PETER ROBERTS


have developed as basically percussive, with the small drum and big drum,
their roles and relationships exactly as Labat described the baboula and the
grand tambour. Williams regarded the dance as rural, ancient and local, which
together suggest that the word rooma was not imported from Cuba. If this is
so, then it challenges Spanish etymologies for the word and points to an
African ethnic source instead.
 Sometime within the first half of the nineteenth century the word bamboula
came to be applied to a specific dance in the smaller French Caribbean islands
as well as in the Virgin Islands. The four islands (St. Lucia, Martinique,
Dominica, and Guadeloupe) are in a line, quite close to each other, and
connected by constant traffic. As a result, transfer of features of culture across
the four islands, which at times were all French, would have been quite
normal. The bamboula seemed to have evolved from the calenda because
there were points of similarity between them and also because the name
itself (bamboula) showed evidence of continuity from Labat's word. On New
Year's Day 1838, R. Max-Radiguet, a visitor to Martinique, witnessed a
bamboula for the first time and, after identifying the instruments as drums,
rattles and castanets, described the basic movements as follows:

 In the bamboula, the leading role belongs to the man: he sings strange words
 at the top of his voice; he continually knocks his elbows against his hips
 and chest and he hits his belly and thighs with his hands. In the least
 animated moments of the dance, he suddenly makes some terrific leaps,
 then he falls back to the ground bent in two; soon he recoils trembling and
 afraid, then he advances feigning the wildest joy; he spins around,
 somersaults, hits each shoulder in turn with his head, and embellishes his
 role by doing cartwheels and walking on his hands, like our street urchins
 in France going after a postchaise.
 The woman shakes a white veil which she raises as her cavalier approaches;
 she measures her steps to suit his, advances and withdraws with him; then,
 at an agreed moment, the black Veronique wipes the perspiration which is
 running down the face of her partner. (Grehan 1842 4:335-6)

Max-Radiguet then summed up the overall experience by saying

 The bamboula seems to me to be the most violent gymnastic exercise
 imaginable and you must be thoroughly seasoned and hardened to fatigue to
 take part for a few minutes in this delightful amusement. (Grehan 1842 4: 336)

 This description moves the bamboula beyond simple dancing (viewed
from a European perspective) into a more elaborate performance with the
male as the main focus of attention. With seven different performances taking
place at the same time (according to Max-Radiguet) and with a constant
replacement of dancers, the competitive element would have been very
strong and the whole scene must have been spectacular.