I grew up in rural Jamaica in the
1970s and at that time I did not know about Halloween. In fact, I only learned
about Halloween in the late 1990s or early in the new millennium.
My grandmother was a subsistence farmer and one of her
crops was coffee. Once the coffee beans were dried, my grandmother would parch
them in two or three enormously large Dutch pots on the wood fire in the
kitchen. On these occasions, the aroma of rich coffee scent filled the air. To
this day I am still amazed how more than a dozen of my cousins and I fitted
into a poorly ventilated, smoked-filled shanty kitchen not suited for more than
two or three people. As my cousins and I watched my grandmother, we would listen
to my grandmother and uncles stories about the trickster Anancy which I found
funny and stories about the creepy scary rolling calf and the blackheart man which
terrified the living daylight out of me.
My grandmother had been told the stories by her
parents, children of slaves, who received their unrestricted freedom after
emancipation on August 1, 1838. The stories came to Jamaica through the
Atlantic slave trade from the west coast of Africa and served as part of the therapy
for centuries of hideous crimes. During storytelling time it was not uncommon
for my grandmother and uncles to breakout singing popular Jamaican folksongs
like for “Hill and Gully Rider Oh” and “Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana”
or "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," a traditional Jamaican mento folk
song, the best-known version of which was sung by Harry Belafonte.
The folklore tale about scary rolling calf and the creepy
blackheart man scared the hell out of me as child. As a boy living in the rural
countryside, at nights I was terrified of the headless rolling calf, a monstrous
calf-like creature with blazing red eyes that gash fire, pulling a carriage with
dangling chains making an unnerving clanking noise. From my experience the
rolling calf had very wicked intentions and I was a prime candidate to be abducted
from the face of the earth by the evil rolling calf especially when I was
mischievous. If night times were bad, daytimes were just as scary as the evil
wicked blackheart man driving on scary black hearse without a steering wheel
would always be lurking around looking for children like me.
As a child the stories I heard were not told every
day. They were usually told just around dusk when night is about to fall and
there are dark pitch black clouds in sky. Rain drops are pelting the zinc roof
and the children can see the shadow of the banana tree leafs moving from side
to side because of the gusty wind.
Tonight is Halloween. It is all about Marisa dressing
up as Ariel the Princess and Mermaid for ‘trick or treat’. For me I will be on
the lookout for the creepy scary rolling calf and the blackheart man that I
know will be lurking somewhere outside. Yes, those evil bastards are here in
Brampton, Ontario and I know they will be coming out tonight for me.
But you wait and see I have a plan for the rolling
calf and the blackheart man. Tonight if I do come across the evil rolling calf
or the blackheart man I will definitely try Louise Bennett-Covelly, Jamaican
folklorist, playwright and author saying "Jack Mandora, me no chose none"
and hope that Jack Mandora, the doorman at Heaven’s door, know that I have no
wicked ways.
And tonight if Jack Mandora does not rescue me Usain
Bolt would not have enough speed to catch because to as paraphrase the tunes
and lyrics of Ernie Smith’s “Duppy or Gunman”:
If it is a rolling calf or blackheart man,
I man not going to wait to find out
I will be so frightened
My feet will not even be hitting the ground
All Marisa’s name I am likely to forget
Happy Halloween!
Mark McKenzie is a leading Subject Matter Expert in
financial services regulation and supervision as well as a professional
motivational speaker, corporate trainer and youth mentor. He can be contacted by email
mastbmckenzie@gmail.com or by telephone 647-406-4622. Read my blog http://mastbmckenzie.blogspot.ca/ and always
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