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Emancipation Dance

Submitted by Peter Thompson It is August 1st, Emancipation Day across much of the formerly British Caribbean. It commemorates the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), which legislated the end of slavery in the British Empire in August, 1834. Here in Jamaica it is part of a week of parades and parties leading up to Independence Day…

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Submitted by Peter Thompson
Peter Lawrence Thompson
Peter Lawrence Thompson, Social Enterprise Advisor on a USAID funded project

It is August 1st, Emancipation Day across much of the formerly British Caribbean. It commemorates the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), which legislated the end of slavery in the British Empire in August, 1834. Here in Jamaica it is part of a week of parades and parties leading up to Independence Day on August 6th. In Barbados this year it coincides with the Crop Over Festival and its climax, Grand Kadooment, a day where Bajans let their hair down (not to mention much else) and party can’t done.

Read full article – Emancipation Dance

32 responses to “Emancipation Dance”

  1. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    Caught up with and confused by the ruling ideology of feminism, which since its Second Wave has been dominated by urban Jewish writers from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Peter Thompson is losing his masculinity. He is ashamed of the public display of women’s bodies in Caribbean Carnivals because he believes this is a form of “objectification” of the female for the benefit of men that is somehow connected to the degradation of blacks in the slave auctions of previous centuries.
    I have news for Peter. For more than a hundred years after Emancipation, Caribbean street festivals were dominated by men. Men played ‘Mas. Women danced in the streets, but they were not as bare or as numerous as men. It is because of feminism, and the rising profile and increasing assertion of women, at the expense of men, that we now see women dominating our street festivals. And it is the women, unafraid and increasingly depraved, who have chosen to demonstrate their self-importance and “independence” by engaging in aggressively pagan forms of behavior. Men have not coerced, influenced or tricked them into sexual displays. They have decided on these things all by themselves, for themselves, and are relegating men to the largely passive role of spectator.
    Stop blaming men for everything women decide to do. You are just another pitiful, emasculated man grovelling for the approval of mannish women.

  2. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    An interesting take on Bajan culture. But Bushie would simply say that, like true brass bowls, Bajans just have NO VISION, NO CLASS, NO PRIDE in themselves, and no self-esteem. It is therefore extremely easy to explain the wuk-up culture and the crass, tasteless and simplistic music of kadooment.
    It meshes exactly with everything else ….
    economic empowerment;
    political maturity; justice;
    garbage management;
    transport management;
    housing;
    health;
    sports;
    water management;
    crime;
    employment
    cricket
    indeed, EVERY Shiite…

    It is what happens when a people forsake their roots and their God and pimp behind albino-centric myths…. and it INEVITABLY culminates in shame, destruction and death.

  3. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Chadx9…you missed the whole point with ya blinkered hatred of women…lol…ya missed the whole psychology.

    The black males weakened themselves greatly with their one track mind of only things sexual….refuse to take care of their race…have each others back…..no loyalty to theur own race, theur own people….no backbone when it comes to making sure that wealth is distributed evenly among….their own people.

    Those weaknesses starts in the black parliament.

  4. Peter Lawrence Thompson Avatar
    Peter Lawrence Thompson

    chad99999, thanks for telling me a bit about the history of Crop Over. It wasn’t revived in Barbados until 1974 and I left the island in 1975, so my personal experience of it is meagre save for occasional visits over the years. I am certainly not “ashamed of the public display of women’s bodies;” indeed as a feminist, I know that what women do with their own bodies isn’t up to me at all ;-). I’m not a Puritan or any kind of religion at all, so I’m not accusing any of these women of sexual immorality.

    I was writing about my own discomfort; seeking the roots of why I found the erotic display of Black bodies for white consumption uncomfortable (there is no doubt that the Crop Over festival was reinvented in ’74 specifically as a tourist attraction). The “white supremacist objectification of all Black bodies” is not gender specific. I knew from childhood that the cornerstones of our tourist industry are Sun, Sand, Sea, & Sex. I knew from then that the sexual tourists were probably mostly women (and this was long before feminism was a social force).

    I am certainly not “blaming men for what women decide to do.” Women have independent minds and deserve to be “unafraid.” Lots of my female friends love to wukkup, as do lots of my male friends. Neither am I relegated to the role of spectator: when I feel like dancing I dance, when I don’t feel like looking I am not a spectator.

    I will, however, draw your attention to how you have described contemporary women: “dominating,” “increasingly depraved,” & “demonstrate their self-importance;” then at the end you sum up all these traits as “mannish.”

    Hmmmm.

  5. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    Wow! Back to the old blame game. What, Mr. Thompson ,were your expectations when you posted this essay?Was it intended to inspire local descendants of slave to mentally free themselves? Could this article engender self hatred, and resentment against others in the present Barbadian society? What outcomes were you anticipating? People have been dancing for years some well clothed and some naked or half naked. What is new? Did not King David dance before the Ark 3000 years ago until his clothes fell off ? He too was celebrating a social and religious achievement. Queen Michel ,like you, only saw the nakedness.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    Emancipation Day is being celebrated in Barbados today.

    How many Barbadians have raised their consciousness to be able to appreciated the significance of the day? This is the measure to determine where we are as a predominantly Black nation.

    Emancipation Day is celebrated in many former British colonies in the Caribbean and areas of the United States on various dates in observance of the emancipation of slaves of African descent. It is also observed in other areas in regard to the abolition of serfdom or other forms of servitude.

    Emancipation Day – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Day

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Bernard

    The issue is not about dancing naked or half naked or even wukkin up. It is about the motivation of the participants. Is it about being lewd and empty headed in their behaviour therefore growing an undesirable sub/counter culture?

    In other other words, to use an analogy, we have always had public/private transport but are you happy with the sub/counter culture it has foisted on the society?

  8. Peter Lawrence Thompson Avatar
    Peter Lawrence Thompson

    Bush Tea, you are succinct yet incisive. And unlike me you don’t suffer from a surfeit of ten dollar words.

    You diagnose the condition “NO VISION, NO CLASS, NO PRIDE in themselves, and no self-esteem,” and you identify causes “people forsake their roots and their God and pimp behind albino-centric myths.”

    Only one thing puzzles me; which God have they forsaken? Was it Ogun, Shango, Elegua or one of the others who either failed to survive the middle passage or arrived damaged beyond repair? Or do you mean the Christian Holy Trinity and all? Because I can’t for the life of me work out how Christianity is any different from all the other “albino-centric myths” (apologies to actual albinos).

  9. Peter Lawrence Thompson Avatar
    Peter Lawrence Thompson

    Bernard Codrington, My motivation when I wrote this was simply to work out why wukking up made ME uncomfortable. I’m not religious, so I make no suggestion that there is anything sexually immoral in wukking up. I’m a feminist, so I’m not opposed to any human being, male or female, doing whatever the hell they want with their own bodies.

    It’s just a tiny part of my own struggle, as the descendant of slaves, to mentally free myself.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    Often times a picture is enough.

     

  11. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Crop over has become a copy of Trinidad carnival. Fetes, music and wuk up parades.

    Same as Toronto Carnival. Fetes, music and wukkin up.

    Same ting different year.

    It is ironic that there is very little “Crop” (sugar cane) in Barbados.

  12. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Which God have they forsaken…?
    Skippa…
    There is only ONE…. The ‘Big Boss Engineers’ who conceptualised and created all things physical….
    The fact that you are puzzled as to Ogun, Shango, Elegua and Christianity …probably also stems from a similar lack of understanding as to why (our public display of) wukking up makes you uncomfortable…

    It is not because there is anything wrong with ‘wukking up’ per se….. but certainly there is a lot wrong with such mindless, lewd, and ‘animal-like’ behaviour at a national scale …unless of course the point is to show how lacking in HUMAN DEVELOPMENT maturity the country has come to be after 50 years…

    Similarly, if you can work out which of the many ‘failed’ gods actually CREATED everything that exists, ….then you may understand Bushie’s point about our having forsaken THAT deity in favour of the prevailing mentality and ‘religion’ of accumulating money and power…

  13. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    Peter,
    Like any emasculated man, you are uncomfortable with what some have called the Male Gaze. God made us both animal and spirit, but your consciousness is so dominated by women that you have become a deferential man, always bowing and scraping to women, who are undoubtedly happy to turn you into a beast of burden.
    The white women who dominate Western pornography, and the white women who publicly display their breasts for all to see during Mardi Gras in New Orleans every year (and the white men who hardly object to this behavior) are not burdened by the historical, cultural and racial hypersensitivities that seem to have left you with an inferiority complex. In the modern corporatist world, we are all packaged for consumption – if that is how you want to see it. If anything, black women are under-represented as sexual objects in the Western world. White men overwhelmingly prefer white and Asian women.

  14. Peter Lawrence Thompson Avatar
    Peter Lawrence Thompson

    chad99999, I agree that “In the modern corporatist world, we are all packaged for consumption.” As Eric Williams and George Padmore and Walter Rodney and many others have proven, “the modern corporatist world” is rooted firmly in the history of the African slave trade; it was the financial engine that underwrote the rise of the British empire and after that the American one.

    I know very little about the sexual preferences of white men, having never been one myself. I do know that male sexual tourism overwhelmingly targets the brown bodies of Asia, South America, Africa and the Caribbean; while female sexual tourism is focused on the Black bodies of the Caribbean and Africa. And it isn’t only white people who indulge in sexual tourism, remember “How Stella Got Her Groove Back?”

  15. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    Peter,
    You are a piece of work. Where is the objective evidence that sexual tourism is focused on black and brown bodies? When hundreds of thousands of white women visiting from the UK, Germany or Scandinavia copulate with local (white) men in France, Spain, Italy or Greece, no one blinks twice. But if a trickle of European or North American women mate with a few hundred black men in the Caribbean, hundreds of doctoral dissertations, scholarly articles and magazine pieces exhaustively document the phenomenon and completely mislead suggestible people like you. Are you kidding me?
    Incidentally, the studies I have read about sexual tourism usually start off with the assumption that relatively well-to-do Westerners have the upper hand in exchange relationships with Third World hosts. They usually find, to their astonishment, that brown and black people in backward countries are very good at extracting money and favors from Westerners–turning the tables, so to speak. Who is exploiting whom?

  16. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @PLT,

    Thanks for helping me to understand where you are coming from and where you are going with your concerns. Like you, I am a little perturb about the excesses. But you will agree that it is a matter of personal choice and, thank God, from where I sit it is only a minority of revelers that display this extreme behaviour. We do not live in a perfect world and it is an exercise in futility to expect everyone to subscribe to our form of rectitude. Keep working on your personal emancipation. You are in good company.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    Personal choice you say? Then why have public morality laws?

    When does personal morally overlap with public concerns?

    >

  18. Peter Lawrence Thompson Avatar
    Peter Lawrence Thompson

    chad99999, Ahhh now I understand; “hundreds of doctoral dissertations, scholarly articles and magazine pieces exhaustively document the phenomenon” just to completely mislead suggestible people like me. Of course! How could I have missed that 😉

  19. ac Avatar
    ac

    Once a year bajans take the freedom of expression to the streets in celebration of the the festival of crop over not inhibited or influence by the norms or morals of a society that is known to regress and hinder
    The youthfulness of this festival is mostly welcomed and embraced by those who are not bogged down into idealogical spheres of high moral platiudes and girating musical episodes of condemnation but by the youthfulness of a spirit that welcomes and attracts in musical and sensual fashion
    If King David can dance naked in the street and be called one of Gods anointed. Then why must a society when engaging a God given right of freedom expression exhibited by rhythmic and sensuous dancing be censored or ridicule.

  20. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    ACs…..when is elections.

  21. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    ACs….did you attend the Emancipation gathering.

  22. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Boogooyaga
    yaga boogoo yaga yaga
    reggae reggae reggae ..

    https://youtu.be/pDIVQtXF0yQ

  23. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Colourism In Barbados: But You’re Not Even ‘Black’!
    The Sunhead Project · Colourism n: 1 a form of bias based primarily on……

    http://www.sunheadmag.com/2015/12/colourism-in-barbados-but-youre-not-even-black/

  24. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    A sweet, poetic reminder for those of us from the Caribbean, penned by the masterful “Mas Man” . . .Peter Minshall

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157162590755394&set=a.168252490393.247723.791500393&type=3

  25. balance Avatar
    balance

    Peter Lawrence Thompson August 2, 2016 at 9:48 AM #

    chad99999, thanks for telling me a bit about the history of Crop Over. It wasn’t revived in Barbados until 1974 and I left the island in 1975, so my personal experience of it is meagre save for occasional visits over the years. I am certainly not “ashamed of the public display of women’s bodies;” indeed as a feminist, I know that what women do with their own bodies isn’t up to me at all😉. I’m not a Puritan or any kind of religion at all, so I’m not accusing any of these women of sexual immorality.

    I was writing about my own discomfort; seeking the roots of why I found the erotic display of Black bodies for white consumption uncomfortable (there is no doubt that the Crop Over festival was reinvented in ’74 specifically as a tourist attraction). The “white supremacist objectification of all Black bodies” is not gender specific. I knew from childhood that the cornerstones of our tourist industry are Sun, Sand, Sea, & Sex. I knew from then that the sexual tourists were probably mostly women (and this was long before feminism was a social force).

    I am certainly not “blaming men for what women decide to do.” Women have independent minds and deserve to be “unafraid.” Lots of my female friends love to wukkup, as do lots of my male friends. Neither am I relegated to the role of spectator: when I feel like dancing I dance, when I don’t feel like looking I am not a spectator.

    I will, however, draw your attention to how you have described contemporary women: “dominating,” “increasingly depraved,” & “demonstrate their self-importance;” then at the end you sum up all these traits as “mannish.”

    Why are you retreating Mr Thompson?

  26. Peter Lawrence Thompson Avatar
    Peter Lawrence Thompson

    @balance,
    I’m not retreating at all, I just choose not to be drawn into ad hominem invective. I choose instead to try to learn from everything and everyone.

  27. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    It commemorates the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), which legislated the end of slavery in the British Empire in August, 1834.

    Funnily that’s when they started the Opium Wars in China and also went to Africa and other destinations all over with colonialism and racism and apartheid and plantation exploitation on captured land..
    ..
    https://youtu.be/OLRg_UayMa8

  28. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    J.A. Gone Natty

    https://youtu.be/Ajfb97yeuMk

  29. modifikasi motor beat hijau putih Avatar
    modifikasi motor beat hijau putih

    Useful info. Lucky me I found your website by chance, and I am stunned why this twist of fate did not happened earlier! I bookmarked it.

  30. ra1 Avatar
    ra1

    Quote:The 1661 Act, in essence, defined “white” people; this forged the lynchpin of white supremacist ideology in Barbados and across the western hemisphere that persists to this day – by Peter Thompson, Emancipation Dance.

    Peter your definition of “white “people is lacking.What is racism / white supremacy?

    Racism/ White Supremacy
    Racism is a transference neurosis, by which Caucasian (Albino) people are able to overcome their feelings of weakness and inadequacy due to their Albinism, by creating a class even weaker than they. This is accomplished by inducing those feelings in others, through the use of violence, intimation, and abuse. Thus they are able to feel good about themselves, and their condition, through the abuse of those that they have established power and control over.

    All the data and “Common Sense” clearly shows that White Europeans are the “Fixed” Albinos of the original Black Indians (Dravidians) of India, who moved further north to Central Asia & later on to Europe.
    Albinism is a disease (genetic defect of gene regulating melanin) but Europeans seem determined not to admit that.
    Since their ascension to dominance a few centuries ago, the Albinos have sought to write their former Lords ( Blacks Rulers) out of History, and assert that THEY are the “Highest” forms of evolved Humanity.
    They then set about creating a fake world history, placing themselves in the natural position of Blacks as the worlds creator and explorer people, and the natural rulers of the world.
    Europe’s Albinos have invaded and settled every part of the World.
    But Nature has methods for dealing with Humans who try to corrupt the “Natural Order”.
    The problem is that the Central Asian/European Albinos want to ignore their DEFECT: but they can’t, their defect is that they can’t make sufficient melanin, thus – THEY ARE ALBINOS! And the Sun BURNS ALBINOS!
    The articles below provide the evidence.

    A TEN-year-old girl was scarred for life after “misleading” sun cream caused her skin to fry.
    BY HOLLY CHRISTODOULOU 15th/ September/ 2016, The SUN News.
    Quote:
    Mum Caroline Lamb slathered daughter Daisy in the high factor cream confident she would be safe in the pool on holiday thanks to the ‘one hour’ resistance promise.
    But she was horrified when the nine-year-old emerged from the swimming pool in Rhodes, Greece, after less than an hour covered in horrific burns which turned into blisters.

    Surgeon general issues skin cancer warning
    By Caitlin Schmidt, CNN
    July 30, 2014.
    Quote:
    Skin cancer is on the rise, according to the American Cancer Society, with more cases diagnosed annually than breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer cases combined.
    On Tuesday, the United States surgeon general issued a call to action to prevent the disease, calling it a major public health problem that requires immediate action. Nearly 5 million people are treated for skin cancer each year.

    Skin cancer warning as disease rates to double by 2040
    2 JUL 2014 by Alana Fearon ,
    the IRISH MIRROR
    Quote:
    Our ignorance to sun safety is fuelling a skin cancer epidemic the health service won’t be able to cope with, it has been warned.
    A huge 10,000 people are diagnosed with skin cancer in IRELAND every year and that number is expected to double by 2040.
    The high rates mean that one person is diagnosed here every single hour…

    Sun-worshipping Swedes top skin cancer league
    Published 25 maj 2012 ,
    Sophie Vucovic ,Radio Sweden.
    Quote:
    Scandinavian countries have the highest number of skin cancer cases in all of Europe, despite having the most sun-deprived climates. Sweden lekads the Nordic countries, with 45,000 people diagnosed with skin cancer each year. 500 die from the disease annually, in particular from melanoma, which is more than the yearly total of fatalities from road traffic accidents.

  31. ra1 Avatar
    ra1

    Response to Peter.

    The reasons for Black Slavery and Albino Domination of the world

    There is no question that the Albino people of Europe, by way of Central Asia, (the least populous humans): have killed more of the Earths creatures – some to extinction, human and nonhuman – than any other Homo-sapien. Their partial tally – the Tasmanian people are now extinct, millions of original Americans exterminated during the conquest of the Americas. Untold millions of Africans were killed in Africa, fighting to be free, and as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. And untold millions of Blacks were killed in the “Race Wars” falsely reported as “Catholic/Protestant Religious Wars”, for sovereignty over Europe.

    The European Albinos have always been aware of their geographic limitations as regards the sun, so when they conquered “good fertile lands” with moderate Sunshine strength, they did their best to eradicate the native Black and Brown populations right away. Thus native Americans in Canada and the United States were killed-off in a relatively short time, allowing full Albino occupation in short order.
    The Central Asian Albino/European was LIMITED to living in only a small part of the world. The reason for that was simple: in order to feed himself the Albino had to farm. In order to farm he had to spend long hours in the Sun. If he spent long hours in the Sun, he would get severe burns to the skin & SKIN CANCER.

    UV Radiation from the Sun causes genetic damage to cells in the skin,
    if the body is unable to repair this damage then cells can begin to divide and grow in an uncontrolled way, leading to cancer.
    Researchers have found that humans with dark skin pigmentation have skin naturally rich in melanin (especially eumelanin), and have more melanosomes which provide a superior protection against the deleterious effects of ultraviolet radiation. This helps the body to retain its folate reserves and protects against damage to the DNA .

    Experts warn Farmers to avoid prolonged exposure to the Sun.

    “A farmer’s tan is just indicative of significant sun exposure. That directly increases their risk for both non-melanoma skin cancers (basal and squamous), as well as the much more severe melanoma. Combined with the complicated European heritage, farmers see a lot of melanoma,” explained Dr. Vander Zee, reconstructive surgeon at the Helen G. Nassif Community Cancer Center of Iowa .

    Golf, GARDENING and holidays see skin cancer soar: Number of hospital admissions for disease up by 40% in four years 
    By Sophie Borland for the Daily Mail UK
    02 Sep 2014.
    Gardening, golf and package holidays are behind soaring hospital admissions for skin cancer, researchers warn.
    Rates have risen by around 40 per cent in just four years and almost 124,000 now need hospital treatment annually.

    Farmers urged to take precaution with the sun as skin cancer incidents rise
    From FarmingUK
    19 July 2016 .
    Quote : Farmers and gardeners are all being targeted by NHS England South’s “Cover Up, Mate” campaign because of their prolonged exposure to the sun – and men are a particular focus because research indicates that they are much less likely than women to slap on the sunscreen.
    Latest statistics from Cancer Research show that since the late 1970s, skin cancer incidence rates have more than quadrupled (360% increase) in Great Britain.
    The increase is larger in males where rates have increased more than six-fold (544% increase), than in females where rates have more than tripled (263% increase).

    Experts warn Sun exposure lowers folate levels in pregnant women.

    UV exposure found to lower folate levels in young women
    QUT NEWS ,19 March 2014.
    Quote: In a paper titled Exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation is associated with decreased folate status in women of childbearing age, published in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology Biology, Queensland University of Technolgy (QUT )researchers found UV exposure significantly depleted folate levels.
    Professor Michael Kimlin and Dr David Borradale, from QUT’s AusSun Research Lab, said the study of 45 young healthy women in Brisbane aged 18 to 47, showed high rates of sun exposure accounted up to a 20 per cent reduction in folate levels.
    “This is concerning as the benefits of folic acid are well-known, with health professionals urging young women to take a folic acid supplement prior to and during pregnancy,” Professor Kimlin said.
    “Folate has been found to reduce miscarriage and neural tube defects such as spina bifida in unborn babies.

    Expert warn people with blues eyes about risk of eye cancer.

    Blue eyed with fair skin? Then you are more likely to develop eye cancer 
    By Daily Mail Reporter
    22 Aug 2016.
    Quote: Having blue, green or grey eyes and fair skin put you at greater risk of eye cancer, a new study found.

    Higher cancer risk for those with blue eyes
    August 22 2016 , The Times.
    Quote:
    People with blue, green or grey eyes and fair skin are at greater risk of eye cancer, according to new research. The increased risk is linked to pigmentation genes that dictate eye colour. The US study, published in Scientific Reports, is the first to find evidence of a strong association between genes linked to eye colour and the development of uveal melanoma.

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    Dulfy

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