A Most Majestic Fly Whisk

  a matched pair of mabindas (Sukuma articulated dance figures) on a performance cord “ For revolutionary consciousness is subjective consciousness, just as natural consciousness is, that is, it is a determination or re-presentation of substance, ethical life, actuality, in the form of an abstract consciousness. An abstract consciousness is one which knows that it is not united with ethical life. It is determined by abstract law to know itself as formally free, identical and empty. It is only such an abstract consciousness which can be potentially revolutionary, which can conceive the ambition to acquire a universal content or determination which is not that of the bourgeois property law which bestowed universality and subjectivity on it in the first place. ” — Gillian Rose, Hegel Contra Sociology   My medicine gourd I should prepare-prepare The snake hunters have not seen me yet The huntsmen of snakes I have a calabash of recklessness O Madam, I have killed Shing’weng’we!...

  Illustration for the EAPH combined reprint of Song of Lawino/Song of Ocol  by Frank Horley "The royal councillors were stunned at this answer, and stood in amazed silence, convinced she had known this by some supernatural power. For them, it was a miracle, and something to be taken seriously. Father Bernardo appeared less impressed and continued his questioning. 'Who are you?" he asked her. She replied gravely, as if every word were a serious matter, and slowly, as if carefully considering each remark, 'I am Saint Anthony, come from Heaven.'" - John K. Thornton's  The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian movement, 1684-1706 BOOKPOSTING IS BACK !! I've always loved this style of blogpost and now I have a blog to participate with. Helps that it's kinda low-intensity on a day like Ashura. Pour (a non-alcoholic) one out for Husayn, y'all. 1. “To Awaken the Soul’s Water”: Shared Systems of Communal Recollection in t...

  Family photo! The star twins  Kasajja and Kawuugulu are in the middle of the back row, with their cousins Mpuunyi and  Nyoolaevvubuka framing them at their left and right, respectively. The royal spear Kawawa stands in the center, while the youngest and smallest ensemble members - the  Nyamitongo drums - wait near the alms basket and beer gourd . This post has several parents - the proximate cause was my stumbling across stories about the haughty royal drum Karinga while trawling Kagame's dynastic histories of the Nyiginya Kingdom for setting material, but it owes a lot to Sofinho's excellent Blades with Brains  and Vulnavia's older (but also extremely cool) post A Family of Evil Swords  over at The Lovely Dark. T he most direct inspiration was provided by the  Kawuugulu ensemble: a powerful collection of item-relatives belonging to the Little White Mushroom ( Butiko , Aboobutiko pl.) Clan of the Ganda who fight malignant spirits, ward of...