Origins of Jamaican Dancehall Music, Essay Example

Introduction

The lifestyle of the population of downtown Kingston Jamaica is undoubtedly an outcome of the Caribbean landscape. The musical perspectives attitudes, customs and architecture have been formed by the climate’s blending with the   physical landscape. The cultures that are found in Kingston are a composite of the colonial mainstays and the enduring influences of the primary ethnic groups of the region. These ethnic groups are the descendants of a melting pot of Asians, Africans and British, Dutch, Spanish and French immigrants that have come to compose the city’s population (Dawes 22). The thesis questions that will be explored in this essay are: How does the culture of downtown Kingston seek to both preserve and transcend boundaries and borders? What changes as these cultural expressions circulate outside their “native ” geography? The perspectives of Arenas (1989), Cooper (2004), Dawes (2013), Gunst (1995) Hopkinson (2012), Hosein (2009), and Stanley- Niaah (2010) were accessed in the composition of this essay.

Background

The history of Kingston, Jamaica is filled with tales of adventure, the blending of heritage and the diversity that is inherent to the Caribbean. The influence of slavery and colonialism are present in Jamaican culture. This characteristic of the influence of colonialism that is manifest in the culture is perceived by many of the tourists who perceive that there is a coexistence with the almost tangible historical antecedence that permeates the Downtown Kingston area. The recognition of Caribbean history is important in understanding the perspectives of the people. Kingston Jamaica has a unique cultural identity that has been formed by European colonialism, Asian immigration, the African culturalidentity of the descendants of the slaves and the cultural legacy of the Native Indian tribes. The cultural influence and rich history are established in a background of pristine Caribbean beaches and enduring sunshine (Dawes 19).

Literature Review

There is relatively scarce literature that details the experience of the residents of Kingston and their cultural perspectives. Notwithstanding, the culture of Kingston has been conserved by the artists, agriculture, merchants, customs, cuisine and music.The most populous ethnic groups that can be found in Kingston Jamaica are the descendants of the African, British, Spanish, Dutch, French and Asian ethnic groups.In viewing Kingston from an evolutionary perspective, Kingston has gained an advantage as an outcome of the cultural melting pot combined with the warm tropical climate. These combinations have the result of an inviting social ambience that becomes infectious to all of the tourists that vest Kingston (Dawes 21).

The Jamaican dancehall and the particular cuisines demonstrate the culture of the Downtown Kingston. The music pulsates with rhythm and the food titillates the palate with a variety of flavors. The tangy jerk spiced chicken and the tasty fish are cultural legacies that are found in the downtown Kingston area. The residents of the Kingston area have inherited the cultural legacy that is ambition. This ambition and motivation serves the purpose of transcending and preserving the border and cultural boundaries (Dawes 22).

The culture based stud8ies in globalization are composed of matrices of international debates that have the characteristic of placing greater emphasis on the cosmopolitan characteristics and less emphasis on the rural. Globalization has been applied as a euphemism for the established political system of exploitation and appropriation. Globalization takes on distinct qualities with regards to the economic aspects. The ideology of globalization with regards to the cultural homogenization becomes particularly problematic for the Jamaican groups that are collectively perceived as the marginalized consumers of the products of the cosmopolitan industrialized imperialist societies. These studies view the Jamaican diaspora as being outdated in post-colonial societies where hardworking , ambitious people what are instilled with a Protestant work ethic are struggling to express a coherent cultural expression that are in opposition to the destabilizing imperative of the neocolonial political, economic and social forces.(Dawes 23; Gunst 10).

The review of the Jamaican cultural expression that is defined as Jamaicandancehall includes limbo dancing. Limbo dancing is one of the first cultural expressionsthat were imported to Jamaica. The limbo dance has the ability of serving as  amemory and serves as a cultural marker. Limbo dancing originated with the Jamaican Maroons. The limbo dance evolved from the slave ships to the plantation dances. Subsequently, the plantation dances were transformed into the dancehall music of Jamaica (Stanley- Niaah 35). The limbo dance served as a form of exercise for the prisoners who were transported on the slave ships from Africa. There was a mean space of seventy eight by sixteen inches that was available to each of the slaves on the lower decks of the ships.  The limbo dance allowed the slaves to transcend the limits of their bondage on the slave trading ships (Stanley- Niaah 35).

The limbo dance is one of the primary influences of the Jamaicandancehallculture. As the slaves sought to transcend their condition of being bound on the ships, the aficionados of the dancehall events seek to transcend the boundaries that are placed upon them by society. This is manifested in the manner that the dancehall events overflow onto the street in defiance of the constrictions of space that are placed upon them (Stanley- Niaah 35). The dancehall culture is one of the cultural heritages of Jamaica that is exported by members of the diaspora (Cooper 3).

In Downtown Kingston, the level of unemployment among the youth is elevated.  Many of the youth have no other recourse than to join a posse and distribute drugs (Gunst 10). The most available drug is marijuana that is detailed in the Jamaican dialect as ganja(Gunst 52).  This is another aspect of the dancehallculture that is reveredand exported by the diaspora. The youth are allured by the ambitions of power, money and social status (Gunst 10). Quite often, violence ensures between rival drug enterprises. The outcome is usually violent. The members of the drug enterprises usually form a posse (Gunst 9).

The desires to escape from the confines of the ghetto are not unique to Kingston. Arenas details the desire to transcend the ghetto condition in his novel titled: Old Rosa. The protagonist, Old Rosa is a Caribbean woman who is stuck on a farm. Old Rosa details that she would never live in the city (Arenas 37). Although there are a number of hardships on the farm, Old Rosa prefers the farm culture to the city culture.  Old Rosa resorts to violence instead of peacefully leaving her farm (Arenas 39). The alternatives of urban life are unthinkable for Old Rosa; she would prefer to defend her land (Arenas 39).

Many of the members of the Jamaican diaspora are not as fortunate as Old Rosa in the novel titled: Old Rosa by Reinaldo Arenas. They are forced to enter into a life where they are marginalized in the countries that they have adopted as their home. The economic marginalization that many of the members of the diaspora experience is demonstrated (Gunst 10; Hopkinson 6). In the newly adopted homelands, the dancehall music serves as a type of recreation that is exercised in order to keep the Jamaican diaspora alive (Cooper 4). This is very similar to the dances that the slaves performed on the slave ships ((Stanley- Niaah 35).

The external influences are the changes that take place when the Jamaicans are outside their native geography.  The migration from the Caribbean to nations that include the United States and Canada are attributed to the desire and ambition of an enhanced standard of living. The members of the diaspora also have a collective experiential knowledge of the homeland. This memory of Jamaica endures in the members of the diaspora. The enduring memories are in addition to a dedication to the perpetuation and the prosperity of Jamaican culture (Hopkinson 7; Hosein 5).

Other mutual qualities that are demonstrated by the Jamaican diaspora in the United States and Canada are the perceptions of insulation and alienation (Hopkinson 7; Hosein 6). The members of the Jamaican diaspora are fully aware that their status in the host nation is that of strangers. This perception may cause the members in of the Jamaican diaspora to resort to acts of desperation in the perception that they will never be completed integrated into the host country(Hosein 5).

Conclusion

The culture of downtown Kingston is similar to the limbo dance. The limbo dance seeks to exercise its identity within the confines of space and project itself outside of the limitations of the spatial confines. The Jamaicandancehall music is representative of the culture of downtown Kingston. The characteristics of desiring to transcend beyond the limitations of space that are imposed Aare manifested by the dancehall culture in the Downtown Jamaica area and in the Jamaica n diaspora that emigrate in search of enhanced economic opportunities.  The centuries old limbo dance is a witness to the ability of Jamaican culture to transcend borders and boundaries.

Works Cited

Arenas, Reinaldo. Old Rosa. Trans. by AnnTashi Slater. New York, NY: Grove Press, 1989. Print.

Cooper, Carolyn. Sound clash: Jamaican dancehall culture at large. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.

Dawes, Kwame. “My lord.” Kingston Noir, Ed.  Colin Channer 19- 51. New York, NY: Akashic Books, 2013. Print.

Gunst, Laurie. Born fi dead: A journey through the Jamaican posse underworld. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 1995. Print.

Hopkinson, Nalo. Brown girl in the ring. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2012. Print.

Hosein, Roger, Martin Franklin and Samantha C. Joseph. “The Caribbean diaspora- An untapped resource for impacting economic development through investments in the Caribbean.”Department of Economics, University of the West Indies, 2009. Web. 22 December 2014. http://sta.uwi.edu/conferences/09/salises/documents/M%20Franklin.pdf.

Stanley- Niaah, Sonjah Nadine. Dancehall: from slave ship to ghetto. Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa Press, 2010. Print.