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Meand community center in London, a ping pong table, a treadmill and an array of computers hugging the edge of the room. It all sounds familiar, except for the green shape with the hanging ribs of different colors: the maypole, and we’re here to dance around it. Our group of six people around it is ready, but instead of traditional English songs (“And on that tree there was a branch, And on that branch there was a branch …”), it’s dancehall, swinging loudly.
This feature is courtesy of British-Jamaican DJ, artist and educator, Litt Kamala. He made his name as one of the the first female DJs at Notting Hill carnival in 1985 he is only 15 years old, and now he is in the group of the event; like Lin Kam ArtKamala has dedicated her entire life to music, education, community service and the arts.
The Maypole Dance is a pagan ritual believed to have originated in ancient Europe, which was based around a large tree or bush. Traditionally on May Day people would jump around it and sing to the snowdrops blooming with hellebore, celebrating the birth and awakening of nature in winter. It was adopted by British schools in the 19th century, and, diverging from its pagan roots over time, it became a playground game, unlike May Day events. During her childhood in the 70s and 80s, “the maypole was one of the most diverse experiences you had, as a girl guide,” says Kamala. “I remember the ribbons and having so much fun dancing around them.”
But he saw maypole dancing disappear in his schools, because “efforts were being made to celebrate different cultures in schools other than English.” This was happening because of “a lot of discrimination.” On the other hand we were like all the English children, playing mulberry and all the rest.
40 years later, at the beginning of 2020, Kamala unexpectedly encountered a maypole again, leaning against the corner of a school classroom in Jamaica. Kamala was there leading a discussion with the youth, and visiting some of her family on the island. “I was just shocked – I couldn’t believe it.” The school was located in the village of Success: a sugar plantation and George Phillipsone of The Guardian’s economists. After the British conquered Jamaica in 1655, they imposed English culture and traditions on the African slaves brought there by the Spanish colonists in the early 1500s. The Maypole was introduced as part of that.
The teachers there were surprised to tell Kamala that the children still dance on the maypole many days after school, and that day Linett watched in awe as the girls danced and weaved bravely. They laughed as they danced wildly and loosened their ribcage, while oldies blared from the teacher’s car stereo. “I just got promoted,” says Linette. “I felt a sense of belonging.
The joy he saw between the girls, and the love they had, was difficult in terms of how he felt about this colonial remnant. Kamala knew she had to bring the maypole into her art, so she bought an old one online, and started doing workshops at the Kilburn community center where she volunteers, educating the community about the dance and its history. This is where a very creative vision began to emerge: to create his own maypole, in his own way, for the people of his community.
He said: “Since school, I have been practicing spiritism. Even before I knew the word, I used to write feathers and other things written in my books. Kamala sees the nature of sound systems as part of the surrealist tradition, and thus, Basstone Maypole was born.
This is Kamala who is very interesting, inspired by science. It features LED lighting strips instead of ribbons, school Tannoy speakers on the crown, and a thunder bin on the floor. A “light and sound system”, they call it. When she unveiled it in February at the Light Up Kilburn festival, “I was overwhelmed,” she recalls, as “kids, parents, adults” flocked along with some old-school musicians. We had birds singing from the speakers during quiet times, and wild birds they were singing along! It was very surreal. “
In 21st century Britain, the topics of English culture and identity can cause conflict. I ask Linette where the Basstone Maypole sits within it all. “There is a new kind of English: this is my heritage too,” he says. “It is better that I receive it and make a new one.”
Back at the community center, one of the attendees, Louise, has returned from a long day at her job in Canary Wharf. He also danced the maypole as a child and loves jungle and drum’n’bass, so “a maypole connected to a sound system, it’s like a dream come true!” Today’s episode, he says, has inspired him again, and “rekindled his fire”. Another attendee, Paulette, said: “I’ve never seen maypoles in an urban setting like this.
Before we leave, Linette tells us Beverly BogleA Jamaican quadrille dancer and director who immigrated to the UK in the 60s at the age of 16. A retired teacher and NHS nurse is here to teach us about this dance that originated in Europe in the 18th century and was brought back to Jamaica by the British during slavery.
They took our names, our songs, our clothes, our beliefs, our freedom.” They treated us like we were people,” he said of his parents who were slaves in Jamaica. “So we took their dance and made it our own” – just like they did with the maypole. There is a sense of defiance and empowerment in the dances, he explains, because they come from Africans after the white colonialists, “deliberately changing them into their quadrille dance style, and accompanying them with leading music”. Although it was completely forbidden, he tells us, “they secretly danced their quadrille in their camps at night to keep their spirits high, to support each other in their struggles for human dignity and equality, and most importantly to express their shared goals for liberation and the hope of a better life”. He added: “Now we dance to celebrate our ancestors’ ways to survive and their success in ending oppression.”
If you go through the acrid jingoism of modern Britain, it is clear that the English tradition is more complex, rich and traditional than many realize: a history intertwined like the ribs of a maypole, standing somewhere between the darkness of winter and the light of spring.
“For me, it’s all about looks,” says Linette. “There’s a lot more to human culture, Jamaican culture and English culture than people think.”
