Tuesday, September 15, 2009

STILTWALKING--Tamsin Barzane



Stilts. What you think of when you hear that word depends on your experiences. Maybe clowns at the circus with extraordinarily long legs, maybe Carnival performers. I think of Liberia. I’ve never been to Liberia, mind, but when I was young, my parents acceded to my birthday wishes and took me to see an African dance troupe performing in Philadelphia. There were dancers aplenty, but the stiltwalkers were taller than anything I’d ever seen on the Ed Sullivan Show (yes, dating myself), and moved with a majestically supernatural grace, their long, mantis-like legs covered with striped fabric.


In many regions of the world, stilts developed for work purposes. French shepherds used them to navigate over marshy ground and have an elevated viewpoint for tracking flock members, while drywall installers and painters often employ them to avoid climbing up and down ladders. Even fruit pickers in California sometimes prune trees and collect their bounty with ease of these elevators.

Entertainment has also been a major stilting function. Millennia ago, the Chinese began to use them for imperial performances. European festivals that feature dancing or racing take place in Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands. The Marquesas Islands of the South Pacific used to have races, as well as a form of stilt fighting. The Japanese played with them, calling them takeuma (bamboo horse). Many American street fairs and parades use them as major attractions. Cleveland’s Parade the Circle annual event (second Saturday in June—a fabulous Cleveland Museum of Art festival that is certainly not just for children) trains stiltwalkers, and in the weeks before the main event, teachers and returnees awe those working on their costumes with acrobatics and even soccer games.

This Parade’s stiltwalkers have a geneology direct from Trinidad and Tobago, for its organizer, artist Robin van Lear, has for twenty years brought in international artists with long pedigrees in the island nations’ Carnival tradition. And this tradition is one that features moko jumbies, costumed stiltwalkers who have been a part of Carnival for two centuries or more. They were not restrained to Trinidad; in St. Vincent of the Virgin Islands, a “mocko jumbo” on stilts was recorded in 1791, an animal head covering the performer’s own.

Trinidadian (and Tobago!) users are not precise about which part of Africa the moko jumbie came from, vaguely citing Kongo and Nupe sources—two unrelated ethnic groups vastly distant from one another, neither of which uses stilts today. Numerous West African groups are stilt users, however, including

Nigeria’s Urhobo, Gabon’s Punu, the Ivory Coast/Liberia’s Dan, Mali's Dogon, groups in the Senegambia, Mali, Guinea, Ghana and elsewhere.

The African stilts are often 12 feet high, and always worn by men. They are frequently masqueraders, faces covered. In some areas they are considered messengers to the ancestors or spiritual guardians. In others, they are dancers only, albeit mysterious ones whose abilities, by consensus, are attributed to powerful supernatural medicines. When performances take place at night, their looming presence can be positively frightening—they lope along, casting odd moonshadows, as drummers beat for them.

For Saminaka’s upcoming African Festival, Oct. 1-4, 2009, stiltwalkers from several traditions will stride across the landscape, reminding observers of a powerful tradition that crossed the Atlantic, and continues to spread. Would you like to join us as a participant, rather than just an observer? Contact Tamsin Barzane inworld, or here on the blog!

To see a West African stiltdancer from the Dan people, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7H9f0paCCo

To see “Mokolution”, a multi-part documentary from the American Virgin Islands about the tradition in both Africa and the Americas, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOU1TyYd_3U&feature=PlayList&p=516556F1AAEB4CE8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1

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UNDER THE MANGO TREE--Tamsin Barzane


"A nice cup of bush tea." For those of you who have read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels or have watched Jill Scott do an excellent job as patience on the wonderful HBO series, you'll recognize her panacea for all problems.

"Bush tea" is rooibos, made from a plant from southern Africa. It's caffeine free and high in antioxidants, which has increased its popularity in the West--my local grocery carries it.

In South Africa, citified up, it is now also made espresso fashion, with lattes and cappucinos--even a rooibos-flavored liqueur. But brewed the old way, it still is believed to calm the nerves and refresh.

Nigeria doesn't have rooibos, but similar beliefs in calming effects promote a red tea (an herbal infusion, really) made from hibiscus flower sepals--sometimes called sorrel (sure or sooborodo in the North). It's popular throughout West Africa, up through the Gambia and Senegal, and in other spots as well--North Africa and the Middle East, for example.

Throughout the Caribbean, cold sorrel drinks are used at Christmas and other times, particularly in Jamaica and Trinidad. The former often combine it with ginger.

Feeling left out? You needn't. Hibiscus is the main ingredient in the popular Celestial Seasonings line of "Zinger" teas (Orange Tangerine Zinger is my favorite).

And why the tea digression? Anything calming that lifts the spirits is essential in today's bustle, when slipping behind is all too easy. Like Botswana's fictional Patience Ramotswe, we'd all do better to take a seat from time to time, reflecting and regrouping with some African tea, whether rooibos or sure--researchers are even finding that the latter is good for high blood pressure.

The slow pace of the novels and the show, so much the antithesis of action-driven plots, is like taking a deep breath and returning to equilibrium. And if tea of any kind can do that...I need some now!

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Read the blog at http://www.fatimaochl.net/, get an introductory copy of OCHL's GUIDE TO MUSIC AND DANCE IN SL at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Deminis/133/206/30

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Ads! We have an initial special offer for you, whether you are shopkeepers or classified customers! Remember you can advertise your shop, feature an item, or try to sell a transferable item. If your ad has a photo, it costs more. There are discounts for extended runs of the same ad, and lesser discounts if you have constant ads, but they vary from week to week. YOU CAN ALSO USE THIS VENUE TO ADVERTISE RL OBJECTS AND SERVICES; LIST YOUR EBAY OR OTHER SITE AND REACH OUR CUSTOMERS (Tamsin Barzane will never reveal your rl identity to readers). All ad payments are in-world and in lindens. Ads for the coming week should be submitted by noon SLT Sunday.

Single ad, no photo, one week. maximum 5 Blogger lines: 50L
Single ad, photo, one week. Text maximum 5 Blogger lines: 100L
Single ad recurring, no photo, one month (4 issues). Text maximum 5 Blogger lines: 175L
Single ad recurring, photo, one month (4 issues). Text maximum 5 Blogger lines: 325L
Single ad changing week-to-week, no photo, one month (4 issues). Text maximum 5 Blogger lines. 180L
Single ad changing week-to-week, photo, one month (4 issues). Text maximum 5 Blogger lines. 425L

If you want longer text, more than one photo, or a longer ad run, prices will be adjusted. Contact Tamsin Barzane through inworld notecard or at tbarzane@gmail.com

These are introductory prices--no telling if they'll last more than a month! Get em while you can! This is our FOURTEENTH ISSUE, and we're up to 1206 readers! Our readers come from all over the world. WE GROW DAILY!!

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FROM THE SUITCASE--Oliha Yiwama


Remembering Our Loved Ones



Africa is composed of many ethnic groups, cultures, languages and religions. Some of my friends have focused on the diversity of Africa, but although Africa is diverse, I have always touted the uniformity of many of African beliefs. One of the most important belief in Africa is ancestral veneration. Africans universally have a great respect for ancestors. Ancestor veneration is at the core of African culture.



In Nigeria, many of the names that refer to ancestors are also used simultaneously with elders. For instance, the Edo people use the word edion to both mean ancestors or elders that are up in age, since they are the repository of ancient wisdom. Many of the moral codes in pre-colonial Nigeria were based upon ancestor veneration, respect for ancestral authority.



According to tradition, food or drinks were poured on the ground in memory of the ancestors. Prayers were directed to the them for help in daily activities or major decisions that affected the family. Ancestral altars are placed in sacred spaces within the home to constantly remind the living of the memory and close ties of the departed.



Yes, the ancestor remains a valuable part of the family, and was constantly consulted. In traditional African societies, the belief that life did not end once a person left the physical realm was paramount. Life continued in the same manner in the spiritual existence, with constant contact between the two spheres. By keeping the ancestors near, moral codes were enforced and family ties were maintained.


The Yoruba are another well-documented group that maintain ancestral veneration. One of the features the Yoruba are best known for is their ancestral masquerade (egungun). The masquerade reinforces the moral codes of that community, and reaffirms the ties between the departed and the remaining souls. In Nigeria, many masquerades represent elaborate stories that reflect moral codes and guidance.



In a sense, the bond between child and parent is never broken in an African society, even after death. In Africa, death was viewed as a transition in a continued cycle of birth and rebirth. In the diaspora, where traditional African customs are maintained in Candomble and Santeria, ancestral veneration also plays a major role. Diaspora shrines have pictures of the departed, as well as ancestral staffs, for remembering the blessings of the departed parents.



The memories that go along with the physical altars are many. For me, it would be unthinkable to not have a place to pay respect and to fondly remember my departed love ones. There are many lessons in life that I can hear spiritually from my granma and granpa. I can remember how it was a healing effect to have finally put the last touches on my ancestral shrine. It is our ancestors and elders that gave us the starting blocks in which to prepare our lives.



In the diaspora, a method of divination that any person can partake in is ancestral divination. The ancestors are the closest bond to our genetic being. It is from their DNA code that we come into existence. It is that code that bonds us to the future generations. One continuous bond.! Those memories feel us with joy and warmth because our sacred ancestors were the first in our genetic line, our caregivers, and confidants.


If you are missing one of your parents, maybe an ancestral shrine is in order to re-establish that healing bond. Come see me.



And come to Saminaka's African Festival Oct. 1-4 and experience the wonderful world of African masquerade! The egungun will be there, as well as other masqueraders, ancestral and otherwise.

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HAWKING IN THE MARKET--SAMINAKA COMMERCIAL NEWS

***Sultan Oliha Yiwama has returned from Nigeria, and has opened his office on Saminaka. It has dual access--directly from the beachside, beside the new shrine, or through the Iyawo store. Sultan Oliha has had extensive real life training and initiations in the U.S. and in Nigeria, and is a qualified diviner and priest in both Yoruba and Benin Kingdom traditions. See him for all your needs, religious and personal!

***VENDORS! CALLING ALL AFRICAN MERCHANTS! Saminaka will be holding SL’s first African Festival from the evening of Oct. 1 through Oct. 4. Its many events will include appearances by masqueraders, stiltwalkers and acrobats, as well as a decorated canoe regatta, a durbar with a display of finely attired horses, an African fashion conest, two (or three!) djed parties, a live musical performance, cultural lectures, readings, displays about Nupe culture, the horse in Africa, and Nigerian plants, a sim-wide treasure hunt, the launching of Ananse, an SL group devoted to African and Diaspora scholarship and more! During our last treasure hunt, our numbers were in the thousands. And what’s a festival without a special festival market? The big boat is coming down, and in its place we will have festival stalls, ready for stocking with African merchandise. Do you sell African clothes? Jewelry? Drums? Hair? Skins? Come and take a booth and sit back for a willing audience of strollers! Our prices are low because we really want your participation to add to the atmosphere: 125L a day for 25 prims worth of display, or 300L for the three and a half day period. Contact Tamsin Barzane for details; there are only a few spots left
***Our new store IYAWO (formerly Adire) has opened! Iyawo will specialize in orisha attire, art, and ritual products. Brazilian-style dress for Oshun and orisha followers are already out, with Yemanja and Oya to be added within days--and many more to come. The carved wooden panels and paintings of Carybe, showing orishas and initiates, are up, as are selected other art works. A sculpted Eshu/Eleggua awaits your threshold! More to come. Visit our Olokun shrine as well, and be on the lookout for expansion in this area.

***Be on the lookout for a new superstore on Saminaka, the cacao main store! Some of Tamsin's brands will be folded into this store, but that doesn't mean her off-sim stores will vanish. Kiko Life's cacao store will remain the jewel box it is, and will only carry the latest cacao collection, but Tropicality will change directions somewhat, becoming what its name implies--THE spot of African-inspired beachwear! Most of Pangolin Dreams' African art works will move into Seven Cowries, but Pangolin Dreams will continue to carry some art and artifacts while changing direction somewhat. As for the promised cacao superstore....wait and see! Its exterior will be a spectacular piece of Hausa architecture, filled with products you'll be eager to stock up on! Keep looking here for the grand opening date!
Indigo Asooke

This casual outfit has a sexy bra top with an asymmetrical short flexiskirt made from Yoruba cloth. This aso oke, a heavy cotton woven by men, is made in narrow strips that are sewn side-by-side to make wider textiles. Indigo is a favorite, locally-made dye, and is used here in various shades.

Like all cacao products, it's mod/transfer. Get it now! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kiko%20Life/234/114/1506

Monday, September 14, 2009

WETIN BE DAT? Pidgin English phrase of the week

Oboy, how far now?


My friend, how're things going?

MY PEOPLE SAY--NIGERIAN PROVERB OF THE WEEK


When you're very sick you will promise a goat for recovery, but when you get better, a chicken will seem sufficient.

Jukun people

THIS WEEK IN SAMINAKA--Sept. 14 to 20

Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 6 pm SLT. Weekly meeting of Egbe Akowe Writers Group at the new Slates, Scrolls & Sticks, Saminaka's library cum bookstore. Join the group and receive its missives by hitting the Subscribe-o-Matic (it doesn't add to group count) at the meeting location. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Saminaka/174/194/30 or the Manatee Lookout Palm Wine Joint on Tarkwa Beach.

This week we will each be taking individual directions with the group story we started on "Samantha." Come join us!



Sunday, Sept. 20 at 1 pm SLT. Avenue is hosting an Ebony fashion show, and cacao is participating! I don't yet know the SLURL, but will update here and in groups. Eight outfits will be on display!