National Library Centenary, part 4

Aug 30, 2009 Features / Columnists, Guyanese Literature

By Petamber Persaud

When last have you played such folk games like ‘farmer in the dell’, ‘coloured girl in the ring’, ‘in and out the bluebells’, ‘wah? who seh wah?’, ‘chi chi, bum bum’, ‘Jane and Louisa’? Forgive me if I sprung that at you, out of the blues. Have you seen such games in action or even heard about them? If your answers are in the negative, then you would have missed a wonderful opportunity to increase you knowledge of and be entertained by those folk games when the National Library, in an enchanting evening, staged ‘Oral Tradition, part 2’ at the City Hall auditorium on Saturday August 22, 2009.
You may ask what folk games have to do with the oral traditions. As explained by Trenton Roach, folk games were very important guides imparting lessons in honesty, sportsmanship, numeracy, literacy, coordination. Folk games were moralistic exercises imparting good triumphing over evil, the need to cooperate, and the importance of family. Many folk games retained the history of a particular time and place and passed it down the ages, many folk games retained and passed down the culture of a particular time and place and very often the message and the moral are still relevant to modern society. The folk games mentioned were performed by the Toucan II Youth Group.
Explanation to the folk dances (Amerindian, European, African, and Chinese) was done by Linda Griffith. The benefits of folk dances were numerous and far reaching. Apart from the retention of peculiar movements, the folk dances encourage exercising, exploration in rhythm, exploration in fabrics, dyes, and painting and were preparations to ward off evil. The dances also portrayed moral tales, lessons by which to survive in a changing environment, lessons in courtship, childbearing, puberty, and other characteristics in the stages of life.
The enchanting evening rolled on into the darker side of our folklore with Gentian Miller talking about jumbie, ole higue and baccoo. (The only element missing in this presentation was a scary story, engaging the audience to a screaming climax.)
A splendid rendition of our folk songs came by way of the Police (Steel) Band and the joint services choir. The Karokwa singers were awesome, enticing the audience to sway and hum along.
The folk game, the folk dance, the folklore, and the folk song, all functioned in the underpinning role of retention and dissemination, education and entertainment. Put together, ‘Oral Tradition, part 2’, was indeed an enchanting evening.
The National Library in this its centenary year continues to supply the answers by empowering the nation through literacy. Although the library is an institution dealing with printed material, it is cognisant of the role played by the oral traditions; much of the printed material came out of the oral traditions and both the oral traditions and the library have similar roles.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

What’s happening:
• The Guyana Annual magazine is inviting entries to its eight literary competitions namely Open Story and Open Poetry, Youth Story and Youth Poetry, Henry Josiah Writing Story for Children, Rajkumari Singh Writing Poetry for Children, Martin Carter Essay (under 13), Egbert Martin Poetry (under 13) and to its art and photography competitions. Closing date for entries is September 30, 2009. For further information, please contact me via above.
• Be a part of the centenary celebrations of the National Library; see press for details. Make a tangible contribution by submitting relevant photo and recollections for possible publication in the Centenary Souvenir Magazine.

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National Library Centenary, part 4

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