An Effigy for the Enslaved: Jonkonnu in Jamaica and Belisario's Sketches of Character

In 1838, less than one year before the enslaved of Jamaica were fully emancipated, Isaac Mendes Belisario completed his Sketches of Character, a set of lithographs that today constitutes one of the first visual representations of the Jamaican Jonkonnu performance from the pre-emancipation period. This essay considers the links between Jonkonnu and similar performances from the African continent, asking what Jonkonnu meant to the largest group of African-born slaves at the time Belisario finished his Sketches of Character. Ultimately, Jonkonnu is best understood as a mortuary ritual that both mourns the moment of enslavement and provides for the possibility of social resurrection within a new social order.