 The cry of the descendants of African slaves and the drum sounds of African peoples you find that that is ever present in in the lives of Caribbean people see as black people continue their struggles to to make a living from the land and and also from the from their own abundant skills to find that the the language the songs dances all the all their creative expressions form the movements of celebration and and they are the sources of hope the the the the the the the The island of St. Lucia is located in the middle of this arc of islands in the Caribbean. The legacy of colonialism naturally has left the imprint of European culture, yet you find it is the African heritage which makes for what is unique in St. Lucia culture. The songs, the dance, the craft, the queer language, all those things, they have survived the challenges of other cultures. The legacy of PI is located on the southwest coast of St. Lucia. Now, PI came into being when eight families of labourers migrated from the neighbouring estates of Balabush and Safi, so over 100 years ago, to form a community, and the majority of the population of what, 400 are people who have a very strong consciousness of being descendants of people of West Africa, and they call themselves, and they are called, necgine. The people in PI are still engaged in subsistence farming, and while those who haven't gone to the towns, they sell sand for living. We have the same family, we have many people, we have a big family, we have a family, we have a small family, we have a lot of people who have come here to help us. They are the people from Pytron. We have a lot of people from Cambodia who have come to help us, we have a lot of people who have come here to help us. Beneath the natural tranquility of P.I., the African rhythms of Kutomba, Deboth, and Bele that live, those rhythms live in the people. The people of P.I. are known all over St. Lucia, all over the Caribbean for the skills in carrying on these African dances. For instance, the Deboth is well known. We call one and the other side a 4 P.I. The nights, we people from Alemone, playing games, and then we invite the people down at 4 P.I. to come and meet us. Sometimes people from our 4 P.I. do the same thing and invite people from Alemone to come and meet them and we all join together to have some fun. It was very good. Well, a Deboth or Kutomba has to be organized. It's usually given by someone, a particular person. One of that person's responsibilities is to provide drink, you know, to help things to flow. So that person provides drinks for the dancers, you know, and for the drummer, of course. And before the session really warms up, really gets off the ground and people start to gather and nothing has really happened yet. You find some games will start up. We begin to do a few dances and some games from traditional games to really start to warm up the atmosphere. Then now at a certain point, you find that people really get into the mood. So you have to know everything from what I was there. Is that everybody? Imagine before we knocked it from there. You don't see all of them dancing there. They just dancing. They know all the songs. They know how to dance it. If it's so, if it's the other way, you know how it is. They know all kind of version of the song. They know everything. Before you knocked it from there, they don't know how to dance it. I'm a youngster in P.I. And when I grew up, I found culture going on and I wanted to learn more about it. So I saw how the people went on dancing it and I followed their steps. And now I can dance it. As in the case of the ballet, taught the dance, you know, it's an interesting thing. You more find that the older people, like, help them to perfect what they've understood and what they've picked up by watching. So they have to perfect the skills of doing it and also to understand the meaning of the dance. It's much more than, it's not a formal thing. There's a grown-up man in the group. That's Mr. Clifton, right? Why? So everybody knows what he must try to do. You see, at times when he and the two of us meet, we always have a little chat, you know, and I tell him, well, like the word congo, like, if I hear him mention it, would that look funny to me? Like it's, you know, like a cruel name. I always ask him, what does that mean? Because he knows more than me, right? And then, and also my president, Mrs. Etienne, and I ask her, well, what does certain such a word mean? Like, I give her, say, well, you know, money, more or something. You know, well, that's not familiar to me. Then I ask him and then they always tell me what it's like. And then I go through it, you know. Well, the moment of celebration on any evening comes with the dancing of the Kutumba. Now, it is in this now, in, you know, in the coming together of a number of things now, like the power and the clarity of the chante, that's the main singer. And the timing and skill of the drummer, the power gain and the precision and, you know, movement of the dancers, all these things coming together now in a whole. You know, that's what really makes watching these African dances such a pleasure. Unlike all of the St. Louisian traditional dances, in this circle the dancer walks a few steps forward before he certainly steps back as if he was stumbling. Some dancers like to perform this figure only once and to quickly turn to someone else who takes their place. The pace by which the dancers exchange roles then becomes very rapid and the dancers are said to work fast. Other dancers prefer to perform this movement just described several times before they are replaced. They can just embellish the figure and allow the drummer to become more expressive. Two different types of Kutumba can be distinguished by the ending figures. In the dance called Simply Kutumba, the solo dancer invites someone to replace him by giving a nod to the head. At that precise moment, the drummer underlines the signal on his drum by a damp sound called Va. In the other dance called Kutumba Guame, the dancer claps three times in front of the next executant. The three claps are simultaneously reproduced on the drum by three vap sounds. Otherwise, the movements of the two types of Kutumba are similar. Indeed, the drummer follows closely the movements of the dancer and punctuates these movements by special rhythmic strokes. The tight coordination between dancer and drummer brings forth the admiration of every participant. The performance of a Kutumba dance, moreover, goes hand in hand with the conception of the Jeanne people about life and death. For instance, they say at both of a child, Jeanne people used to cry. Even though they do not pursue this tradition today, the Jeanne confess that they remain perplexed and worried about the future of a newborn child. They fear that the child might be sick or become handicapped in the course of his life, that he might become a thief, or that he might experience all sorts of other miseries. In brief, Jeanne see life as a long journey full of obstacles. Death is the celebrated with singing, drumming, and dancing because it signifies the end of a man's miseries. You find that they all come together to join in this celebration and the energy, where the energy comes from, from the commitment to carry on the tradition.