Encyclopedia of African American History

220  Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Present

Juba was a multidimensional concept involving a dance, a

type of song and group singing, a rhythmic “patting” of body

parts in emulation of musical instruments, and a method

of competitive banter. In a typical demonstration, a circle

of performers—engaged in singing, creating improvised

rhymes, dancing, and bodily patting—would form around

two dancers who would engage in semi-competitive dance

play. Th e circle of dancers would sometimes move coun-

terclockwise while the two Juba dancers inside the circle

would turn counterclockwise with one leg raised, engage

in stomping and thigh slapping, and perform a variety of

dance steps popular on Southern plantations, including the

Pigeon Wing, the Long Dog Scratch, Blow the Candle Out,

and the Yaller Cat, among many others.

Because of the multiple references and connections to

counterclockwise circularity, the Juba dance is oft en linked

to the Kongo cosmogram, the ring shout, and even Brazilian

Capoeira. As such, the origin of this form might be found

among enslaved West-Central Africans who made up the

majority of those brought to North America via the Atlantic

slave trade. Th ough the origins of this form may not be clear,

it is quite certain that from the various Juba circles formed in

the plantation South during the 19th century sprang highly

popular dances and dance styles such as the Charleston,

hambone, Black Greek step-dancing, and tap dancing.

See also: Angolan/Kongolese; Black Folk Culture; Kongo

Cosmogram; Ring Shout; West-Central Africa

Walter C. Rucker

Bibliography

Knowles, Mark. Tap Roots: Th e Early History of Tap Dancing. Jef-

ferson, NC: McFarland, 2002.

Obi, T. J. Desch. Fighting for Honor: Th e History of African Martial

Arts Traditions in the Atlantic World. Columbia: University of

South Carolina Press, 2008.

Stuckey, Sterling. Slave Culture: Nationalist Th eory and the Foun-

dations of Black America. New York: Oxford University

Press, 1987.

Kongo Cosmogram

Th e Kongo cosmogram (Yowa) is a ritual symbol that rep-

resents the Kongo sign of the cosmos and the continuity

of human life. Although its design is similar to the Greek

cross (+), the Kongo cosmogram does not symbolize the

popularity would secure the legacy of Scott Joplin and lend
credence to ragtime as a unique, African American musi-
cal complexity. Th e inherent complexities of Scott Joplin’s
“Maple Leaf Rag” made it an intellectualized statement of
African American musical ingenuity and sociopolitical as-
sertiveness. Th e popularity of this tune aff orded its com-
poser recognition well beyond the local walls of Sedalia,
Missouri.
From 1885 to 1916, Scott Joplin would continue to
compose, and sparingly play, “rags.” From 1911 to 1916,
he worked on opera composition. During these years, he
also taught music and continued to infl uence his contem-
poraries; Joplin launched the careers of several other musi-
cians, who then expanded on the social discourse between
African American music and the collective consciousness
of all Americans. Scott Joplin’s music echoed the chants of
social, political, and economic justice.
Joplin infused the American musical lexicon with
complex musical compositions born out of the experiences
of fi eld hands, house servants, and other indigenous Afri-
can people from all parts of the world. He died in New York
in 1917; in 1976, he was awarded a special posthumous Pu-
litzer Prize. Ragtime music continues to persist as both an
art form and an intellectual and musical curiosity—mainly
because of the legacy of Scott Joplin.
See also: Ragtime

Bruce Ormond Grant

Bibliography
Berlin, Edward A. King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Berlin, Edward A. Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History. Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1980.
Gammond, Peter. Scott Joplin and the Ragtime Era. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1975.
Gracyk, Tim, and Frank W. Hoff man. Popular American Recording
Pioneers, 189 5– 19 25. New York: Haworth Press, 2000.

Juba Dance

Juba is a dance popularized by enslaved Africans in the
American South, though examples of it or its cognate forms
were witnessed in the Dutch Guiana and the British Carib-
bean during the 19th century. Like so many expressive forms
created in slave communities throughout the Americas, the

http://www.ebook777.com