The Black Roots Of The Philadelphia Mummers (Part I)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part post on the subject of the Black cultural influences on the costumes of the Philadelphia Mummers. This post provided information about the types of costumes worn by historical Philadelphia Mummers.

This post also presents videos of five masquerade traditions - Igbo masquerade (Nigeria, West Africa), Burkina Faso, West Africa masquerade , Jonkanoo (Bahamas), Mardi Gras Indians (New Orleans, Lousiana, USA), and Mummers (Philadelphia, Pennslyvania) are also presented in this post.

Click http://zumalayah.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-black-roots-of-philadelphia-mummers_4.html for Part II of this post.

Part II of this two part post presents additional videos of and information about three parade traditions: The Philadelphia Mummers, The Bahamaian Jonkanoo. Information about Jonkanoo in Jamaica, and in the USA), and the Mardi Gras Indians (New Orleans, USA) is also presented in that post.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

DISCLAIMER: These posts do not imply that African American influences were the only influence on the Philadelphia Mummers parade traditions. Without any question, the Swiss, British and German customs- key among other European Christmas and New Years traditions- influenced the parade traditions & practices of the Philadelphia Mummers.

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EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT ADDING COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG
With considerable regret, I have disabled the comment feature on this blog (and on my other blogs except for https://pancocojams.blogspot.com, because of the large number of spam comments that I received on those blogs.

Comments for those blogs can be sent to my email address azizip17 dot com at yahoo dot com for possible inclusion in a specific post on those blogs.

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PART I
EDITOR'S COMMENT
It's my position that the Philadelphia Mummers largely patterned their elaborate fancy feathered costumes on the types of costumes that were worn by the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians. The Mardi Gras Indian costumes to a large extent were patterned after the Caribbean Jonkanoo costumes of the Bahamas. I find it hard to believe that it's just a coincidence that those Philadelphia Mummers feathered costumes so closely resemble the Mardi Gras Indian costumes. Furthermore, I believe that those Caribbean Jonkanoo traditions mainly came from West African masquerade traditions such as those in Nigeria.

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GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE PHILADELPHIA MUMMERS
From http://www.phillymummers.com/
"The Philadelphia Mummers Parade features unique costumes, music, and pageantry. Crowds line Broad St., from South Philadelphia straight through Center City. The climax of the parade takes place at City Hall and the PA Convention Center where the official judging takes place.

The parade itself is one of the longest running traditions in the country. The parade began in 1900 as an official event for the city, however the parade has been going on since the 1800's as a way to celebrate the New Year."

INFLUENCES ON PHILADELPHIA MUMMERS CUSTOMS
A number of articles about the Philadelphia Mummers parade mention that "The Mummers Parade, which finds its roots dating to pre-colonial times, resulted from a blend of Northern European, British and African American heritages."
http://brysonnyb.com/history.htm

Most of the online articles about the history of the Philadelphia Mummers focus on the Swedish, German and British roots of those parades. The online articles that I've read to date about the African American influence on the Philadelphia Mummers limit their statements about that influence to the following information:

"African-American cultural elements began to influence the parade in the second half of the nineteenth century. Many mummers paraded with a particular kind of strutting walk that some researchers believe may have been derived from the cakewalk, a nineteenth-century African-American dance that parodied and exaggerated the fancy steps popular in the formal balls of the time. The name came from the custom of awarding a cake to the couple with the best moves. The song “Oh, dem Golden Slippers,” written by African-American composer James Bland in 1879, became very popular with the mummers and today it still serves as a kind of theme song for the parade."
http://christmas-celebrations.org/167-mummers-parade.html

I believe that the African American influence on the Philadelphia Mummers should also include those paraders' prominent use of the banjo. After all, the stringed musical instrument now known as the banjo originated from West Africa, and was very closely associated with enslaved African Americans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banjo

However, the focus of this two part post is on Black roots of the elaborate feather costumes that are worn by divisions of the Philadelphia Mummers.

Note: While I'm very interested in the subject of the almost total lack of Black people or other People of Color in the Philadelphia Mummers parade since 1929 and the charges of racism or otherwide offensive themes of some Philadelphia Mummers' clubs (in 2004 and in 2013), those topics aren't covered by this post. Information & discussion about those incidents can be found elsewhere on the internet, including this blog post: http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2013/01/04/mummers-are-willing-to-talk-rationally-about-blackface-so-we-should-too/.

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COSTUMES WORN BY PHILADELPHIA MUMMERS
These quotes are presented in chronological order of the historical periods mentioned, with quotes that refer to the oldest periods given first.

Citation #1: http://christmas-celebrations.org/167-mummers-parade.html
"In nineteenth-century Philadelphia all these traditions collided and merged, creating pandemonium in the streets at New Year’s and Christmas. By the 1830s and 1840s, people began to create slightly fancier disguises for their holiday frolics. Some dressed up as blacks or members of other ethnic groups in order to make fun of them, thereby using holiday mumming customs as a way of expressing their fear of or hostility towards certain groups.

A newspaper ac-count from January 10,1834, describes New Year’s celebrations in the nearby town of Easton:

The Calithumpian band had been uniformed and pressed into service. These commenced their melody about 10 o’clock in the forenoon and made the circuit of the town, playing the most splendid and novel voluntaries and variations. Their dresses displayed taste and ingenuity. All the quarters of the earth appeared to have been ransacked to swell the ranks of the Enterpian band. Indians, Negroes, hunters, Falstaffs, Jim Crows and nondescripts, all displaying surprizing (sic) skill upon their several instruments ... Conch-shells, old cracked instruments, stones, shingles, tin horns, speaking trumpets, here and there a bassoon, old kettles, pot-lids, dozens of cow-bells strung upon poles and iron hoops constituted their musical instruments

...As the years went by old clubs died out and new clubs took over. Some old traditions, too, began to fade away. The old simple comic costume — often a coat turned inside out with a sign pinned to it — fell out of favor to be replaced with more elaborate efforts. Another old mummers’ device, a walking stick with some dice attached to the top of it, was eliminated, perhaps out of fears that some might use it as a weapon."
-snip-
It's my contention that the dice attached to walking stick was a minstrel association that alluded to the Sambo stereotype of Black men lazing around playing dice.

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Citation #2: http://brysonnyb.com/history.htm
"Until the 1900's, almost all masqueraders wore make-shift apparel. However, spirit and imagination provided probable motivations for the revelers to join together in associations to raise money for more elaborate New Year's costumes."

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Citation #3:
http://brohammas.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/race-is-complicated-mummers/

“It is thought that the [Philadelphia Mummers] traditions grew out of the British Isles’ mummers plays. There are reports of mocking mummer plays being held in President Washington’s honor while he resided in Philadelphia. In the early 1800’s it was normal to find roving bands of men dressed as clowns causing a ruckus during the holiday season. The tradition was formalized into the parade in 1901, making it America’s oldest continuous folk parade.”

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Citation #4: http://omalleynyb.com/History.html
“The first official [Philadelphia Mummers] parade was held January 1, 1901. The earliest surviving String Band, Trilby, paraded in 1902. In the early years of the official parade, the make-shift costumes of most celebrants were gradually replaced by more elaborate outfits funded by associations’ fund-raising efforts.

While the Parade has clear African American influences and features a theme song by a black composer, the parade participants are almost all European American.The earliest Parades were not. The all African American Golden Eagle Club, formed in 1866, had 300 members in the 1906 parade. With the nadir, the last black groups marched in 1929.”

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Citation #5: http://www.2camels.com/philadelphia-mummers-parade.php

[After the comic clubs, the first parade division] come the fancy clubs, who wear outlandishly rococo costumes and help create the parade's pageantry. Their origins stem from the early 'masquerades' when slaves dressed in their owners' finery. The string bands follow, playing music as they march along. Finally, the fancy brigades pass by with their elaborate floats.

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Citation #6: http://iipc.utu.fi/overground/tessler.pdf [page 34]

"Mummers in this era [the late 1890s] began to design elegant and elaborate costumes weeks and months ahead of the e New Years. Initially, these mummers’ outfits, typically of a regal motif, were intended to poke fun at the city’s elite – to hold up a burlesque mirror-image of the ruling class to themselves."
-snip-
This article also mentions "Cooney Cracker". Here's the note given in the book chapter about this character:
Note 4: “Cooney Cracker” was an 18th century American clown figure, often portrayed in blackface, and presumed by his stars-and-stripes outfit to be the predecessor to the more familiar Uncle Sam character of the 20th century (c.f. McGee, 2009)

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Citation #7:
http://www.examiner.com/article/philly-s-mummers-parade-traces-its-multi-cultural-roots-to-17th-century-african-american-settlers

“The Mummers are organized into four distinct types of groups: Comics, Fancies, String Bands, and Fancy Brigades. All dress in elaborate costumes and incorporate the costumes of the many ethnic groups that have influenced American culture. The parade's pre-colonial roots have been traced to the New Year's celebrations of Northern European and African-American settlers in the mid-1600s. According to the documentary, "Strut," the influence of Southern plantation life is evident in the cakewalk-like "strut" that is the Mummer's signature dance—which is usually performed to African American composer James A. Bland's "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers," a 19th century minstrel song that is played and sung all day long.”
-snip-
This article includes much more biographical information about James A. Bland than is usually found in articles about the Philadelphia Mummers.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Nigeria Igbo Festival of Masquerade [Nigeria, West Africa]



Udo Udeogaranya, Published on Jan 14, 2013

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Example #2: African Art: The Masks of the Gnoumou Family in Boni Perform, 2007 [Burkina Faso, West Africa]



Christopher Roy, Uploaded on Jan 24, 2011

On a market day in the Bwa village of Boni, in central Burkina Faso, West Africa a group of masks perform, including the great plank masks called nwantantay, the leper, hyena, dwarf, antelope, and bush buffalo.


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Example #3: Saxons 2010 Boxing Day Junkanoo 14



hugomanager Uploaded on Dec 30, 2010
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"Saxons" is the name of a Jonkanoo group in the Bahamas.

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Example #4: Super Sunday - New Orleans' Mardi Gras Indians Parade Part 1 by Michal Flisiuk



Michal Flisiuk, Uploaded on Mar 18, 2011

The most significant day for the Mardi Gras Indians is St. Joseph's Day. Around sundown on this day, the Mardi Gras Indians once again dress in their feathers and suits and take to the streets to meet other "gangs."

Also, the Mardi the Mardi Gras Indian Council and Tambourine and Fan organization put on an annual "Super Sunday" parade on the Sunday closest to St. Joseph's Day.

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Example #5: 1989 Spring Strut Ferko At the Strutters Ball
[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA]



Russ Coleman, Uploaded on Feb 17, 2008

1989 Spring Strut Ferko At the Strutters Ball


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RELATED LINK
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/10/comparative-traditions-masquerades.html for a post on African masquerade traditions that I edited and published on my pancocojams cultural blog.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to producer and the publisher of the video that is featured in this post. Thanks also to the authors of the quotations featured in this post.

Thanks for visiting zumalayah.

Zumalayah showcases videos of dances & singing games done in circles or in lines, and other movement performance arts from African American culture, from African cultures, and from other cultures of the African Diaspora.

Visitor comments are welcome.