Ten little negroes

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Ten Little Injuns from 1868
The Ten Little Niggers by Frank J. Green from 1869

Ten little negroes is a song in the form of a counting rhyme , which in its numerous variants usually contains ten stanzas, in each of which a " negro " dies or disappears. It is based on the American song Ten Little Injuns from 1868.

Since the term “negro” has been perceived as pejorative and racist since around the 1980s, the counting rhyme has been contrary to the conventions of political correctness .

Historically, it started with the song form, followed by children's books and later by derived songs. The text of the counting rhyme is available in numerous versions, which are not always about "niggers". There are also variations of the ending: in some all ten have disappeared at the end, in others they are complete again, usually through marriage.

history

The song Ten Little Negroes goes back to the American song Ten Little Injuns by Septimus Winner (1827-1902) from 1868. The word Injun is a corruption of the English word Indians for Indians , and of these, the song was originally.

As early as 1869 it was re-rhymed to Ten Little Niggers , possibly by Frank J. Green . This version became the standard repertoire of the American Blackface - minstrel shows , where white with dark painted face Black mocked . A well-known blackface group of the time, the Christy's Minstrels, brought the Ten Little Niggers to Great Britain, from where they spread throughout Europe. The song is also featured in the song Sweet Black Angel (1972) by the English band The Rolling Stones (“Ten little niggers sittin 'on wall […]”).

Both songs were brought to market in the form of children's books from 1868 and 1869 respectively, a few years after the end of the American Civil War , which lasted from 1861 to 1865. The oldest German editions did not appear until a generation later, starting in 1885. Due to the coincidence of the Berlin Congo Conference on the division of Africa , the little negroes are often brought into a causal connection with German colonialism .

Texts

The text of the first English version of Septimus Winner (1868) is available in the English Wikipedia under Ten Little Injuns . The better known version by Frank Green (1869) is documented here.

First German version of FH Benary (1885)

Ten little black boys slaughtered a pig;
One stabbed himself to death, there were only nine left.

Nine little black boys who went hunting;
One shot the other dead, there were only eight left.

Eight little black boys who went and stole turnips;
The farmer killed one of them, and there were only seven left.

Seven little black boys encounter a hex ';
She conjures up one of them right away, leaving only six.

Six little black boys walk without shoes and stockings;
One caught a cold to death, and there were only five left.

Five little black boys who drank Bavarian beer;
One of them drank until he burst, then there were only four left.

Four little black boys who cooked a porridge;
One fell into the kettle, there were only three left.

Three little black boys walked past the building;
A stone fell on your head - there were only two left.

Two little black boys who washed themselves clean on the Nile;
One was eaten by a crocodile - there was only one left.

A little black boy took a mom;
Ten little black boys will be back soon.

Version by Frank Green

Ten little niggers going out to dine,
one choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little niggers staying up too late,
one overslept himself and then there were eight.

One little, two little, three little, four little, five little niggers,
six little, seven little, eight little, nine little, ten little niggers.

Eight little niggers going into Devon.
One said he'd stay here and then there were seven.

Seven little niggers chopping up sticks,
One chopped himself in half and then there were six.

Six little niggers playing round a hive,
one bumble-bee stung one and then there were five.

Five little niggers going in for law,
one got in chancery and then there were four.

Four little niggers going out to sea,
A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little niggers visiting the zoo,
a big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two little niggers playing in the sun,
one got shriveled up and then there was one.

One little nigger living all alone,
He got married and then there were none.

melody

The melody often used in German differs significantly from Ten Little Injuns :

\ relative c '{\ key f \ major \ time 2/4 f4 f8 ffcccffgg a4 r8 a bes bes ggaaffggee f4 r \ bar ": |"  }

reception

Children's books

The song as an educational aid: "Without shoes and stockings results in a cold"

The Ten Little Negroes are a children's picture book that has spread worldwide for more than 100 years; it appeared in at least 345 editions in 16 countries; According to the number of editions, most widespread in GB (104), Germany (96), USA (54), Netherlands (50), Austria (13), Sweden (8), Switzerland (6), Australia (4), France (3), New Zealand, Canada, Palestine, Denmark, Iceland, CSR, China (1 each). In Germany it is the most widespread children's book ever printed.

There were also rhymes with 12 (Fritz Gareis, 1910)

Only some of the oldest German versions between 1890 and 1920 show 12 scenes; this was done on the basis of the Munich picture sheets and the flying sheets . An undated depiction from probably 1890 from Robrahn-Verlag Magdeburg was designed as a picture sheet with three rows and four scenes per row to ensure a rectangular format. In the 1960s, appeared in addition to the ten and six , five and four Little Indians .

Songs (selection)

Relationship to the Yiddish song Tsen Brider

A Yiddish folk song from St. Petersburg from 1901 deals with the Tsen Brider (Ten Brothers) who perish while trading ten different goods because - as is only revealed in the last stanza - they have too little to eat. The melody of Tsen Brider differs from the melody of Ten Little Negroes . It's melancholy and the chorus is missing. Furthermore, no connections between the songs could be proven, which is why a direct connection is considered "possible but unlikely". The Tsen Brider were reworked and performed by a number of German songwriters after the Second World War .

literature

From Cameroon (1885)

literature

Textbooks, articles

  • Wulf Schmidt-Wulffen : The "Ten Little Negroes". On the history of racial discrimination in children's books . LIT-Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10892-0 (English: Wulf Schmidt-Wulffen: 'Ten Little Niggers' and 'Zehn kleine Negerlein'. Racism in a Globalized Children's Book: A German Point of View . LIT-Verlag, Zurich 2012)
  • Juliane Kaune, Insa Hagemann: The professor and the “negroes” . In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , February 24, 2014, p. 11

Web links

Commons : Ten Little Negroes  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Ulrike Kramer: From negro kisses and moor heads. Terms like Neger and Mohr in the mirror of political correctness - a vocabulary analysis. Diploma thesis, 2006. PDF, p. 11 ff.
  2. Dorothee Kreusch-Jacob: Ravensburger song book for children: over 70 songs and verses to sing and play . Otto Maier, Ravensburg 1978, ISBN 3-473-37409-1 .
  3. Wulf Schmidt-Wulffen: The "Ten Little Niggers". On the history of racial discrimination in children's books . LIT-Verlag, Münster 2010.
  4. a b Wolfgang Martin Stroh: "Tsen brider sajen mir sein" - The special humor of Yiddish music and its manifestations in Germany. In: Ares Rolf, Ulrich Tadday (Ed.): Martin Geck. Festschrift for the 65th birthday. Klangfarben Musikverlag, Dortmund 2001, ISBN 3-932676-07-6 , pp. 371–392.