OBITUARY
MAYA ANGELOU (Born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014). Author, poet, actress, scriptwriter and political activist. Maya Angelou passed away peacefully at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than 50 years. She received three Grammys for her spoken word albums, a lifetime achievement award from Glamour magazine in 2009, and dozens of awards and over 30 honorary doctoral degrees. From 1982, she taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she held the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies.
Raised by her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of seven. After she told her family what had happened, the boyfriend was killed. “I thought my voice had killed him, so it was better not to speak - so I simply stopped speaking,” she said. She remained mute for five years, but read voraciously. She was eventually persuaded to speak again by a friend of her grandmother who recognised her passion for poetry and told her that, to be experienced fully, it had to be spoken aloud. Angelou later recalled her saying: “You will never love poetry until you actually feel it come across your tongue, through your teeth, over your lips.”
At the age of 15 she badgered one of San Francisco’s streetcar companies into making her the city’s first female cable car conductor. Three weeks after completing school, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her only child, a son she named Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson). She became an actress and singer, recorded an album of calypso songs, appeared on Broadway and travelled to Europe in a touring production of Porgy and Bess.
‘To know her life story is to simultaneously wonder what on earth you have been doing with your own life and feel glad that you didn’t have to go through half the things she has.’ - Gary Younge,The Guardian 2009
Maya Angelou was respected as a spokesperson of Afrikan people and women, and her works reflected a strong defence of Afrikan culture. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
She took modern dance classes in the post-war period meeting dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Angelou and Ailey formed a dance team called Al and Rita and performed modern dance at fraternal Afrikan-American organizations throughout San Francisco. After Angelou’s marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub the Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music.It was at this time she changed her professional name to Maya Angelou, a distinctive name that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances.
Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time.She met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make and she and her son moved with him to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. In 1962 after her relationship with Make ended she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana for him to attend college but he was seriously injured in a car accident. Angelou stayed in Accra for his recovery until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the Afrikan-American expatriate community. She was a feature editor for The African Review, a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana’s National Theatre.
It was in Accra that she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou returned to the US in 1965 to help him build the Organization of Afro-American Unity but he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated by this outcome she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career and then moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. She worked as a market researcher in Watts and witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She returned to New York in 1967 where she met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s.
Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated ‘Blacks, Blues, Black!’, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between Blues music and Afrikan-Americans’ Afrikan heritage and the Afrikan retentions still current in the US. Angelou’s ‘Georgia, Georgia’, produced by a Swedish film company in 1972 and filmed in Sweden was the first screenplay written by an Afrikan woman there. She also wrote the film’s soundtrack.
Angelou married Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of Germaine Greer, Paul du Feu, in San Francisco in 1973. She worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack and scoring movies. She continued to write articles, short stories, TV scripts, documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry, produced plays, and was named visiting professor at several colleges and universities. Although she was a reluctant actor she was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in ‘Look Away’.In 1974 Angelou released her second autobiography,’Gather Together in My Name’, in which she wrote about her early life experience as a sex worker, stating that she was not ashamed of this aspect of her past. In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role as Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in the hit television mini-series ‘Roots’.
Beginning in the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties.In 1993, Angelou recited her poem ‘On the Pulse of Morning’ at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. The recording of the poem was awarded a Grammy Award. Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, ‘Down in the Delta’, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items.She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book ‘Hallelujah! The Welcome Table’, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. She followed up with her second cookbook, ‘Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart’ in 2010, which focused on weight loss and portion control.
Later that year Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of over 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis. In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh autobiography in her series, titled ‘Mom & Me & Mom’, that focuses on her relationship with her mother.Repeated attempts were made to ban her books from some US libraries but despite that her works are used in schools and universities worldwide. ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’ appeared third on the American Library Association (ALA) list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA’s 2000–2009 list.
On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service in her honour. Evidence suggests that she was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa.Her family described her as a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. “She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. The family is extremely appreciative of the time we had with her and we know that she is looking down upon us with love.”
Wisdom and aphorisms of Maya Angelou:
- “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you
made them feel.”
- “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”
- “I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.”
- “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
- “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”
- “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.” [This was her final tweet, posted on 23 May.]
LETTERS
RE: NUBIART DIARY (19 MAY 2014) - NIGERIAN PRESIDENT ON BOKO HARAM
Greetings Bro Kubara
May the spirit of the most high find you in good health.
Give thanks for the Newsletter, I will of course circulate them to my email contacts as I always do.
As you well know the so called boko Harem cults were an internal creation in Nigeria, which is now out of hand, and is some say being backed by the CIA, to ensure that the state continues to be at war, the sad truth is that as we approach the 51st anniversary of the formation of what is now the AU, the criminal leaders in Afrika continue to act in isolation of each other, whilst the idiotic so called pan Afrikan movement in the west continue to just talk a lot of bullsh**, and fantasies, instead of organising demos against so called imperialists it is against the Afrikans governments through their embassies we need to march and tell them loudly enough is enough we are not gonna continue accepting sh** and division and sell outs;, this is one of the major stance that is necessary to bring light to the problem as these muppets continue to sell us out.
These so called conscious groups / organisations in the west need to make a collective stand now.
Afrika requires small scale steps economically to assist and enable the youths, if we can help this is one sure way to create the conditions for a change of strategy in the motherland.
The sad reality is that the parasitical leaders are gonna be at the AU meeting chatting their usual sh** about nepad. 2030 and 2063 bullsh**.
anyway take care
Ras messenger
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
JUNE PROMOS
~ ‘TZENNI’ – Noura Mint Seymali [Glitterbeat – Released 23 June 2014]This Mauritanian singer from a family of griots releases her 10-track debut album drawing on the desert rock and blues. Whereas some of the other desert rockers focus on the more melancholy soundsNoura Mint Seymali’s songs are full of uptempo uplifting grooves from the opener ‘Eguetimar’, a song of migrants missing the familiarity of their homeland and families. The songs were recorded in New York City, Dakar and Nouakchott and the themes range across a longing for the past, imprisonment, love and tenderness, praise to the Prophet Muhammad, advice for healthy living and purification and invocations to traditional dance. In her Hassaniya language ‘Tzenni’ means ‘to circulate’, ‘to spin’ and ‘to turn’. It’s the name for a whirling dance performed to the music of Moorish griots, often under khaima tents thrown up for street gatherings in the sandy quarters of Nouakchott and out across the wide deserts of Mauritania. The turning is not just physical but also the way that the wheel of life and the earth in general turn. On this outing there is a bright future in the musical firmament for Noura Mint Seymali.
~ ‘FULTON BLUES’ – Corey Harris [Music Avenue – Out Now]We picked up this Blues album from the Afrikan-American troubadour onhis recently sojourn through London for a series of gigs, talks and the release of his book, ‘Jahtigui: The Life and Music of Ali Farka Toure’ [Ed’s Note: See review below.] While Harris’s inspirations and influences stretch far and wide across time, genres and continents apart from the two bonus live reggae tracks everything else here is Blues. If you like any of Taj Mahal’s output this 16-track album will be right up your street. Some of the stand out tracks include ‘Underground’, ‘Black Woman Gates’, ‘Tallahatchie’ (about a journey Harris made to the town where Emmett Till was lynched and meeting some of the relatives of those involved in the killing), the title track ‘Fulton Blues’ (about Fulton, Virginia, the first place in the US where enslaved Afrikans were landed), ‘Devil Got My Woman’, ‘That Will Never Happen No More’ and ‘Lynch Blues’. A solid album reclaiming the Blues from some of the staid clichés that have been turning many younger Afrikans in the diaspora away from the music in the past five decades.
We managed to catch Corey Harris at one of his book launches in south London where he spoke about his life as a Bluesman and his travels to west Afrikan, particularly his stays in Cameroon and Mali. He ran through a list of the history of the Blues and his influences from the first time he saw Muddy Waters aged 15 to touring with the great Bluesman as part of his band. He explained that to truly play the Blues you have to know who you are first.
NUBIART LIBRARY – JUNE MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘JAHTIGUI: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF ALI FARKA TOURE’ – Corey Harris [Corey Harris. ISBN: 978-1-495453-42-7] From the book’s title you may be expecting some dry analysis of the late Malian musician Ali Farka Toure’s playing style and influences or a straight ahead chronological biography but this book is neither. You know this from the outsetas Harris starts with a history of the last three years in Mali since the most recent round of Tuareg rebellion, the Islamic takeover of the north banning musical and artistic expression and the migration of many Malians out of the north either southwards towards the capital Bamako or more ominously over the border to the burgeoning refugee camps and all the uncertainty of exile.
This recurring theme is interspersed throughout the book alongside Harris’s own biography and musical development, his meetings and playing with Ali Farka Toure, what he learnt of Ali’s history and the musicians around Ali including Afel Bocoum, Bassekou Kouyate, Samba Toure and Ali’s own son Vieux Farka Toure who are the younger generation of starswho are now spreading Ali’s message to the world.
‘Jahtigui’ means ‘Father Lion’ in Bamana, one of the Manding languages of Mali. It was a term used repeatedly to Harris while he was interviewing those who were close to Ali.As well as a musician the late noble Ali Farka Toure was a farmer, hotel owner, travel entrepreneur and, latterly in his life, the Mayor of Niafunke in northern Mali. Harris says he would have been severely disturbed by the way his country has gone in the last few years.Ali’s Blueswas to unite all Malians and he sang in all the languages of the region - Peul, Bamana, Dogon, Songhai, Zarma, Bozo and Tamasheck - though the majority of his repertoire was in Songhai and Peul.
The West Afrikan / Saharan / Sahelian musical and cultural traditions were carried by the enslaved Afrikans when they were wrenched from their homelands and scattered across the western hemisphere and Europe. America, as one of the few countries where the Afrikan drums were banned (except at New Orleans’ Congo Square), thus had a strong focus on the stringed instruments either as straight replication for Afrikan stringed instruments or as replacements for other instruments that would be played first on the banjo and violin / fiddle and then on the acoustic guitar and, since the 1950s, the electric guitar, which is currently the instrument of choice for most Blues artists across the world.
Djeli (griots) are the living memory of the Mali Empire and Mandinka culture. The word literally means blood and one does not become a djeli by the choice but rather must be born into it. The role of this most ancient of professions includes ‘advising kings and accompanying them into battle, deciding proper protocol in royal and noble households, recording the history and genealogy of the people, mediation and arbitration of disputes and contracts, bestowing blessings at marriages, births, baptisms, funerals, as well as playing music.’ A djeli is considered unable to lie and they remember everything so thatwhen a djeli passes away people say it is like a library has burned to the ground.However, they are only one caste higher than ‘slaves’ and many Malians use the two words interchangeably.Although not a djeli, Ali Farka Toure played with all the great djeli ngoni players of his era and he drew on this in his guitar style. He was the only surviving son of ten siblings and his elders initially discouraged him from playing music which was considered to be below his status.
Though he was born into Islam, he also revered the indigenous Songhai belief system that is closely connected with the powerful, life-giving waters of the Joliba (Niger) River. Ali’s grandmother Kounandi Samba was a renowned priestess of the Ghimbala famous for her connection to these river spirits. Ali spent many hours listening to the sacred musicians as they performed on the njarka (one-stringed violin), the djerkel (one-stringed lute) and the ngoni. In 1968 he was selected along with the legendary balophone Keletigui Diabate and the virtuoso guitarist Djelimady Tounkara to represent Mali at an international festival of the arts in Sofia, Bulgaria where Ali bought his first guitar. This was his first appearance overseas and their repertoire of traditional music with Ali on guitar, flute, djerkel and njarka was well received.
Throughout the 1970’s Ali worked in Bamako at Radio Mali as an assistant sound engineer to Aboubacar Traore. Everyone in Mali who had a radio soon became familiar with Ali Farka Toure’s voice and guitar. It was during this time that he began to send recordings of his broadcasts to the Son Afric record label in Paris who released seven of his albums between 1976 and 1988. By the mid-1980s his music was attracting attention around the world and World Circuit Records from London travelled to Bamako to find this mysterious farmer / musician from Niafunke as the Son Afric albums had carried no sleevenotes. This was to mark the beginning of the most successful and financially rewarding period of Ali’s life as a musician. Albums for World Circuit included’The River’, ‘The Source’ and ‘Talking Timbuktu’, the Grammy award-winning collaboration with Ry Cooder.
In 2004 he was elected mayor of Niafunke, the northern Malian city where he grew up. The next year saw the release of the first of three records recorded at Bamako’s Hotel Mande, ‘In the Heart of the Moon’, featuring Toumani Diabate. The record received another Grammyaward making Ali the only Afrikan to receive two Grammys. He then embarked on an extensive European tour with Toumani and the ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate, who worked with Ali on ‘Savane’, the third album in the Hotel Mande series. Ali then cut more tracks with Toumani and the Cuban bassist Orlando ‘Cachaito’ Lopez.
“To me blue is just a colour. My music came long before the blues was born.” Ali said that his music began long before the blues was born.When he drove across the expansive desert of northern Mali in his Land Rover, he listened to the music of Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Bobby Blue Bland and other blues and soul artists. Thus Ali Farka Toure represented the missing link between Afrikan and Afrikan-American music. To know his music is to know the source.Ali passed away in Bamako on Mar 7 2006 from bone cancer and he is buried in Niafunke.
Updating the Mali story 28 hostages abducted by Tuareg rebels in northern Mali last Saturday have been freed.The hostages, most of them civil servants, were taken when rebels launched an attack on the key northern town of Kidal to coincide with a visit by the PM Moussa Marawho was there to try to revive peace talks.The rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) confirmed that its members had delivered the hostages to aid workers and peacekeepers.The army said eight soldiers and 28 rebels were killed in Saturday’s fighting, but the MNLA denied losing any fighters. A Senegalese peacekeeper was also killed. The rebels continue to occupy the governor’s office in Kidal - a move the Malian government denounced as a “declaration of war”. Three Tuareg rebel groups signed an agreement after talks with African Union chairman Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. The separatists have gained control of much of northern Mali in recent days. The government has yet to sign the agreement which includes a pledge to revive talks and the release of 300 Tuareg prisoners held in the capital.
Meanwhile, Mauritanian-Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s feature film’Timbuktu’ was one of the first films shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and it remains one of the most praised. The film is a fictional retelling of the chaos that has engulfed Mali in the last three yearsand specifically when the jihadis took over this ancient town in Mali and imposed all manner of rules including banning music and football, and introduced lashings and stoning.In 2013, the French government launched Operation Serval, to counter al-Qaeda linked groups in northern Mali.
Abderrahmane Sissako says his idea initially was to make a documentary about the influence of groupings whose foreign members may include Libyans and Algerians. He said at the screening: “I thought at first I could just go with my video camera and talk to people about what they think of foreigners telling them they’re bad Muslims if they play football or sing or don’t wear modest clothing.
Then I started to worry what might happen to them afterwards. The jihadists would find out what had been said so I realised no one would be free to speak their own mind.”
But the director admits he also had concerns for his own safety and that of his crew. “The filming was almost all in Mauritania where the authorities were helpful. But we also shot for two days in Timbuktu. One of the reasons I made the film was to encourage Mali’s rulers to do more to deal with the problem of the north. I was delighted the film was chosen to compete here in Cannes: it has focused attention on an area the outside world finds baffling and maybe tiresome. Dire poverty provided fertile ground for the groups we show in the film. None of that is very hard to understand. The international community is now spending tens of millions of euros in Timbuktu and Kidal and Gao. If that investment had come years ago, many of the problems in northern Mali could have been avoided.”
~ EDOSA OGUIGO: COLOUR AND FORM IN NIGERIAN CONTEMPORARY ART. On Wed4 June at 5-6.30pm at Rm 4429, 4th Floor, main Building, SOAS, Russell Sq, London. WC1H 0XG.Adm: Free
~ JAZZMO’THOLOGY PRESENTS THE LAUNCH OF SPOKEN WORD ARTISTE HKB FINN’S NEW MINI-ALBUM ‘PRELUDE: URBAN ROOTS’. HKB Finn’s new recording expertly explores stories of Loss, Love and Life’s Sweet Moments in a brilliantly conceived mini-album where Hip Hop melds together intense Jazz, Gospel & Afro-Beat influences to form a concise collection of blissful songs. Backed by the wonderful ensemble: Westley Joseph, drums, Andi McLean, bass, Francis Ovie, keyboards, Edison Herbert, guitar, with brass & woodwind courtesy Sylvain Gontard, Kevin Davy, Phillipe Sellam & Shabaka Hutchins, Prelude Urban Roots is an extraordinary recording from extraordinary artists all led by the incredible spoken word of HKB Finn. Supported by the debut album launch of guitarist Edison Herbert and poetry by Lionheart! On Sun 8 June at 7pm at Club 414, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London, SW9 8LF. Adm: £15. E-mail: info@club414.org
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES PRESENT ‘BLACK PARIS: RACE AND CULTURE IN THE CITY OF LIGHT’ SCREENING. Presentation on the Afrikan-Americans who left America to create the Jazz Age in Paris between the First and Second Imperialist and Colonialist World Wars. Many Afrikan-Americans preferred to stay in Europe than return to the racist brutality of America. They formed an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs congregating around Paris’s Montmartre neighbourhood.On Mon 9 June at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London, SW11 2LN. Adm: £5 / Under-16s - Free. Tel / Fax: 020 8881 0660. Mobile: 07951 234 233. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com Web: http://www.blackhistorystudies.com
~PASCF PRESENT THE 5TH MARCUS GARVEY ANNUAL MEMORIAL LECTURE.Cooperative Economics and Egwanika: An Afrikan Centred Reply to Garvey and UNIA. Speaker: Sister Dr Asher Sefanit-Wudasee, Garveyite scholar and the first ever female elected Chair and head of the Nyahbinghi National Council of Great Britain lectures on the theme. On Tues 10 June at 5.30pm at Birkbeck University, Main Building Room B33, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX. Adm: Free. RSVP: pascfevents@gmail.com
~ LEIGHTON HOUSE PRESENTS FROM ‘JAMAICA TO NOTTING HILL, RUDI PATTERSON’S VISIONS IN COLOUR’. For over forty years, following a career as an international model and actor, Rudi Patterson dedicated himself to painting. From the three successive council flats he lived in around Notting Hill he produced a vast body of work, exhibiting widely in London, the UK and internationally – from New York to Melbourne - throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Following his death last year, this exhibition explores a single theme; Rudi’s extraordinarily potent and vivid representations of his native Jamaica. Including many works never previously exhibited these depictions of mountain landscapes, plantation villages, luxuriant tropical vegetation, rivers and beaches conjure a compelling sense of place, intuitively made from the vantage point of a West London window. Until Fri 13 June at Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London, W8.
~BFI AFRICAN ODYSSEYS PRESENT’I AM THE GORGON: BUNNY ‘STRIKER’ LEE AND THE ROOTS OF REGGAE’ + ‘SOUND BUSINESS’.
Director: Diggory Kenrick. Dur: 86 min. The documentary film about legendary producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee tells the story of Jamaican music through the life of one extraordinary man; from ska to rocksteady; dub to dancehall; from the backstreets of Kingston to the concert halls of the world. Lee worked with early pioneers such as Duke Reid and innovators such as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Sly and Robbie, and his association with King Tubby in the 70s gave rise to the genre known as dub. Lee’s story involves politics, arguments, gangs and guns as Jamaican music spread from the ghettos of Kingston to the furthest reaches of the globe. Director Diggory Kenrick and the film’s narrator, musician Dennis Alcapone, may be in attendance for a discussion around what will be a unique and musical event.
Director: Molly Dineen. Dur: 43 min. ’Sound Business’ is an early ‘80s documentary directed by Molly Dineen that focuses primarily on England’s Sir Coxsone and Young Lion sound systems. For those unfamiliar with reggae-dancehall culture, the film is a solid primer as uniquely-voiced narrator Mikey Dread leads you through a fascinating view of an underground music network that stays true to its Jamaican roots, giving viewers not only some glorious vibrations for your ears but some insightful interviews as well. Come see the crews make dubplates, build custom speakerboxes, and engage in a sound clash for the finale. Director Molly Dineen may introduce her film. On Sat 14 June at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South Bank, London, SE1 8XT. Adm: £6.50. Box Office: 020 7928 3232.
~ THE BRITISH NIGERIA LAW FORUM (BNLF) AND HOSPITAL & PRISON ACTION NETWORK (HPAN) SEMINAR ON ‘TERRORISM IN NIGERIA: IS THE LAW SUFFICIENT TO CURB IT?’ The Nigerian Terrorism (Prevention) Act was passed in 2011. However, 2014 has seen a sharp increase in acts of terrorism within Nigeria, which has cost the lives of at least 1500 people and seen the recent abduction of over 200 schoolgirls. This seminar will raise questions on, amongst other things: the effectiveness of the Nigerian law enforcement, judicial, and political institutions in dealing with this long-standing threat; what solutions can be found to assist the Nigerian government; and if solutions can be gleaned from the international community and human rights laws.On Sat 14 June at 10am-3pm at Central London venue. E-mail info@bnlf.org.uk
~ CELEBRATING SANCTUARY LONDON PRESENT REFUGEE WEEK UK
- On Sun 15 June at 2-7pmat Bernie Spain Gardens, Upper Ground, South Bank, London, SE1 9PH. Adm: Free. The UK’s largest free outdoor festival celebrating the arts by, with and about refugees will return to London’s South Bank launching Refugee Week UK 2014, a UK-wide programme of cultural and educational events which celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and aims to encourage better understanding between communities. The music line-up includes South London / Nigerian Grime MC Afrikan Boy; Somali Party Southall featuring award-winning percussionist Kuljit Bhamra MBE and British Somali singer Abdulkarim Raas; and a collective of talent called Rafiki Jazz whose members have roots in Brazil, Gambia, Mauritius, Senegal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the UK. This year’s event also features a number of exclusive collaborations, including the inspired meeting of sounds and voices between Anglo-Polish songbird Katy Carr and Ethiopian born singer Haymanot Tesfa. Comedy will come from Somali-born stand-up comedian Prince Abdi. Web: http://www.celebratingsanctuarylondon.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CelebratingSanctuaryLondon Twitter: @cslondonfest #refugeeweek
- New Voices. On Sat 21 June at 12–7pmat V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA. Adm:Free. Forming part of Refugee Week and Celebrating Sanctuary London, Praxis and New Voices will be taking over the V&A Museum of Childhood with a programme of live music from around the globe - including Family Atlantica, Shane Solanki aka Last Mango in Paris and London Lucumi Choir -as well as interactive activities for all the family. A photographic exhibition developed by young refugees and Simona Aru - a world renown photographer - will tell the story of the often dangerous journey young people have to make to find sanctuary within the UK. Web:
http://newvoicesfestival.org.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/271038713079115/
Twitter: @Praxis_Projects #NewVoices2014
~ NARRATIVE EYE PRESENT IMAGINING TUDOR ENGLAND. ‘Blackamoores, Africans in Tudor England, Their Presence, Status and Origins’ is the result of 10 years of research by Onyeka and shows that Afrikans in England had important occupations in Tudor Society and were employed by powerful people because of the skills they possessed. This dispels the myth that the Afrikan presence in England began with slavery.The inclusion of African Tudors as part of the National Curriculum is of particular significance as the Tudor period cannot continue to be studied in its current format without exploring the presence of Afrikan people during this time. On Thurs 19 June at 1pm at National Portrait Gallery, London, WC2H 0HE. Adm: Free. E-mail: info@narrative-eye.org.uk Web: http://narrative-eye.org.uk/events.html
~ ‘THE SPIRITUAL HIGHWAY: RELIGIOUS WORLD MAKING IN MEGACITY LAGOS’. A photography project by Akintunde Akinleye and Marloes Janson. The 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that connects Nigeria’s economic hub with the city of Ibadan is considered the most important and busiest road in Nigeria. It was opened in 1979 at the peak of the oil boom but while it has failed as the artery linking the north and the south of Nigeria, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has succeeded as a stage for the performance of public religiosity to the extent that it can be described as a ‘Spiritual Highway’. Since the late 1980s numerous Christian and Muslim movements have cropped up along the highway. Akintunde and Marloes explore and record these ‘prayer cities’ concentrating on the Christian Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries or MFM Prayer City and the Muslim Nasrul-Lahi-Fatih Society of Nigeria, which translates as ‘There is no help except from Allah’ (abbreviated to NASFAT).These prayer cities have congregations of tens of thousands, competing with each other for new converts by offering a range of facilities and services from faith healing to education and health care. Challenging conventional assumptions of Christianity and Islam as bounded and distinct traditions, this project focuses instead on the convergence between Pentecostal Christianity and revivalist Islam. Until Sat 21 June on Tues-Sat at 10.30am-5pm at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Soas.Brunei.Gallery
~ ‘CHRIS MARKER: A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT’ EXHIBITION. Widely credited with inventing the essay film, Marker brilliantly treads the line between documentary and personal reflection. This long overdue retrospective screens seminal sci-fi short ‘La Jetée’ - with an alternative intro - and excerpts from his hypnotic meditation on memory, ‘Sans Soleil’. One of the most powerful films here is ‘Statues Die Also’ which explores the denigration and commodification of Afrikan cultural and spiritual traditions. The title film is a three-hour examination of the role of radical politics in France. There are also photos, texts, his cover art, and a guided tour of Marker’s Second Life museum led by his cat. You should put aside a whole day for the exhibition or schedule a return visit. Until 22 June at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX. Tel: 020 7522 7888. E-mail: info@whitechapelgallery.org Web:http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/chris-marker-a-grin-without-a-cat
~ NATIONAL AFRICAN RELIGION CONGRESS / NARC WORLD INTERNATIONAL PRESENT THE ‘ELEVENTH AFRICAN RELIGION CONFERENCE AND WORLD CEREMONY OF CEREMONIES: SPIRITUALITY IN WORLD CONNECTION - HEALTH, FAITH & WEALTH’. Within the United States, Afrikan-based religions are poorly understood and are often subjected to persecution and prejudice. The National African Religion Congress / NARC World International certifies priests and priestesses to assure that they have been properly trained according to the traditions of their respective religions and that they uphold the moral and ethical standards of their religion. The Afrikan-based religions represented are: Lucumi / Regla de Ocha / Santería (Cuba / Puerto Rico), Candomble (Brazil), Orisa (Trinidad & Tobago), Voodoo (Haiti), Ifa / Isese / Yoruba (Nigeria) and the Akan (Ghana). On 26–29 June at Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street,Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.Registration: $325 - NARC Members / $350 – Non-NARC Members. Contact:National African Religion Congress / NARC World International,5104 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA.Tel: 215 455 0815. Fax: 215 455 0818. E-mail: narcworld@aol.com Web: www.narcworld.com
~ FIND YOUR VOICE PRESENTS ‘THE TRUTH ABOUT PROSTATE CANCER’. With Vasco Stevenson. On Sat 28 June at 4.30–7pm at Park View Academy, West Green Road, London, N15 3RB. Adm: £5. Tel: Douglas on 07960 239 493 / 07882 403 871. E-mail: findyourvoice@hotmail.co.uk
~ SISTER HEALTH FORUM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CONSCIOUS VIBES MAGAZINE AND DIASPORA DEBATE ASSOCIATIONINVITE YOU TO A WOMEN AND MEN DEBATE CONFERENCE ON ‘IS IT WRONG TO WANT PERFECT SKIN?’ Exploring skin health implications, skin bleaching, sun beds and tanning injections.Guest Speakers: Toyin Agbetu, community educator, ‘Beauty Is…’ filmmaker and founder of LIGALI: Sara Ellis, certified Hypnotherapist and Eating Disorders Counsellor. Followed by women only health seminar with traditional Afrikan herbalist Ras Daniel Babu from Japan. Topics: fibroids, blood pressure, diabetes, FGM, menopause, children’s health, high blood pressure, breast cancer and endometriosis.On Sat 28 June at 3-8pm at The Old Fire Station, 84 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT. Adm: £10 / £7 adv.E-mail: sisters4health@gmail.com Twitter: @sisters4health Facebook:www.facebook.com/sisters4health
~ ANCIENT SOULS GATHERING (TO FACILITATE PEACE). Drums, percussion, dancing, general peaceful thoughts are welcome. Souls are the cosmic architecture that weaves us to everything. They connect us to the Universe. We are healed and loved. When we participate, we offer an opportunity to...On Sat 28 June at 6pm at The Pagoda, Battersea Park, Wandsworth, London, SW11.
~ CHI CREATIONS EVENTS
- Sponsored Walk: Nurture Your Nature Family Retreat. On Sun 29June at 8am at Epping Forest.
- Graduates of The Griot Way Training. On Tues 1 July at 6.45-9.15pm at Canada Water Theatre, Canada Water Library, 21 Surrey Quays Rd, London, SE16 7AR. With guest storyteller Sandra Agard.
- The Family Retreat. On Fri 25 - Mon 28 July at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA.
- The Griot Way Storytelling Training. On 17-19 Oct, 13-15 Feb 2015 and 15-17 May 2015 at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA.
E-mail: Info@shanti-chi.com Web: www.shanti-chi.com
~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.
- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at Chestnuts Community & Arts Centre, 280 St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, London, N15 5BN. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853.
- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.
~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.comNB: Nubiart Diary can also be read at www.ligali.org
External Links
Afrikan Quest International
MAYA ANGELOU (Born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014). Author, poet, actress, scriptwriter and political activist. Maya Angelou passed away peacefully at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than 50 years. She received three Grammys for her spoken word albums, a lifetime achievement award from Glamour magazine in 2009, and dozens of awards and over 30 honorary doctoral degrees. From 1982, she taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she held the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies.
Raised by her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of seven. After she told her family what had happened, the boyfriend was killed. “I thought my voice had killed him, so it was better not to speak - so I simply stopped speaking,” she said. She remained mute for five years, but read voraciously. She was eventually persuaded to speak again by a friend of her grandmother who recognised her passion for poetry and told her that, to be experienced fully, it had to be spoken aloud. Angelou later recalled her saying: “You will never love poetry until you actually feel it come across your tongue, through your teeth, over your lips.”
At the age of 15 she badgered one of San Francisco’s streetcar companies into making her the city’s first female cable car conductor. Three weeks after completing school, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her only child, a son she named Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson). She became an actress and singer, recorded an album of calypso songs, appeared on Broadway and travelled to Europe in a touring production of Porgy and Bess.
‘To know her life story is to simultaneously wonder what on earth you have been doing with your own life and feel glad that you didn’t have to go through half the things she has.’ - Gary Younge,The Guardian 2009
Maya Angelou was respected as a spokesperson of Afrikan people and women, and her works reflected a strong defence of Afrikan culture. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.
She took modern dance classes in the post-war period meeting dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Angelou and Ailey formed a dance team called Al and Rita and performed modern dance at fraternal Afrikan-American organizations throughout San Francisco. After Angelou’s marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub the Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music.It was at this time she changed her professional name to Maya Angelou, a distinctive name that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances.
Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time.She met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make and she and her son moved with him to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. In 1962 after her relationship with Make ended she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana for him to attend college but he was seriously injured in a car accident. Angelou stayed in Accra for his recovery until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the Afrikan-American expatriate community. She was a feature editor for The African Review, a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana’s National Theatre.
It was in Accra that she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou returned to the US in 1965 to help him build the Organization of Afro-American Unity but he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated by this outcome she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career and then moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. She worked as a market researcher in Watts and witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She returned to New York in 1967 where she met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s.
Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated ‘Blacks, Blues, Black!’, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between Blues music and Afrikan-Americans’ Afrikan heritage and the Afrikan retentions still current in the US. Angelou’s ‘Georgia, Georgia’, produced by a Swedish film company in 1972 and filmed in Sweden was the first screenplay written by an Afrikan woman there. She also wrote the film’s soundtrack.
Angelou married Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of Germaine Greer, Paul du Feu, in San Francisco in 1973. She worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack and scoring movies. She continued to write articles, short stories, TV scripts, documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry, produced plays, and was named visiting professor at several colleges and universities. Although she was a reluctant actor she was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in ‘Look Away’.In 1974 Angelou released her second autobiography,’Gather Together in My Name’, in which she wrote about her early life experience as a sex worker, stating that she was not ashamed of this aspect of her past. In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role as Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in the hit television mini-series ‘Roots’.
Beginning in the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties.In 1993, Angelou recited her poem ‘On the Pulse of Morning’ at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961. The recording of the poem was awarded a Grammy Award. Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, ‘Down in the Delta’, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items.She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book ‘Hallelujah! The Welcome Table’, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. She followed up with her second cookbook, ‘Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart’ in 2010, which focused on weight loss and portion control.
Later that year Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of over 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis. In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh autobiography in her series, titled ‘Mom & Me & Mom’, that focuses on her relationship with her mother.Repeated attempts were made to ban her books from some US libraries but despite that her works are used in schools and universities worldwide. ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’ appeared third on the American Library Association (ALA) list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA’s 2000–2009 list.
On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service in her honour. Evidence suggests that she was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa.Her family described her as a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. “She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. The family is extremely appreciative of the time we had with her and we know that she is looking down upon us with love.”
Wisdom and aphorisms of Maya Angelou:
- “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you
made them feel.”
- “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.”
- “I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.”
- “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
- “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”
- “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.” [This was her final tweet, posted on 23 May.]
LETTERS
RE: NUBIART DIARY (19 MAY 2014) - NIGERIAN PRESIDENT ON BOKO HARAM
Greetings Bro Kubara
May the spirit of the most high find you in good health.
Give thanks for the Newsletter, I will of course circulate them to my email contacts as I always do.
As you well know the so called boko Harem cults were an internal creation in Nigeria, which is now out of hand, and is some say being backed by the CIA, to ensure that the state continues to be at war, the sad truth is that as we approach the 51st anniversary of the formation of what is now the AU, the criminal leaders in Afrika continue to act in isolation of each other, whilst the idiotic so called pan Afrikan movement in the west continue to just talk a lot of bullsh**, and fantasies, instead of organising demos against so called imperialists it is against the Afrikans governments through their embassies we need to march and tell them loudly enough is enough we are not gonna continue accepting sh** and division and sell outs;, this is one of the major stance that is necessary to bring light to the problem as these muppets continue to sell us out.
These so called conscious groups / organisations in the west need to make a collective stand now.
Afrika requires small scale steps economically to assist and enable the youths, if we can help this is one sure way to create the conditions for a change of strategy in the motherland.
The sad reality is that the parasitical leaders are gonna be at the AU meeting chatting their usual sh** about nepad. 2030 and 2063 bullsh**.
anyway take care
Ras messenger
FORTHCOMING NUBIART PROFILES
NUBIART: Focus on arts, business, education, health, political developments and the media.
JUNE PROMOS
~ ‘TZENNI’ – Noura Mint Seymali [Glitterbeat – Released 23 June 2014]This Mauritanian singer from a family of griots releases her 10-track debut album drawing on the desert rock and blues. Whereas some of the other desert rockers focus on the more melancholy soundsNoura Mint Seymali’s songs are full of uptempo uplifting grooves from the opener ‘Eguetimar’, a song of migrants missing the familiarity of their homeland and families. The songs were recorded in New York City, Dakar and Nouakchott and the themes range across a longing for the past, imprisonment, love and tenderness, praise to the Prophet Muhammad, advice for healthy living and purification and invocations to traditional dance. In her Hassaniya language ‘Tzenni’ means ‘to circulate’, ‘to spin’ and ‘to turn’. It’s the name for a whirling dance performed to the music of Moorish griots, often under khaima tents thrown up for street gatherings in the sandy quarters of Nouakchott and out across the wide deserts of Mauritania. The turning is not just physical but also the way that the wheel of life and the earth in general turn. On this outing there is a bright future in the musical firmament for Noura Mint Seymali.
~ ‘FULTON BLUES’ – Corey Harris [Music Avenue – Out Now]We picked up this Blues album from the Afrikan-American troubadour onhis recently sojourn through London for a series of gigs, talks and the release of his book, ‘Jahtigui: The Life and Music of Ali Farka Toure’ [Ed’s Note: See review below.] While Harris’s inspirations and influences stretch far and wide across time, genres and continents apart from the two bonus live reggae tracks everything else here is Blues. If you like any of Taj Mahal’s output this 16-track album will be right up your street. Some of the stand out tracks include ‘Underground’, ‘Black Woman Gates’, ‘Tallahatchie’ (about a journey Harris made to the town where Emmett Till was lynched and meeting some of the relatives of those involved in the killing), the title track ‘Fulton Blues’ (about Fulton, Virginia, the first place in the US where enslaved Afrikans were landed), ‘Devil Got My Woman’, ‘That Will Never Happen No More’ and ‘Lynch Blues’. A solid album reclaiming the Blues from some of the staid clichés that have been turning many younger Afrikans in the diaspora away from the music in the past five decades.
We managed to catch Corey Harris at one of his book launches in south London where he spoke about his life as a Bluesman and his travels to west Afrikan, particularly his stays in Cameroon and Mali. He ran through a list of the history of the Blues and his influences from the first time he saw Muddy Waters aged 15 to touring with the great Bluesman as part of his band. He explained that to truly play the Blues you have to know who you are first.
NUBIART LIBRARY – JUNE MEDIA
We will only review books we have read and DVDs we have seen and that are available at reasonable prices online or in shops or libraries. However, given the nature and current state of Afrikan publishing and film production there may be books and films on this list that are worth the extra effort to track down.
~ ‘JAHTIGUI: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF ALI FARKA TOURE’ – Corey Harris [Corey Harris. ISBN: 978-1-495453-42-7] From the book’s title you may be expecting some dry analysis of the late Malian musician Ali Farka Toure’s playing style and influences or a straight ahead chronological biography but this book is neither. You know this from the outsetas Harris starts with a history of the last three years in Mali since the most recent round of Tuareg rebellion, the Islamic takeover of the north banning musical and artistic expression and the migration of many Malians out of the north either southwards towards the capital Bamako or more ominously over the border to the burgeoning refugee camps and all the uncertainty of exile.
This recurring theme is interspersed throughout the book alongside Harris’s own biography and musical development, his meetings and playing with Ali Farka Toure, what he learnt of Ali’s history and the musicians around Ali including Afel Bocoum, Bassekou Kouyate, Samba Toure and Ali’s own son Vieux Farka Toure who are the younger generation of starswho are now spreading Ali’s message to the world.
‘Jahtigui’ means ‘Father Lion’ in Bamana, one of the Manding languages of Mali. It was a term used repeatedly to Harris while he was interviewing those who were close to Ali.As well as a musician the late noble Ali Farka Toure was a farmer, hotel owner, travel entrepreneur and, latterly in his life, the Mayor of Niafunke in northern Mali. Harris says he would have been severely disturbed by the way his country has gone in the last few years.Ali’s Blueswas to unite all Malians and he sang in all the languages of the region - Peul, Bamana, Dogon, Songhai, Zarma, Bozo and Tamasheck - though the majority of his repertoire was in Songhai and Peul.
The West Afrikan / Saharan / Sahelian musical and cultural traditions were carried by the enslaved Afrikans when they were wrenched from their homelands and scattered across the western hemisphere and Europe. America, as one of the few countries where the Afrikan drums were banned (except at New Orleans’ Congo Square), thus had a strong focus on the stringed instruments either as straight replication for Afrikan stringed instruments or as replacements for other instruments that would be played first on the banjo and violin / fiddle and then on the acoustic guitar and, since the 1950s, the electric guitar, which is currently the instrument of choice for most Blues artists across the world.
Djeli (griots) are the living memory of the Mali Empire and Mandinka culture. The word literally means blood and one does not become a djeli by the choice but rather must be born into it. The role of this most ancient of professions includes ‘advising kings and accompanying them into battle, deciding proper protocol in royal and noble households, recording the history and genealogy of the people, mediation and arbitration of disputes and contracts, bestowing blessings at marriages, births, baptisms, funerals, as well as playing music.’ A djeli is considered unable to lie and they remember everything so thatwhen a djeli passes away people say it is like a library has burned to the ground.However, they are only one caste higher than ‘slaves’ and many Malians use the two words interchangeably.Although not a djeli, Ali Farka Toure played with all the great djeli ngoni players of his era and he drew on this in his guitar style. He was the only surviving son of ten siblings and his elders initially discouraged him from playing music which was considered to be below his status.
Though he was born into Islam, he also revered the indigenous Songhai belief system that is closely connected with the powerful, life-giving waters of the Joliba (Niger) River. Ali’s grandmother Kounandi Samba was a renowned priestess of the Ghimbala famous for her connection to these river spirits. Ali spent many hours listening to the sacred musicians as they performed on the njarka (one-stringed violin), the djerkel (one-stringed lute) and the ngoni. In 1968 he was selected along with the legendary balophone Keletigui Diabate and the virtuoso guitarist Djelimady Tounkara to represent Mali at an international festival of the arts in Sofia, Bulgaria where Ali bought his first guitar. This was his first appearance overseas and their repertoire of traditional music with Ali on guitar, flute, djerkel and njarka was well received.
Throughout the 1970’s Ali worked in Bamako at Radio Mali as an assistant sound engineer to Aboubacar Traore. Everyone in Mali who had a radio soon became familiar with Ali Farka Toure’s voice and guitar. It was during this time that he began to send recordings of his broadcasts to the Son Afric record label in Paris who released seven of his albums between 1976 and 1988. By the mid-1980s his music was attracting attention around the world and World Circuit Records from London travelled to Bamako to find this mysterious farmer / musician from Niafunke as the Son Afric albums had carried no sleevenotes. This was to mark the beginning of the most successful and financially rewarding period of Ali’s life as a musician. Albums for World Circuit included’The River’, ‘The Source’ and ‘Talking Timbuktu’, the Grammy award-winning collaboration with Ry Cooder.
In 2004 he was elected mayor of Niafunke, the northern Malian city where he grew up. The next year saw the release of the first of three records recorded at Bamako’s Hotel Mande, ‘In the Heart of the Moon’, featuring Toumani Diabate. The record received another Grammyaward making Ali the only Afrikan to receive two Grammys. He then embarked on an extensive European tour with Toumani and the ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate, who worked with Ali on ‘Savane’, the third album in the Hotel Mande series. Ali then cut more tracks with Toumani and the Cuban bassist Orlando ‘Cachaito’ Lopez.
“To me blue is just a colour. My music came long before the blues was born.” Ali said that his music began long before the blues was born.When he drove across the expansive desert of northern Mali in his Land Rover, he listened to the music of Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Bobby Blue Bland and other blues and soul artists. Thus Ali Farka Toure represented the missing link between Afrikan and Afrikan-American music. To know his music is to know the source.Ali passed away in Bamako on Mar 7 2006 from bone cancer and he is buried in Niafunke.
Updating the Mali story 28 hostages abducted by Tuareg rebels in northern Mali last Saturday have been freed.The hostages, most of them civil servants, were taken when rebels launched an attack on the key northern town of Kidal to coincide with a visit by the PM Moussa Marawho was there to try to revive peace talks.The rebel National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) confirmed that its members had delivered the hostages to aid workers and peacekeepers.The army said eight soldiers and 28 rebels were killed in Saturday’s fighting, but the MNLA denied losing any fighters. A Senegalese peacekeeper was also killed. The rebels continue to occupy the governor’s office in Kidal - a move the Malian government denounced as a “declaration of war”. Three Tuareg rebel groups signed an agreement after talks with African Union chairman Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. The separatists have gained control of much of northern Mali in recent days. The government has yet to sign the agreement which includes a pledge to revive talks and the release of 300 Tuareg prisoners held in the capital.
Meanwhile, Mauritanian-Malian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s feature film’Timbuktu’ was one of the first films shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and it remains one of the most praised. The film is a fictional retelling of the chaos that has engulfed Mali in the last three yearsand specifically when the jihadis took over this ancient town in Mali and imposed all manner of rules including banning music and football, and introduced lashings and stoning.In 2013, the French government launched Operation Serval, to counter al-Qaeda linked groups in northern Mali.
Abderrahmane Sissako says his idea initially was to make a documentary about the influence of groupings whose foreign members may include Libyans and Algerians. He said at the screening: “I thought at first I could just go with my video camera and talk to people about what they think of foreigners telling them they’re bad Muslims if they play football or sing or don’t wear modest clothing.
Then I started to worry what might happen to them afterwards. The jihadists would find out what had been said so I realised no one would be free to speak their own mind.”
But the director admits he also had concerns for his own safety and that of his crew. “The filming was almost all in Mauritania where the authorities were helpful. But we also shot for two days in Timbuktu. One of the reasons I made the film was to encourage Mali’s rulers to do more to deal with the problem of the north. I was delighted the film was chosen to compete here in Cannes: it has focused attention on an area the outside world finds baffling and maybe tiresome. Dire poverty provided fertile ground for the groups we show in the film. None of that is very hard to understand. The international community is now spending tens of millions of euros in Timbuktu and Kidal and Gao. If that investment had come years ago, many of the problems in northern Mali could have been avoided.”
Nubiart Diary
~ EDOSA OGUIGO: COLOUR AND FORM IN NIGERIAN CONTEMPORARY ART. On Wed4 June at 5-6.30pm at Rm 4429, 4th Floor, main Building, SOAS, Russell Sq, London. WC1H 0XG.Adm: Free~ JAZZMO’THOLOGY PRESENTS THE LAUNCH OF SPOKEN WORD ARTISTE HKB FINN’S NEW MINI-ALBUM ‘PRELUDE: URBAN ROOTS’. HKB Finn’s new recording expertly explores stories of Loss, Love and Life’s Sweet Moments in a brilliantly conceived mini-album where Hip Hop melds together intense Jazz, Gospel & Afro-Beat influences to form a concise collection of blissful songs. Backed by the wonderful ensemble: Westley Joseph, drums, Andi McLean, bass, Francis Ovie, keyboards, Edison Herbert, guitar, with brass & woodwind courtesy Sylvain Gontard, Kevin Davy, Phillipe Sellam & Shabaka Hutchins, Prelude Urban Roots is an extraordinary recording from extraordinary artists all led by the incredible spoken word of HKB Finn. Supported by the debut album launch of guitarist Edison Herbert and poetry by Lionheart! On Sun 8 June at 7pm at Club 414, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London, SW9 8LF. Adm: £15. E-mail: info@club414.org
~ BLACK HISTORY STUDIES PRESENT ‘BLACK PARIS: RACE AND CULTURE IN THE CITY OF LIGHT’ SCREENING. Presentation on the Afrikan-Americans who left America to create the Jazz Age in Paris between the First and Second Imperialist and Colonialist World Wars. Many Afrikan-Americans preferred to stay in Europe than return to the racist brutality of America. They formed an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs congregating around Paris’s Montmartre neighbourhood.On Mon 9 June at 7-9pm at the PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, Clapham Junction, London, SW11 2LN. Adm: £5 / Under-16s - Free. Tel / Fax: 020 8881 0660. Mobile: 07951 234 233. E-mail: info@blackhistorystudies.com Web: http://www.blackhistorystudies.com
~PASCF PRESENT THE 5TH MARCUS GARVEY ANNUAL MEMORIAL LECTURE.Cooperative Economics and Egwanika: An Afrikan Centred Reply to Garvey and UNIA. Speaker: Sister Dr Asher Sefanit-Wudasee, Garveyite scholar and the first ever female elected Chair and head of the Nyahbinghi National Council of Great Britain lectures on the theme. On Tues 10 June at 5.30pm at Birkbeck University, Main Building Room B33, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX. Adm: Free. RSVP: pascfevents@gmail.com
~ LEIGHTON HOUSE PRESENTS FROM ‘JAMAICA TO NOTTING HILL, RUDI PATTERSON’S VISIONS IN COLOUR’. For over forty years, following a career as an international model and actor, Rudi Patterson dedicated himself to painting. From the three successive council flats he lived in around Notting Hill he produced a vast body of work, exhibiting widely in London, the UK and internationally – from New York to Melbourne - throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Following his death last year, this exhibition explores a single theme; Rudi’s extraordinarily potent and vivid representations of his native Jamaica. Including many works never previously exhibited these depictions of mountain landscapes, plantation villages, luxuriant tropical vegetation, rivers and beaches conjure a compelling sense of place, intuitively made from the vantage point of a West London window. Until Fri 13 June at Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London, W8.
~BFI AFRICAN ODYSSEYS PRESENT’I AM THE GORGON: BUNNY ‘STRIKER’ LEE AND THE ROOTS OF REGGAE’ + ‘SOUND BUSINESS’.
Director: Diggory Kenrick. Dur: 86 min. The documentary film about legendary producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee tells the story of Jamaican music through the life of one extraordinary man; from ska to rocksteady; dub to dancehall; from the backstreets of Kingston to the concert halls of the world. Lee worked with early pioneers such as Duke Reid and innovators such as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Sly and Robbie, and his association with King Tubby in the 70s gave rise to the genre known as dub. Lee’s story involves politics, arguments, gangs and guns as Jamaican music spread from the ghettos of Kingston to the furthest reaches of the globe. Director Diggory Kenrick and the film’s narrator, musician Dennis Alcapone, may be in attendance for a discussion around what will be a unique and musical event.
Director: Molly Dineen. Dur: 43 min. ’Sound Business’ is an early ‘80s documentary directed by Molly Dineen that focuses primarily on England’s Sir Coxsone and Young Lion sound systems. For those unfamiliar with reggae-dancehall culture, the film is a solid primer as uniquely-voiced narrator Mikey Dread leads you through a fascinating view of an underground music network that stays true to its Jamaican roots, giving viewers not only some glorious vibrations for your ears but some insightful interviews as well. Come see the crews make dubplates, build custom speakerboxes, and engage in a sound clash for the finale. Director Molly Dineen may introduce her film. On Sat 14 June at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South Bank, London, SE1 8XT. Adm: £6.50. Box Office: 020 7928 3232.
~ THE BRITISH NIGERIA LAW FORUM (BNLF) AND HOSPITAL & PRISON ACTION NETWORK (HPAN) SEMINAR ON ‘TERRORISM IN NIGERIA: IS THE LAW SUFFICIENT TO CURB IT?’ The Nigerian Terrorism (Prevention) Act was passed in 2011. However, 2014 has seen a sharp increase in acts of terrorism within Nigeria, which has cost the lives of at least 1500 people and seen the recent abduction of over 200 schoolgirls. This seminar will raise questions on, amongst other things: the effectiveness of the Nigerian law enforcement, judicial, and political institutions in dealing with this long-standing threat; what solutions can be found to assist the Nigerian government; and if solutions can be gleaned from the international community and human rights laws.On Sat 14 June at 10am-3pm at Central London venue. E-mail info@bnlf.org.uk
~ CELEBRATING SANCTUARY LONDON PRESENT REFUGEE WEEK UK
- On Sun 15 June at 2-7pmat Bernie Spain Gardens, Upper Ground, South Bank, London, SE1 9PH. Adm: Free. The UK’s largest free outdoor festival celebrating the arts by, with and about refugees will return to London’s South Bank launching Refugee Week UK 2014, a UK-wide programme of cultural and educational events which celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and aims to encourage better understanding between communities. The music line-up includes South London / Nigerian Grime MC Afrikan Boy; Somali Party Southall featuring award-winning percussionist Kuljit Bhamra MBE and British Somali singer Abdulkarim Raas; and a collective of talent called Rafiki Jazz whose members have roots in Brazil, Gambia, Mauritius, Senegal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the UK. This year’s event also features a number of exclusive collaborations, including the inspired meeting of sounds and voices between Anglo-Polish songbird Katy Carr and Ethiopian born singer Haymanot Tesfa. Comedy will come from Somali-born stand-up comedian Prince Abdi. Web: http://www.celebratingsanctuarylondon.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CelebratingSanctuaryLondon Twitter: @cslondonfest #refugeeweek
- New Voices. On Sat 21 June at 12–7pmat V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9PA. Adm:Free. Forming part of Refugee Week and Celebrating Sanctuary London, Praxis and New Voices will be taking over the V&A Museum of Childhood with a programme of live music from around the globe - including Family Atlantica, Shane Solanki aka Last Mango in Paris and London Lucumi Choir -as well as interactive activities for all the family. A photographic exhibition developed by young refugees and Simona Aru - a world renown photographer - will tell the story of the often dangerous journey young people have to make to find sanctuary within the UK. Web:
http://newvoicesfestival.org.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/271038713079115/
Twitter: @Praxis_Projects #NewVoices2014
~ NARRATIVE EYE PRESENT IMAGINING TUDOR ENGLAND. ‘Blackamoores, Africans in Tudor England, Their Presence, Status and Origins’ is the result of 10 years of research by Onyeka and shows that Afrikans in England had important occupations in Tudor Society and were employed by powerful people because of the skills they possessed. This dispels the myth that the Afrikan presence in England began with slavery.The inclusion of African Tudors as part of the National Curriculum is of particular significance as the Tudor period cannot continue to be studied in its current format without exploring the presence of Afrikan people during this time. On Thurs 19 June at 1pm at National Portrait Gallery, London, WC2H 0HE. Adm: Free. E-mail: info@narrative-eye.org.uk Web: http://narrative-eye.org.uk/events.html
~ ‘THE SPIRITUAL HIGHWAY: RELIGIOUS WORLD MAKING IN MEGACITY LAGOS’. A photography project by Akintunde Akinleye and Marloes Janson. The 120km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway that connects Nigeria’s economic hub with the city of Ibadan is considered the most important and busiest road in Nigeria. It was opened in 1979 at the peak of the oil boom but while it has failed as the artery linking the north and the south of Nigeria, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway has succeeded as a stage for the performance of public religiosity to the extent that it can be described as a ‘Spiritual Highway’. Since the late 1980s numerous Christian and Muslim movements have cropped up along the highway. Akintunde and Marloes explore and record these ‘prayer cities’ concentrating on the Christian Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries or MFM Prayer City and the Muslim Nasrul-Lahi-Fatih Society of Nigeria, which translates as ‘There is no help except from Allah’ (abbreviated to NASFAT).These prayer cities have congregations of tens of thousands, competing with each other for new converts by offering a range of facilities and services from faith healing to education and health care. Challenging conventional assumptions of Christianity and Islam as bounded and distinct traditions, this project focuses instead on the convergence between Pentecostal Christianity and revivalist Islam. Until Sat 21 June on Tues-Sat at 10.30am-5pm at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG. Adm: Free. Tel: 020 7898 4046. E-mail: gallery@soas.ac.uk Web: www.soas.ac.uk/gallery Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Soas.Brunei.Gallery
~ ‘CHRIS MARKER: A GRIN WITHOUT A CAT’ EXHIBITION. Widely credited with inventing the essay film, Marker brilliantly treads the line between documentary and personal reflection. This long overdue retrospective screens seminal sci-fi short ‘La Jetée’ - with an alternative intro - and excerpts from his hypnotic meditation on memory, ‘Sans Soleil’. One of the most powerful films here is ‘Statues Die Also’ which explores the denigration and commodification of Afrikan cultural and spiritual traditions. The title film is a three-hour examination of the role of radical politics in France. There are also photos, texts, his cover art, and a guided tour of Marker’s Second Life museum led by his cat. You should put aside a whole day for the exhibition or schedule a return visit. Until 22 June at Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX. Tel: 020 7522 7888. E-mail: info@whitechapelgallery.org Web:http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/chris-marker-a-grin-without-a-cat
~ NATIONAL AFRICAN RELIGION CONGRESS / NARC WORLD INTERNATIONAL PRESENT THE ‘ELEVENTH AFRICAN RELIGION CONFERENCE AND WORLD CEREMONY OF CEREMONIES: SPIRITUALITY IN WORLD CONNECTION - HEALTH, FAITH & WEALTH’. Within the United States, Afrikan-based religions are poorly understood and are often subjected to persecution and prejudice. The National African Religion Congress / NARC World International certifies priests and priestesses to assure that they have been properly trained according to the traditions of their respective religions and that they uphold the moral and ethical standards of their religion. The Afrikan-based religions represented are: Lucumi / Regla de Ocha / Santería (Cuba / Puerto Rico), Candomble (Brazil), Orisa (Trinidad & Tobago), Voodoo (Haiti), Ifa / Isese / Yoruba (Nigeria) and the Akan (Ghana). On 26–29 June at Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street,Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.Registration: $325 - NARC Members / $350 – Non-NARC Members. Contact:National African Religion Congress / NARC World International,5104 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19141, USA.Tel: 215 455 0815. Fax: 215 455 0818. E-mail: narcworld@aol.com Web: www.narcworld.com
~ FIND YOUR VOICE PRESENTS ‘THE TRUTH ABOUT PROSTATE CANCER’. With Vasco Stevenson. On Sat 28 June at 4.30–7pm at Park View Academy, West Green Road, London, N15 3RB. Adm: £5. Tel: Douglas on 07960 239 493 / 07882 403 871. E-mail: findyourvoice@hotmail.co.uk
~ SISTER HEALTH FORUM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CONSCIOUS VIBES MAGAZINE AND DIASPORA DEBATE ASSOCIATIONINVITE YOU TO A WOMEN AND MEN DEBATE CONFERENCE ON ‘IS IT WRONG TO WANT PERFECT SKIN?’ Exploring skin health implications, skin bleaching, sun beds and tanning injections.Guest Speakers: Toyin Agbetu, community educator, ‘Beauty Is…’ filmmaker and founder of LIGALI: Sara Ellis, certified Hypnotherapist and Eating Disorders Counsellor. Followed by women only health seminar with traditional Afrikan herbalist Ras Daniel Babu from Japan. Topics: fibroids, blood pressure, diabetes, FGM, menopause, children’s health, high blood pressure, breast cancer and endometriosis.On Sat 28 June at 3-8pm at The Old Fire Station, 84 Mayton Street, London N7 6QT. Adm: £10 / £7 adv.E-mail: sisters4health@gmail.com Twitter: @sisters4health Facebook:www.facebook.com/sisters4health
~ ANCIENT SOULS GATHERING (TO FACILITATE PEACE). Drums, percussion, dancing, general peaceful thoughts are welcome. Souls are the cosmic architecture that weaves us to everything. They connect us to the Universe. We are healed and loved. When we participate, we offer an opportunity to...On Sat 28 June at 6pm at The Pagoda, Battersea Park, Wandsworth, London, SW11.
~ CHI CREATIONS EVENTS
- Sponsored Walk: Nurture Your Nature Family Retreat. On Sun 29June at 8am at Epping Forest.
- Graduates of The Griot Way Training. On Tues 1 July at 6.45-9.15pm at Canada Water Theatre, Canada Water Library, 21 Surrey Quays Rd, London, SE16 7AR. With guest storyteller Sandra Agard.
- The Family Retreat. On Fri 25 - Mon 28 July at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA.
- The Griot Way Storytelling Training. On 17-19 Oct, 13-15 Feb 2015 and 15-17 May 2015 at Etherly Farm, Dorking, RH5 6PA.
E-mail: Info@shanti-chi.com Web: www.shanti-chi.com
~ BUNDU DIA KONGO (BDK). Afrikan cultural and spiritual group working towards the spiritual and psychological growth and development of Afrikans all over the world. Let us make a positive change now. Learn about Afrikan prophets, Afrikan history and Afrikan spiritual practices at our weekly Zikua.
- Sun at 1.30–4.30pm at Chestnuts Community & Arts Centre, 280 St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, London, N15 5BN. Tel: Makaba - 07951 059 853.
- Sun at 12.30–3.15pm at Malika House, 81 George Street, Lozells, Birmingham, B19 1Sl. Tel: Mbuta Mayala – 07404 789 329.
~ THE AUSAR AUSET SOCIETY GI GONG CLASSES. Every Monday at 7.30–9pm at Hazel Road Community Centre, Hazel Road, Kensal Green, London, NW10 5PP. Adm: £5 per class. Tel: 07951- 252-427. E-mail: Tauinetwork.europe@gmail.com
Contact: Kubara Zamani, Afrikan Quest International, PO Box 35165, London, SE5 8WU. Tel: 07811 494 969. E-mail: afrikanquest@hotmail.comNB: Nubiart Diary can also be read at www.ligali.org
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