This chapter examines a song series produced in Trinidad and Tobago by the Mighty Sparrow in the mid-1970s. These songs are produced in a mix of Trinidadian English-lexicon Creole and Bhojpuri, the main ancestral language or the Indo-Caribbean population. At play here are three language related features. There is language choice, discourse structure and imagery drawn with language. These are used in the Marajhin songs to present a picture of Indo-Caribbean sexuality. Jam, Ram and Fire are words found in the final line of the choruses of the calypsos, Marajhin, Byo and Marajhin Cousin, three of the quartet of songs that are the subject of this study. They all refer to sexual intercourse and constitute the bone of contention surrounding these songs. At issue is the question of sexual relations between Caribbean women of Indian descent and Caribbean men of African descent. We can link this to the broader question of relations between the Indian Caribbean and African Caribbean communities, particularly in countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana where the Indian descended community is the largest single ethnic group. Features of the Other, or more particularly stereotypes about the Other, are packed into the female body. It is this body which becomes the medium by which stereotypical features of the Other are incorporated into calypso discourse. These features are exploited for their novelty and push innovation within the art form that is calypso. The female body is the medium for ongoing innovation in calypso.

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Jam, Ram and Fire: The Sexy Female Body in Caribbean Ethnic Discourse—The Marajhin Quartet

  • Hubert Devonish

摘要

This chapter examines a song series produced in Trinidad and Tobago by the Mighty Sparrow in the mid-1970s. These songs are produced in a mix of Trinidadian English-lexicon Creole and Bhojpuri, the main ancestral language or the Indo-Caribbean population. At play here are three language related features. There is language choice, discourse structure and imagery drawn with language. These are used in the Marajhin songs to present a picture of Indo-Caribbean sexuality. Jam, Ram and Fire are words found in the final line of the choruses of the calypsos, Marajhin, Byo and Marajhin Cousin, three of the quartet of songs that are the subject of this study. They all refer to sexual intercourse and constitute the bone of contention surrounding these songs. At issue is the question of sexual relations between Caribbean women of Indian descent and Caribbean men of African descent. We can link this to the broader question of relations between the Indian Caribbean and African Caribbean communities, particularly in countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana where the Indian descended community is the largest single ethnic group. Features of the Other, or more particularly stereotypes about the Other, are packed into the female body. It is this body which becomes the medium by which stereotypical features of the Other are incorporated into calypso discourse. These features are exploited for their novelty and push innovation within the art form that is calypso. The female body is the medium for ongoing innovation in calypso.