Times of the Islands Summer 2022

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
However, the true origins of Junkanoo have been
shrouded in mystery with multiple prevailing theories
and stories. According to oral tradition, Junkanoo was
supposedly named after west-African chief John Canoe
and began as a masquerade in The Bahamas around the
17th century. Enslaved Africans would cover their faces
under a flour paste and celebrate on Boxing Day (the day
after Christmas). Over time, the flour paste was replaced
by masks and eventually face paint.
The most popular legend about the origin of
Junkanoo states that John Canoe, a former African tribal
chief, requested permission from colonial powers for the
enslaved to have a day off to celebrate. Another popular
theory is that John Canoe was a powerful slave trader
and Junkanoo originated as a celebration of the enslaved
mimicking their slave masters.
The story of Junkanoo in the Turks & Caicos Islands
(TCI) is also shrouded in mystery and controversy. The
TCI celebration of Masses or Massin’ is also a masquerade
tradition of African roots, celebrated in islands around
Christmas and New Year’s. David Bowen (“A Celebration
of the Masses,” Times of the Island Spring 2008) states
that Massin’ draws on a combination of West African
ancestry roots and mimicry of former slave masters costume
balls. The celebration of Massin’ is very similar to
the historic accounts of Junkanoo in The Bahamas.
One of the earliest written accounts of this celebration
was recorded in the journal of Methodist Reverend
W. Dowson, who landed on Grand Turk on December 25,
1811. He wrote: “I have never before witnessed such a
Christmas Day; the Negroes have been beating their tambourines
and dancing the whole day and now between
eight and nine o’clock they are pursuing their sport as
hotly as ever.” He then goes on to say, “I mentioned the
dissipation of the Negroes (to a Presbyterian clergyman)
as a thing which greatly pained my mind; but he made
light of it and apologized for them saying, ‘The week of
Christmas is the only time in the whole year in which
to be merry and I am pleased to see them enjoy themselves.’”
Despite the celebration of Massin’ in the TCI,
Kitchener Penn was hired to organise the first Junkanoo
festival in the TCI in the 1980s. However, the celebration
that was organized was a Bahamian-styled festival. This
is probably based on Penn’s time spent in The Bahamas
and his membership in the Junkanoo group The Saxons.
This vintage photo shows a Junkanoo Parade in Nassau circa 1965.
For more fascinating images, go to vintagebahamas.com.
The origins of Junkanoo in The Bahamas, as well as all
the commemorations throughout the Americas, have been
a long-debated mystery and by the mid-19th century the
namesake was lost in translation. Bahamian Researcher
and founder of the Sankofa Flamingo Organization,
Christopher Davis, says that most Bahamians never truly
bought into the proverbial paternalistic and bigoted
accounts of Junkanoo. Accounts on the origins of these
inextricably connected commemorations around the
African Diaspora are typically tainted by the overtly racist
way of life and opinions of the authors. This ranges
from recorded accounts in personal diaries like plantation
owner Charles Farquharson’s account in 1832 on
Watlings Island (today’s San Salvador), Bahamas, to genuine
attempts of the documentation of African traditions
as seen with 19th century accounts by Dr. James Sprunt
in North Carolina.
Prevailing theories on the origins of Junkanoo in
The Bahamas are often credited to a European influence;
Junk Enough as said in an 19th century Scottish dialect
or I’cconnu, a French term for unknown people. Other
accounts differ, like Ira B. Reid’s description of the crown-
COURTESY VINTAGE BAHAMAS
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