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From Punta to Chumba: Garifuna Music and Dance in New Orleans By Amy Serrano History of the Garifuna / Garifuna of New Orleans
Garifuna Music and Dance Perhaps with the exception of Cuba, no other Latin American or Caribbean country as a whole is as noted for the mulitiplicity of their music and dance forms as the transnational Garifuna. Well known for its strong West-African influence on the vigorous rhythm of drumming styles and dance forms, their music is also highly indicative of the African oral tradition of call and response patterns in songs, and allusions to the sacred or ancestor worship. The Garifuna say their music is not about sentiment or emotion like in most other Latin American and Caribbean countries. The Garifuna say their music is about events, rituals, and concerns. It’s about describing and dealing with the world around them. Rutilia Figueroa, a Garifuna elder has the following description of the meaning of their music: The Garifuna sing their pain. They sing about their concerns. They sing about what’s going on. We dance when there is a death. It’s a tradition [meant] to bring a little joy to the family, but every song has a different meaning. Different words. The Garifuna does not sing about love. The Garifuna sings about things that reach your heart. The Garifuna enjoy playing and dancing to their music during birthday parties and other celebratory events, as well as rites of passage. They also listen and dance to their music at community festivals, sports bars, and in the church where the music and dance take on a more spiritual and reverent tone. A traditional Garifuna band is generally composed of drums and call and response vocals following the Garifuna’s West African heritage. Typical instruments include hollow log garaon drums, which involve the primer; a tenor drum which is also considered the heartbeat or heart of Garifuna music ensembles. Then the segunda, a counter-rhythmic drum which acts to shadow the primera and tercera. Finally, there is the tercera or third drum that maintains the continuing bass line.
Other percussive Garifuna instruments that are scratched, beat, or tapped include a wooden guiro or clave, and other percussion. In line with the traditions of other indigenous populations from the Americas, siseras or maracas and other organic shakers made from a gourd and filled with dried seeds also find their way into the music. Instrumental variables may further include wires pulled over hollowed drums to give the Garifuna music a natural "zzzzzz" sound equally found in the music of West Africa. Perhaps with the exception of bottle percussion, all instruments are made from the first generations of things found in nature including turtle shells, wood, seashells, and more. Zulema Zuñiga, a young Garifuna woman, claims this organic nature is what gives the Garifuna music its purity and singularity: I think one of the reasons our music is so compelling is ’cause it’s so natural. It’s of the earth. ’Cause when you look at the drums, they’re made from the trees. It’s part of everything natural. The shell is something you eat and use. So it’s something you feel. All the Garifuna instruments are handmade. That’s what we feel. And when you hear it, it calls to your heart. The drums just beckon. The drums are central to a variety of Garifuna music and dance forms that include the hunguhungu, mascaro, indio barbaro, chumba, guanaragua, gunchei, luyano, yankunnu, paranda and the more popular punta, as well as its more modernized version, punta rock. Each musical style differs in its rhythm and form of expression and aside from enjoyment in social settings, is otherwise attributed to an event or time of the year including the Christian holidays of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the day after Christmas, the Epiphany, and also New Year’s Eve. There are many stories to account for the name given to the most popular Garifuna music and dance, the punta. Some of these stories are based on meaning, while others are based on myth. In Spanish, the word punta means "point" as in "tip," and some say the dance derives its name from being performed with the very tips of one’s toes. But the word punta also means "point" as in a location or a place. Musician Martin "Tingo" Martinez, relates the following folktale about the origin of the name: "It comes from the 1500s when there was a man who would hunt children and tell them, ‘I am going to eat you today’! So when he was hungry, he’d take one of them, roast them, and eat them. When he died, the children were so happy, they began to dance from punta to punta" [from "place" to "place"]. The music for punta is performed with traditional instruments of garaon drums, other percussion, and voices. The dance is enjoyed by couples and the focus of the dancers’ movements is on the hips which rapidly sway from side to side, but with a slower rhythm than in some other Garifuna dances. The punta is said to symbolize fertility, but it might also represent pain. It can equally embody aspects of ancestor worship and allude to the sacred. Like other Garifuna music and dance, the punta is thoroughly enjoyed during festive weekend social settings within homes, parks, nightclubs, but also danced on special holidays. A more contemporary form of punta with origins in the 1970s is the punta rock. Though most Garifuna music has remained committed to the purity of its origins, punta rock is a modern version of punta that includes electronic instrumentation. While it is popular amongst some of the younger Garifuna, typically, it is not considered authentic by the purist elders. The Garifuna also have special dances and rituals for the winter holidays; a time of year that Doña Maria Elena Zuñiga refers to as "the time of the happiness of the Garifuna." In a highly joyful manner, Doña Maria Elena describes typical holiday traditions as practiced in Honduras; many that were also practiced in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina: And during the time of the holidays, they come out with a man they call the Guarine, to begin the festivities [in December]. They dress him with coconut leaves. … He dances from punta to punta, then they bring him back the 6th of January. Then they bring out the Guanaragua around the 26th of December to dance from house to house. In conjunction with the costumed man they call the Guarine, Doña Maria Elena describes how he is joined by the Pastorales; a choir of female singers who typically sing songs about rural themes and other aspects of Garifuna life, while seeking small, goodwill gifts of food or money: Then come the Pastorales seeking offerings. They come with a cane, their maracas and the Guanaragua like to steal the ribbons of the Pastorales so when we see the Guanaragua come, we look for other places to sing ’cause they follow us. They chase us to steal our hair ribbons to weave it in theirs and so everyone is involved in the chasing and the running away. It’s very amusing. She continues to describe other holiday events: "On the 27th, they bring out the Flandigano, a male figure who dances in the ritual, but they put extra feet on him [stilts]. He dances and it’s very beautiful to see his costume move. Everyone follows the Flangidano. It’s very beautiful!" Dances and music traditionally enjoyed during the month of December and early January include the guanaragua, the chumba, the gunchei (a dance for happiness and also for courtship, which like the luyano, is also enjoyed among the elders), and of course the punta. Death—being the final rite of passage—does not go unmarked, and during funerals, the Garifuna gather at the home of the deceased to dance the punta. Not only do they dance and play music to ease the transition of the deceased from this world to the next, but also, to bring some joy and happiness to the remaining family. Then after the funeral, and if the Garifuna need to make contact with the deceased to ease their transition, the music and dance rituals continue and center around a ceremony the Garifuna call a Dugu. Doña Zoila elaborates on the tradition of the Dugu: Well, the Dugu is like when a family has had a dead relative for long time so they want to seek a different kind of help. They first begin with a ceremony. And then comes someone called the Chuku. See? They lay food for the deceased and they have to go to church and the family gets together to sing and dance. And when it ends, they make a hole in the ground and bury the food. That’s part of our ancestry. So when the time of the Dugu comes, it’s a big deal. As in Honduras, many Garifuna in New Orleans display food for the deceased though because of expense, it tends to be on a smaller scale. Around the displayed food, family members and friends gather to sing, dance, and find mutual comfort. According to Doña Zoila, when a Dugu ceremony is necessary in New Orleans, everyone contributes money to make it possible. Then there are dances that are specific to each gender. At social gatherings the men usually play their instruments in a circle while other men enter the circle to dance and the women watch. At other times and depending on the music, women enter the circle and the men watch. Sometimes both men and women enter the circle and, as some play while others dance, they simultaneously sing songs that tend to follow a call and response pattern with the men beginning the chant and the women responding. At other times and depending on the song, the women lead and everyone responds as the dance continues. The more aggressive dances tend to be performed by men. The indio barbaro, for example, is a rigorous dance where the man wears a devil costume. Then the mascara, which they also call yankunnu, is a dance whose music carries a highly aggressive rhythm and its dance is typically performed competitively by men who enter the circle one at a time to outperform each other. The rhythm is hard, and the action is focused on the brisk, yet bouncy movement of the dancer’s feet. The yankannu is also typically performed in Carnival-like settings and during holidays. The mascara or yankannu is related to, but different from, the more well-known Bahamian tradition of jankanoo. Women tend to enjoy other dances like the paranda, which also takes place within the music circle. The music for the paranda is slower and highly percussive and, at times, acoustic guitars are added to the traditional band. The dance is performed with almost equal energy from the shoulders, the torso, and feet, which together follow side to side movements. The chumba is another dance performed by women, and done to a three-beat rhythm within the circle. Some Garifuna scholars claim it is danced as a defiant reminder of the days when women were the sexual subjects of the colonizers, and also as a form of protest against slavery in the sugar industry. At many levels, another dance performed by women and called the hunguhungu resembles the chumba. It is also done to a three-beat rhythm with hips moving from side to side and back again, usually danced within a circle, and has a social consciousness element. This dance is performed by women to beckon the community to consider current social problems. They raise issues and questions through call and response songs and while performing, often wear bells and noisemakers on their knees. Next - Continuity of Tradition and the Role of Women
Amy Serrano is an award-winning filmmaker and poet living in New Orleans and working on a book on sugar and modern day slavery based on the findings in her last film, "The Sugar Babies." This article was written for the Louisiana Division of the Arts New Populations Project in 2009. |
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