Talk:Junkanoo

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Substantial copyvio text

The majority of the current version of the article was added in November 2008 by an anonymous contributor. It appears that they were copied from a Bahamian government PDF download on the official bahamas.gov.bs site. I have removed the text that matches the PDF. — Saxifrage ✎ 17:40, 18 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Origin of term

The supposed Scots origin of the term as meaning "junk enough" sounds dubious. Firstly, what is that supposed to mean? "Enough junk"? "Too much junk"? "Junk enough" seems a pretty odd way to render it. Scots for "enough" is "eneuch" (pronounced en-yuch) and "enoo" meaningless. Mutt Lunker (talk) 22:03, 28 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright problem removed

Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. Content was added with a claim that it was from a public domain website, but we need verification that this is so. Certainly, content included in that addition has been published elsewhere on the internet for years; see [1]. Copied material has been removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 00:11, 8 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have now verified that the source was not public domain; see copyright reservation on the bottom of [2]. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 00:18, 8 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Wikipedia

Dear Wikipedia,

It was not mentioned in your page that the Jankanoo "Junkunu" Dance is also a culture dance for the Garifuna people who currently reside in the countries of; Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize and the United States. In the Garifuna language the word Jankanoo means; "Wanaragua". They dance this dance during Christmas. New Years Day, the 6th of January and at their cultural shows. One of the history of this dance was that there was a Slave Trader by the name of John Canoe who visited the coast of West Africa to get slaves and a sending off ceremony was held for him before the people left their country. The mask that is used for this dance is that of the White Man with his blue eyes. Wellington C. Ramos Adjunct Professor of History Garifuna From: Dangriga Town, Belize — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wasany451 (talk • contribs) 14:17, 14 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The John Canoe appears to be a dance as well: "Prince Harry was soon dancing energetically with the local women and working up a sweat with the John Canoe - a Garifuna dance with African influences." [3] -- Jreferee (talk) 04:49, 16 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Jamaica

Isn't there also a large Junkanoo celebration in Jamaica? Candleabracadabra (talk) 14:47, 17 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Junkanoo/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Comment(s)

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In terms of accuracy and support, the introduction of this article is the most reliable. The rest of the article contains several inaccuracies and speculations with regard to history.

The section on History has a few questionable assertions. They are:

The Bahamas Development Board is a post-war institution, and did not exist in the 1920s, when the article claims that it offered prizes for the first time. While it is true that prizes were offered during the 1920s, this was as a result of local volunteer action -- a Citizen's Committee was formed to offer prizes to the Junkanoo participants with the best individual costumes. (Tribune reports, 1920s)

The naming of December 26th "Boxing Day" and the declaring of it a public holiday was not a Bahamian invention, nor did it happen in 1938. Boxing Day is a traditional British holiday that was celebrated throughout the Empire, and was part of the customary 3-day holiday for the slaves. What did happen in 1938 was this: until that date, Junkanoo was held on Christmas morning (December 25th). Junkanoo parades often conflicted with Christmas church services and the devout objected to the interruption of their worship. Complaints were made often, and in 1938 the Bahamian government acceded to churchgoers' requests, and decreed that Junkanoo would be banned on Christmas Day and celebrated instead on Boxing Day. (Nassau Guardian reports, Tribune reports, 1937, 1938) It is possible that the customary refusal to hold Junkanoo on a Sunday is associated with this decree; when Boxing Day or New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, Junkanoo is held on the Monday morning.

Junkanoo parades in Nassau begin at different times. In the 2000s, parades start at 1 a.m. on Boxing Day and at 2 a.m. on New Year's Day. The length of the parade has necessitated earlier and earlier starts.

The section on Costumes has a number of questionable assertions. It appears to be more accurate on the details of the costuming, but much of the history is unsupported by fact. For instance:

The assumption that the majority of Bahamian slaves came to The Bahamas directly from Africa is incorrect; in fact they were largely Creole slaves (i.e. born in the Americas) who arrived in The Bahamas after the American War of Independence, accompanying the displaced American settlers still loyal to the British Crown (the Loyalists). As such, what was done in Africa is unlikely to have influenced the slaves' celebrations in as direct a fashion as is listed here. Early accounts of Bahamian John Canoe parades show less connection with any specifically African aesthetic than with EuroAmerican activities (i.e. a fife and drum band during the 1830s). (E. Clement Bethel and Nicolette Bethel, Junkanoo: Festival of The Bahamas, London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Caribbean, 1991). It is more likely that the arrival in The Bahamas of several thousand Liberated Africans (enslaved Africans recaptured by the British Navy from slave ships and set free in British territories) between the 1810s and 1860s changed the aesthetic and introduced the majority of the specific African elements that survived into the twentieth century.

The role of Neptune and Amphitrite was far less central to the 19th century parades than suggested. They appeared in Nassau parades for a brief period in the 1850s. Oral accounts suggest that they were central to southern celebrations of Junkanoo, such as happened in Inagua and Mayaguana, but their appearance in Nassauvian parades was fleeting. (Bethel & Bethel 1991)

Masks were made from very specific materials during the early 20th century, predominantly wire mesh from flour sifters (known as sifter faces) (Bethel & Bethel 1991). Very little is known of the costuming materials before the turn of the 20th century. More research is needed in this regard.

Sponge costumes were not introduced into the parade during the 1930s, which was when the sponging era (which had been active for at least 50 years) died, although they were certainly prominent during that time. Sponge was used as material for costumes throughout the sponging era (1880s-1930s).

The section on Music and Dance also contains assertions of questionable authority, again with regard to history and origins.

Scrapers were not introduced into Junkanoo during the 1930s. Their origin is far older; they are a very specific part of the African instrumentarium, and have in all likelihood been integral to Junkanoo at least as far back as the arrival of the Liberated Africans. The earliest scrapers were jawbones of animal skulls; washboards; graters; Gilbey's Gin bottles; and any other resonating material with a corrugated side that responded well to scraping.

There is no documentary evidence to support the existence of any such person as "an African whose name is recorded as Yokonomo or Jankomo" who led the dance in Africa. Indeed, as the African origins of Junkanoo are various and assumed to be syncretic (a combination of many different traditions) the likelihood of any individual's being identifiable as an originator of any element is slim, especially given the African habit of elevating the community above the individual. The Junkanoo dance is a traditional African form whose origin is fairly widespread through West Africa.

While it is indeed true that the dance now known as the "Shuffle" is based on steps performed during the 1950s and 1960s by "Sweet" Richard Dean, there is no documentary evidence to support the idea that Sweet Richard Dean called his dance the "Shuffle". The first widespread emergence of the title "Shuffle" occurred during the 1980s, during the Saxons festival of Saxorama, when the dance that had come to be associated with Percy "Vola" Francis was termed the "Vola Shuffle". Sweet Richard was a nightclub performer and his dance an extension of his stage act, and it involved a cutlass, a huge straw hat, and a cape.

Last edited at 12:36, 11 March 2009 (UTC). Substituted at 20:44, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Merger proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Closed (boldly!): There is no rationale given (and none provided subsequently), and doesn't meet our merge criteria. Moonraker12 (talk) 23:57, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It has been suggested that John Canoe be merged into Junkanoo. _{Proposed since October 2017}.

Merge - support merge and redirect from John Canoe. Expand article to include different Junkanoo traditions. MassiveEartha (talk) 23:19, 1 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Merge – support MassiveEartha's proposals. Proscribe (talk) 14:46, 31 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Merge - support MassiveEartha's proposals. Will make both articles more complete.Jacqke (talk) 10:55, 19 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Q: How will blanking and redirecting the John Canoe article make it more complete? Moonraker12 (talk) 21:00, 6 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I would oppose this merge suggestion; there was no rationale given, and no supporting reasons thereafter (only votes) but AFAICT this doesn't meet the criteria we have for a merger anyway.

First, there is no duplication: the one is a Caribbean festival, and the other is a semi-legendary figure from Ghanaian history; both are discrete subjects with their own notability.

Second, there is no overlap in the Junkanoo article; 'John Canoe' is mentioned just twice, as a possible explanation of the name, and while the John Canoe article has information on the festival (in the Introduction, and in the Creation of... section) that is easily resolved by stripping it out and moving it to the festival article, leaving the John Canoe article to be about the historical figure.

Finally, any merge would leave the Junkanoo article 'clunky', with a sizeable chunk of it about a figure who may or may not be related to it, the which would bias the examination of the origins of the festival unduly. IMO. Moonraker12 (talk) 20:52, 6 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I've taken the liberty of boldly closing this proposal, for the reasons stated (no rationale given (and none provided subsequently), and doesn't meet our merge criteria). OTOH I have split the John Canoe article, and moved some of the festival-related content from there to here. I trust everyone is OK with that. Moonraker12 (talk) 23:57, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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