Title: 'Jamaican Folk

Tales and Oral Histories'

Author: Dr Laura Tanna

Reviewed by:

Dr Rebecca Tortello

Anancy's place in Jamaican culture lies in the research of scholars, in the telling of tales from generation to generation, in popular theatre, in song and dance and in popular dialect where the word 'anancy' can be used instead of 'ginnal' to mean someone slightly devious or who uses wit to outsmart others.

One such scholar who has done much to ensure the survival of Jamaican Anancy tales is Dr Laura Tanna. With the re-release of her book, Jamaican Folk Tales and Oral Histories, and the newly updated accompanying DVD and CDs (Jamaican Folk Tales and Maroon Storyteller), Dr Tanna has not only created a valuable teaching package, but by digitising the material, has managed to preserve the vital footage she painstakingly recorded and analyzed over 30 years ago.

Tanna collected this anthology of contemporary Jamaican folk tales in the early 1970s travelling across Jamaica into some of the most remote areas to collect folk tales and record the storytelling, using the technology then available to preserve a dying tradition. Having studied African languages and literature and lived in Africa from the age of 14, where she first became intrigued by African oral traditions, she was well placed to do this research. Indeed, much of the book is based on her dissertation, the Art of Jamaican Oral Narrative Performance.

The book itself is well organised. The style is academic, but readers shouldn't be put off since the accompanying DVD and CDs break down the material, making it more appealing and likely more relevant to a wider audience. Through the entire package, Tanna takes you with her on her journey into a rich aspect of Jamaican oral culture. By writing in the first person and detailing how the tales were collected, she introduces readers to the performers as individuals and gives glimpses of their lives. We meet and get to know people like Miss Adina, Henrietta Barnes and Thomas Rowe and also see the familiar faces and hear the distinct voices of cultural icons, 'Miss Lou' and Ranny Williams.

We learn about the 'River Muma' water spirit and meet a greedy or "cubbitch" girl named Nora who tries to keep all the ackee she collects for herself. Of course, we are also fortunate to spend time with 'Bredda Anancy'. Throughout the book, Tanna breaks down the wide range of oral material she collected by subject, ranging from songs and rhymes to duppy stories and trickster tales. She introduces each subject heading by explaining its origins and relevant historical context. She rounds out the text by including photographs of the storytellers as well as an important glossary for those unfamiliar with Jamaican patois and a useful bibliography.

Having used this material as a student in college when researching my undergraduate thesis which explored the evolution of Anancy tales and their role in Jamaican culture, I know how useful the material is as a window to aspects of Jamaican culture that are in danger of dying out.

I also appreciate how important Tanna's thorough analysis of both the structure and the meanings of the material are because each in their own way represents retentions from African traditions and adaptations to life in a creolised society. The book, DVD and CD set is certainly an important addition to any serious Jamaican cultural scholar's collection.

The deep respect Tanna has for the storytellers who shared their cultural traditions with her resonates in her writing when she shares how she met the performers and how, in many cases, she built lasting relationships with them, and in her use of both patois and standard English. She did not just show up and expect to record the material. Instead, Tanna came prepared to meet and learn about each performer, to meet their families, to better understand their homes and lives so as to be better able to understand their storytelling and its cultural relevance.

She deliberately did not translate the tales into standard English, instead, she preserved their integrity by transcribing them as they were recorded, intending for the reader to read the tale as it was spoken and thereby get a better understanding of how it was actually performed.

Of course, with the DVD and CDs, now those who buy the full set can read, hear and see the tales being presented for themselves and use the book, and Tanna's incisive introductions, to add greater understanding of the language, culture and of the role of oral traditions in Jamaican history.

For me, the highlight of the book is its collection of Trickster or Anancy tales - not only because I have a soft spot for Anancy. I also have great respect for him as a character because I understand that the survival of the trickster tale was not an accident. With his cleverness and unfailing ability to have an answer for every situation, Anancy reminds us that slaves were not ignorant, weak, passive individuals who merely accepted their fate and did nothing to challenge it. Part of Anancy's strength comes from the fact that before transplantation to the West Indies, he was grounded in an ancient African system of belief in a unified world.

On transplantation to the Caribbean these beliefs remained strong and animal trickster tales allowed the slaves to express their wildest fantasies and their deepest anxieties without fear of retribution. Anancy tales were and are measures of self-reliance and self-affirmation. Animal tricksters like Anancy who think like humans and experience human emotions without being treated as such, served to implicitly indict the dehumanising system of slavery.

In conveying the value of oral tradition, Tanna teaches that collecting the telling of a tale on video/DVD, audiocassette/CD or in writing, with or without photographs, can never equal the actual experience of participating in a storytelling session. This book, and accompanying CDs and DVD are as close as one can come. The historical value of this collection cannot be overemphasised.