"If you take Halloween and 

 Christmas caroling and mix them up, 

 that's sort of what it was like," says 

 Luster. 



A custom brought to this country 

 by slaves from West Africa and the 

 West Indies, John Kunner was a 

 stowaway that, mysteriously, flour- 

 ished almost solely in the Old North 

 State. Exceptions are a cousin of the 

 celebration that died about 1860 in 

 the southeastern Virginia town of 

 Suffolk and an observance that 

 thrives today in the Florida Keys. 



"Like the islands of the Carib- 

 bean, North Carolina appears to have 

 been a virtual island of Jonkonnu on 

 the North American continent," wrote 

 Elizabeth Fenn in a 1988 article in the 

 N.C. Historical Review. 



The celebration of John Kunner 

 may have originated as a memorial to 

 John Conny, an 18th century ruler on 

 the Guinea coast. Harnett T. Kane, 



Chuck Davis, 

 outfitted in 

 colorful rags, 

 animal skins 

 and horns, 

 and carrying 

 a stick of 

 "seasoned 

 wood," 

 performs the 

 John Kunner 

 dance with 

 another 

 member of 

 the African- 

 American 

 Dance 

 Ensemble at 

 Somerset 

 Homecoming 

 in 1988. 



author of the 1958-published The 

 Southern Christmas Book, who 

 referred to the ruler as "John Connu," 

 described him as a flamboyant folk 

 hero. 



"In his name, groups of men have 

 long gone about during Christmas 

 season in 'fantastic manner, with cow 

 horns ... masks and boars' tusks on 

 their faces,'" Kane wrote. 



The celebration may date to 1688, 

 when a festival of dancing, singing 

 and costumes accessorized with 

 cows' tails was noted by Hans Sloane 

 in Jamaica. John Kunner wasn't 

 mentioned by name until 1774, when 

 Edward Long's History of Jamaica 

 describes the revelry led by "several 

 tall robust fellows dressed up in 

 grotesque habits." In Long's descrip- 

 tion, each masquerader is pursued by 

 "a numerous crowd of drunken 

 women, who refresh him frequently 

 with a sup of aniseed-water, whilst he 



dances at every door, bellowing out 

 'John Connu!' with great vehe- 

 mence." 



John Kunner is still observed in 

 present-day Jamaica, although its 

 personality and traits have changed 

 somewhat. 



On plantations in North Carolina 

 in the 1800s, many black slaves were 

 allowed to celebrate John Kunner and 

 the uncharacteristic freedoms it 

 afforded between Christmas and New 

 Year's. During that week, they were 

 given license to visit relatives at 

 neighboring plantations and to roam 

 the community, singing and dancing 

 in exchange for coins and spirits. 



The slaveowners hoped to gain in 

 return "a placid and docile slave 

 population that would labor with 

 unquestioning obedience for the rest 

 of the year," wrote Fenn. 



In 1849, a Northern schoolteacher 

 described a performance at a planta- 

 tion in Bertie County, across the 

 Chowan River from Edenton. 



"The Negroes have a custom here 

 of dressing one of their number at 

 Christmas in as many rags as he can 

 well carry," wrote George Higby 



A custom 

 brought to this country 

 by slaves 

 from West Africa 

 and the West Indies, 

 John Kunner was 

 a stowaway that, 

 mysteriously, flourished 



almost solely in 

 the Old North State. 



14 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER J 992 



