Mon | Sep 22, 2025

Jonkunnu master wants more respect for the custom

Published:Saturday | December 23, 2023 | 12:06 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
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Wild Indian characters from the South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Group let loose in the street during the Kingston Creative Art Walk Festival Grand Market.
Gladstone Taylor
Wild Indian characters from the South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Group let loose in the street during the Kingston Creative Art Walk Festival Grand Market.
Rainford Foster, leader of the South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Group.
Gladstone Taylor
Rainford Foster, leader of the South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Group.
From left: Donald Jackson, rattle drummer; Jovan Brown, grater and Rainford Foster, leader and base drummer of the South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Band performing at Kingston Creative’s Art Walk Festival Grand Market last Sunday.
Gladstone Taylor
From left: Donald Jackson, rattle drummer; Jovan Brown, grater and Rainford Foster, leader and base drummer of the South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Band performing at Kingston Creative’s Art Walk Festival Grand Market last Sunday.
Belly Woman is a permanent fixture in Jonkunnu parade.
Gladstone Taylor
Belly Woman is a permanent fixture in Jonkunnu parade.
Make way for the Mad Bull!
Gladstone Taylor
Make way for the Mad Bull!
Yvonne McCalla Sobers (right), dances with crowd favourite Pitchy Patchy.
Gladstone Taylor
Yvonne McCalla Sobers (right), dances with crowd favourite Pitchy Patchy.
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The Belly Woman, Pitchy Patchy, Wild Indian and Jack in the Green are all characters in Jamaica’s beloved Jonkunnu traditions.

But Rainford Foster, the leader of the South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Group, says that he wants more respect for the festive tradition.

“If this is one of the biggest culture you know, it should be bigger than that,” he urged. “It nuh big enough and it nuh good enough fi the people dem.” Jumping as a Jonkunnu dancer since he was a child, Foster said the South West band is the original Jonkunnu band in Kingston.

“This was formed by my granduncle some time in the ‘60s. One time, dem used to call it Kingston Jonkunnu group, but now you have a lot of groups forming. So we just call it South West St Andrew Jonkunnu Group,” he said. “I love it. When my granduncle start play him drum, me run and find a box and head in, so you know how long me know it.” The band was a feature of the recent Kingston Creative Art Walk Festival Grand Market. Despite the nostalgia, Foster said that, without aid, the tradition is on the brink of extinction.

“We just keep up the tradition and, every time it look like its about to break down, JCDC (Jamaica Cultural Development Commission) or somebody just call we and say ‘please, do it again’. Nowadays, things take money. I myself want some new costumes and we can’t even get them. We affi bang we belly more time and build one, then we build another one, then another one, and so on, because we not getting any sponsors,” he said.

While they used to have up to 15 members, Foster said that their numbers have fallen to 10, as many have migrated or moved away.

“You have some likkle youth who will see it more time and just say dem want to be a part of it, and sometime I get them involved if we have the space. We hardly hear people say they want to be a part of the Jonkunnu ‘cause some people say it weird,” he said.

In the coming year, he is hoping for some financial aid to keep the custom alive.

“They (potential sponsors) are not thinking about Jonkunnu, but, when we come out and dance, everybody see it and enjoy it,” he said.

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com