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In this section storytelling commentary, guides, issues and instructions are
presented. The
purpose of this "Journal" is to inform and
encourage important idea creation for the benefit of the Art of Storytelling and
for the tellers who perform it. Three Considerations in the Coming Year © 2006 Baba Jamal Koram STORYTELLERS and other Artists and Folks of Conscience What are we to do in 2007? Well the first thing is that we need to keep on keeping on. Pull your close ones closer, be clear and be cleansed. Let your stories have hope, victory and achievement. And be at ONE with de Spirit. If you need help, call for it. If I can't help you, someone else can - - formally (as in work) or informally (as in "let's work this out). And God is most high. All that being said, let us call upon the African Gods and Goddesses so that we may know them better than those of Rome and Athens and other so called European cultures. Tehuti encouraged me to write an answer to the question: What are we to do in 2007? As African wordsmiths, and bringers of art and dance and music and science and business, what must we consider? There are three considerations in the coming year: 1. The question of Identity 2. The question of Competence, and 3. The notion of expanding our vision Here we go. Identity - We need to be African, Afrakan, Africoid, Afrakanist, Busara, Nubian, Zulu, Nuswabian, Gullah, Geeche and other African centered named people, AND with a Pan African agenda, and an African/American focus. The hesitancy and negatives associated with our defining and naming ourselves (Kujichagulia) must be resolved. Voices of negativity and nay saying about our Center of the World origins must be either avoided and sidestepped, or do what ever is necessary to assert our obligations as Keepers of the Culture, Guardians of the Word, Bringers of the Flame of Truth. Our declarations of our righteous and positive selves need to be manifested in, minimally, the following five ways: In our presence - as we present our folktales, epics, and Stoetry In our lifestyles - as we walk in the world representing our children our families, neighborhoods, villages, towns, organizations and cities, we must design those lifestyles that allow us to walk in maturity and dignity, with sanity and traditional strength, and with the ability to move among any people at any time bearing witness to the truth we talk. However you decide to be, be clear and truthful to yourself. In our associations and relationships - as we decide who we will allow in our sacred spaces, in our special moments, in our gifted hands, in our loving hearts, and in our protective arenas. Be careful not to judge but do not hesitate to decide and to abide by your decisions as to who you will be with. Knowing who people are does not require background checks in the modern sense. Do it like we've done it for centuries - - who's your family? Where are you from? What names are in your family? I don't want to know where you live, I want to know where your great grand mama is from. Look in folks' eyes, feel folks spirit, listen to your dreams, and your intuition. Dat's all I'm saying. And if you don't know, don't go. OO sha ka la ka tee - - who sent you? In our word - Words have their own history, power, and intent. We are interpretive vessels for ideas-through-words that have existed in and around this universal space for more years than we have blood cells. Most of us running round here with our one language no African words in our mouths, ninth grade vocabulary speaking (to a fifth grade beat), cartoon csi cnn soap op weather channel ball headed ball player watching, don't travel nowhere, no library card owning, let Black bookstore failing, don't support independent black education, ain't never been to the Storytelling Retreat, NABS conference, non church going even on Easter, non Afrakan studying, choke sandwich eating selves. That's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You get my drift. We must study us. We must study ourselves. Form study groups if we must. Join storytelling and other professional associations to mix and mingle and learn so that we may entertain ideas transformed into words that will benefit our people. True dat, we don't need an extensive amount of words, but that's only if we know the right words. As Tehuti is quoted [We must] "Be able to speak in significant situations." TO BE CONTINUED write me at griot9@blackstory.org 'cause I don't want to be bloggin'
Just musin' - It's woefully apparent that a cultural stimulant is needed to reinvigorate the storyteller's commitment to diagnostic and prescriptive creativity. That is, the teller must place theyself in a position where we can both analyze and interpret current events, social behavior, and cultural anomalies. In American society, the rapid influx of untested ideas, half truths, and vague character appearances make for a variable shift in the cultural foundations of this nation. What are we talking about, and why? Who are we and how are we presenting ourselves? Increased emphases must be placed on presenting ourselves in very clear and consistent ways which enable folks to listen to the truths we've been seeing, testing, and musin' about. Keep on stirrin' up the pot, walkin' the dog and lighting dem candles for fellow travelers. Afraka Jamaica say: If you nyam egg you must broke de shell Baba Jamal
Cultural and Spiritual Genocide: Real or Imagined? Cultural and Spiritual Genocide is serious business. Culture Keeping is equally serious. In the keeping of culture, one must assume the role of the Jegna (Asa), or of the Mwongozi (Baba Jamal), or of the Jeli (Keyla, Mali elders), that is, to quote Nana Asa Hilliard. He says, [The Jegna] have been tested in battle show extraordinary and unusual fearlessness produce exceptionally high quality work show diligence and determination to our people in everything that is done vow to protect, with their lives, their people, land and culture ALWAYS speak the truth (From the book African Power: Affirming African Indigenous Socialization in the Face of the Culture Wars, 2002) The Cultural Guardians must keep focused on their work, which will always keep them in the light of protection, balance and wisdom. Relative to cultural genocide, which is the wholesale destruction of a people and their culture - - their languages, how they raise their babies, their ability to have babies, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group, the foods they eat, the God they pray too, the content of their prayers, their songs, and their stories, the clothes they wear, and the whole of their spirit and cosmology and sciences. So, relative to cultural dissolution, the Culture Keepers must be aware of a few areas of concern, and must address creative solution, interest and intent in their work. These areas are: Promotion of self destructive behaviors and information which leads to the denial of self worth, self images, historical, social and ancestral importance Wholesale encouragement of outside adoptions, marriages, busing into culturally hostile environments Abusive housing policies Repressive voting practices and dissolution of voting districts to minimize and destroy control of own communities Unchecked importation of illegal and legal drugs and weapons into specific communities, including alcohol, certain foodstuffs and candies Ethnic weapons and the wholesale extraction of men, women and children from communities through incarceration, chemical abuse, medical experimentation, forced health practices, genetic materials theft, And the list goes on. (See DM Fuller, The Black Holocaust . . .) What will be, should be, or need be the Cultural Guardians response? Maybe this is larger than what Culture Keepers should be doing? Maybe these ideas and occurrences are best handled by politicians and other governmental workers? As we contemplate, do like the Temptations said in that oldie but goodie, "Take a look around, don't be afraid. . ."
Anticipate the problem. Anticipate the need. Anticipate the solution. Anticipate the response. Courage, Creativity, and Sanity. Baba Jamal
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© 2009 - 2010 Baba Jamal Koram All Rights Reserved ___________________________________________________________________________
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