St Thomas keeps Kumina alive

MORANT BAY, St Thomas:

WITH THE passing of Queen Bernice ?Bernicy? Henry last November, a huge gap was left in the hearts and minds of the people of Port Morant, St Thomas, and especially of those who were practitioners of Kumina, a Jamaican cultural expression of African origin.

A leader of the Port Morant National and International Mumbakka Group of Kumina Practitioners, Sister Bernice was the driving force behind the rituals that are associated with Kumina, and she is remembered by many as much for her kindness and caring spirit as she is for the candle that she would dance with on her head.

Adomah Buchanan, one of Bernice?s 14 children has now stepped into her mother?s shoes, assuming the role of ?Queen?, and is determined to carry on the tradition that has been in her family for generations.

?My mother was trained by her mother and grand-mother, and from mi born this is what she teach me and this is what I know, so when she gone, I take it up now because that?s how it goes. It is passed down through the family,? Adomah told Family and Religion.

Kumina is said to have been brought over from the Congo region of Central Africa during the post-Emancipation period. Practitioners settled mainly in St Thomas, but eventually spread to Portland, St Mary, St Catherine and Kingston. Though the distinctive dancing and drumming is usually associated with wakes and memorials, Adomah pointed out that Kumina is multifaceted and could be useful in any situation.

?Kumina is healing, and moral and education. People come from overseas and ask for a memorial, and people ask us to perform at nine nights and those places, but we have celebration Kumina too, and Kumina to bring back happiness. We have busy periods during February when it is Black History Month and other holidays like Heroes? Day,? she said.

African elements

According to several sources, Kumina?s distinctive dance, drumming and singing has many African elements, and is a means through which African forefathers are celebrated, exhorted and appeased.

Chief instruments used in Kumina include the kbandu, a drum wrapped with the skin of a male goat, and the cast, or lead drum, wrapped in the skin of a female goat. The distinction is important, as the skins give the drums their distinctive sound, which are important in the ceremonies. Other instruments include graters, shakas, catta sticks, shakers and the powerful voices of the group members, who raise songs that can either entertain curious onlookers or call up the spirits of ancestors.

One of the most controversial aspects of Kumina is ?myal?, a form of spirit possession that has been associated with obeah and witchcraft. But Adomah explained that ?myal? is simply a trance-like state that dancers fall into which allows them access to the spiritual world, where they become a medium for those who have passed on to communicate with the living.

?You can know who is coming through when a person falls into myal. If you see a certain movement, or they start singing a certain song that you know was somebody?s favourite, or if you listen to their words, you can identify the spirit and know who has come back.?

Continued ignorance and fear about the rituals of Kumina have caused many in the parish to condemn the dance as devil worship, but Ivy Henry, another of Bernice?s children who performs alongside her sister says she feels only happiness, joy and excitement when she performs. She explained that she also worshipped at another church while maintaining her position in the Kumina group, highlighting that religious practices are not mutually exclusive, but are different paths to the same creator.

familyandreligion@gleanerjm.com