A Congo Watermelon from David's & Kasey's farm in Snow Camp got me thinking about racism and food. After all it was Labor Day and therefore a great time to reflect on historical product of labour in the South: food and racism. The name Congo and the watermelon have interesting historical connections in the South.
I once visited Louisiana and one of the places I toured was the historic Congo Square. That was a location that the local enslaved Africans assembled on Sundays or during the holidays to play music and entertain themselves. Many believe that some the rhythms first played at Congo Square later found their way into what later become jazz music. But jazz music is not the only music that was influenced by the rhythms of Congo Square. Many of musical genre like Blues were also polinated by the musical pollen from Congo Square.
What's interesting is how Watermelon was negatively used in creating minstrel images portraying people of African origin as dumb.. It's weird that the consumption of local organic fruits could be used negatively by depicting Africans as uncultured or greedy.
As I sat outside the Ward family, listening to our children playing in the backyard, I allowed my mind to wonder. For some reason, my mind stayed on Congo Square. It is a place I had seen with my eyes and can even remember how I first felt as I listened to the story of Congo Square and the modern rhythms thriving there to this day.
Those rhythms sounded like spiritual rings connecting us to the past history of struggle and triumph. It's highly likely that many of the original Congo Square attendees were adherents of African spirituality known as Voodoo. That form of spirituality was even more widespread and popular in the Caribbean countries such as Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and even amongst the Brazilian African population.
That was then, and yet that past is still haunting us. I could still pick musical nuances in our conversation between a Jamaican, European and a Kenya who could have passed for a Congo in the past. It was labor day and the best time to recognize that our history of labour in this country is dirty and needs cleaning.
We can see the consequences of that dirty history in the recent spate of online debate following the words of Ted Cruz, Republication senetor from Texas, when he urged the 8.4 million unemployed workers to apply for the 10 million jobs that are unfilled. Why would unemployed people opt not to apply for the available jobs if the labour industry was clean and honest? It depends on who you ask. What I know for sure is things are not going well.
Bob Marley's message of positive vibration is a good place to start. Our sharing a meal together and discussing the sensitive openly is a positive thing for all involved.
As my family and I left farm with our bellys full of Watermelon juice, I could feel the natural mystic flowing through the air. The further way we went from the farm it downed on me that I was leaving one bubble and heading home into another bubble. There is still too much trouble in the world. Survival is the name of the game outside those bubbles. Bob Marley's song, Survival, described that reality back in tbe 80s. These words from that record sounds the same warnings now as it did then. Those words were " scientific Atrocity, atomic misphilosophy and nuclear misenergy".
They should be a warning to all of us and be another reason to fight against racism, labor and food injustice. We dont have time to waste.