DESCRIPTION:
This African-based, pre-Minstrel tune, Juba, has come to us through Ms. Bessie Jones as well as banjo tutors.

Jones informs us, via Sweet Honey in the Rock, that, In the US African community, Juba was a cleansing ceremony. Juba was sung & percussed to throw off and discharge the negativity of the institution of chattel slavery.

Thus, we find in Juba a vital, sacred act---not to be confused with the good-time community activity of Hambone. Though both use body percussion, they are--functionally--very different.

The banjo being played is a gourd-body, Paduk-head, steel-string instrument made by Steve Catania, of PA. Thanks to Fred Newton for the axe! Ashe!