Natural Sweet African Music

This is as simple and as natural as music could ever get it in these days of electronic and synthetic musical productions. Greetings to Zimbabwe!  ENJOY!

THE RETURN OF SPADE – A Movie About the Quest to Protect the Values of African Heritage

Agent SPADE returns in pursuit of international criminals to recover some stolen African Artifacts and at the same time quash a syndicate engaged in human trafficking!  – PREMIERING SOON – Details at www.Spademovie.com
Writen and directed by Oliver O. Mbamara

We Are The World 25 For Haiti – Official Video

Information on how to make a donation is provided at the end of the video.

Alan Lomax’s Astounding ’30s Haiti (African rooted music and video) Archives Released

Haitian Musicians - by Alan Lomax

“These were recorded right after one American ‘adventure’ in Haiti, so there were enormous shifts in attitude there after that,” Averill says. “It was definitely a fervent period for nationalism and African orientation, with Haiti viewing itself as of African heritage rather than as a weird colony. So here we are following the last American occupation, and Haiti really has the challenge to get itself into governance shape to direct its own affairs and to change the global perceptions of Haiti.”

And into this stepped Alan Lomax, just 21 when he arrived, fresh off various projects with his father, folklorist and musicologist collector John Lomax, and determined to develop a comprehensive collection of African-rooted music in the Americas.

In 2005, ethnomusicologist Gage Averill found himself introducing pioneering African-American dancer Katherine Dunham at an event. Dunham, who passed away in 2006 at age 96, was being honored in part for her invaluable studies of music and dance in Haiti in the 1930s, delving deep into the history and aesthetics of arts forged in the island crucible fueled by the cultures and travails brought by African slaves. Haiti had served as one of the key way stations for the slave trade in the West, a history full of tragedy and oppression that nonetheless forged truly rich and unique culture and ultimately shaped key aesthetics throughout the Americas. When Dunham had been there, many of the old ways were dying in the growing shadow of the modern industrialized world.

Averill, currently professor of history and culture specializing in Caribbean studies at the University of Toronto, had for several years before the event been involved in a project to research and release material from the massive sound and film archives recorded in 1936 and ’37 by American song collector Alan Lomax during his trips to Haiti. The material, kept in the Library of Congress and long unexamined, was the results of an arduous adventure in which the young Lomax lugged cumbersome recording equipment around on buses (he had no private transportation on the visits) even while suffering from malaria. Despite all that, he was able to gather an unbelievable 1,500-plus recordings covering the full range of music: work songs, religious music, vodou and rara ritual, children’s songs, mérengue and other social dance styles among them.

Take ‘Mesi Papa Vensan’ (“Thank You Papa Vincent”), by Surprise Jazz, which is the first song on ‘Alan Lomax in Haiti,’ a collection being released Nov. 17 culled from the archives — 287 song, more than nine hours of music, on 10 CDs, plus six films Lomax shot at the same time.

Explains Averill, “Recorded in an elite club, this small ‘jazz’ orchestra with clarinet lead plays a popular tributary méringue song for the President of Haiti, Sténio Vincent, and the lyrics consist of a recitation of the ways that that the president had benefited the lives of Haitian common people. Jazz had come to Haiti with the American Marines and with recordings, and mixed with the urban form of the méringue, it was the music of choice in the dancing establishments along the waterfront in Haiti of the 1930s.”

Averill is expecting a lot of variations of that scene with the release of this great wealth of material films.

“This will have an interesting effect — I can’t say what — in Haiti itself,” he says. “It might change what people are singing, what vodou pop ensembles are performing. This additional impact in Haiti will be curious and interesting — I hope and think it will. People in Haiti have been hungry for this.”

With civil wars, poverty, long stretches of military rule, the nation’s history has at best been ignored on the island. Archives have been destroyed. But the advent in recent years of a stable government has created an environment that he believes will receive these materials with great interest.

“There’s a cultural ministry and whole nation willing to understand its history,” he says. “And suddenly we drop this large archives into their laps. Going to be fascinating to follow the path of this and see how it rolls out and what it changes in Haiti.”

This endeavor will get a high-profile assist. The project is being done under the auspices of the Haiti Repatriation and Cultural Preservation Project of the Lomax-founded Association for Cultural Equity — of which Lomax’s daughter Anna L. Wood is the director. And that in turn was selected for support by the Clinton Global Initiative and the Green Family Foundation.

But Averill already experienced some of this just in the course of researching the material with his colleague Louis Carl St. Jean.

“We would have a problem, something mentioned in a song about something, and we’d have no idea,” he says. “So Louis would say he’d call his aunt and she said, ‘I know an old mambo,’ and he’d get on the phone with a 78-year-old mambo and play the recording over the phone and get a comment. Old priests saying, ‘I can’t believe they sung that up there like that!’ Or ‘I thought that died out; I hadn’t heard that since I was a kid.’ When we bring this around, we’re playing the voices of ancestors from generations past. It’s a family reconnection project.”

It also shines a light on what was a very interesting time in Haiti.

Excerpt from Spinner.com post by Steve Hochman

The danger of a single story – by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. – TED Talks

TRIBUTE IN LIGHT – A Memorial by Oliver O. Mbamara

TRIBUTE IN LIGHT - TOWERS OF LIGHT - pix courtesy starz

TRIBUTE IN LIGHT (A Memorial)

And on the eleventh day of the ninth month,
Mayhem came calling in the garb of terror,
Leaving in its wake, the trail of tragedy,
Lost lives and limbs and ways of living,
Collapsed and buried with the twin towers,
Many hearts broken, many lives changed,
And where once stood gigantic structures,
Lay remnants and debris that became Ground Zero.

And many years gone, like few days past,
From the ruins now rise two towers of light,
Two beacons of hope, two columns of comfort,
United beams of radiant light across the East river,
Piercing the nighttime sky far into the ethers,
A sight to behold, visible from miles around,
Illuminating with cheers, the burdened city of York
And once again, rays of hope return to liberty town.

And Ground Zero becomes the Ground of Light,
As twin beams of blue light shine into the night,
Beckoning on all passing souls to ride the current,
Inviting the angels to come welcome them home.
For thirty-two nights at least, the light will shine,
But beyond the light, will last the sustaining current,
And despite mortality, the immortal shall ascend
The radiant ethers, a gift of love, a tribute in light.

Oliver O. Mbamara, Esq.
© 2002/updated -09-09

Excerpts From 9/11 tribute poem
(Inspired by the two towers of blue light at the 9/11 Ground Zero in New York)

POEMS OF FREEDOM

http://www.Poemsofsoul.com

Funny Dialogues from the book – “Disorder in American Courts” – YOU WILL LIKE IT

These are from a book called ‘Disorder in the American Courts’ and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
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ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
_________________________ ___________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s twenty, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you ****ting me?
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
W ITNESS : Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________

And the best for last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Submitted by Sir Citor

Planning your marriage and childbearing: An African perspective expressed in a musical video

In this musical video, Africa’s juju king, Chief Sunny Ade and beautiful songbird Onyeka Onwenu remind us all to plan before getting married or having children. Produced at the prime of both musicians, this musical collaboration is one of the best, if not the best relevant music collaboration of its time. The music remains relevant today due to its very meaningful topic. This is good music with good lyrics and meaningful message from two of Africa’s most talented musicians.

Enjoy the music.  LYRICS (in STANDARD ENGLISH) PROVIDED BELOW.

My young girl with so much love to give, This thing called love is a serious affair
Think well before you agree, If you love life you will plan it well
If you love me you will wait for me

My dear friend, there is love ahead, Take your time and don’t spoil it
If you make children, Are you ready to care?
If you love life, you will plan it well. If you love me you will wait for me

Having babies, is no joke, You will feed them, give them cloth
And give them love too, If you are not yet ready to carry the burden
Why put it on another one’s shoulder?

Plenty children is said to be assurance for old age, Papa said we should marry
Mama said we should bear children, Plenty children with no food to eat
Makes life so much trouble, If you love me you will wait for me

Happy parents give happy children, Happy family leads to a happy country
Plan well and enjoy your life, If you love me, you will plan with me
If you love me you will wait for me

CHORUS: Wait for me, baby plan with me

Lyrics translation from (pidgin to standard English) By Africanblogs  (www.blogs-africa.com)

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS

Words of Wisdom: NAILS IN THE FENCE

Friends are very rare jewels, indeed.  They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.  They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.’

PLEASE READ ON

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.  His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence.  Over the next
few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.  He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.  Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all.

He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.  He said, ‘You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.  The fence will never be the same.  When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.  You can put a knife in a man and draw it out.  But It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound will still be there.  A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

Remember that friends are very rare jewels, indeed.  They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.  They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.’

Forgive me if I have ever left a ‘hole’ in your fence!

Submitted by S.Okereke

Reasons for low divorce rate “IN AFRICA” when compared to “IN AMERICA” – African marriages versus African-American marriages; which one is doing better, and why?

A reader sent this to us – an excerpt from an online discussion on Marriage – it was a long discussion but due to space we can only publish this much. ARE THE COMMENTS BELOW TRUE? DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE? LET US HEAR YOUR COMMENTS.

I don’t think that the African American men are doing badly in the marriage sector.

When confronted with issues like this, I like to think beyond the present day situation and look back at our fore fathers. The Blackman and blackwoman are Africans. The fact that they have been in America for so many years does not change that hereditary factor.

Why don’t we understand that the African man today, is just like the African American man today, when it comes to dealing with their women. So, sub-conciously, the black man wants that African world in America, but it is not available. So, they rebel in their own way.

The reason there is such a low divorce rate today in AFRICA THAN IN AMERICA can be equated with the following:

1. Family ties. The African man lives for his people – family and friends, not just for himself.

2. Due to the extended family system, your friends and family can always come in and chastise any of the married couples about their bad behavior. And they will listen.

3. Because almost everybody knows your wife or husband, there is that lowered tendency to go out and cheat.

4. The woman learned to understand that leaving your man because he cheated on you is a waste of time, because the next one will cheat on you, anyway. So, they stay, and with the help of the family and friend, that issue is resolved.

5. The African woman realizes that if she treats her man right, he can always have that fling, but he will surely comeback home.

6. The chances of a woman with a baby getting married to a man without a baby is very low in the African community. As a result, the woman is compelled to stay and make it work.

7. The African man realizes that this can happen to their sisters also, so morally, they stay in their own relationships and make it work.

8. Very few African women try to control their household or their man, no matter how much money they make above his. And those who have succeeded in getting a divorce due to the fact that they are making more money that their husband find it difficult to re-marry, since the people see her as bossy.

9. Most of the African women are circumcised. As a result, their sex drive are not as hot as their male counterpart. But today, that is changing because most of the women are no longer being circumcised, and the difference is visible by the sexual drives of the current generation of African women.

10. And most importantly, because some African societies still support polygamy, the women are not quick to leave a man when he looks at other women, as long as he doesn’t bring her home.

11. The women cheat less than their men. The African man is forced by the family and friends to leave the woman for cheating, but are quick to force the woman to stay even when her husband cheats. Double standard. But that’s the truth.

BUT THIS IS AMERICA, AND THIS WILL SOUND LIKE FAIRY TELL TO YOU. BUT IT IS THE PLAIN TRUTH.

Note that the AFRICANS who moved to the US within the last 10 to 30 years do have the same divorce rate as the African Americans… It is like a fairy tale to tell an American that a man is supposed to date several women, all at once. Americans do not believe in allowing their men to have multiple women. The African American men are struggling to suppress their natural desire to sleep with several women, and they are trying to deal with what the society has considered a social norm – one man one wife. So, under the circumstances, they are doing well, to maintain a divorce rate; which although seems high, could have been worse, being that they have the AFRICAN BLOOD IN THEM…