 And somehow being able to put it out even in a secret way changes the way I feel. Songs and dancing and drumming do that for me. They change my inside. Well, where did Juba come from? Juba is an African word. It came over to America with our people when we were brought to work as slaves. The word is African, but doing Juba was made up by our people when we had to express how hard and unfair it was to be slaves and to be taken so far from home.