Videos by Kenneth Bilby
Jamaican music occupies a special place in our planet’s ever-expanding soundscape, as one of the ... more Jamaican music occupies a special place in our planet’s ever-expanding soundscape, as one of the earlier and better-known examples of a “roots music” turned “world music,” and certainly one of those with the widest appeal. This presentation examines, from a Jamaican perspective, both sides of this phenomenon. First, drawing on the authors' Jamaican field recordings from the 1970s, it takes a close look at the indigenous Afro-creole Jamaican musical culture that, in synergy with sounds emanating from elsewhere, provided the foundations for the first great explosion of Jamaican popular music (especially reggae) in the 1960s and 70s. It then shifts focus to the other side, highlighting a few examples of just how far Jamaican music has traveled. These will show not only how Jamaican music has been given new life in new contexts, but also how, in the process, it has retained certain key musical and ideological elements and orientations from its original homeland while spreading globally. 117 views
Books by Kenneth Bilby
Celebrating the legendary studio musicians of Jamaican popular music through personal photographs... more Celebrating the legendary studio musicians of Jamaican popular music through personal photographs and interviews.
This is the first book devoted to the studio musicians who were central to Jamaica’s popular-music explosion. With color portraits and interview excerpts, over 100 musical pioneers—such as Prince Buster, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and many of Bob Marley’s early musical collaborators—provide new insights into the birth of Jamaican popular music in the recording studios of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Includes a listening guide of selected songs.
More than two and a half centuries after it was first outlawed in Jamaica in 1760, obeah remains ... more More than two and a half centuries after it was first outlawed in Jamaica in 1760, obeah remains illegal in most territories of the former British West Indies. Yet, opinions on the meaning and essential nature of this controversial Afro-Caribbean spiritual phenomenon vary widely. While many contemporary West Indians hold negative views of obeah, viewing it as evil witchcraft or sorcery, others point to its widespread use in healing, protection from harm and solving a wide range of everyday problems – positive views that were also commonly held by enslaved West Indians in earlier generations.
Despite the scholarly attention obeah has received, relatively little has been written about the many laws enacted against it in different territories at different periods. Offering a perspective on obeah that challenges conventional conceptions of this widely misunderstood aspect of West Indian society and culture, the core of this book is a detailed examination of anti-obeah laws, and their socio-political implications, in seventeen jurisdictions of the English-speaking Caribbean from the period of slavery to the present.
Aside from chronologically tracing in each territory the development of these laws and their major provisions, the book also examines how anti-obeah legislation has helped to create and perpetuate cultural distortions that resound into the present. Anti-obeah legislation, particularly after the end of slavery in the nineteenth century, played a central role in creating public misunderstandings of the meaning and role of obeah among the West Indian masses, and led to the stigmatization and devaluation among future generations of Africanderived spiritual beliefs and practices.
Constructed from the oral histories of one of the most secretive groups in the Caribbean, the Mar... more Constructed from the oral histories of one of the most secretive groups in the Caribbean, the Maroons of Jamaica, this book provides a unique view of a culture that has been nurtured by enslaved Africans and their descendants to survive against tremendous odds for nearly 350 years. The descendants of African slaves who escaped from the Spanish and British plantations in Jamaica during the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Maroons battled for and maintained their autonomy during 70 years of guerrilla warfare with the British army that ended in a truce in 1739. The British colonial government in Jamaica violated the truce and began a deportation campaign to eradicate the Maroons in 1795. Nearly 600 were captured and sent to Nova Scotia, where many died of exposure. Remarkably, this and later efforts to destroy the group failed, and today the Maroon settlements on Jamaica still consider themselves an independent nation governed by the terms granted in the 1739 truce.
In numerous visits to the island over 25 years, Kenneth Bilby gained the confidence of the Maroon elders, who revealed to him secret details of their ancestral heritage--including history, music, Kromanti religion, language, and culture--for publication. Whereas almost all previous studies of the Jamaican Maroons have focused on the distant past, this one is as much about present-day Maroons as about their ancestors. For the first time, the story of what it means to be a Maroon is conveyed through the words of the Maroons themselves. Gathering together dozens of oral-history narratives, sacred songs, and other forms of esoteric knowledge, the book is a study of cultural memory challenging the common assumption that contemporary Maroons have little or no knowledge of their own ancestral past, as well as the related idea that they have "all but disappeared" from Jamaica. Equally important is the story of the complex local and global politics into which the contemporary Maroons are increasingly drawn and the problematic ways in which the Maroons’ highly valued history has been appropriated, theorized, and commodified in postcolonial Jamaica and beyond, threatening to sever the Maroons from their own past.
Articles by Kenneth Bilby
Rastafari (Caribbean Quarterly Monograph), 1985
In the Jamaican folk pharmacopoeia, cannabis -- known locally as "ganja" -- occupies a special pl... more In the Jamaican folk pharmacopoeia, cannabis -- known locally as "ganja" -- occupies a special place. Its use by large numbers of Rastafarians as a religious sacrament, its widespread cultivation as a lucrative crop, and its close association with the reggae industry have all contributed to its notoriety. Although the plant has been present in the island for many generations, its local history has been only very sketchily documented. This paper uses oral traditions, ethnographic data, and other sources to shed light on aspects of its local history and cultural background that have been largely neglected in the available literature.
Plantation Society in the Americas, 1998
SWI Forum voor Wetenschap en Cultuur (Suriname), 1991
Slavery & Abolition, 2017
Del Caribe (Santiago de Cuba), 1990
Contours: A Journal of the African Diaspora, 2004
In eastern Jamaica live two distinct groups of people who characterize themselves as belonging to... more In eastern Jamaica live two distinct groups of people who characterize themselves as belonging to African nations. The Windward Maroons, who are concentrated in the Johncrow Mountains and Blue Mountains of the interior, are descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations and formed their own alternative societies in the forest during the 17th and early 18th centuries. The other African nation in this part of the island, known as the Bongo Nation, is dispersed across the coastal plains below the Blue Mountains. They are descended primarily from indentured African laborers who arrived in Jamaica following the abolition of slavery in 1834. The discussion focuses on how these two clearly distinct "nations," which have been in contact for well over a century, have used broad musical commonalities to bridge the many cultural differences that still exist between them.
In hemispheric context, the early Maroon communities of Jamaica -- those formed in the 17(th) cen... more In hemispheric context, the early Maroon communities of Jamaica -- those formed in the 17(th) century, during the late Spanish and early British periods -- were hardly unique. But those that made treaties with the British crown in Jamaica in 1739 were destined for special fame (or infamy, depending on the perspective). Though hugely outnumbered and poorly equipped, they launched a highly effective armed resistance and nearly managed to bring economic development in parts of the island to a standstill. Unconquered, they persisted as free peoples in the heart of Britain's most important and notorious slave colony until long after the abolition of slavery in 1834. The fact that they were never defeated or assimilated into the larger population set them apart from most of the other Maroon groups spread across plantation America. Today they remain, after the Maroons of Suriname and French Guiana, the most culturally and politically distinctive of all surviving Maroon communities of the Americas.
The Aluku (also known as Boni) Maroons are just one of six ethnic groups, or "tribes," descended ... more The Aluku (also known as Boni) Maroons are just one of six ethnic groups, or "tribes," descended from African slaves who fled Surinamese plantations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and successfully created their own societies in the forested interior (the other five groups are the Saramaka, Djuka, Paramaka, Matawai, and Kwinti). The Aluku are distinguished from the others in that they are the only group to have established most of their traditional villages in French Guiana and to have chosen allegiance, as a group, to the French government, while the rest tied their futures to neighboring Suriname. All of these Maroon societies are undergoing rapid change as they confront, and become ever more a part of, the larger societies surrounding them. But Aluku society, because of its presence in a French overseas department that is actively pursuing a policy of assimilation, is perhaps experiencing the most profound and fundamental transformation of all.
Obeah encompasses a wide variety of beliefs and practices involving the control or channelling of... more Obeah encompasses a wide variety of beliefs and practices involving the control or channelling of supernaturallspiritual forces, usually for socially beneficial ends such as treating illness, bringing good fortune, protecting against harm, and avenging wrongs. Although obeah was sometimes used to h a m others, Europeans during the slave period distorted its positive role in the lives of many enslavedpersons. In post-emancipation times, colonial officials, local white elites and their ideological allies exaggerated the antisocial dimensions of obeah, minimizing or ignoring its positive functions. This negative interpretation became so deeply ingrained that many West Indians accept it to varying degrees today, although the positive attributes of obeah are still acknowledged in most parts of the anglophone Caribbean.
From Princeton Library Chronicle, Vol. 72, No. 2, 574-583 (2011).
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Videos by Kenneth Bilby
Books by Kenneth Bilby
This is the first book devoted to the studio musicians who were central to Jamaica’s popular-music explosion. With color portraits and interview excerpts, over 100 musical pioneers—such as Prince Buster, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and many of Bob Marley’s early musical collaborators—provide new insights into the birth of Jamaican popular music in the recording studios of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Includes a listening guide of selected songs.
Despite the scholarly attention obeah has received, relatively little has been written about the many laws enacted against it in different territories at different periods. Offering a perspective on obeah that challenges conventional conceptions of this widely misunderstood aspect of West Indian society and culture, the core of this book is a detailed examination of anti-obeah laws, and their socio-political implications, in seventeen jurisdictions of the English-speaking Caribbean from the period of slavery to the present.
Aside from chronologically tracing in each territory the development of these laws and their major provisions, the book also examines how anti-obeah legislation has helped to create and perpetuate cultural distortions that resound into the present. Anti-obeah legislation, particularly after the end of slavery in the nineteenth century, played a central role in creating public misunderstandings of the meaning and role of obeah among the West Indian masses, and led to the stigmatization and devaluation among future generations of Africanderived spiritual beliefs and practices.
In numerous visits to the island over 25 years, Kenneth Bilby gained the confidence of the Maroon elders, who revealed to him secret details of their ancestral heritage--including history, music, Kromanti religion, language, and culture--for publication. Whereas almost all previous studies of the Jamaican Maroons have focused on the distant past, this one is as much about present-day Maroons as about their ancestors. For the first time, the story of what it means to be a Maroon is conveyed through the words of the Maroons themselves. Gathering together dozens of oral-history narratives, sacred songs, and other forms of esoteric knowledge, the book is a study of cultural memory challenging the common assumption that contemporary Maroons have little or no knowledge of their own ancestral past, as well as the related idea that they have "all but disappeared" from Jamaica. Equally important is the story of the complex local and global politics into which the contemporary Maroons are increasingly drawn and the problematic ways in which the Maroons’ highly valued history has been appropriated, theorized, and commodified in postcolonial Jamaica and beyond, threatening to sever the Maroons from their own past.
Articles by Kenneth Bilby
This is the first book devoted to the studio musicians who were central to Jamaica’s popular-music explosion. With color portraits and interview excerpts, over 100 musical pioneers—such as Prince Buster, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and many of Bob Marley’s early musical collaborators—provide new insights into the birth of Jamaican popular music in the recording studios of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Includes a listening guide of selected songs.
Despite the scholarly attention obeah has received, relatively little has been written about the many laws enacted against it in different territories at different periods. Offering a perspective on obeah that challenges conventional conceptions of this widely misunderstood aspect of West Indian society and culture, the core of this book is a detailed examination of anti-obeah laws, and their socio-political implications, in seventeen jurisdictions of the English-speaking Caribbean from the period of slavery to the present.
Aside from chronologically tracing in each territory the development of these laws and their major provisions, the book also examines how anti-obeah legislation has helped to create and perpetuate cultural distortions that resound into the present. Anti-obeah legislation, particularly after the end of slavery in the nineteenth century, played a central role in creating public misunderstandings of the meaning and role of obeah among the West Indian masses, and led to the stigmatization and devaluation among future generations of Africanderived spiritual beliefs and practices.
In numerous visits to the island over 25 years, Kenneth Bilby gained the confidence of the Maroon elders, who revealed to him secret details of their ancestral heritage--including history, music, Kromanti religion, language, and culture--for publication. Whereas almost all previous studies of the Jamaican Maroons have focused on the distant past, this one is as much about present-day Maroons as about their ancestors. For the first time, the story of what it means to be a Maroon is conveyed through the words of the Maroons themselves. Gathering together dozens of oral-history narratives, sacred songs, and other forms of esoteric knowledge, the book is a study of cultural memory challenging the common assumption that contemporary Maroons have little or no knowledge of their own ancestral past, as well as the related idea that they have "all but disappeared" from Jamaica. Equally important is the story of the complex local and global politics into which the contemporary Maroons are increasingly drawn and the problematic ways in which the Maroons’ highly valued history has been appropriated, theorized, and commodified in postcolonial Jamaica and beyond, threatening to sever the Maroons from their own past.
Edited by Thomas Vendryes.
This special issue of Volume! is dedicated to Jamaican music. Its nine texts, along with a dozen reviews of major recent books, offer a description and an analysis of the main features of these musics, through their uses – from riddims to sound sytems – and discourses – from culture to slackness. Gathering works from leading scholars in the field, this survey sheds new light on the main debates that stem from Jamaican popular music.
Introduction
Thomas Vendryes, « Wi likkle but wi tallawah ! » L’écho musical d’une petite île des Caraïbes
Pratiques phonographiques
Peter Manuel & Wayne Marshall, « La méthode du riddim : esthétique, pratique et propriété dans le dancehall jamaïcain »
Jean-Christophe Sevin, « Le vinyle, le reggae et les soirées sound system. Une écologie médiatique »
« Culture », « slackness » et émancipation
Giulia Bonacci, « Terrible et terrifiant. Le reggae jamaïcain au prisme des mémoires
Emmanuel Parent, « Vybz Kartel : un révolutionnaire conservateur ? Mutations contemporaines de la figure de l’intellectuel organique dans l’Atlantique noir »
Carolyn Cooper, « Incarner l’émancipation : marronnages érotiques dans la culture dancehall jamaïcaine »
Hubert Devonish & Byron Jones, « Langue, musique et crise de la nation jamaïcaine »
Circulations
Herbie Miller & Roberto Moore, « Le jazz jamaïcain, sur l’île et à l’étranger »
Brian d’Aquino, Julian Henriques & Leonardo Vidigal, « A Popular Culture Research Methodology : Sound System Outernational »
Varia
Christian Béthune, « L’explicite, l’implicite et le mineur : deux blues obscènes de Lucille Bogan »
Notes de lecture
Sabine Sörgel : Markus Coester & Wolfgang Bender (eds), A Reader in African-Jamaican Music, Dance and Religion, Ian Randle Publishers, 2014
Dennis Howard : Donna Hope, International Reggae : Current and Future Trends in Jamaican Popular Music, Pelican, 2013
Werner Zips : Donna Hope, Reggae from Yaad : Traditional and Emerging Themes in Jamaican Popular Music, Ian Randle Publishers, 2016
David Katz : Michael Garnice, The Ultimate Guide to Great Reggae, Equinox Publishing, 2016
Michael Largey : Kenneth Bilby, Words of Our Mouth, Meditations of Our Heart, Wesleyan University Press, 2016
Kenneth Bilby : Alexandre Grondeau, Reggae Ambassadors. La légende du reggae, La Lune Sur le Toit, 2016
Abdoulaye Gaye : Thibaut Erhengardt, Reggae et politique dans les années 70, Natty Dread, 2016
David Aarons : Sarah Daynes, Time and Memory in Reggae Music, Manchester University Press, 2010
Hélène Lee : Clinton Hutton & al (eds), Leonard Percival Howell and the Genesis of Rastafari, University of the West Indies Press, 2015
Dennis Howard : Carolyn Cooper, Sound Clash : Jamaican Dancehall Culture At Large, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Sabine Sörgel : Julian Henriques, Sonic Bodies. Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques, and Ways of Knowing, Bloomsbury, 2011
Erin MacLeod : Christopher Bateman & Al Fingers, In Fine Style : The Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious, One Love Books, 2016