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KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Charles Town Maroons, from the eastern parish of Portland, are recipients of the UNESCO Award of Excellence for Handicraft, in the Dutch and English Speaking Caribbean, for its Bench Drum.
The Charles Town Maroons.
A three-member jury, which met recently in Curaçao to evaluate 26 entries from several countries for the Award, said it chose the Bench Drum “for its craftsmanship and cultural content.”
The jurors noted that the drum is “a standalone object that talks about music using noble materials such as local woods and goat skin” and referenced the use of the drum in spiritual rituals calling on the African ancestors.
Head of the Charles Town Maroon community, Colonel Frank Lumsden, in accepting the award at the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO, explained that the drum was designed to resemble a bench so that the ancestors could “hide it in the open” from the colonisers, who had forbidden the use of the drums.
The Secretary-General of the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO, Everton Hannam, said the UNESCO Award of Excellence for Handicrafts had been established to “encourage artisans to produce handicrafts using traditional skills, patterns and themes in an innovative way, in order to ensure the continuity and sustainability of these traditions and skills”.
He said the award “aims to ensure that when consumers buy ‘awarded handicrafts’ they receive high quality, culturally authentic products that have been manufactured in a socially-responsible manner with respect for the environment”.
Charles Town is one of several Maroon settlements across the island.
