The African Roots of Jumping the Broom

About the Book

This book examines the matrimonial practice known as Jumping the Broom from an African-centered perspective and dispels the myth of a Gypsy origin of this ritual. Ogunleye traces this custom’s foundations to Africa and demonstrates that it was the Africans who migrated to the British Isles during antiquity who created and initially practiced this nuptial. Ogunleye situates this custom within earlier matrimonial rites and measures to safeguard marriages and family abodes. She illustrates that this tradition’s roots are discernible in the cosmologies, moral codes of conduct, religious beliefs, and proscriptions of the ancient Khamites (Egyptians), Nubians, Khoisan, Twa, and Yoruba.

About the Author

Tolagbe M. Ogunleye is the author of African American Names and their Meanings (2002). She has also written several articles on the subject of African cultural retentions and resistance to enslavement in the United States. Her publications include: "Àrokò, Mmomomme Twe, Nsibidi, Ogede, Tusona: Africanisms in Florida's Self-Emancipated Africans' Resistance to Enslavement and War Stratagems” (2004), “Women in Ancient West Africa;” in Women’s Roles in Ancient Civilizations (1999), “The Self-Emancipated Africans of Florida: Pan-African Nationalists in the New World”; Journal of Black Studies (1996), and “The Role of Folklore in Recreating African American History,” Journal of Black Studies, (1997).