New and Old World Intersections of Music, Religion, and Culture

The trickster deity in West Africa, Esu, was reformulated in parts of the New World as Legba (also known as Elegguá, Eshu, Elegbara), who in the Yoruba pantheon stands at spiritual crossroads and has power over fortune and misfortune:

At a crossroads in the history of the Yoruba gods, when each wished to find out who, under God, was supreme, all deities made their way to heaven, each bearing a rich sacrificial offering on his or her head. All save one. Eshu- Elegbara, wisely offering the deity of divination with a sacrifice, had been told by him what to bring to heaven—a single crimson parrot feather (ekodide), positioned upright upon his forehead, to signify that he was not to carry burdens on his head. Responding to the fiery flashing of the parrot feather, the very seal of supernatural force and ashe (life force), God granted Eshu the force to make all things happen and multiply (Thompson, p. 18)

In a number of Caribbean communities, Esu is known as Elegguá, especially among the Lucumí, a Yoruban people of Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Elegguá's colors are red and black, and according to Sublette, he's always the first and last to be saluted in a ceremony (p. 215). Elegguá inspires musical ceremonies in the Santeria tradition, as seen here:

It was with this power over fortune and misfortune that Legba appeared in African-American culture at the crossroads, serving as an intermediary between the spirit world and humanity. Perhaps the most famous American example comes from the great bluesman, Robert Johnson:

I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees 

I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees 

Asked the Lord above “Have mercy, now save poor Bob, if you please”

Standin’ at the crossroad, tried to flag a ride 

Ooo eeee, I tried to flag a ride 

Didn’t nobody seem to know me, babe, everybody pass me by

Standin’ at the crossroad, baby, risin’ sun goin’ down 

Standin’ at the crossroad, baby, eee, eee, risin’ sun goin’ down 

I believe to my soul, now, poor Bob is sinkin’ down

     

The crossroads legend of the American South appears to be consistent with the Yoruba myth. It is unsurprising that in the historical context of the early twentieth century, when African cultural memory was less remote, this legend captured the imaginations of Robert Johnson, Peetie Wheetstraw, and other bluesmen who would, in turn, adopt it as part of their musical persona. Robert Johnson obsessed over “the forces against him,” expressing his fixation and sense of resignation in “Hellhound On My Trail,” “Me and The Devil Blues,” and “Crossroads Blues,” (Barlow, p. 49; Palmer, p. 127). In Robert Johnson’s blues, the Devil is “the ultimate trickster,” according to Barlow (p. 49). Tommy Johnson also met the trickster Devil at a crossroads under a full moon, and made a Faustian “covenant with [the Devil],” for which he was granted skill and fame (Barlow, p. 41; Palmer, p. 113). Peetie Wheatstraw claimed to be “the High Sheriff of Hell” and “the Devils son-in-law.” Notably, as the Devil, Esu/Legba in its New World incarnation was more a trickster than the Christian concept of Satan, and served a role as overseer and inspirer of the art of interpretation, as “ultimate master of potentiality” with “the force to make all things happen and multiply” (Floyd, p. 74; Thompson, p. 18-19).

Bibliography

Barlow, W., 1989. Looking Up At Down: The Emergence of Blues Culture, Temple University Press.

Floyd Jr., S.A., 1996. The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States, Oxford University Press, USA.

Palmer, R., 1982. Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta, Penguin

Sublette, N., 2007. Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, Chicago Review Press. 

Thompson, R.F., 1984. Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy, Vintage.

Notes on Mintz: Slavery, Forced Labor and the Plantation System

Nearly all Caribbean slaves were allocated for needs of large-scale agriculture, especially for production of subtropical commodities: sugar, coffee, and spices. Slavery was totally bound up in the spread of European military and colonial power. For the slave, the past provided symbolic and material resources to draw upon, and this creative process had a two-way character, which was especially manifest in music. According to Ralph Ellison: “American culture was, even before the official founding of the nation, pluralistic; and it was the African’s origin in cultures in which art was highly functional which gave him an edge in shaping the music and dance of the nation.” “When speaking of African-American cultures, we speak of disturbed pasts; the glory of African-Americana inheres in the durable fiber of humanity.” (Mintz)

A wide range of racial dialogues can be found across the 50 islands of the Antilles. Perception of race differences by the majority, as seen in the United States, has not functioned the same way in the Caribbean, where problems of race have been embedded in wider questions about colonial exploitation.

Three crudest yet most important ways in which Caribbean politics differ from North America: 1) colonialism of region 2) smallness of its societies 3) predominance of nonwhites

The smallness of these societies and the distance between them have always mitigated against an integrated economic or political development, even in the face of commonly felt needs.

Their frontiers is the islands were carefully closed to free men whenever possible, to prevent ‘uncontrolled development.’ Spain saw no effective challenge to its dominance in the Caribbean until 1625. The fallout of this first unchecked Spanish phase of colonialism was an almost complete destruction of the native population and the establishment of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The metropolises on the Caribbean islands were not only ports of trade, but centers of a particular form of agro-industrial enterprise.  

Mintz notes several important facts of Caribbean slavery:

1)    Caribbean slavery shared much with other parts of the colonial New World, but much less with other forms of slavery. Primary function was to be manual laborers engaged in production in excess of consumption, various market commodities.

2)    Slavery was an answer to a felt need for labor. There was abundant land and a severe labor scarcity

3)    There were many periods where slavery and other forms of labor coercion were scarcely distinguishable

4)    Caribbean history is mostly African but also yellow, red, brown and white history

5)    Servile resistance took many forms

Bibliography

Eltis, D. & Richardson, D., 2010. Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Yale University Press.

Mintz, S.W., 1988. Caribbean Transformations, Columbia University Press.