Gales Point Malanti Da Kriol Kolcha Kapital
In tonight’s episode of Kolcha Tuesday, we look at the community of Gales Point Manatee and the work being done by residents and cultural activists to safeguard the rich heritage of the Kriol people. Ahead of the annual Bruk Dong Bram, we focus on the African drumming that has come to define Gales Point’s musical sensibilities and how the community has banded together to safeguard its unique heritage. Here’s News Five’s Isani Cayetano with that story.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Preserving the rich and vibrant Kriol culture in Gales Point Village is Emmett Young’s life mission. Since his childhood many decades ago, he has been deeply rooted in the West African practices of his forebears. They were escaped slaves who handed down much of what we know today about this people through oral tradition. Instrumental in the history of the Kriols in Gales Point Manatee is African drumming.
Emmeth Young
Emmeth Young, Kriol Drummer
“If you notice, we have four drums here, but we have two jembehs and we have the dun-dun or the goombay. This big one, traditionally in the Kriol culture would be called a goombay. Me, I use the dun-dun, and this one is kinkini. Actually these drums are played with sticks or with hand, but traditionally we’ve been playing them with sticks because they are originally from West Africa and a family of three.”
Accompanying the polyrhythmic drumbeats is the call and response, a compositional technique, often a succession of two distinct phrases that works like a conversation in music. This style is also typical of African tradition. Leading the call is Shelly Andrewin.
Shelly Andrewin
Shelly Andrewin, Kriol Singer
“Anywhere that I am and I hear my drums from afar, I always want to just come, it calls me and I see that it’s been calling many people. As long as you hear we’re about to have a Sambai, we don’t have to call people to the Sambai, the drum will start rattling and everybody is coming out. So I say it’s an ancestral thing that the drums are pretty unique. Mein, that’s what I think about the music. And the songs, call and response, I am a caller of the song and every time I call, I hear the response of the people because if I’m calling and there are like two hundred people or so, everybody is answering me. The feeling that I get, well everybody gets because I’m looking at everyone and everybody is just screaming and just acting up and it’s like spiritual.”
Enslaved Africans brought call and response music with them to the Americas and it has been spread over the centuries in various forms of cultural expression, including religious observance. Sambai is the most unique aspect of Kriol culture in Gales Point, a tradition considered a fertility dance and occurs during the full moon cycle.
Emmeth Young
“We have the Sambai drum which is called the cutta and we have the bass drum, the bigger one and some people call the big one, the bass one Segundo, but the lead one kutta, or kutta and bass. But over the years, I’ve been teaching youths and I realize that there is a lot more to drumming and I needed to evolve.”
That evolution did not only include the further development of drumming. Sambai has also transitioned from a fertility ritual to a social event that encourages the participation of many.
Shelly Andrewin
“About the culture and dance, the Sambai dance, specifically, the kids couldn’t do it. We couldn’t do it. That’s why we are doing it today, it used to be a fertility dance but now not anymore because I am trying, or at least we’re trying to teach the youths and kids to preserve the culture. Back then, I couldn’t dance because it was a fertility dance, it was a courtship dance.”
Gone are the days when children were not allowed to participate in the Sambai, a solitary dance that was originally performed by men. Today, it can also be presented by women. The dancer enters a ring of drummers to perform, and when finished points to another person who dances next. Beyond its rich cultural heritage, Gales Point has also embraced outsiders, teaching them how to live in peace and harmony.
Jason Altschaft
Jason Altschaft, Chairman, Gales Point Village
“First off, I have to say the community took me in from the late nineties and taught me so much about myself by showing me their culture. It’s very rewarding to learn how to live life as humans and a lot of times, in the extra world, you forget, so when you come down and you get to celebrate activities that are so rootsy as your culture, your drums, your stories that are coming out of these same drums. You learn a lot, you appreciate a lot, you see stuff that you really haven’t gathered. So I want to preserve that as much as possible.”
Isani Cayetano for News Five.
