Carnival on St. Thomas: A troupe of masqueraders parade down the street in the St. Thomas Carnival.
Photo by Myron Jackson
Carnival at the Folklife Festival: Carnival troupes parade down the National Mall during the restaging of Carnival at the 1990 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Lambe in Senegal: Serere wrestler M’Baye Diouf participates in a lambe tournament in the farming town of Samba Dia in Senegal’s Sine region.
Photo by A. Lamine Drame
Lambe at the Folklife Festival: At the lambe tournament held on the National Mall for the 1990 Senegal program, participants Sidy Sary and M’Baye Diouf wrestle while a member of Washington, D.C.’s local Senegalese community serves as referee. Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Scratch Band: A scratch band performs traditional quelbé music. From left to right the instruments are squash (scratch), guitar, claves, “ass pipe,” and ukulele.
Photo courtesy Von Scholten Collection, Enid Baa Public Library and Archives, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Toucouleur Women’s Music: At the 1990 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Amayel M’Baye, Boudy Seck, Fily Sock, and Souadou Seck sing to the rhythm of gourds which they hold in their hands. Cire Yene Demba Doro Ba (left) plays a Touclouleur stringed instrument called a hoddu.
Photo by Rick Vargas
Fish Stew in Senegal: Anta Diop and Maimouna N’Diaye prepare a typical Senegalese midday meal of fish stew with rice (thiebou-dienne) over an open fire at the 1990 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Photo by B. Honzik
Cooking in the Virgin Islands: Evarista Santiago grates a cassava root to prepare the dough for Puerto Rican turnovers called empanadillas.
Photo by Rick Vargas
Basket Making in the Virgin Islands: Mrs. Felicia Caines weaves a St. John market basket with hoopvine collected in the forest of St. John.
Photo by Betz Robb
Basket Making in Senegal: A basket maker in Dakar, Senegal, displays a variety of basket styles for sale in a local market.
Photo courtesy INSTRASAHEL
Head Ties in Senegal: Women and children at a festive event in Senegal wear a variety of head ties and hair styles.
Photo courtesy of INTRASAHEL
Head Ties in the Virgin Islands: Quadrille dancers at the 1990 Smithsonian Folklife Festival wear costumes including head ties. Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Market in Senegal: Foods eaten every day are available in this traditional marketplace on the outskirts of the capital city of Dakar.
Photo courtesy of INTRASAHEL
Market in the Virgin Islands: At the St. Thomas marketplace during the 1990 Carnival Food Fair, market woman Sandy Thomas takes time to chat with customers.
Photo by Betz Robb
The U.S. Virgin Islands & Senegal
The 1990 Smithsonian Folklife Festival featured the U.S. Virgin Islands and the country of Senegal. Participants from the two programs found that they had much in common, including some foodways, music, and storytelling traditions. Following the Festival, the education team at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage used materials from the research and documentation of these two programs to create our first-ever multimedia kit. The materials, written on the eighth grade level but scalable up or down for other age groups, were distributed and used by classrooms throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands. Although the examples used in this kit concentrate on the rich folklife of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Senegal, the activities are universal to the study of folklife and culture.
The original kit contains a four-part videocassette, two audiocassettes, and a teachers’ guide with maps, photographs, and line illustrations. Included here are PDF chapters of the teachers’ guide, digital copies of the videos, and a slide show of the photographs used in lessons in the original kit.
