Cultural Roots Essay

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Miss Marjorie Downie English 119 Assignment – Cultural Component Marcus Garvey said it best, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” Cultural roots, is defined by the Webster’s Dictionary as, ‘the quality in society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent, which supports and nurtures the future generation.’ Like the Mesquite tree, it is strong and grow deeply routed. The Bahamas can be compared to the Mesquite tree because it too has strong deep roots grounded in the traditions and cultural practices of Africa. Some of theses these traditions and cultural practices are junkanoo, language, storytelling and the use of bush medicine. The traditional Bahamian celebration, junkanoo, is one of the largest contributors to the music of the Bahamas. It was started by an African slave named John Canoe. During slavery, the slaves had a special holiday around Christmas time were they would have a break from work and they all celebrated. The slaves wore bizarre masks and walked on stilts, which allowed them to move around secretly to let off steam. These parades are brought to life in the Bahamas, by extravagant costumes and powerful rhythms beaten traditionally on goatskin drums, as well as other drums, brass bands and cow bells. In addition, even though English is the official language of The Bahamas, most of the population speaks Bahamian Dialect, a form of broken English, spoken best by natives. In Bahamian dialect some of the African words and expressions have been passed on and are still used today. Some examples are “yinna” meaning, “you all”, originated from Yoruba, West Africa, “jumbay” meaning “ghost” and “yam” meaning “to eat” originated from Kongo, Central Africa. Finally, story telling and the use of bush medicines are both traditions of Africa. Even though story telling
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