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©All stories are the property of Baba Jamal Koram. All Rights Reserved. This stories may not be reproduced by any means. Anansi Brings Help © 2005 Jamal Koram by Baba Jamal Koram, Ed.S. The StoryMan Anansi couldn't get to sleep. Something was in the air. It was in the atmosphere and felt like some bad news was coming. Sho' nuff it came on the drum line. Drum talk fillin up the air. Drums from afar. Afrakan drums from afar relieving the anxiety of drumming hands sending out sorrowful sounds from the Sudan. Afrakan children were starving, being chased by vultures and two legged animals of prey. Anansi couldn't believe his ears. He ran to King Lion. "Bruh Lion, did you hear it? Can you believe it? What we gonna do? What can we do?" King Bruh Lion said, " Well, what do you think, Bruh Anansi?" Anansi thought and said they had to get in touch with the sisters who care, and then to send out a call for the people to gather. The wisdom of many hurries a decision. He said, "I can't believe dey letting Afrakan children starve to death!" So the drum call went out. Fifty and a hundred mile drums sounded the gathering. But these were the days when people had been giving up dey culture and lettin dey traditions dust away. So, many of dem got the message mixed up. Folk in the valley heard that they was holding an election. Folk up in the mountains heard dey was a concert tonight. Folk over in the forest heard dey was giving out food. Folk by de desert heard that dere was going to be a family reunion. Only a few folk by the ocean understood that babies were starving in the Sudan and something had to be done about it tonight! It took three days for everyone to gather that was coming. Hundreds of thousands of people answered the call. King Bruh Lion up on a hill spoke first. His voice rolled down the hillside and across the ears of all assembled. "You all got de message about our children in the Sudan starving to death and you know if the children are starving the grown folks are dropping fast. We gather to decide what we gonna do. Bruh Nansi, yall know him, he gonna run dis meeting." Before Anansi could get up, folks were complaining, and loud. "What? I thought we was gonna get food! My children hungry too! Someone else said, "I thought this was gonna be a concert! Where's Rick James? Where's Ashford and Simpson? Where's Hugh Masekela? Where's 25 cent (50 cent's half brother?)" Folks started leaving. Anansi tried to get them to stay, but King Bruh Lion shook his mane as if to say, let dem go, we deal wit dem later. Work wit what we got. "What we gonna do?" Anansi called out to those folks left. One sister said, "I got some harvest to give, but how we gonna get it there?" I've got a couple of trucks said a brother, and my uncle has a few trucks too." "My cultural arts group can go there to relieve some of the suffering," said another. "We can build shelters for those been orphaned," said another. And, I'll get some Mamas and Babas together to care for de families," said another. "We can give 10,000 dollars said a family group." People were offering and Anansi was organizing. It wasn't too long after that that a caravan left for the Sudan. They stayed for about 3 months and did what they could. It wasn't a whole lot but it was what dey could do. And it helped. And it was appreciated. And the AFRICAN ONE was pleased. You see, Reverend Fauntleroy once said, "if everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot," and the job WILL get done. When they returned home. Anansi and King Bruh Lion planned food and economic programs so no one would go hungry in dere lands. Majaliwah. Another plan dey put in to place was a drum language program so like water, it will help to form the dust of traditions into powerful cultural defense lifestyles. Dat's what came to me. Now what you gonna do?
This picture was e mailed to me. I hesitate to show it. What can we do?
All stories are the property of Baba Jamal Koram. All Rights Reserved. This stories may not be reproduced by any means.
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