sun dried pods. The pods are taken from the Guiliandra shrub and the pod yields green and grey seed called Horse Nickars in Barbados. These seed are still the seed of choice for the game in Ghana. Currently Barbadians opt to a more decorative seed the Red Sandlewoodtree.


Warri belovedly known as the Game of Houses is the perfect way to explore Barbadian History and Culture and is a tremendous feature of folklore.

Please note the videos are not my content but merely demonstration. 











 References





https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk01HnTFjhkXcV5CBAnYdwKrGZeF6Lw%3A1584029532312&source=hp&ei=XF9qXuONEKmOggfh36yAAg&q=limbo+definition+&oq=limbo+definition+&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l4j0i22i30l6.4758.17937..19261...9.0..1.639.4898.1j23j4j5-1......0....1..gws-wiz.....10..35i362i39j35i39j0i131j0i22i10i30j0i70i249j0i10.tHoGrp1jsL4&ved=0ahUKEwjjq9bsqZXoAhUph-AKHeEvCyAQ4dUDCAk&uact=5#spf=1584029553888



http://barbadosphotogallery.com/warri/warrigame.htm