Globally many countries are facing ongoing issues due to slavery something experienced in all nations of the Caribbean and well represented in Caribbean music. One of the most famous songs referring to slavery is Buffalo Soldier as sung by Bob Marley, telling of the tale of the Africans being brought to the region for the purpose of slavery. Although this song does not directly reference food or drink of the region, the main slave trade was sugar plantations, a key part of any gastronomic study into the Caribbean. The legacy of the sugar slaves still live alive in modern Caribbean society often though artworks, historical monuments and music.
An iconic food produced in the region is bananas. A popular item around the globe, it is a vital part of Caribbean cuisine, playing many roles in the regions gastronomic profile. It is also severely labour intensive to farm and has connotations with low pay and extremely poor working conditions for those employed in the industry, watch out for the deadly black tarantula.
Harry Belafonte’s 1956 rendition of Day-O (Banana Boat song) has resounded with many Jamaican’s as more than just a catchy tune. The song developed its mento style rhythms from the original version by Irivie Burgie, starting out as a repetitive workers song. The classic mento sound was developed from the West African slaves brought to the Caribbean during colonisation. On a denotive level the song is about loading banana’s onto a ship and wanting to finish work for the night. Listening further to the lyrics and tone of the words throughout the song reveals the connections with the attitudes towards the slave like conditions still present in the Caribbean work environment.
A connotation derived from this particular piece is the direct connection between Caribbean inhabitants and slavery. Besides the words, the use of the gayup style chanting as the back up vocals is directly representative of the Trinidad & Tobago slaves singing style. This singing style was used in the fields by slaves to keep in rhythm when performing duties and to keep time as the day progressed. The subtle use of this as the background vocals confirms that this song is directly related to the slave situation that has faced the Caribbean Islands in the past. Although the song is specifically referring to banana’s, these values are reflective of other slave plantations such as sugar and coffee which occurred across many different Caribbean nations.
The salsa song “La Zafra” by Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz is a great example of how music has been used to express this time in history for the people of the Caribbean. Although upon initial listening of this particular track we are faced with the upbeat tempo of salsa, the lyrics underneath take a much more sombre tone. On the denotive level La Zafra refers to the harvesting time of the sugarcane predominantly in Puerto Rico and Cuba. The combination of upbeat salsa tune along with the dancing in the video would suggest a more positive lyrical content to accompany it yet the connotation derived is much more of the dire struggles faced by those working in the plantations.
Salsa and Saltfish 