"Okhistorians: the custom of "jumping the broom" is British, not African?"
I always thought that "jumping the broom" was one of the few customs that survived from Africa to America during slavery. Apparently, it originated in Britain for illegitimate marriages AND slave masters forced slaves to jump over a broom during marriage ceremonies? Is this true?
TheAlbionist Member since Jul 04th 2011 3306 posts
Fri Nov-27-15 07:02 AM
1. "In use since at least the 1700s in Britain" In response to Reply # 0
... not sure if that's where it originated (an equivalent seems to be used in French too) and it's not in particularly common usage anymore outside of Romany communities, but it appears quite frequently in writing from the 1700s and 1800s so was obviously in fairly common use.
It's used in Great Expectations by Dickens at some point - that's where I first heard it.
Most commonly I think it was used metaphorically rather than literally... for a irregular/shotgun/non-church wedding and likely didn't actually involve anyone jumping over brooms.
Origin The significance of the broom to early African-Americans originates in the present-day West African country of Ghana. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, most of Ghana in the 18th century was ruled by the Asante of Ashanti Confederacy. Asante urban areas and roads were kept conspicuously clean according to visiting British and Dutch traders with the use of domestically made brooms. These same brooms were used by wives or servants to clean the courtyards of palaces or homes. The broom in Asante and other Akan cultures also held spiritual value and symbolized sweeping away past wrongs or warding off evil spirits. This is where the broom comes into play regarding marriage. Brooms were waved over the heads of marrying couples to ward off spirits. The couple would often but not always jump over the broom at the end of the ceremony. Jumping over a broom as part of a wedding ceremony was also common in pre-Christian European cultures. The custom survived the introduction of Christianity and was practiced by both blacks and whites in the American South prior to the Civil War.
4. "the custom, in 2015, is black american " In response to Reply # 0
tho it was documented in England
in Africa, the history is more specious.. if it came from a single tribe/region, youd have to explain- 1)how enough enslaved from that region were able to stay together to maintain this tradition and let it catch on 2)why didn't it show up in more countries than US 3)confirmation from current African historians from the area that this occurred
but either way, only way it still exists in current times is alex haley+roots, and black folks reviving it and keeping it alive for the last 50 yrs
)))--####---###--(((
bunda <-.-> ^_^ \^0^/ get busy living, or get busy dying.
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
General Discussion
