With a long history of being demonized and widely misunderstood, the continued practice of African-derived religions (ADRs) such as Kumina and Revivalism in 21st century Jamaica is a testament to the resilient forms of cultural retention across several generations of Afro- Jamaicans.  Arranged on this page are various musical moments from different Kumina and Revivalist gatherings recorded during 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in St. Thomas, Jamaica from 2024 to 2025. 

These recordings are an open invitation to listeners to engage with the sonic features of ADRs in the parish of St. Thomas in a fashion that is detached from the often harmfully sensationalist virtual representation of ADRs as demonic and particularly disruptive to a colonially “traditional” and modern moral Christian order.

How can we understand these moments and songs  as offering insights into the stories of triumph, love, loyalty, resentment, desire, despair and longing that order Black rural life in the current moment? How do these stories call us to turn to the lived experiences of generations before and the ways they sought to make life in the changing social and political tides of the colony and the eventual postcolony?