Jounen Kweyol Intenasyonal

October was Kweyol Month in St Lucia. The band pictured below is just one of many traditional folk bands who provide music for the various activities taking place all over the island. Like many things traditional in our islands, the participants are all quite elderly although I was told that younger people are coming into the genre.

As a Grenadian I envy the Lucians their kweyol culture. Even though Grenada was French for many years, and most place names are still french, the french patois (kweyol) language is dead, and our string bands are on the way out. The kweyol language really does add a unique cultural flavour.

The music produced by this band was really good, although (ironically) interspersed with some old anglocentric favourites. They were playing at an opening ceremony/ cocktail.

These gentlemen remained pretty taciturn throughout the performance, in contract to the violinist. The one on the left is playing a four string banjo. There is a small four string traditional Banjo in St Lucia called a bwa poye, but I don't think this is it.

In trying to find out more about these traditional bands, I came across what appears to be a very thorough account on Wikipedia.