A Most Majestic Fly Whisk

  an  ọpọ́n Ifá/divination tray brought to Europe from the Allada Kingdom in the 1650s, possibly the oldest African wood sculpture in a Western collection. Ọsa Otura says, “What is Truth?”  I say, “What is Truth?” Ọrunmila says, “Truth is the character of Olodumare.  Truth is the word that cannot fall. Ifá is Truth.  Truth is the word that cannot spoil.  Might surpassing all. Blessing everlasting.”    — from the O dù Ọsa-Otura Let be, my soul, fold your rebellious pinions, There is no way out of the web of things, It is a snare that never will be broken, And if you struggle you will break your wings. Be still a while, content to brood on beauty; Caught in the trap of space that has no end, See how the stars, august in their submission, Take their Great Captor for their changeless friend. — In the Web , Sara Teasdale the Birdking of the Prismatic Wasteland has issued a challenge ! many worthies have already offered up their responses - artisans ...

  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...

is Négritude too on the nose? - Papa Ibra Tall's La semeuse d’étoiles "Added to this is the question of whether Africa serves merely as a mirror that refracts the image of the United States, thereby enabling the ‘returnee’ to explore issues of home and identity with a measure of contemplative distance." - Saidiya Hartman, The Time of Slavery In the grand tradition of reading games as texts + inflammatory titles, this is a (hopefully concise!) discussion of some issues I have with the celebrated Pathfinder 2E supplement The Mwangi Expanse . For people who haven’t been keeping up with Paizo’s releases, TME is a revamp of Golarion's Notfrica (oldheads might recall the Expanse from Heart of the Jungle, Sargava: The Lost Colony , and the Serpent's Skull adventure path in the last gen) for PF2E; it's served as a launching pad for other stuff that's come out focusing on the Expanse, like the Strength of Thousands AP or The Slithering . There's a lot to lo...

The introduction of Soumaoro Kanté at 6:45 is one of the best things on YT, bro even has the human bone balafon.    "Mouminatou Camara, once a star dancer in Guinea’s national company Les Ballets Africains, walked to the front of a packed dance studio in Union Square, Manhattan, to begin her class. Before starting the warm-up, she turned to the drummers, stood up straight, and exclaimed with a wry smile, 'Prêt pour la Révolution!' (Ready for the Revolution!)—a political slogan and salutation in socialist Guinea. The remark was lost on American students, but the drummers—most of whom were also Guinean—smiled and responded in kind, 'Pour la Révolution, prêt!'" — Cohen's Infinite Repertoire: On Dance and Urban Possibility in Postsocialist Guinea "The demystification campaign is finished. The children have made themselves the educators of their mothers and fathers; they have broken in their hands those nefarious playthings and thrown them in the fire. Th...