Shout Because You're Free: The African American Ring Shout Tradition in Coastal Georgia

Historical Essay. The Ring Shout: Revisiting the Islamic and African Issues of a Christian "Holy Dance"

Historical Essay Revisiting the Islamic and African Issues of a Christian "Holy Dance" Johann S. Buis Lorenzo Dow Turners explanation that the word "shout" comes from the Arabicword saut (Parrish 1942; 1965) is one theory of the likely origin of the term. There can be no doubt that the performance context of the ring shout never involves any shouting in the literal sense of the word.1 Such empirical practice would give credence to an argument that underscores the absence of shouting in the ring shout. However there is another theory which holds that the etymological origin of the ring shout goes back to Norse (especially Scandinavian languages), Middle Dutch, and Middle English, which does confirm the vocal shouting present in the term.2 It is understandable that American English usage could have transferred the term to the African American context. The question is: did the term originate with either theory, or other theories, or is the understanding of the term a conflation of the two theories? Though this question cannot be answered for certain, the Arabic context of 167 The Ring Shout 168 the term adds an intriguing dimension to the debate. One would have to suspend this discussion for a moment. First, one has to place the debate squarely within the context of its African origin. Counterclockwise dance forms have survived throughout sub-Saharan Africa—the ancestral home of black American slaves—for centuries inprimarily ritualistic contexts. Writers, such as Gordon, who argued that the shout was a "double quick, tripping measure . ..," Krehbiel, who pointed to the march variant of the shout, and Courlander, who regarded the shout as dancing, confirm that the circular nature of the dance is deeply embedded in the symbolic implications of its African origin.3 Therefore the symbolic presence of strong African ritual confirms the undeniable African origin of the ring shout. The second issue that one must consider (before examining the Arabic issue and the ring shout) is the African nature of the rhythmic signature. Rhythmic signatures as a characteristic of analysis regrettably are undervalued in Western analytical tools. McClary and Walser have lamented the fact that Europe-derived analysis favors abstract patterns of pitch and form at the expense of rhythm criteria.4 The pattern that basers and the chorus clap consistently in all ring shout compositions is commonly referred to as the 3+3+2 pattern. In a recent seminal article on rhythm analysis,JayRahn has argued convincingly for the ubiquitous nature ofthis syncopated pattern in African-derived music. Surveying the literature from Nicholas BallantaTaylor (1922), Don Knowlton (1926), Aaron Copland (1927), Winthrop Sargeant (1938), Ernest Bornemann (1946), and Marshall Stearns (1956) to Gunther Schuller (1968), the presence of the 3+3+2 pattern is established in African patterns, jazz, and similar contexts.5 Rahn provides the basicpattern and some variants in this form: Basic 3+3+2 rhythm Close variants All kinds of variants appear in "a walking bass line in swing and later styles, a stride bass in piano rags and other march-related forms, or steady strumShout Because You're Free ming in quarters by banjo or guitar in New Orleans, Chicago, and other early jazz idioms/'6 This point illustrates the centrality of the ring shout rhythm in a variety of derivative African American music forms. Having established the African symbolism of the ring shout and its rhythmic content, the Arabic facet requires further examination. In his seminal book, African Muslims in Antebellum America:A Sourcebook , Allan D. Austin gives convincing evidence that the Muslim presence among African slaves was particularly evident on the Eastern Seaboard, including Georgia.7 Not only was the Muslim presence evident among new slaves—however secretive the practices might have been—but during the period 1730-1860 proof of the Islamic presence is documented in Austins sourcebook. However small their number, the fact that Islamic converts had lived in the ancestral West African regions before the slave trade to the Americas lends some credence to the influence, not origin, of the saut (Arabic-Islamic) theory behind the ring shout. During 1995 a new dissertation on Muslim American slaves and their narratives appeared, exploring religion and cultural accommodation among this lesser-known group of slaves.8 Were one to assume that elements of Muslim musical practice entered the highly syncretistic nature of counterclockwise religious ritual dances of slaves, and that remnants of such a practice are still evident in the...