In researching information for this Mudcat thread:

thread.cfm?threadid=99291&messages=20
Lyr Req: Thread of 1000 Dances

I found a number of different Mudcat posts that I had written about the name Juba and the dance Juba. Because I believe that they are pertinent to this thread, and because some people still have dial up Internet access which makes it difficult to access other links, I will provide excerpts of some of those posts.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Touch the Bumble Bee
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 05:56 PM

BTW, "Juba" and "Juber" were names used by Southern African American males during slavery. This name may have derived from the Akan {Ghana, The Ivory Coast} name "Juba" also given as "Cuba" which means "female born on Monday". The male form of that name is "Cudjo". However I understand that there are other examples of the name "Juba" or similar names in other African languages.   

"Juba" is also the name of a number of well known African American slave dance songs. The version of this dance song which is most often published is

Juba this and Juba that
Juba skinned * a yellow cat
and jumped over double trouble
Juba!

Juba up and Juba down
Juba all around the town
Juba in and Juba out
Juba dancing all about..
Juba!

* also found as 'Juba killed a yellow cat"; Professor Thomas Talley, African American author of the 1922 book "Negro Folk Rhymes" wrote that 'skinning the cat' was a type of dance step.

There are 18th century records from the Caribbean that speak of the "Danse Juba". Like many secular dances including the Conga, this dance originally had religious significance.

The phrase "Pattin Juba" [Pattin Juber] refers to percussive body pattin that was documented during African American slavery in the Southern United States. 'Pattin Juba" was performed usually by men in the absence of musical instruments or along with musical instruments such as the fiddle, banjo, and bones. The 'Hambone' rhyme is closely associated with 'Pattin Juba'.

Finally, Master Juba was the nickname of William Henry Lane.
After Charles Dickens visited a Five Points dance hall in 1841, he immortalized Juba, then 16, as "the greatest dancer known."

See more on Master Juba here:
Master Juba
[I provided this link: thread.cfm?threadid=79504#1452045

**

Subject: RE: What are jubal hounds?
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 28 Jan 05 - 07:43 PM

This probably has NOTHING at all to do with 'jubal hounds'

But, FYI:

There are many meanings for the word 'Juba' in Africa and among pre-20th century African Americans and other people of African descent in the 'New World'.

"Juba" is the capital of Bahr el Gebel State and headquarter of the Bahr el Jebel Province. It is the historic capital of Southern Sudan.

In the 17th, 18th century "Juba" also found as "Guiba" was considered to be a spiritual dance {Caribeans} that originated in West or Central Africa. The dance 'Juba' became a very popular secular dance among enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and in the US South.

The term "Pattin' Juba" refers to the practice of making percussive sounds by slapping your thigh & chest with your hands. {think doing the 'Hambone'} In some instances, the "Juba beater" was an actual drummer or might refer to the person pattin Juba. These terms probably came from the Juba dance.

I also recall reading that "Juba" was a name for an African king, but can't put my hands on that source material.

"Juba" was used in 17th & 18 century and then less often as a name for [usually] males of African descent in the Americas. The name "Cuba" was also used [think Cuba Gooding Senior & Junior}, though I understand that 'Cuba' started out as a female name. It's possible that the personal names 'Juba' and 'Cuba' [and the name of the Caribbean nation?] may have come from the Akan {Ghana, West Africa} female day name "Adwoa"' pronounced ah JEW-ah and meaning 'female born on Monday'. The male form of that name is "Kwadwo" {which was transformed in the South to the name "Quack"}.

Akan day names are personal name given for the force that rules the day a male or a female was born, similar to the concept of astrology sun signs.

This somewhat familiar African American social dance rhyme is an example of the use of "Juba" as a personal name:

Juba this and Juba that
Juba skinned {killed} a yella cat*
Juba up and Juba down
Juba all around the town.
Jump Juba!

* In his 1922 book, 'Negro Folk Rhymes' Professor Thomas W. Talley writes that "skinning' {or killing} the cat was a dance step...

Bessie Jones in the now classic book 'Step It Down' written with Bess Lomax Hawes on African American {Gullah} children's rhymes says that in the old days "Juba" was said to be an African ghost. Ms. Jones says that African Americans came to see "Juba'as a way of saying 'gibblets' {parts of the chicken's intestines}. While I don't doubt that this is what some folks believed, I don't think that is the real meaning of the word.

I consider it a fortunate coincidence that the African word 'Juba" sounded so much like the words 'jubilee' and 'jubilant". IMO, "Juba' took on the hopeful, upbeat coloring of those two words, though they have almost certainly have different origins.

Ms. Azizi
thread.cfm?threadid=77798#1391830

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Subject: RE: turn the ho'cakes round boys, turn the
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 06 Mar 05 - 03:54 AM

...

Sterling Stuckey's 1987 book "Slave Culture" {Oxford University Press} includes this Juba/Kunnering {John Canoe]** song that mentions hoe cake:

My massa am a white man; juba!
Oh! missus am a lady, juba!
De children am de honey-pod, juba! juba!
Krismas come but once a year, juba!
Juba! Juba! O, ye juba!
De darkeys lub de hoe-cake, juba
Take de 'quarter' for to buy it, juba!
check 'him longm you white folks, juba! juba!
Krismas come but once a year, juba!
Juba! Juba! O, ye juba!
{p. 71, "Slave Culture"]

** In this context, the word 'juba' is a song refrain used in Kunnering and other Black secular slave songs..'Kunnering " itself is a blend of West African African religious processional traditions such as those associated with Egungun, and European mummering traditions. IMO, the phrase 'John Canoe' does not refer to an African prince of that name as is so often given, but is a folk etymology construct of the West African term 'Yonkannu'
...

thread.cfm?threadid=79013#1427847