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| Amina Blackwood-Meeks |
Ananse worked hard to disrupt the 6th leg of
his Sound Splash at Montego Bay Community College on Saturday, November
22, 2014. Amina Blackwood-Meeks was delayed on the road, and some of the
presenters had been informed that the conference was to begin at 1:00 p.m., so
the conference itself didn’t start until 12:30 p.m. Perhaps Ananse was not
pleased that 3 of the presenters were white women, with other than Jamaican
accents and that the other 3 were brown women. Where were the Jamaican men? Professor
Fred Hickling, who was to have chaired the conference was struck down with
chikungunya, and Philip Clarke, the Montego Bay organizer, had to attend a
funeral. However, I hope Ananse has forgiven us now, having heard that our
presentations were in his favour, and that his story-telling conference is
taking on an international flavor.
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| Young storyteller |
The late start also gave a chance for people
whose names were not on the programme to make a contribution. School children told
their stories.
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| Dr. Angella Samuels-Harris Principal, MBCC |
Then Dr. Samuels-Harris, Principal
of Montego Bay Community College, surprised us by telling “Big Boy” and Ananse
stories.
The charming Ms. Sophia McIntosh, Human
Resource Lecturer/ Toastmaster and chairperson for the conference, prevailed on
me to read “Errol’s Taxi”. Ananse at work again. Perhaps I should have declined
to read, as this festival about the oral tradition. If I had known I was going
to be asked to read, this is not what I would have chosen. It is a reader in
Pearson’s Stepping Stone series, which has 6 levels, with 10 books in each
level, for emergent readers to read. I wrote Errol’s Taxi at least 8 years ago,
and since several publishers rejected it, I was happy that Pearson accepted it.
However, the story which ended up in print is not the same story I wrote. As
Mary Nelson said in her presentation “sly messages slip in”. Although I can’t
write creole, I usually write dialogue in non-standard English. That was edited
out. As Diane Browne said “They want standard English”. Only the setting and
the characters remained Jamaican. I would love to hear the boy who told the Cinderella story retell and renew
“Errol’s Taxi” in his lyrical voice.
The conference finally began and we were not
disappointed. Amina Blackwood Meeks welcomed us all her usual energetic manner.
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| Presenters l-r: Barry Marshall, Jeri Barnes, Denise Valentine and Mary Nelson |
Jeri Barnes, with Barry Marshall helping with
the power-point presentation, spoke on “Revitalizing
Traditional Stories – A Cultural Imperative”. She discussed what it is
about a story that endures – we are part of a story, we keep expecting stories,
we expect conflict and resolution. When we tell a story our brains light up and
the listener’s brains light up also. We share stories to communicate and share
our culture.
Barre Toelken’s twin laws of folklore –
conservatism and dynamism. Stories evolve – the extent to which they remain the
same or change depends on what the tellers of these stories choose to keep or
to add. Stories change because they are open to multiple interpretations, the
socio-cultural context changes and because we tend to distort stories.
Old stories have advice. Some stories are as
relevant now as they were when they were written but can be told in new ways.
Jeri encouraged us to share the old stories, by telling them in our way, in our
voice and with spice.
Denise Valentine, Professional Storyteller, Historical Performer, Archivist, from Philadelphia, USA, whose maternal great-grandparents
are from Portland, Jamaica, spoke on “Storytelling,
History and Reconstruction”. She highlighted the damaging effects of
suppressing the truth when historical information is passed from one generation
to the next.
“…unspoken from our past are making the soil
toxic, this sickness prevents generative energy and collective innovation from
being able to help shift the community forward.” (Katie Boone – Storytelling & Healing | The Art of Hosting).
This has relevance for the descendants of enslaved people in the U.S.A. Ms. Valentine gave examples such as George Washington
having slaves and taking them to Philadelphia, where the remains of slave
quarters were found within feet of Liberty Bell, but they didn’t want people to
know.
We can reveal the truth in stories by reclaiming
names and honoring ancestors. Content for stories gleaned from research into
historical documents can be woven into traditional story structure. Ms.
Valentine showed how this can be done by telling a story herself, in which a
girl who had been born into slavery was told her history by an elderly enslaved woman.
Mary Nelson chose to speak on “Ananse and Cultural Decolonization”.
She is from Wales, where, when she was a child, the Welsh language was not used
in schools, and example of colonizers, (the English) attempting to cut off the
Welsh from their culture. Similar attempts were made to cut off enslaved people from
their culture without them being aware of what was happening. Ananse stories
have been used to portray Jamaicans as tricksters, but these same Ananse
Stories can be redesigned to show Ananse as hero or mentor, and the colonizers
as shape-shifters and villains. Among the Asante people of Ghana, Ananse was
synonymous with skill and wisdom of speech. Surely these abilities should be respected
and sought after? Hence the purpose of this storytelling festival – to focus
attention on the unique value of Jamaica’s rich oral tradition and its
potential for enhancing national development.
My presentation was entitled “If we don’t tell our story, who will?” You
can read the full text on my blog post of November 23, 2014.
The final speaker was Gloria Malcolm Foster, story
teller, teacher, entertainer, and healer. Her presentation was entitled “Saluting my Grandmother”.
I regret that we didn't have more time to spend with the presenters, and that there were no break-out groups in which the members of the audience could have had a more interactive experience. I nonetheless hope that those in attendance were inspired by what they heard to themselves become storytellers or story-writers.
