Jamaican Journey

Our educational journey to Jamaica was mainly about creating a documentary. This documentary was created by Sankofa scholars and Yallahs High School scholars. The topic of it focuses on dancehall music, dances, how they were influenced by African-Americans; as well as how dancehall impacts teenagers in Philadelphia, PA. To find the answers to these questions we researched, compared and contrasted reggae music and hip hop. Luckily, we were able to find the music to not only have a negative impact but a positive one as well! The 3 things that I enjoyed while creating the documentary the most were socializing, educational trips, and lectures presented to us.

During educational trips, dancehall music along with pop and reggae music was performed. I personally related to a performance at Edna Manley College because the guitarist (Dario), as well as the rest of his band, influenced me to expand the types of music I play on my guitar. Sankofa scholars and I had an opportunity to interview Dario. I currently play classical music but after finding out that Dario has been playing the guitar less-time than me; I am convinced that I can play reggae, as well as, other music genres in which I am interested.

The educational trips were the best that I have ever had in my whole life. One that stands out is the trip to the Bob Marley Museum. I love reggae, especially Bob Marley and his sons. Fortunately, I was able to go to the Bob Marley museum and take a tour of his house while his family was there. I saw 3 Marley sons – Julian, Damien, and Kymani. During the tour I learned some new knowledge about Bob. For example, Bob sold 30 million copies of his Legend album. I also found out that he performed the Smile Jamaica concert with a bullet lodged in his arm.  

While socializing with local Jamaican musicians, I was able to learn information about Jamaican culture from new Jamaican friends. These artists were very intelligent and use a mixture of musical genres to create their own unique positive musical style. They feature reggae and dancehall. The names of these 3 brothers are Joey, Fabin, and Fiddle. They influenced me deeply by sharing some of their positive messages they created as well as letting me share a couple of my raps and information about my guitar playing. The advice the band shared to us was never give up and always believe in yourself no matter what obstacles.

To conclude, I would say that our group learned a vast amount of interesting knowledge. Out of the many experiences I enjoyed going to the Marley museum the most. Although I believe all of our experiences gave us insight into the importance music plays in our lives and the forces that are shaping today’s dancehall scene. 

Messiah Hopson

Purpose

My purpose for being here in Jamaica was to connect with Yallahs High School and to learn about them and to work and create a documentary. When I first came to Yallahs High School I was very nervous and I was afraid that the people wouldn’t like me. But when I met the kids from Yallahs we had got along well and I made about five new friends that day. My three closes friends from Yallahs are Delton, Anthony, Sheldon; I feel that the four of us are really cool.

The most interesting trips to me were the Bob Marley Museum, Reich Falls Waterfall, and last but not least, the Edna Manley College of Performing Arts.

 I felt that the Bob Marley Museum taught me a lot about Bob Marley that I didn’t know. For an example, I didn’t knew that Bob Marley was a Rasta man, that he had 12 children (on record), and he had a goal which was to get his message through to everyone in the world. His goal was to have everyone stop fighting, as well as, stop the war and, last but not least, stop racism.

Another importing trip was when we went to the Reich Falls Waterfall with the Yallahs students. I felt that I was very lucky and blessed to be at a place like that. Being at the Reich Falls Waterfall, I felt like that was the most specular moment in my life.

 When Sankofa and Yallahs took a trip the Edna Manley College of Performing Arts, I felt that after seeing all of those college students’ art work, I should start putting more effort and dedication into my art work and I should start showing my community, as well as the world, my works of art.

The major impact of working with Yallahs High School to do our documentary was that I found out that when you start to work with new people from a whole different side of the world you come to find that you and the person you are next to or even working with is not so different. You even find out that you both have the same style or even the same dances, same rhythm and the same beat to listen to. I feel that this trip to Jamaica has made me a stronger and wiser man.  In addition, this trip makes me feel blessed about what I have back at home in Philadelphia. I will never forget about Jamaica; Jamaica is a part of me now and hopefully one day I will return here to Kingston, Jamaica, especially St. Thomas.

Good night Jamaica, sweet dreams.

By Tavine Lasswell  

Outlook

Day three and again I was awaken up by Sister Kelly this morning and I jumped up as David opened the door.  I felt well rested and ready for action. I also ate a great breakfast.  My day was starting to go well.  By the time I completed eating, it was time to go to church.  When we finally made it to church it only took us about 5 to 10 minutes to get there. The church was white and blue it looked very nice. When we arrived we were welcomed to come inside the church. We went inside the church it was small and hot but besides all of that I really enjoyed being there. I really enjoy the type of music that was played in church I felt that the music was uplifting me in a spiritual in a way. Also when I was listening to the preacher his words really stuck to me. For an example the preacher said if you are in a argument he said don’t feed into it because really your just a reflection of the other person you’re fighting with. At the end of church we were offered drinks and snacks. I feel that no matter where your church is or even how big or small it can be, it is a good place to worship. I feel that Jamaican churches have a strong message to give to their people, as well as, their visitors.  I can’t wait to go to Yallahs High School tomorrow to see my friends and to learn more of the Jamaican language.  

 By Tavine Lasswell

Journal # 7:

Today’s our seventh day in Jamaica. Overall I feel like today went very well. We met up with the Yallahs students and we continued to work our documentaries. My group is mainly focusing on language, and how American slang is similar to Patois. We interviewed one another, and asked interesting questions about our languages. As we were getting our questions together one of the Yallahs students asked us, what the background of our slang language is. Nobody knew, I found that really shocking. I felt like any Jamaican that I have come into contact with knew their culture without a doubt. But the minute we were asked no one really knew. Today everybody seems to be caught up and they don’t see the big picture of things. Our generation doesn’t realize that majority, if not all, the things that we do originate from somewhere in addition they also have some sort of background. I believe it’s becoming a cycle for our communities and our people to forget the past and they forget how many of our traditions came about. I hope that with this documentary, not only will those of us who came will learn something, be affected by it, and pass it on. We need to tell what we learned to others and broaden their thoughts on our culture as a people.

-Briana                                                                                                     

*Final Journal

   I feel that the essential reason for our stay here in Saint Thomas Jamaica, was to not only have an experience of a lifetime, but to open our minds up, to see the many similarities between Jamaican and American culture. During our 12 day stay we experienced many interesting things. Such as, the trips we went on. We visited Kingston and took tours; we also went to the Bob Marley Museum and that was such a great experience. We had a few lectures where people came to us and just gave us a bit of a taste of Jamaican history. We visited colleges, asked great questions and of course we enjoyed our time there. The books that we have read really helped us get a better understanding of Jamaica, and information the struggles this country has been through. On our service days, we visited Yallahs students at Yallahs High School. We worked on our documentaries, by interviewing students and staff. In addition, one of the parts of this experience was our socializing time with the student from Yallahs. We got a chance to go to a local party, where we learned many Jamaican dances. We went to the beach and we connected with one another and that was an enjoyable time. We also went to a waterfall (Reich Falls), I think everyone enjoyed themselves there as the beautiful blue water fell from the top of the rocks. One of the more serious times we had here was watching actual documentaries, this was the most touching part of the trip to me. Service, socializing, and the video footage are the three experiences that I want to place my focus.

   The service days were very hard at times but definitely worth it. The first day we arrived in Jamaica we went straight to Yallahs High School. Instantly we connected with everyone like we already knew each other. And of course, we immediately got to work. We were all put into groups which focused on certain things, such as, music, language, dances, and memorials. Our groups all came up with brilliant ideas on how we can connect Jamaican culture with our own. My group in particular focused on language. How Patois and American slang are very similar. I enjoyed working in my group and learning new things about Patois every day.

   Our socializing days were very delightful from going to the beaches being in the cool blue water, while the sun shone bright on us giving us summer day tans. Also visiting the waterfalls, Reich Falls, it was such a beautiful place. It was one of those times when you can’t believe your eyes. Seeing everyone smiling, laughing, and just having a wonderful time made me warm inside.

After begging and begging and crossing our fingers we finally got a yes that we could go to a local party, which was the birthday party of one of the Yallahs students. Even though there were only a few people there we still made the best of it by attempting to do dance hall moves, and learn new dances, it was quite a night.

   Our third day in Jamaica, we watched a video posted on the internet, titled “Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story”. I felt this video was really touching to me, because of how true I know it was. The video focused on stereotypes and how one story effects a whole nation. For instance, the woman in the video used herself as an example. She began speaking of her childhood, how she grew up in Nigeria, and the memories she had about reading white peoples books and assuming things were supposed to be a certain way based on what she read. She spoke about how people assumed because she was from Africa that she was unfortunate, and inhumane. I found it touching to see how this cycle goes on and on about stereotypes. People believe that “one story” sets all stories for everyone. I don’t think it matters about the color of someone’s skin, their gender, attire, the way they speak, act, or where they are from. One shouldn’t judge another based on the things I just mentioned. I think it's cruel, irrelevant, and unjustifiable. The cycle of the stereotypes needs to stop.

   To sum up, this experience in Jamaica has been life changing and adventurous. I’m so thankful that out of all God’s children, he chooses me to be able to see the things I saw on this trip. My perspective of many things has changed and I can definitely say I have learned above and beyond. I can’t wait to share the knowledge I have gathered with the world. Hopefully I can have the same effect on someone else life.

-Briana

Happy and Excited

When I first knew I was coming to Jamaica I was excited, and happy, to be going on this trip. Then people started telling me stories about Jamaica; the one stories about Jamaica. We watched a documentary about Jamaica and it was called “Life in Debt”. The kinds of service we did were connecting with the Yallahs High School students and the Sankofa Elementary
 School. However, when we were at the villa, (Carleva Bay), we were visited by some young singers, by the name of Joe, Fabian, and Romaine; they were a music group called L-Rose. Another person that came to visited us was Sister Marcia Williams and her daughter Christen; they were a part of helping to maintain Jamaican culture.

            When we first watched the documentary about the “single story” and the video “Life in Debt”, I found them to be very interesting.   I felt like the “Life and Debt” video stuck with me because now I can put some interesting things in the documentary that we are doing with the students from Yallahs High School.

The video started by saying that when visitors come into Jamaica they don’t know that the economic value of a dollar is down and they don’t think of how much an American dollar is worth.

Then we saw a video about the “single story”. The “single stories” or “one story” are all I kept hearing about when I was preparing to come to Jamaica.  A “single story” is like bad or disturbing images that people have on a different country or city. For example i, people were telling me that Jamaicans steal, pick pocket, kidnap you and they don’t like Americans. Now that I’m here it’s not even like that; the people here are very welcoming.

Scholars of Sankofa Learning Center playing drums for us.  They were outstanding!

            We came to Jamaica to meet the Yallahs High School students that we are in partnership for our service project. When they saw us, they were more excited than we were. We got to know them and got straight to our project and formed our groups. The groups formed were: how does music affects us in a positive or negative way. The other group formed is; how are Jamaican memorials different from Philly. Next there was a group on how dance was evolved over time. The last group formed was how Patois is different and why from English. By the end of the day it was like we knew them for five years.

Founder of Sankofa Learning Center, Sandra Kenton-Fraser with the first three Scholars of the School

            Another reason why this trip was such a great experience was because we had some visitors come to the Villa (Carleva Bay Villa). Some of the people that visited us was a music group by the name of ‘’L Rose” and they were wonderful. They told us the reason they do music is to connected with the younger children and show them that it’s another way to the top of the mountain. The other visitor was a sister by the name of Marcia and her daughter Christen. They talked to us about how dances evolved over time and how it is a part of their culture. The dance they were teaching us are similar to the dances we do in Philly. Then she said most of these dances came out of Africa. That was a very interesting point.

            My time with the younger Sankofa Elementary students impacted my life a lot and now I can motivate my younger siblings to do better. However, when the music group came to us they gave me a lot of inspiration. Such as you don’t always have to give a message though song you can also do it through the beats. In my eyes this was a great experience and this will stick with me as l evolve into a man.        

-Shyheim Ladson

Special Day

My day for the most part went well. When I first woke up my sprit felt good. It’s just something about today that I felt good about. So I’m feeling good waiting for the bus to come so we can go to the Yallas High School. When we get there, we jump straight into our groups that we formed to do our documentary. One of the topics that Brother David was talking about was the book Black to the Roots. He was discussing what the author was saying and, how the big music companies were trying to take over the black owned independent companies. We were saying that when the black company first started out they needed to get known so all the big time artist could come and sign a contract with them. By the big companies doing all that the money is going to the big company and not the black independent and their artist are not getting the amount of money they want. Another thing the big company did was change the artist style up to negative because that’s the only thing people were listening to.

Then the other topic was the dances they do in Jamaica. Some of the dances they do are much similar to ours, but they are a little faster. Jamaicans believe that dances are a part of their life. When they dance it make them closer to god. They also believe that dancing brings their community together and it connects the youths with other youths because when a group battles another group they teach each other their dance moves after they finish battling. But their dance moves change up every week or so. Sometimes they see this as building up their community. The way we might do community building is we might have a block party.

Shyheim