Jonkunnu
"Jonkonnu is a Jamaican street festival characterised by an entourage of wire screened and costumed male dancers, performing mimed variations on an established repertoire of dance steps and accompanied by small musical corps. During the Christmas holiday in the time of slavery most estates gave people three days of free time. Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day. This was often the only holiday of the year. Jonkunnu performances provided controlled outlets for hostility and aggression as well as for theatrical skills. . .Throughout its development, Jonkunnu reflected its people as a diverse and complex melange of many traditions. Historically it has incorporated masquerade from disparate African nations with those of British mumming plays and even excerpts from Shakespearean monologues. Variations of the festival occur in many Caribbean nations including Belize, St Kitts-Nevis, Guyuana and Bermuda. In no two places are the festivals exactly the same. In Jamaica today, Jonkunnu consists of all male entourages who are either Roots Jonkunnu maskers or Fancy Dress bands. The Roots masqueraders include characters such as Cowhead, Horsehead, Pitchy Patchy, Devil, Warrior and Amerindian. These bands are strongly neo African in style. Fancy Dress bands mainly come from the western Jamaican parishes of St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and Hanover. These costumes show strong European influences incorporating the courtly attire of such characters as kings, queens, and courtiers, but in wildly coloured prints, embellished with plastic flowers and Christmas ornaments. Today most Jonkunnu bands perform on stage. Jonkunnu probably has its origins in West African secret societies. This is apparent in all aspects of the masquerade. However, other influences began to operate fairly early and in addition to the African influence of masquerade there was also the European masquerade tradition. European slave masters actively encourages the Jonkunnu tradition by promoting the festivals on their estates, and some of the European elements came from the slaves imitating and satirising their masters. The bands were first encourages then suppressed by the authorities who increasingly feared slave uprisings. The most serious civil disorders in the year immediately after emancipation was the "John Canoe" riots of 1841 when the Mayor of Kingston banned the Jonkunnu parade. Clashes between bands and the police became frequent and for a long time Jonkunnu was effectively suppressed except in the deep countryside"
Judith Bettelheim Jonkonnu Masquerade

"At Christmas the slaves are allowed three days holiday during which time they are quite at liberty, and have herrings, flour and rum. They dance minuets. . .imitating the motion and steps of the English but with a degree of affection that renders the whole truly laughable and ridiculous. . .A gentleman some years ago was murdered here by his slaves, purely because he obliged them to work on the days appointed for holidays."
Peter Marsden An account of the Island of Jamaica (Newcastle, 1788)

John Who?
The focal character in the festival usually wears a house headdress or horns. This Talawa production employs the spelling used by the playwright, "Jonkunnu" and "maskarade", but there are many other spellings, not to mention opinions on the origin of this intriguing name; John Canoe, John Konno, Johnny Canoe, Jonkunnu, John Canou".

This is one area of Jamaican culture which has provided a rich field for researchers and many explanations have been advanced. The most probable is Frederick Cassidy’s definition in the "Dictionary of Jamaican English" that the word originates from similar sounding words spoken in the Ewe language (of Eastern Ghana and Togo); "Dzono!" (sorcerer) and "kunu" (deadly) and "nu" (man)".
Judith Bettelheim Jonkonnu Masquerade

"It is probably an honourable memorial of John Conny, a celebrated Cabacera, or head of a tribe at Tres Puntus in Axim, on the Guinea coast, who flourished about the year 1720. He bore great authority among the negroes of that district"
Edward Long History of Jamaica (London, 1774)

"Some writer, whose name I forget, says that the house is an emblem of Noah’s ark, and that Jonkanoo means the sacred boat or the sacred dove, in Hebrew or Samaritan: but as I have no pretension to etymology, I leave this subject to the literati"
Cynric R Williams a Tour through the Island of Jamaica (London, 1826)

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