This Week in the Compass

This week our regular features are complemented by columns on African music, African masquerade, and African fashion--all in preparation for Saminaka's upcoming festival.

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African Masquerade, Second-Life style!!!

African masks hang on museum and collectors' walls, but African

masquerades dance, and masqueraders wear them. There! In one sentence, the kineticism of a masquerade, the terminology, and the combination of object and costume are laid out.

Masquerades in Africa are quite different from masquerade balls in New Orleans or Venice. Their appearance and impetus, as well as the identities of those who wear them, make them distinctive. In the continent, there's only one region (in parts of Sierra Leone/Liberia/Guinea) where women wear masquerades--here you see one at left in wooden mask and dyed black raffia costume. In the rest of Africa, it's men, men, and men.

While many masquerades are for entertainment purposes--a relief from the tedium of everyday life--more are involved with incorporating and impersonating spirits, whether ancestral or entities that inhabit the bush or waterways. Spirits, if you flatter them, can bring you blessings--and masquerades are a perfect way to swell their spirit breasts and make them feel magnanimous. Just because a masquerade has a spiritual dimension doesn't mean it is humorless. When teenage boys dress up as spirit women and insert padding or a stick to enlarge their buttocks, then proceed to burlesque women's walks and dances, hilarity ensues.

Some masquerades, however, are solemn or intentionally frightening. Igbo males spirits, for example, are represented with a fierce conglomeration of human and animal-like features that include tusks, sharp canines, and horns. They carry machetes and other weapons, and would rush the crowd if not restained by their "keepers." Yoruba witch-hunters are decorated with medicines, including small animal skulls, in an effort to warn malefactors that they, too, can kill.

Other masquerades were once human, and relish the chance to again dance with their family members, bestowing blessings on them.

At Saminaka's African festival, there will be periodic, as well as staged, appearances by a variety of African masqueraders. Would you like to be one? IM Tamsin Barzane, and she'll set you up, or check out the masquerade stall on the Festival market ground. See you there!

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Orisha store coming soon!

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UNDER THE MANGO TREE--Tamsin Barzane

African fashion!!! Yes, the upcoming African Festival on Saminaka (Oct. 1-4) will include a competition, with prizes going to the best dressed male and female in African attire. While Saminaka sells traditional clothing at Cinnamon Brigade (soon to be folded into our cacao megastore), other excellent finds are available elsewhere in SL, and some will be sold at the booths in our festival market. But what about fashion IN Africa?

Basically African fashionista(o)s fall into four categories: those who follow changing textile fashions but who stick to traditional clothing shapes that change little (the wrapper and buba, the agbada or boubou "big gowns" for men, the men's caftan or dashiki or wrapper), those who wear what foreigners think of as traditional dress, but are really 20th century inventions (the long skirt with overblouse that can vary tremendously over time; the pants/top combos from wax prints for men), those who wear the latest foreign labels, and those who are couturiers, taking ideas and fabrics and transforming them into alta moda, international class Fashion with a capital "F."

This last group has members who have created spectacular looks featured in Paris and Milan, and I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorites, both for her outrageous twists and turns on traditional dress and objects, and for her artistry. Her name is Oumou Sy, an elegant woman in her fifties, and she is based in Dakar, Senegal, but has shown her works to international acclaim in Europe and elsewhere.

Ms. Sy has injected humor as well as beauty into her designs, possibly because she comes from theatrical roots--parlaying them into the foundation of the Dakar Carnival, and International Fashion Week in Dakar. She's always on top of things, creating the first cybercafe in Senegal years ago, along with an enchanting website.

Her stores in Geneva and Paris sell to the ultrafashionable, and she designs for World Music superstars like Youssou n'Dour. She's won the enviable couture Prince Claus award, as well as the French government's Legion d'Honneur.

Her designs sometimes inject matting, or small calabash gourds, or other items not usually combined with clothing, including masks and musical instruments.

When she takes an ethnic group as inspiration, her riffs are often awe-inspiring. A silver Tuareg item becomes aggrandized into a breastplate and helmet, or a gold Fulani earring becomes a sleeve.

Sy has not limited herself to the elegant fashions of her home area, but draws on inspiration from the entire continent--whether through materials (a lovely series of feathered gowns), textiles or accessories.

Sy's inventiveness and theatricality remind me of her age-mate Julie Taymore, the director and costumier who shaped Broadway's Lion King, as well as the films Titus, Frida, and the upcoming Spiderman, the Musical. With Sy's involvement in projects in partnership with her filmmaker husband Michel Mavros, such as the exciting Sahel Opera project (which he directs), perhaps her eye will turn in future to projects similar to Taymor's, injecting a new vision into art forms we are more familiar with.

And if her interests keep you more firmly rooted in couture? Then we have much to ahead to, since her own imagination and the visual resources of the continent seem inexhaustible. I guarantee you cacao's haute couture division is likely to feel the Sy excitement and figure out ways to absorb her magical touch with fabric's and fashion.

See some catwalk videos of Oumou Sy's work here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeiXgcDkVpI

and here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BotvDlSpbA

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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.

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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 FIFTEENTH ISSUE, and we're up to 1290 readers! Our readers come from all over the world. WE GROW DAILY!!

FROM THE SUITCASE--Oliha Yiwama

Africa! Yes, you probably have surmised it already, it is the birthplace of music. Feet stomping. Hands clapping. Voices heralding both physical and spiritual sounds. And the mulitdue of instruments, marimbas, balofons, flutes, koras, horns, and, of course, drums.

Drums are a universal symbol of Africa. Even the youngest of children associate drums with Africa, as well as they should. Africa has a variety of drums. They can often mimic the languages of many ethnic groups, if the language is tonal.

Nowhere else is this more evident than in Nigeria. In traditional Nigerian groups, drums are played in a ensemble. The ensemble is arranged around the concept of the family: there is a mama drum, a papa drum and a baby drum. The mama drum is usually the biggest drum and has the deepest tone. The papa drum has a higher tone than the mama drum, but is lower than the baby drum, which has the highest of the tones. Each drum is regulated to a particular rhythym, and the entire ensemble is played in a call-and-response manner.

Similar to real life, the mama drum makes the call to the papa and baby drums, and the they must respond to the mama drum with the appropriate rhytym.

The call and response method evolved into many aspects of drumming. One of the most prominent examples is that of Yoruba drumming. Yoruba drumming can be categorized as sacred and secular, for the sake of convenience. However, even in the latter, the feeling of sacred is always lurking in the background.

In Yoruba Orisa worship, the drums are played to invoke different deities. Sacred rhythyms are played to invoke the Orisa on a certain frequency or energy field. It is believed that each Orisa has his or hers own frequency. Once the drummers have reached that energy field through music, the Orisa is brought down to the congregation of worshippers through trance possession. The person possessed then becomes the vehicle of the Orisa. The Orisa speaks of predictions for many of the initiates, while the rhythymic drums are playing.

One of the reasons that drummers are held in such high regard is for that ability. Yoruba drummers usually accomplish this task through the sacred bata drums. The bata drums are played in threes and consist of the iya, baba, and omo drums. The head drummer is called the Olubata, and plays the Iya drum that calls out to the other family members. Through these drums, additional worshipping is accomplished through dancing and singing.

In Africa, drummers are held in high regard for the many services they provide. From sacred to secular situations, drummers provide inspiration. Drummers call the many deities to the initiates, provide announcements and provide entertainment.

Saminaka will be holding an African Festival from Oct 1-4 and will include music that will heavily emphasize drumming. Saminaka wil also provide drumming circles in the near future for those who wish to experience the African drum and participate in a virtual world.

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HAWKING IN THE MARKET--SAMINAKA COMMERCIAL NEWS

***IYAWO is open on Saminaka! This fascinating store (formerly was to have been named Adire Extraordinaire) combines images drawn from the Yoruba diaspora to clothing and ritual objects from that diaspora! It's still growing, but orisha dresses for Yemanja, Oshun and Oya are out, all in Brazilian style. More orisha clothing in different traditions will be added, for women and men.

***Changes are still afoot for the grand opening of the cacao megastore on Saminaka, due to take place next week! For the moment, furniture cannot be found, because Gidan Magarifi's stock has been removed for the building of the new store--it will find its way back, in new and improved form!

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Ah, Bahia! First capital of Brazil, and center of Afro-Brazilian culture!

This Bahiana outfit made from cut lace is still a favorite with ladies who sell Yoruba food outside--aracaje and other delicacies--and also with those who belong to orixa houses. Prim attachments make all the difference here--authentic from its transparent lace overblouse to its gathered sleeves! Celebrate culture!

WETIN BE DAT? Pidgin English phrase of the week

Dat babe get face-o, but na only pancake nyash.

That girl is pretty, but she has a flat rump.

MY PEOPLE SAY--NIGERIAN PROVERB OF THE WEEK

"Only a fresh fish can be bent." Nupe proverb

Nigerians often curl a fish and peg it in that position in order to smoke it dry; they are here referring to training children.

THIS WEEK IN SAMINAKA--Sept. 22-28, 2009

Tues, Sept. 22 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 prompt "Africa" Come join us!

Thursday, Sept. 24 at 1 pm slt. European decorate your canoe workshop (American workshop next week)! Saminaka's African Festival is coming up fast, and you'll want to be part of the regatta--and maybe win a prize! The regatta is a Nigerian-style festive event, whereby participants decorate a canoe with canopy, pennants, even revolving platforms! If you're a regular builder, all you need to do is look at a slideshow, and you'll be on your way--but if you don't build much, you need a feel for how it's done. We'll give you a free, modifiable canoe and some full-perm pennants with instructions to get you started!