African American Gaelic communities in Nova Scotia

[Bill.]

I know what you’re thinking. He’s finally lost it. Time to put the old sod out to grass.

The following is an Extract from Rudyard Kipling’s story “Captain Courageous”. I’m afraid the language, in this day and age, and the attitudes it represents, are considered racist. I do not wish to cause offence, but it leads to some interesting history that I was completely unaware of.


The cook was a huge, jet-black negro, and, unlike all the negroes Harvey had met, did not talk, contenting himself with smiles and dumb-show invitations to eat more.

"See, Harvey," said Dan, rapping with his fork on the table, "it's jest as I said. The young an' handsome men - like me an' Pennsy an' you an' Manuel - we 're second ha'af, an' we eats when the first ha'af are through. They're the old fish; and they're mean an' humpy, an' their stummicks has to be humoured; so they comefirst, which they don't deserve. Ain't that so, doctor?"

The cook nodded.

"Can't he talk?" said Harvey, in a whisper.

"'Nough to git along. Not much o' anything we know. His natural tongue's kinder curious. Comes from the in'ards of Cape Breton, he does, where the farmers speak home-made Scotch. Cape Breton's full o' niggers whose folk run in there durin' aour war, an' they talk like the farmers - all huffy-chuffy."

"That is not Scotch," said "Pennsylvania." "That is Gaelic. So I read in a book."


The truth, is stranger than the fiction. I am indebted to a Mudcat member Sandt McLean for the following:

The character of the black cook in Kipling's Captains Courages was based on two real people, identical twin brothers John and George Maxwell from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. They both spoke Gaelic as their mother tongue and both were great Gaelic singers. These two men worked on the salt bank schooners . Before Kipling wrote his book he sailed on a schooner to the Grand Banks fishing ground and based his novel , although fiction, on some real life people. John and George were sons of a runaway slave who escaped from a plantation to Cape Breton, where the common language of the day was Gaelic. That was the enviroment in which these brothers were raised.


“Captain Courageous” was published in 1897. I am fascinated to find out that Gaelic speaking (and singing) African Americans lived in Nova Scotia.

A little more research indicated that literally thousands of slaves and ex-slaves arrived in Nova Scotia as refugees, most notably after the war (with the British) of 1812. And the American Civil War (1861 – 1865).

I am also finding increasing numbers of references and accounts of Gaelic speaking African American communities in the South, and particularly the Carolinas. Also it is reported that in both America and Canada a number of Native Americans and half casts also spoke various version of Gaelic. Some of them apparently for considerable periods after the native Gaelic speakers had left their settlements.

I’m getting increasingly confused! My understanding of how the language travelled to America, and how it survived/flourished/died out is diversifying rapidly into areas I am completely unfamiliar with. I’d be interested to know if anyone else has come across other references, or point me in the direction of some decent texts on the subject.

I can’t help but wonder if anyone has found anything on nineteenth century “Afro-Celts” Besides the Kipling I’ve only come across two other passing references to black Gaelic musicians.

Bill

[Debs]

Hi Bill

I'm not sure which of your two threads posted today I'm replying to, or whether I even understand the concepts you've made me think about, but I did a quick web search and found some stuff that should provide me with enough reading for the next month!! You knew I'd bite on this one!

There are so many compelling and intriguing links between the keywords 'Gaelic' - 'Celtic' - 'African' - 'American' that I can't even begin to get my head round. I don't think I even got to the word 'Nova Scotia'. If you make sense of this lot before me, let me know!! []

A look at the roots of many of those who settled in North Carolina (one for Erika when she’s back on line):
http://www.dalhousielodge.org/Thesis/scotstonc.htm

Do a word search of “Gaelic” at the start of the text:
http://www.tulane.edu/~ling/LSoRB/Proc/Mufwene.html

Go to the heading “From Soisgeul to Gospel” – “the roots of Gospel music lie in the Outer Hebrides” (This is a very interesting article from the local paper in Uist - I hope it helps with your quest for black Gaelic musicians!) ***
http://www.uistonline.com/local_news_oct03.htm

“Gaelic-speaking shepherds who left Ogham inscriptions in what is now Colorado...... (word search 'Gaelic' again!):
http://members.aol.com/abaselama/moshakia.htm

Have a look at part 9 “Africans” amongst others (this looks to be a VERY significant resource - actually, on closer inspection, it blows me away!)
http://www.grazian-archive.com/History/

The word 'creole' keeps cropping up too. Afro Celts - what a concept.

Cheers Bill - not sure whether to thank you for cramming my head with concepts I can't grasp properly though! [8D]

Debbie

*** This is incredible, it tells of a runaway slave in Carolina 'who spoke only Gaelic'....

[Bill.]

Debbie,

You are rigt it is extraordinary, especially when taken in conjunction with the paper from that conference in Virginia we talked about back in October.

It also puts the 'Old Country' in an interesting light.

Michael Newton's paper is frankly the best thing I've read on the subject, and, for me, starts to pull a lot of the disparate threads together. Being a proper academic paper it has an excellent bibliography.

This is one hell of a story. I think we're only beginning to hear it properly.

Thanks for the links though.....I'm building up an impressive backlog.

Bill

[Bill.]

A nice Musical references from the Virginia conference:

Highlanders in the American South seldom overcame the practices and values of slave-holding society, however. Their slaves, being members of a Highland community, also spoke Gaelic. Lady Liston, wife of the British minister in Washington, wrote in the late eighteenth century, “The Gallic language is still prevalent amongst them, their Negroes speak it, and they have a clergyman who preaches in it.” John Sinclair wrote in 1872, “I have met with a number of coloured people who speak the Gaelic as well as if they had been raised in any of the Hebrides.” Sinclair himself was minister to the freed slaves of Harnett County, and some black churches continued to use Gaelic in religious services well after the abolition of slavery. Some African musicians were acknowledged masters of Highland music, such as fiddler John “Jack” McGeachy who lived in Robeson County, North Carolina from 1769 to 1869.


From a text presented at the Highland Settlers Conference
Virginia Historical Society and University of Richmond November 6, 2003 by Michael Newton.


Wouldn't you just give your eye teeth to hear how Jack McGeachy played...


Bill

[rosesandlace]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Bill.

The truth, is stranger than the fiction. I am indebted to a Mudcat member Sandt McLean for the following:

The character of the black cook in Kipling's Captains Courages was based on two real people, identical twin brothers John and George Maxwell from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. They both spoke Gaelic as their mother tongue and both were great Gaelic singers. These two men worked on the salt bank schooners . Before Kipling wrote his book he sailed on a schooner to the Grand Banks fishing ground and based his novel , although fiction, on some real life people. John and George were sons of a runaway slave who escaped from a plantation to Cape Breton, where the common language of the day was Gaelic. That was the enviroment in which these brothers were raised.


“Captain Courageous” was published in 1897. I am fascinated to find out that Gaelic speaking (and singing) African Americans lived in Nova Scotia.

A little more research indicated that literally thousands of slaves and ex-slaves arrived in Nova Scotia as refugees, most notably after the war (with the British) of 1812. And the American Civil War (1861 – 1865).

I am also finding increasing numbers of references and accounts of Gaelic speaking African American communities in the South, and particularly the Carolinas. Also it is reported that in both America and Canada a number of Native Americans and half casts also spoke various version of Gaelic. Some of them apparently for considerable periods after the native Gaelic speakers had left their settlements.

I’m getting increasingly confused! My understanding of how the language travelled to America, and how it survived/flourished/died out is diversifying rapidly into areas I am completely unfamiliar with. I’d be interested to know if anyone else has come across other references, or point me in the direction of some decent texts on the subject.

I can’t help but wonder if anyone has found anything on nineteenth century “Afro-Celts” Besides the Kipling I’ve only come across two other passing references to black Gaelic musicians.

Bill

---

Just popped in ~ haven't been here in a while. This is a most interesting post Bill. To the best of my knowledge, I don't remember studying that there was any slavery ever went on in Cape Breton, especially in the Gaelic communities. Have never heard of Gaelic speaking Negros on the Island either. We do have a Negro community in a suburb of Sydney but I don't think their history has any Celtic references in it. I have heard of that novel but have never read it. There is a tie between Nova Scotia and New Orleans. The French were expelled by the English when they took control of the Province (forget the date at the moment)and alot of the French Acadian settlers ended up in New Orleans when they fled to the US.

That is not to say thought that there were a couple of Negro stow aways who ended up on farms in the Gaelic heartland of Cape Breton. It would be interesting to know if this actually happened!

Barb

[jwl868]

Bill

I found your original post interesting, and I read through that first link that Debbie provided. I was also waiting to see what Barb had to say, since she lives there.

The destination of many fugitive slaves was Canada. (The Fugitive Slave Act did not make the North necesarily safe.) Safe passage north required interaction with safe houses (the Underground Railroad). A Gaelic-only-speaking fugitive slave might have a tough go of it because they could not speak English, but with a bilingual conpanion, making it to Canada could have been realized (as it often was). Once in Canada, they may have heard of the Gaelic-speaking community in Nova Scotia, and moved on to there, particluarly if Gaelic was their first or only language. (Likewise, after the Civil War, Gaelic-speaking former slaves may have sought out Nova Scotia.)

But not knowing English would be a severe disadvantage for fugitive slaves, or any other African-American, for that matter.

But, language is acquired. A Gaelic-speaking slave owned by a Gaelic-speaking master is no more unusual than an English-speaking slave owned by an English-speaking master. And it is really no more unusual than any other immigrant to the USA learning English.

Joe

[Bill.]

Barb, Joe, It would be amazing if you could shed any light on this.


Here's a couple of other sources relating to migrations to the Nothern British Territories from the South.

I also found references to plantation owners moving to Nova Scotia, and bringing their black servants with them. Although not technically slaves in the Northern British Territories, these 'servants' were termed 'Bonded Servants'. The subtlety of this distinction was apparently negligable to those on the receiving end.

I have absolutely no idea as to the prevalence of Gaelic amongst these refugees. I imagine many would have had more than one language.

I've also read that some of the gaelic speaking slaves ended up in the West Indies!

The Migration Extracts:

By 1779, the British saw another reason for luring slaves from the plantation. Their departure from rebel-owned estates would seriously undermine the southern platation's economy. British extended their offer of freedom to include grants of land and provisions to the former slaves once the rebellion was defeated. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 slaves had taken refuge behind British Lines. By the summer of 1782, it became evident that the Americans were winning the war and the British began to make preparations for their departure.
They left a number of blacks behind as they retreated, who were recaptured into slavery. Other Black Loyalists were resettled in Florida, the West Indies, and British North America ( Canada). More than 3,500, the largest group of Black Loyalists, were transported to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

With a population of more than 2,500, Birchtown Nova Scotia became the largest settlement of free blacks outside Africa. There were 649 male heads of families in Birchtown during the muster of 1784. Out of bureaucratic incompetence and racial inequality, only 184 heads of families received the promised crown land. Their granted lands measured and average of 34 acres. Other Black Loyalists settled communities at Port Mouton (Later Liverpool); Brindy Town (Near Digby); Tusket & Greenville (Near Yarmouth); Little Tracadie (Guysbourough County); Preston (Halifax County), Annapolis Royal, Halifax and Saint John, New Brunswick

Something similar seems to have gone on after the 1812 war The following comes from the public records office:

New regulations for rationing refugee Negroes were established by Lieutenant-Governor Dalhousie late in 1816. Only the Negroes who had been sent by Admiral Cochrane since April 1815, were to be considered refugees. Three principal depots for rations (which were to cease June 1, 1817) were established at Halifax, Nine Mile River, Preston. Negroes at Hammond's Plains, Preston, Refugee Hill (St. Margaret's Bay Road), Waterloo Farm (Colchester Road), and on lands of individual proprietors were to continue to receive rations if they had been receiving them up to this date. But there were to be no rations for Negroes idling on the streets of Halifax unless there were too infirm to settle. A full weekly ration was to consist of 7 pounds of biscuit, 4 10/16 pounds of pork, 2 pounds of rice. and each child a third ration. Richard Inglis, Clerk of the Commissariat Department, was to superintend the issue of rations.
Return of Negroes made by Richard Inglis, Dec. 30, 1816
Where Settled Men Women Child'n Total
Preston 319 257 348 924
Hammond's Plains 201 131 172 504
Refugee Hill 20 23 33 76
Town of Halifax 50 28 37 115
590 439 590 1,619
(It seems safe to say that at least 1,700 to 2,000 refugee negroes came to Nova Scotia after the (1812) war, and stayed in the province.

The bit of the Kipling extract that caught my attention was:

quote:

---

Comes from the in'ards of Cape Breton, he does, where the farmers speak home-made Scotch. Cape Breton's full o' niggers whose folk run in there durin' aour war, an' they talk like the farmers - all huffy-chuffy."

---

If there is any truth in this, and if does tie in at all with the sources I have taked extracs from, above then 'The Cook' of the story may not be an isolated case.


There are any number of questions that occur to me if this is indeed the case, for example was anything from the Black Gaelic community fed back into the mainstream Gaelic community.

If there were, as we hear, gaelic musicians and singers amongst the Afro Americams, where did they learn it, did they adapt it in any way and who did they pass it on to?

Given that official recorded history at this time is unlikely to concern itself with this sort of thing, we are, I would imagine, looking for anecdote or extracts from letters, and the good old Oral Tradition.

Could there be, somewhere, Gaelic songs or tunes made by a slave or ex slave? The experiences of the two communities were not that dissimilar. It's an extraordinary thought and might not be that far fetched.

Bill

I'll stick the link to the Conference at the University of Virginia on the Contribution Of Gaelic to American Culture on this thread too.

I know its long, so I downloaded the .pdf file onto my pc to be browsed at leisure. This is a cracker!


http://www.richmond.edu/~mnewton/HSTeachingMaterials.pdf

[ally coll]

Kipling ............Hmm, yes the great story teller, that in it's self may answer your question ,(sorry a bit controversial there!)but as I'm not a great fan of kipling, I'll do some research and let you know when I'm less jet lagged!!

[jwl868]

Bill

As usual, you've made a post that's going to send me to the library for a while []. The liberation of slaves by the British army during the American Revolution is something that I never heard of.

But your questions about Gaelic-speaking African-American communitities looks tough to find out about. If anything, I wonder how long the language survived before they switched to English.

Can't answer your questions, but a broader consideration is the general settling of the Appallachia area by Scots-Irish, who would have brought the Irish and Scottish musical traditions with them. This would dilute any particular influence by the Highlanders settling, I suppose, making it difficult to point in the direction of any songs origin and influence.

I agree that anecdotal information would be the best source of information.

The song Lakes of Pontchartrain is credited with being from the south. Hard to tell the heritage of the writer, although (and assuming the writer wrote from experience) I've always imagined that the story being told in the song is by a non-American, maybe a sailor. (The reference to foriegn money.) (Timing's everything - it could be former British soldier, after the revolution or War of 1812.)



I did download that link to read later. (What a file)

Gotta run.


Joe

[Bill.]

Seems there are some "Negro" song collections from Nova Scotia. Annyone know anything about these?

Negro Songs - C. Miscellaneous items re: black music and narratives collected by Helen Creighton and others; includes article entitled “Music of the Blacks” by Helen Creighton - ca. 1969, report on black music taped by Marvin Burke for the Canadian Folk Music Society - 1967, “Negro Music in Nova Scotia,” Tape 1 collected by Marvin Burke - 1967. MG 1 Vol. 2803 no. 16

Bill

[Bill.]

For those who might have a passing interest in this thread or the "Oral Tradition" in general and how it can sometimes work; a brief update:

It turns out that the Kipling Character originally mentioned was based on a real life person called John Maxwell, who with his twin brother, was adopted by a Gaelic speaking Nova Scotian sea captain.

There has been a thread on the Oral Tradition over on Mudcat which has developed on this and other connections.

Out of the blue, one of John Maxwell's grandsons has just posted to the thread, recognising the family history, and looking for further contacts. It turns out another of the 'real life' cook's descendants plays in a N.S. band, and is a friend of one of the other Mudcat thread contributors.


Debbie,

I've just finished "Tales from Barra" by The Coddy. I found the introduction by John Lorne Campbell, particularly interesting, particularly his reasons for going to collect gaelic songs in Nova Scotia.

For me it more than ever underlines the importance of the oral tradition in preserving history. It makes you realise just what is being lost, and the role of Gaelic, language and culture, in preserving a history that would otherwise be lost. I found it also puts the music into a persective I had hadn't altogether appreciated.


Bill

[tateamator]

Hi Bill!
I'm glad you added something to this thread. I am left wondering....

HOW DID I MISS THIS THREAD BEFORE????

Actually, I was away with my husband who was very sick -- that's how I missed it. I've got some catch up reading to do with all those links. This kind of thing fascinates me. I would have "bit" right away too had I of seen this.

Erika

[Bill.]

Erika,

Sorry to hear about your husband. I very much hope he is on the mend.

If you do 'catch up' please do let us know, 'cause if you are interested, there are whole rafts of history I certainly had no inkling of, that have come to light through discussions like this thread and people investigating snippets of family anecdote. I'd love to find out what you could add to this. The Carolinas are very much at the heart of many of these episodes.

One of the things I picked up on Reading 'The Coddy' collection is that stories about people about who actually existed, are now often re-told out of their original context, (social, location) and it is too easy for the real significance of such snippets of family history to be lost. I have long felt that the personal experiences related in songs, stories and poetry, are a far more accurate portrail of historical events, rather than those rather remote scenarios 'explained' in the text books I was obliged to read at school.

The 'real' events, I feel, were far more confusing and chaotic than the written history leads us to believe. How individuals survived wars, famines, emmigration, and everything else that fortune threw at them is where I find endless fascination. The level of uncertainty that they must have lived with must have been indescribable. We worry about our pension funds or the type of bread available in the shops.

I find it an extraordinary thought that had I listened a little more closely to what my grandmother had to say about what her grandmother had told her, I would have been listening to the words of someone who had witnessed events in the 1850s.

I't would be great to hear from you, and anyone else interested who is reading this. There have to be some amazing stories tucked away in those family histories which may or may not have started in, or been influenced by, Scotland.


Bill

[Debs]

Hi Erika

I'm glad your hubby is much better now - this place isn't the same without you. []

Hi Bill - I'm waiting to get hold of a copy of the Coddy's 'Tales Of Barra' - it sounds very good.

I still haven't finished Margaret Fay Shaw's autobiography (TOO busy over the Easter holidays!) - I'm nearly done with it, and while I think it's a fascinating portrayal of a Hebridean way of life lost forever (and who can forget details like stabbing the rats through the roses of the croft's wallpaper - so as not to ruin the wallpaper!). How many people would or could tolerate the diet of all those years ago? Potatoes, curlew, etc? One thing the autobiography didn't really do was develop the characters of the islanders as fully as I'd have liked - I feel as though I hardly got to know the sisters Shaw lived with for so long - yet they must have been such characters! I liked the fact that Shaw witnessed everything as an outsider, though. She picks up on those little details that the islanders might not have even noticed or been aware of as worthy of mention.

Have come across another interesting book lately - "The Death of Rhythm and Blues", by Nelson Georges - it 'chronicles the rise and fall of "race music" and its transformation into an R&B that eventually dominated the airwaves only to find itself dilute and submerged as crossover music'. It's basically about how the groundbreaking black music culture of the States (jazz, blues etc) has become so 'crossover' in our globalist world that it's in danger of totally losing touch with its roots!

Cheers
Debbie

[jwl868]

Debbie

The book you cited sounds interesting and title really relates to something I had suspected. A few month ago, my daughter was looking at the record charts in the paper, and one of the lists is titled "R&B", but none of the songs fit the description, at least as I know it; all were hip-hop and rap. It took a while to find a song on the radio that even fits the R&B sound.

Although without reading the book, I really wonder how much R&B was diluted away, rather than merely being pushed aside by more popular music forms. I'm also having trouble with the concept that R&B disappeared because of globalization because it seems like the rap and hip-hop that have replaced it came from within the African-American community, too.

But it probably goes back to the same basic issue of what sells more and therefore, what gets more airplay.



Here's a question: why is mixing of Gaelic music and African music styles "fusion" (and presumable a good thing), but the mixing of R&B into other styles is "dilution" (and presumably a bad thing)?


Joe

[jwl868]

Bill

About your comments on having family history stories. I have a copy of my paternal family tree that goes back about 6 generations in the US. The trail before my great5 grandfather emigrated from Cork couldn't be found. (At least with the available time and money when the tree was put together in the 1960s). Many of the entries include a note or two about the individuals, such as occupation and military service. (A most interesting entry is my great4 grandmother, German, who "spoke no English".) My maternal grandfather typed up a 40-page history about his experiences growing up in Wheeling, West Virginia in the early 1900s. He was the youngest of 6 kids, being raised by his widowed mother and they were living on his father's Civil War pension. My grandfather took the time to type the story up in the late 1950s. My father served in the Navy in WWII, but only told me bits and pieces about it when I was in high school. Luckily, I was interested enough to pay attention and remember the few stories he told me. On the other hand, it wasn't until after I graduated from college that he mentioned that he received a commendation for helping to aid sailors from a sinking British destroyer. (I'm Scots-Irish - I suppose if it wasn't for Scotland, I wouldn't be here.)

I also read that Highlanders Settlers in North America (sic) link. Very enlightening. The fact that Canada was open after the American Revolution to those Loyal to the Crown appears to provide the most important drain of Gaelic speakers in the States. Now consider that Highlanders – Gaelic speakers - fought for the British and the winning side was that same culture that tarred and feathered Tories, and that may have provided motivation to use English, too. And one final consideration as to the absence of Gaelic users in the US is timing. It would appear that the Gaelic speakers were here the longest and therefore have had more time to blend in (compared to, say, Eastern European immigrants.) And it would appear that they were few in number, in proportion to all the other countries of origin.

The Pittsburgh settlement of Highlanders is certainly no more – the area described is entirely commercial business district and was probably affected by the Fire of 1845. I do need to check out the Donegal PA reference – that's a rural area.


Joe

[Bill.]

Joe

Great question, my immediate reaction is that one man's fusion is another man's dilution.

I also wonder if with the passing of the years you wake up one morning to find that last night's fusion has imperceptibly changed into this morning's dilution.

Two sides of the same coin perhaps?

Bill

[CC Gangwer]

Erika, sorry to hear about your husband.

Hope all is well now!

This is a very interesting thread.

Keep up the good work Bill!

Though I have to admit I have never seen to many, actually I
have never seen any African-Canadians in Cape Breton or any where in Nova Scotia. Barb posted that there are some in Sidney. Perhaps like in the north here they moved to the bigger cities.

I have been to many of the cities, but never stayed in Halifax.


CG

[tateamator]

Thanks guys! My hubby is doing much better now. I still haven't read all the articles yet. I have them saved so I can print them out and read them. I find history -- real history -- very interesting.

Take care all!
Erika

[Debs]

Wow Joe, you can rely on this MB to come up with some real inspiration every now and again!!! [8D] I’m fascinated and pleased that you’ve been able to find out your family history in such detail.

You raise a really interesting point about ‘bad’ and ‘good’ fusion – what a fantastic question! I don’t even really know what fusion means. Does it mean fusing old with new (as in traditional Gaelic with contemporary Gaelic/Scottish – with Capercaillie it’s best pioneers?). Or does it mean the fusing of different cultures (African/American/Celtic for example)? I just don’t know – but music is where it happens!

To me the best fusion leaves the source material alone, doesn’t try and change it – brilliant examples are Capercaillie’s ‘Beautiful Wasteland’ album, songs like Karen’s ‘Calbharaigh’ with Sorley MacLean’s recital. Others are Martyn Bennett’s ‘Grit’ – which is the most powerful “fusion statement” I’ve ever listened to – it seems to fuse every sound he can get his hands on, and fascinates me!! The brilliant thing about ‘Grit’ is that Martyn doesn’t mess with the archive materials – you hear the voices and sounds as they were originally recorded – that approach works best for me.

I wonder if ‘dilution’ is what the US author’s getting at? I haven’t even read the book (!), I’ve just read ABOUT it. I think the author’s even been judged by some as being slightly racist, so powerful and passionate is his argument in favour of black African Americans not allowing themselves to lose sight of their cultural roots. One review I read said: ‘This passionate, provocative book tells the complete story of black music in the last fifty years, and in so doing outlines the perilous position of black culture within white American society. In a fast-paced narrative that is "as inspired by the indefatigable traveling man, black capitalist, and R&B shouter James Brown as [it is by] the innocent street corner music called boo wop".’

I've been thinking a lot about American music - all because of this board of course! American roots music has so many expressions (I don’t think I’ve ever even listened to examples of some of these!!!) - country, bluegrass, gospel, ragtime, Appalachian, blues, Tejano, Cajun, Acadian, Creole, Zydeco, Native American – and out of these came jazz, rhythm & blues, and rock & roll. And now fusion – and rap & hip-hop, as you rightly say, Joe.

The Celtic culture seems to have had a profound influence on loads of America’s music: country, Appalachian, bluegrass, Creole, Cajun, and Acadian music, for example. African culture seems to have influenced gospel, rhythm & blues, and jazz most heavily.

I’m fascinated how so much world music culture emerged from varying degrees of oppression – Scottish Highland clearances, slavery in the US, religious or cultural persecution in Europe (people were denied access to their musical instruments, their books, etc, in so many cases). It seems that both Celtic and African cultures developed brilliant oral traditions or other improvised methods to continue to create their music! A cappella techniques, hand clapping, foot percussion, harmonisations (African slaves even developed vocal techniques such as ‘pitch-bending’). All of these surely led to the creation of a powerfully expressed music culture, especially in the US. Free citizens again, and reunited with their instruments, US Africans seemed to develop the US’s most powerful musical expression. I think that’s what Nelson Georges is getting at – he doesn’t want it to be lost.

Exactly the same seems to have happened years and years ago when the Gaels were reunited with their instruments – they’ve been making brilliant music ever since – except it hasn’t been diluted at all. Unless I’m getting confused about fusion again!!! Celtic music seems to have flourished because it’s not motivated by money as much as some of the more mainstream music culture is. Maybe that explains why Celtic music hasn’t become so diluted?

Cheers – I’ve run out of steam now. I’ll look back later and think what was I on about! []

Debbie