West Indian Weed Woman: Indigenous Origins of West Indian Folk Medicine

WEST INDIAN WEED WOMAN: INDIGENOUS ORIGINS OF WEST INDIAN FOLK MEDICINE WEST INDIAN WEED WOMAN: ORÍGENES INDÍGENAS DE LA MEDICINA POPULAR DE LAS INDIAS OCCIDENTALES WEST INDIAN WEED WOMAN: ORIGINES AUTOCHTONES DE LA MÉDECINE FOLKLORIQUE DES INDES OCCIDENTALES Erneslyn Velasco and Lawrence Waldron Erneslyn Velasco, R.N Elmhurst Hospital Center, United States Lawrence Waldron, Ph.D. Queens College, City University of New York, United States [email protected] In one of many versions of the popular early twentieth century calypso, “West Indian Weed Woman,” the song’s namesake (an unusual street vendor encountered by the singer, Bill Rogers) lists over sixty herbal folk remedies. After carefully transcribing the popular names of the herbs mentioned in the song, the investigators proceeded to locate the botanical names of the species. In the process, they discovered that more than half were endemic to the Caribbean and South America. Further research revealed that all of these endemic herbs have Indigenous medicinal applications, some of which are mentioned in the verses of the Rogers calypso. Thus, the song represents not only an intersection between West Indian folk medicine and popular culture and music, but reveals the extent to which Amerindian pharmacology was retained by an overarching Afro-Caribbean culture during the colonial and early modern period of the region. En una de las muchas versiones del calypso popular de principios del siglo XX, "West Indian Weed Woman", el homónimo de la canción (un vendedor callejero inusual encontrado por el cantante, Bill Rogers) enumera más de sesenta remedios herbales populares. Después de transcribir cuidadosamente los nombres populares de las hierbas mencionadas en la canción, los investigadores procedieron a localizar los nombres botánicos de la especie. En el proceso, descubrieron que más de la mitad eran endémicas del Caribe y Sudamérica. Investigaciones adicionales revelaron que todas estas hierbas endémicas tienen aplicaciones medicinales indígenas, algunas de las cuales se mencionan en los versos del Calypso de Rogers. Por lo tanto, la canción representa no sólo una intersección entre la medicina popular de las Indias Occidentales y la cultura popular y la música, sino que revela hasta qué punto la farmacología amerindia fue conservada por una cultura afrocaribeña dominante durante el período colonial y temprano moderno de la región. 617 Dans une des nombreuses versions du calypso populaire du début du XXe siècle, «West Indian Weed Woman», le nom de la chanson (un vendeur ambulant inhabituel rencontré par le chanteur, Bill Rogers) énumère plus de soixante remèdes naturels à base de plantes. Après avoir soigneusement transcrit les noms populaires des herbes mentionnées dans la chanson, les enquêteurs ont commencé à localiser les noms botaniques de l'espèce. Dans le processus, ils ont découvert que plus de la moitié étaient endémiques aux Caraïbes et en Amérique du Sud. D'autres recherches ont révélé que toutes ces herbes endémiques ont des applications médicinales indigènes, dont certaines sont mentionnées dans les versets du calypso Rogers. Ainsi, la chanson représente non seulement une intersection entre la médecine folklorique des Indes occidentales et la culture et la musique populaires, mais révèle dans quelle mesure la pharmacologie amerindienne a été conservée par une culture afro-caribéenne globale au cours de la période coloniale et début de la période moderne de la région. In the 1930s, the calypso, “West Indian Weed Woman,” was popularized by the Guyanese singer Bill Rogers.1 It has since been covered by generations of Caribbean musicians across several genres. 2 The numerous renditions of the song have bequeathed us an unexpectedly rich sample from the considerable Caribbean pharmacopoeia. But with the easy availability of industrially produced pharmaceuticals in the modern Caribbean (often at hospitals administered by nation states), and with the level of respect and trust commonly afforded to medical professionals (by virtue of the level of education they represent), the store of knowledge about West Indian folk medicine has been slowly slipping from the minds of Caribbean elders, who are called upon less and less to employ it. Described as “an anthropologist’s paradise” by Calypso historian Donald Hill (275), “West Indian Weed Woman” is, therefore, of considerable value in preserving in written and musical form a part of this waning knowledge. Bill Rogers’ popular early twentieth-century song was not only surprising in the great number of medicinal species it named but in the ancient origins and uses of these species, many of which also have modern pharmaceutical applications. Content and Context of the Calypso “West Indian Weed Woman” Bill Rogers (Bluebird B-4938, New York, November 19th, 1934) One day I met an old woman selling, And I wanted something to eat. I say I was going to put a bit in she way, But I turn back when I meet. I thought she had bananas, orange or pear, 618 But was nothing that I need. For when I asked the old woman what she was selling, She said she was selling weed. She had she coat tie up over she waist, And was stepping along with grace. She had on an old pair of clogs on her feet, And was wriggling down the street. Just then she started to name the different weeds, And I really was more than glad. But I can’t remember all that she call, But these were a few she had. Man Piaba, Woman Piaba, Tantan Fall Back and Lemon Grass, Minnie Root, Gully Root, Granny-Backbone, Bitter Tally, Lime Leaf, and Toro, Coolie Bitters, Karile Bush, Flat o’ the Earth, and Iron Weed, Sweet Broom, Fowl Tongue, Wild Daisy, Sweet Sage and even Toyo. She had Cassava Mumma, Coocoo Piaba, Jacob’s Ladder, and Piti Guano, Fingle Bush, Job’s Tear, Piti Payi, a Jumbie Bottle, and White Cleary, Bile Bush, Wild Cane, Duck Weed, Aniseed, Wara Bitters, and Wild Gray Root. She even had down to a certain bush Barbajans does call Puss in Boot. When I hear how much bush she had, I left dumb till I couldn’t even talk. 619 She started to call from Camp Street corner, And never stop ‘til she reached Orange Walk. The woman had me so surprised that I didn’t know what to do, That a girl come and gimme a cuff in meh eye, And I didn’t even know was who. Sweet Broom, Sweet Sage, and Lemon Grass, I hear them good for making tea. Oh well, I hear Zèb Grass and Wild Daisy is good to cool the body. The woman tongue was even lisped, And she was calling out all the time. She even had a little kanwa eye, And the other that left was blind. She had Bitter Guma, Portugee Bumboh, Congo Lana, and Twleve o’ Clock Broom, Sarsparilla, Wild Tomato, Soursop Leaf, and Half-a-bit Weed, Yura Bally, Sweet Pinpota Bush, White Fleary, and Christmas Bush, Cockshun and Sand Bitters, and even Monkey Ladder, and all the rest you may need. She had Fat Bush, Elder Bush, Black Pepper Bush, French Toyo, Qupera, and Capadulla, Tamarind Leaf, Money Bush, Soldier Fork Leaf, Pumpkin Blossom, and even Devil Dua, Leeman, Congo Pom, Pingalor, Physic Nut, and Lily Root. In fact, the only bush that she didn’t got was Bush in he everyday suit! 620 Calypso is a particularly topical form of Afro-Caribbean music originating in Trinidad (Rohlehr 1-212). It is played in both a folk form (with guitars, cuatros, drums, and idiophones), and an orchestral form, which came to include not only brass and woodwinds but also steel pans, which were invented to accompany it (Manuel 218-222). Calypso is characterized by clever, often amusing or satirical lyrics, sometimes employing double entendre when approaching controversial political or sexual subjects. Enlivened and punctuated by the episodic verses that typify calypsos of the 1930s- 50s (arguably calypso’s golden age of recording), “West Indian Weed Woman”’s impressive recitation of dozens of folk remedies, or “bush medicines,” is presented as an urban spectacle—an old woman comes to town with numberless bunches and packets of presumably dried and fresh, and no doubt pungent “weeds,” which she vends like others might sell ‘bananas, oranges or pears.’ With a characteristically keen interest in the amusing curiosities of daily life, the various singers of “West Indian Weed Woman,” each give us a diagnostic slice of the catalogue of traditional herbal medicines in their respective Caribbean countries, and some of the applications of these remedies. As in Bill Rogers’s original composition discussed in this essay, most versions of the song seem like self-conscious attempts to conserve a pharmacological tradition by cataloguing part of it in popular song, all while having good fun with the tongue-twisting names. The reflexive attitude of these musicians towards the exploration and appreciation of cultural themes is a distinguishing characteristic of classic calypso3 as well as “roots and culture” reggae,4 the most widely known musical forms of the twentieth century Anglophone Caribbean. Calypso Cures Handed down by countless elders, these traditional medicines have often become known to us only one at a time as the need for them arose (i.e., as we suffered from some particular malady or another that necessitated them). The fragile line along which the knowledge of these remedies has passed, and the practical and/or formal training to which that line once linked, was rebuked and ridiculed by Conquest- and colonial-era clergymen who saw traditional medicines as part and parcel of “pagan” rituals and religion (Pané 1999:19-24). Traditional medicine was then rejected by the Enlightenment’s redirected confidence in then-emerging scientific methods, some of which were themselves steeped in non-scientific cultural beliefs and biases about Western superiority, and a growing acceptance of the Cartesian separation of body and mind.

Load more