Origins/lyrics: Juba

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 19 Dec 14 - 01:06 PM

In the 1890s, for years, there was a society for studying black folk secular and religious music, the Hampton Folk-Lore Society. The membership was mostly black, and made a point of collecting actual black folk music as opposed to so-called Ethiopian minstrelsy. The society had collected the following by 1894, and it's interesting because it is a Bunyanesque narrative, a cohesive narrative relative to the fragments of songs like this that were collected from (and sometimes barely remembered by?) e.g. elderly black banjoists in the 1970s. Spelling and punctuation standardized by me. Imo this version explains what "Juba this and Juba that" means: it means everyone was always talking about all the grand things Juba did. (Cf. "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!")

"JUBA.

Master had a yellow man
Tallest nigger in the land
Juba was that fellow's name
The way he strutted was a shame
Juba, Juba, Juba, Juba (repeat several times)

Oh, 'twas Juba this and Juba that
Juba killed the yellow cat
To make his wife a Sunday hat
Juba

'Twas Juba this and Juba that
His wife was yellow, tall, and fat
He killed old missus' yellow cat
To make his wife a Sunday hat
Juba!

Master had a yellow steer
Old as the mountain to a year
I tells you this, for all of that
He'd run away at the drop of your hat
Whoa Mark

See him coming up the road
Pulling on a monstrous load
Get out'n the way mighty spry
Or he'll throw you to the sky
Whoa Mark

Juba drive that old steer
For five and twenty year
Through the rain and through the snow
Juba and the steer would go
Whoa Mark, Juba

When the sun was shining bright
If 'twas day, if 'twas night
Hear him holler loud and strong
Mark, why don't you get along
Golong, whoa Mark, Juba

By and by that old ox died
Juba, he just cried and cried
'Til one day he ups and die
I 'spect he's driving in the sky
Golong, whoa Mark, Juba"

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,Donna
Date: 10 Feb 14 - 03:11 PM

Ms. Azizi, in an earlier post, stated, "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."

I always wondered if the name Juba was short for Jubilee, but for a different reason. In reading previous posts I learned that the term "juba" in the African language predates African slavery in the U.S. However, I still wonder about the following idea.

Since slaves were taught Bible stories, one that would surely have spoken to them is about the "year of Jubilee." Leviticus, chapter 25, talks about a year of rest. It took place every 7 years. Verses 8-13 say that after seven-sevens, 49 years, all slaves were to be freed and allowed to return home. That was the "year of Jubilee." (Whether this passage would have been taught in southern states during that time in history could certainly be questioned.)

Was Juba or Jubilee a common name given to children of slaves during that time?

I would welcome any thoughts or comments. Thanks for teaching me!

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: Margo
Date: 20 Jan 13 - 06:30 PM

There's a very interesting explanation in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BCzIjY-taY
Not only that, but this guy is amazing at hambone!!

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,:)
Date: 08 Feb 11 - 09:20 PM

I know the lyrics to Juba because we learned it in social studies class. It is:

Juba this and Juba that
Juba killed a yellow cat
Get over double trouble Juba
Ah ah Juba
You sift-a the meal
And you give me the husk
You cook-a the bread
You give me the crust
We fry the meat
You give me the skin
Juba this and Juba that
Juba killed a yellow cat

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 10:37 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5sMsqTT11o

Hear the tune and see an interesting instrument

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,Chris Smith - Texas Tech
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 02:47 PM

Q:

Don't know if you're still reading this thread, but I hope so. I'd like permission to cite several of your messages in a scholarly monograph I'm authoring, on the origins of blackface minstrelsy. Could you possibly contact me (at [e-mail]) to let me know about this?

Specifically referencing Mudcat thread http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=8972

Thanks.

all the best,

cjs

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,Erich
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:45 AM

According to the booklet to Guy Carawans LP "Freedom Now", the african slaves were fed on the leftovers of the white masters meals. Juba means garbage. All the slaves had to eat out of one big trough where all the leftovers were taken in.

You sift the meal, you give me the husk
you bake the bread, you give me the crust
you cook the meat, you give me the skin
and that is how you take us in

Juba for my ma, Juba for my pa
Juba killed my brother in law
Juba this and Juba that
Juba killed the yellow cat

My old master promised me
when he died he'd set me free
Lived so long 'til his head got bald
He give up the notion of dying at all

Master killed the big old duck
Give us all the bones to suck
Master killed the big old goose
Give us all the bones to chew

Master killed the big old drake
Put the gizzard on my plate
Master killed the big old geese
Give us all the gravy to eat

Juba this and Juba that
Juba killed the yellow cat
Juba for my ma Juba for mey pa
Juba killed my brother in law

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: Booklynrose
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 10:40 PM

I have a children's book, "Juba This and Juba That: Story Hour Stretches for Large or Small Groups" selected by Virginia A. Tashjian, published by Little, Brown and Company in 1969. It gives the words to a chant, "Juba this and Juba that, Juba killed a yellow cat, Juba up and Juba down, Juba runnin' all around" with directions for call and response, hand claps, and slapping hands on knees, cheeks, etc. The rest of the book has other chants, songs, and stories to do with groups of children. The book does not tell of the origins of any of the material. I assume it was all in the public domain, since the book says, "Selected by Virginia A. Tashjian.

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,knockout09
Date: 24 Mar 10 - 10:11 PM

I learned a song a while ago but all I know is: Call: Juba this and Juba that. Respons: Juba this and Juba that. Call: hide the fish from the cat." The fish is the hidden slave and the cat is the slave catcher. Apparently when the song stops the slave catcher is there. I don't know that's just what I was taught.

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 05:50 PM

Thanks, Amanda. Good one!

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,Amanda
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 04:33 PM

I'm only in 5th grade, and I know how this song goes. This is the right way;

Call: Juba this and Juba that
Response: Juba this and Juba that
Call: Juba killed the yellow cat
Response: Juba killed the yellow cat
Call: And get over double trouble, Juba
Response: And get over double trouble, Juba
Call: You sift the meal
Response: You sift the meal
Call: And you give me the husk
Response: And you give me the husk
Call: You cook the bread
Response: You cook the bread
Call: And you give me the crust
Response: And you give me the crust
Call: You fry the meat
Response: You fry the meat
Call: And you give me the skin
Response: And you give me the skin
Call: Juba this and Juba that
Response: Juba this and Juba that
Call: Juba killed the yellow cat
Response: Juba killed the yellow cat

Subject: RE: Origins/lyrics: Juba
From: GUEST,Mike
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 01:29 PM

AMAZING! This is an old thread, I realize, but my great grandfather used to sing this song:

A rube, a reed, a seed, a breed,
a coconut, a concubine,
A Whipporwhil who laid an egg on Tater Hill for Juba.
Juba this and Juba that, all around the kettle of fat...
Hooray for Juba.

Subject: Lyr Add: JUBA (from Thomas W. Talley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 09 - 10:55 AM

From Negro Folk Rhymes: Wise and Otherwise by Thomas Washington Talley (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922) page 9:


JUBA

Juba dis, an' Juba dat,
Juba *skin dat Yaller Cat. Juba! Juba!

Juba jump an' Juba sing.
Juba, *cut dat Pigeon's Wing. Juba! Juba!

Juba, kick off Juba's shoe.
Juba, dance dat *Jubal Jew. Juba! Juba!

Juba, whirl dat foot about.
Juba, blow dat candle out. Juba! Juba!

Juba circle, *Raise de Latch.
Juba do dat *Long Dog Scratch. Juba! Juba!

* The expressions marked * are various kinds of dance steps.

[Ibid, page 231ff:]

As has just been casually mentioned, the Negro Folk Rhyme was used for the dance. There are Negro Folk Rhyme Dance Songs and Negro Folk Dance Rhymes. An example of the former is found in "The Banjo Picking," and of the latter, "Juba," both found in this collection. The reader may wonder how a Rhyme simply repeated was used in the dance. The procedure was as follows: Usually one or two individuals "star" danced at time. The others of the crowd (which was usually large) formed a circle about this one or two who were to take their prominent turn at dancing. I use the terms "star" danced and "prominent turn" because in the latter part of our study we shall find that all those present engaged sometimes at intervals in the dance. But those forming the circle, for most of the time, repeated the Rhyme, clapping their hands together, and patting their feet in rhythmic time with the words of the Rhyme being repeated. It was the task of the dancers in the middle of the circle to execute some graceful dance in such a manner that their feet would beat a tattoo upon the ground answering to every word, and sometimes to every syllable of the Rhyme being repeated by those in the circle. There were many such Rhymes. "'Possum up the Gum Stump," and "Jawbone" are good examples. The stanzas to these Rhymes were not usually limited to two or three, as is generally the case with those recorded in our collection. Each selection usually had many stanzas. Thus as there came variation in the words from stanza to stanza, the skill of the dancers was taxed to its utmost, in order to keep up the graceful dance and to beat a changed tattoo upon the ground corresponding to the changed words. If any find fault with the limited number of stanzas recorded in our treatise, I can in apology only sing the words of a certain little encore song each of whose two little stanzas ends with the words, "Please don't call us back, because we don't know any more."

There is a variety of Dance Rhyme to which it is fitting to call attention. This variety is illustrated in our collection by "Jump Jim Crow," and "Juba." In such dances as these, the dancers were required to give such movements of body as would act the sentiment expressed by the words while keeping up the common requirements of beating these same words in a tattoo upon the ground with the feet and executing simultaneously a graceful dance.

Subject: Lyr Add: FALL IN, AN' MARCH TO GLORY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 09 - 10:22 AM

From Spanish-American War Songs: A Complete Collection of Newspaper Verse ... compiled and edited by Sidney A. Witherbee (Detroit: Sidney A. Witherbee, 1898), page 361:

FALL IN, AN' MARCH TO GLORY.
Lieut. Chas. A. Foster.

When we stop de war in Cuba
Oh, den we'll pat de Juba,
For de Weyler an' de Spaniards
An' we'll give a dance to Spain,
Wid all de bands a-playin'
An' de regiments arrayin'
For de honor of Ole Glory,
An' our duty to de Maine.

CHORUS. Fall in an' march to Glory
Oh! hear dat music play;
Oh! see dem stars a-gleamin',
Uncle Sam has had his say.
Oh! hear dat eagle screamin'
We're gwine to fight wid Spain,
We're gwine off to Cuba
To settle for de Maine.

Oh, ours will be de glory
For de Maine will live in story.
Dat stain upon her banner
Will eber be foh Spain,
Oh, wid joy we'll hail free Cuba
As we pat for Spain de Juba,
An' all de world will bless dem
Who died upon de Maine.

We'll take down food to Cuba
While Spain will dance de Juba
We'll make de minor incident
A big one for old Spain.
Wid all de bands a-playin'
An' de regiments arrayin'
We'll feed an' free de starvin'
As a duty to de Maine.

It won't take but half a minnit,
For de colored troops are in it,
An' Weyler's woman fighters
Will wish dey was in Spain.
Wid de eagle fiercely screamin'
An Ole Glory's stars a-gleamin'
We'll close de war in Cuba
As a tribute to de Maine.

Oh, we're a gwine, honey,
An' we wouldn't stay for money,
Diplomacy's a goose egg
De Eagle fights wid Spain.
Miss Liberty's a-callin'
Dls is no time for crawlin'
March on beneath Ole Glory
An' don't forget de Maine.

Subject: Lyr Add: JUBA (from Christy & White, 1854)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 09 - 09:38 AM

From Christy's and White's Ethiopian Melodies (Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers, 1854), page 72:


JUBA.
The great Banjo Solo, as sung by George Christy and Wood's Minstrels. Music for sale at the Hall.

Ruberii, de cimmon seed, seed de Billy hop in jist in time,
Juba dis, Juba dat, round de kettle ob possum fat;
A-hoop a-hoy, a-hoop a-hoy, double step for Juberii
Sandy crab, de macreli, ham, and half a pint ob Juba.

Want to borrow two or three eggs, a picayune a dozen,
Stir about de hominy hot, de pig is in de cellar;
Neighbor, neighbor, lend me your axe, lend you mine to-morrow,
I keeps de axe to use myself, who'll turn de grindstone.

Forty pound of candle grease, sittin' on de mantelpiece,
Don't you see ole Granny Grace, she look so ugly in de face;
Yankee Doodle come to town, claim Maria for his own,
Git up dar, you little darky, can't you pat for Juba.

Up de wall, down the 'tition, gib me a knife sharp as sickle,
To cut dat darky's wizen pipe, dat eat up all de sassengers;
Apple jack wid venison sauce, sittin' by de fireplace,
One eye up de dinner-pot, and t'other up de stovepipe.

Make de fire most too hot, fotch along de waterin pot,
Bake de bread, gib me de crust, shock de corn, gib me de husk,
Bile de beef, gib me de bone, gib me a kick and send me home,
Peel de tater, gib me de skin, and dats de way she suck me in.

Shadrack an' Abednego, don't care whether I hit 'em or no,
Eighteen pence an' a peck ob corn, milk de cow wid de crumple horn,
Gib me a quart, gib me some, I'm gettin' a pitcher full,
Stay back, stay back, bucket full ob Juba.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 09:51 PM

Kat

Sometimes I surprise myself! I always knew that a head full miscellaneous information might be handy.

Do what you can with what you've got!!

CC

Subject: RE: Juba
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 10:59 AM

CC, looks as though these folks might agree with you:

...Juba's name comes from a Zulu word meaning 'dove' or 'harmony' and we chose it because we'd like to see more harmony in the world.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 09:41 AM

Juba is a african derived syncopated dance/rhythm from West Africa that was done by people of African descent all across the Americas (Southern USA blacks on plantations, west indians and afro-latinos).

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 10:03 PM

I believe that Juba is Zulu or Matabele for dove. That said may be mistaken and i'm sure someone will let me know!

CC

Subject: RE: Juba
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Nov 09 - 04:34 PM

Juba is rooted strongly in the Journal of American Folklore that Juba is from Native American cultures describing a game of skipping stones on water.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 09 Mar 09 - 04:09 PM

Bill Vanaver does a mean 'Juba'.
'Juba this and Juba that
And Juba killed the yellow cat'.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: peregrina
Date: 08 Mar 09 - 04:52 PM

Folkways CD Dark Holler has Lee Wallin singing 'Juba This' (in 1963) as track 10. Notes available to download from the Smithsonian Folkways website, but they are minimal for this track.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 08:40 PM

Forgot-
"Narrative ..." by Henry Bibb online here: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bibb/menu.html
Henry Bibb

Subject: Lyr. Add: Roaring River (acc. by juba)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 08:34 PM

Lyr. Add: ROARING RIVER
(Red River Plantation, c. 1850's)

Harper's creek and roarin' ribber,
Thar, my dear, we'll live forebber;
Den we'll go to de Ingin nation,
All I want in dis creation,
Is pretty little wife and big plantation.

Chorus
Up dat oak and down dat ribber,
Two overseers and one little nigger.

With score.
Fiddle tune (?) described as being sung accompanied by patting.
Solomon Northrup, 1853, "Twelve Years a Slave,: The Narrative of Solomon Northrup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River in Louisiana," Derby and Miller, Auburn, NY.

This song could have been posted with the other variants, but the mention of 'patting' is the reason I have placed it here.
Reproduced with score in Dena J. Epstein, 1977, "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, Black Folk Music to the Civil War," p. 151.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 08:18 PM

The earliest known reference to juba dates to the 1820's. Henry Bibb (freed black, born to a slave mother), in his narrative, p. 23, deplored the encouragement by the slave holders of secular amusements, such as dancing, patting "juber," singing and playing the banjo.
Henry Bibb, 1849, "The Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave Written by Himself. Pub. by the author.

Quoting from Dena J. Epstein, "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals," section on Patting Juba.
By the 1830's serious attention was being paid to the rhythmic patterns, not by musicians, but by poets who were fascinated by its metrical complexities. Beverly Tucker described these complexities in a letter to Edgar Allen Poe, 1835. T. H. Chivers, a friend of Poe, speaks of juba as a "jig which must be accompanied by a measured clapping of the thighs and alternately on each other..."

Sidney Lanier notated Patting Juba in his "Science of English Verse," 1880, p. 189. In discussing the function of pauses in poetry, found "juba" a potent example: "I have heard a Southern plantation 'hand,' in 'patting juba' for a comrade to dance by, venture upon quite complex successions of rhythm, not hesitating to syncopate, to change the rhythmic accent for a moment, or to indulge in other highly specialized variations of the current rhythmus. Here music ... is in its rudest form, consisting of rhythm alone; for the patting is done with hands and feet, and of course no change of pitch or of tone-color is possible.
William B. Smith reported a persimmon beer dance from Virginia, some years before 1838. "Two athletic blacks...clapping Juber to the notes of the banjor...I have never seen Juber clapped to the banjor before. ... The clappers rested the right foot on the heel, and its clap on the floor was in perfect unison with the notes of the banjor, and palms of the hands on the corresponding extremities." His account included the words of a song, beginning "Juber up and juber down, Juber all around the town." William B. Smith, "The Persimmon Tree and the Beer Dance," Farmer's Register vol. 6, Apr. 1, 1838, pp. 58-61 (Epstein does not note if the entire song was reproduced).
Frances H. McDougall, in her novel "Shahmah," described "Juber" among the Negroes of Nubia and the Upper Nile.
There are many descriptions of juber by pre-Civil War writers. An important one was by Elizabeth Allen Coxe, describing not only dancing, but Negro church services in South Carolina about the time of the Civil War. At the Eutaw Plantation, "Every day of Christmas week, in the afternoon, the Negroes danced in the broad piazza until late at night, the orchestra consisting of two fiddlers, one man with bones and another had sticks with which he kept time on the floor, and sometimes singing." The ban on drums in South Carolina, enacted in 1740, apparently was still in effect.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 08:18 PM

http://www.masterjuba.co.uk/

i've taken this show for the autumn...looking forward to it.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 05:03 PM

Here's a link to another excerpt about the Juba dance.

thread.cfm?threadid=99291&messages=37#1978328

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 10:44 AM

In addition to those posts that I provided above, here's excerpts from two posts on the Limber Jack thread that mention patting Juba:


Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Limber Jim: History & Lyrics
From: John Minear - PM
Date: 28 Jun 02 - 08:48 PM

I found the Lafcadio Hearn material that Masato referred to above. It has been published in several forms. I found it in a little book called CHILDREN OF THE LEVEE, published by the University of Kentucky Press in 1957. It is a reprint of the original articles written by Hearn in 1874-1877 for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Commercial. Here is what he says about the song "Limber Jim":

"But the most famous songs in vogue among the roustabouts is "Limber Jim," or "Shiloh." Very few know it all by heart, which is not wonderful when we consider that it requires something like twenty minutes to sing "Limber Jim" from beginning to end, and that the whole song, if printed in full, would fill two columns of the Commercial.(!) The only person in the city who can sing the song through, we belileve, is a colored laborer living near Sixth and Culvert streets, who "run on the river" for years, and acquired so much of a reputation by singing "Limber Jim," that he has been nicknamed after the mythical individual aforesaid, and is now known by no other name. He keeps a little resort in Bucktown, which is known as "Limber Jim's," and has a fair reputation for one dwelling in that locality. Jim very good-naturedly sang the song for us a few nights ago, and we took down some of the most striking verses for the benefit of our readers. The air is wonderfully quick and lively, and the chorus is quite exciting. The leading singer sings the whole song, excepting the chorus, "Shiloh," which dissyllable is generally chanted by twenty or thirty voices of abysmal depth at the same time with a sound like the roar of twenty Chinese gongs struck with a tremendous force and precision. A great part of "Limber Jim" is very profane, and some of it is not quite fit to print. We can give only about one-tenth part of it.(!) The chorus is frequently accompanied with that wonderfully rapid slapping of thighs and hips known as "patting Juba." (And then follows the song given by Masato above. The chorus is indicated after each verse). Pages 70-71.

**

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Limber Jim: History & Lyrics
From: John Minear - PM
Date: 29 Jun 02 - 06:23 AM
...

I am struck by the final "Juba" chorus of his [Lafcadio Hearn's collection of the song] "Limber Jim".

[Patting Juba]
And you can't go yonder,
Limber Jim!
And you can't go yonder,
Limber Jim!
And you can't go-oo-o!

...

So, perhaps we have a song with pre-Civil War, minstrel/blackface roots, being reappropriated by Afro-Americans along the Ohio River after the War and being greatly expanded with floater verses and also being given a "patting Juba" dimension. Perhaps this got simplified and somehow found its way into the Appalachians as a banjo tune and became either a children's song, a dance song, or a lullabye, or all three. Obviously we still have a number of missing connections.

thread.cfm?threadid=48893#739340

-snip-

Also, the Mudcat thread Origins: Shave and a Haircut thread.cfm?threadid=76296#1354811 includes this link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley
Bo Diddley From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That article provides this information about the Juba beat:
"He [Bo Diddley]recorded for Chicago's Chess Records subsidiary label Checker. Bo Diddley is best known for the "Bo Diddley beat", a rhumba-based beat (see clave) also influenced by what is known as "hambone", a style used by street performers who play out the beat by slapping and patting their arms, legs, chest, and cheeks while chanting rhymes.

In its simplest form, the Bo Diddley beat can be counted out as a two-bar phrase:

One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and"

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 10:33 AM

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

**
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

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Ole Bull
Date: 02 Feb 99 - 04:40 PM

Somebody once asked me; "Professor Bull, what does Juba mean?" Says I, "If you don't know by now, don't mess 'wid it!"

'Twas a common appellation in the early 19th century associated with early minstrel dance and music, that was to designate the source as african-american and/or the resulting white fusion. Black dance artist William Lane had the stage name Juba, as possibly other counterfeits also. I have found numerous short songs, mostly for banjo, different ones titled "Juba," like the various "Essence(s) of Old Virginny" and "Virginia Reel" for the fiddle. Maybe a "pecialist" from a Kollege of Musical Knowledge can offer up a commonality between these variants that my untrained eye don't see, say like it's a jig, a time or style, or even nothin in particular- it's jazz.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Ole Bull
Date: 02 Feb 99 - 04:33 PM

Somebody once asked me; "Professor Bull, what does Juba mean?" Says I, "If you don't know by now, don't mess 'wid it!"

'Twas a common appellation in the early 19th century associated with early minstrel dance and music, that was to designate the source as african-american and/or the resulting white fusion. Black dance artist William Lane had the stage name Juba, as possibly other counterfeits also. I have found numerous short songs, mostly for banjo, different ones titled "Juba," like the various "Essence(s) of Old Virginny" and "Virginia Reel" for the fiddle. Maybe a "pecialist" from a Kollege of Musical Knowledge can offer up a commonality between these variants that my untrained eye don't see, say like it's a jig, a time or style, or even nothin in particular- it's jazz.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 02 Feb 99 - 03:58 PM

Yes, I know that cd, All For Freedom- isn't it great? However, I've also heard very different interpretations- that it's the name given to girls born on Monday, that it's what enslaved people called the terrible food they were given, and although there may be no definitive answer, I'm curious about the various stories. I'd also like to learn more verses. Sweet Honey sings,

You sift the meal, you give me the husk,
You bake the bread, and you give me the crust,
You eat the meat, and you give me the skin,
And that's how my momma's troubles begin,
I say, Juba, HAH!

Is that all there is???

Subject: RE: Juba
From:
Date: 02 Feb 99 - 03:23 PM

Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock teaches on one of her albums for children that juba was the drum language that slaves used when their drums were taken away, because whites knew that they used them to communicate.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 02 Feb 99 - 09:56 AM

Well, gosh, I know it's older, supposedly dating from slave days and possibly even African ancestry. Thanks for the info so far!

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 02 Feb 99 - 04:04 AM

I've got a 78 disc from the thirties (belonged to my granddad) by, I think, Jack Hylton. JH had a British swing band. The other side is Organ grinder's swing.The Juba in the song is a dance, The words, as far as I can remember:

When the folks up in Harlem do the Juba
They tap their feet like the rhumba down in Cuba
Hi-de-hi! Lo-de-lo!
But when the folks up in Harlem do the Juba
You get a rhythm you never hear in Cuba.
Hi-de-hi! Lo-de-lo!
[...]
Even old peanut vendors come from Cuba
To hear the folks up in Harlem do the Juba

It's actually in a rhumba rhythm, despite claims to the contrary; the old-fashooned rhumba, that is: it's a sort of syncopated 8/8 time, 3/8 + 3/8 + 2/8 - it sounds like 9/8 with a beat missing. I keep meaning to try slipping it into a slip jig.

Steve

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 01 Feb 99 - 09:54 PM

Pattin' Juba was the name given this game by some of the African-American friends with whom I grew up. Some said it was a variation of a rhythmic singing game which I knew as the hambone. Bo Diddly developed a guitar scribbing rhythm which duplicated the hand/body action and became famous. I knew it as Juba this and Juba that, Juba killed the yellow cat.

Subject: RE: Juba
From: Mike Billo
Date: 01 Feb 99 - 08:42 PM

I have a record of "Juba" by Sonny Terry in which some of the verses are difficult to understand, but I could swear he sings "Juba this and Juba that. Juba killed the fatted cat(or,perhaps, calf?)".

Subject: Juba this and Juba that?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 01 Feb 99 - 08:27 PM

I'm seeking any info and/or verses for the old song/body rhythm piece called "Juba". I've heard conflicting stories on the meaning of the word, the source of the song, and whether Juba killed, saw, or had a yellow cat!