Brown Girl in the Ring (game)
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Brown Girl in the Ring is a children's ring game thought to have originated in Jamaica.
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[edit] History
Ring games are played in many parts of the world by boys and girls, especially in their preteen years. In Alan Lomax, J.D. Elder and Bess Lomax Hawe's There's a Brown Girl in the Ring, an anthology of Eastern Caribbean song games, it is suggested that ring games are a precursor for children to adult courtship.
The players form a ring by holding hands, then one girl goes into the middle of the ring and starts skipping around to the song. The girl is then asked "show me your motion", at which point she does her favourite dance. When she is asked "show me your partner", she picks a friend to join her in the circle.
The "brown" girl (or boy) in the ring traditionally refers to children's skin tone prevalent in the Caribbean and it is thought to enhance their self esteem.[citation needed]
[edit] Popular recordings
The song has been recorded by the European pop group Boney M, as well as by Raffi, Dan Zanes and the Minipops.
Jurassic 5, a Southern California based hip-hop group, has a song titled "Brown Girl" which refers to the original song in its chorus.
The song is featured in the film Touching the Void when mountaineer Joe Simpson worries he is succumbing to madness or death. He recalls: "I remember thinking, bloody hell, I'm going to die to Boney M".
The Australian children's group, The Wiggles, sing and dance to "Brown Girl" during a segment of their syndicated show. In true Wiggles fashion, where the main characters are often identified by the color of their shirt, the "brown girl" is in fact Caucasian, but clad in brown.
Lord Invader, a Calypso singer from Trinidad, recorded a version circa 1946-1947 in New York. The recording is now part of the Smithsonian Folkways collection and was only released in 2000 on Lord Invader Calypso in New York CD.
[edit] Bibliography
There's a Brown Girl in the Ring - Alan Lomax, J.D. Elder and Bess Lomax Hawe, Random House, New York, 1997
