Barbadian tuk music: Colonial development and post‐independence recontextualization1

Abstract

Tuk is a genre of fife and drum music found on the island of Barbados. While it exhibits a number of parallels with British military fife and drum music which may be attributable to the influence of the British army that was garrisoned on the island for over two hundred years, other influences have also played a part in the development of tuk, notably the musical heritage of the African‐descended population. The first part of this paper examines the early history of tuk and places it in its original performance contexts. In more recent times, the creation of a national identity drawing on the heritage of the majority African‐descended population has helped to preserve customs and traditions that may otherwise have died out. Although once looked down upon by some sectors of the population, these traditions have now been recontextualized to serve a specific purpose in post‐Independence Barbados and are more widely (though not universally) accepted. The way in which this transformation has been achieved is explored in the second part of the paper.