Tag Archives: school

Jambo Bwana Song

Background: Informant is a 19 year old of Kenyan heritage. Their parents immigrated to Los Angeles from Kenya and the informant wears a bracelet to feel connected to their heritage. 

Me: Where did this song come from? 

Informant: When I think about a song in Swahili the first song I think of is what I learned when I was four or five because my Kindergarten for graduation they wanted to do a whole cultural thing. So, they asked my mom and another girls mom who was Indian to come and teach us songs. So they taught us songs in Hindu and Swahili. The song we learned in Swahili is… 

Transliteration: 

Jambo, Jambo bwana, 

Habari gani, Mzuri sana.

Wageni, Wakaribishwa,

Kenya yetu Hakuna Matata.

Translation:

Hello, Hello sir,

How are you

I very fine

The visitors are welcomed

To our Kenya, don’t worry.

Reflection: I loved hearing the informant sing this song. It was interesting how they knew this song due to their schools’ emphasis on diversity, and how their mother shared her culture with the class through music. I find it so amazing how music can be used to bring people together in the sharing of cultural heritage. This also reflects the use of folklore in children’s education, with folk music being something that mainly children know today. 

Audio:

“The Big One”

Context:

B is a 17 year old Taiwanese-American high school student who is from Northern California.

This happened online through a discord call after I brought up things we learned in elementary school. This was sparked by a TikTok I had seen criticizing what many kids are taught in the US education system.

Text:

B: Wait did you guys also learn about the- like giant earthquake that we’re like super overdue for?

Me: YEAH NO I remember that it was crazy and like… the fact we’re still waiting on it

B: No it’s terrifying I always forget about it and then remember it like.. randomly. Didn’t the teachers like… call it the Big one or something like that? It was weird we were all just like told that California was mad overdue for a giant earthquake from the San Andreas fault.

Me: No exactly, it made me so paranoid as a kid and like- we definitely also watched that movie called like San Andreas or something with the Rock in it after we learned about it… like why would you show a bunch of 5th graders that, I was terrified.

Reflection:

As someone who has lived in California all my life, it is so interesting that this is a shared experience with others who grew up here. While it is a scientific fact, the way that it is told to children as “The Big One” makes it a sort of inside joke to those who know about it. I remember bringing it up to college friends who did not grow up in California and they are always horrified to hear about it. On the other hand, because I have known about it for so long, I am noticeably more numb to how concerning the threat actually is.

Initiation

Context: The school in question here is The Cate School, which is a boarding school located in Carpinteria California. The sophomores and the freshmen at this school would live in the same building. 

Text:

 “It’s an initiation that a lot of students participated in, especially the freshmen members. I remember, my friends and I, would go into freshmen rooms and basically spook them a little bit. We’d turn off all the lights, and hold brooms and question them. Some got a little scared, hahaha some ran. But those who stayed, we would basically tap them on the shoulders with the broom and say they got initiated. It’s something the older students always do”. 

Analysis: 

With schools themselves being strong with folklore, boarding schools are even more riddled with folklore of its own. Having kids from all over the world living together as they are still becoming who they are is an incredibly unique environment and one that spawns its fair share of folklore. Additionally, activities revolving around the older and younger student dynamic are also quite common. 

Crazy Towel Guy

Context: The subject of the interview is an older man who has been a fan of Duke basketball and in attendance for most of their games for the last 30 years. Additionally, the subject worked at the university. 

Text:

“Crazy towel guy is an older gentleman in his 70s who happens to have been a fan of Duke basketball for the last 50 years. And he would come to games, never ever would miss a basketball game. And everytime he would come, he would have the same seat and in the middle of the game when it looked like Duke wasn’t playing as well as they should or they were a little tired, he would grab his towel he had on his shoulder and stand up and waving the towel. What that meant to the students at Duke in the stadium, everybody would see this and start going crazy. They would raise the emotional level in that stadium from like below zero to over a hundred”. 

Analysis:

This piece of folklore is indicative of all the folklore existing within an athletic environment. Additionally, this piece of folklore goes under the category school specific folklore, the urban legends that can develop in and stay specifically within that one environment. 

Do not be at school alone

Background: The informant was a young high schooler in Korea. She remembers a story about a janitor who passed away at the high school she attended.

Me: When and where were you informed about this incident that occurred?

JY: Well, I was a junior in high school when I was informed and made aware of an incident involving the school janitor. The janitor was working at night when he suddenly had a heart attack and died. Ever since that, there has been many cases of students seeing a janitor late at school. I thought this was a story to scare the students but no. I was at school finishing up work when I heard a noise outside the room. Thinking that I was just hearing things ignored it until the noise got and closer. I was so bothered by it that my friends and I went outside the room to see what was in the halls. I sawed the ghost of the janitor and ran to the front of the school.

Me: Why do you remember it?

JY: I remember this very clearly because I was very shocked that I saw a ghost because I didn’t believe in them. I especially remember this incident because it was the time when I recently found out that the previous janitor died at school.

Me: Was it more believable at night?

JY: Yes it was!

Me: What do you make of it?

JY: This was when I realized that my belief in ghosts was wrong. Ghosts are real. Don’t look at me like that. Ghosts are real! I was like you, someone who didn’t believe in ghosts; however, that is not the case anymore. I wish you were there to experience what I had.

Context of the performance: This was told to me over a Zoom call.

Thoughts: The informant considers this ghost story to be widely experienced especially in Korea. The story the informant told was nothing too out of left field, but still instilled that emotion of fear and shock into me (the audience). For some reason, the high school students, who reported similar cases to the one my informant told, tended to be more from the female population. This left me questioning if females experience more ghost stories and if so why.