Poem for the all the Women in the World.

As you all konw, Friday, March 8th was the international Day of Women. For that I dedicate this poem to all women. May God bless you all.


From Leoppold senghor.

Nude woman, black woman,

Clothed in your color which is life, your form which is beauty!

I grew in your shadow, the sweetness of your hands bandaged my eyes

And here in the heart of summer and of noon, I discover you, promised land from the height of a burnt mountain,

And your beauty strikes my heart, like the lightning of an eagle.

Nude woman, dark woman,

Ripe fruit of the dark flesh, somber ecstasies of black wine, mouth that causes my mouth to sing;

Savanna of pure horizons, savanna trembling under the fervent caresses of the East wind,

Carved tom-tom, tense tom-tom, grumbling under the fingers of the conqueror,

Your low contralto voice is the song of the lover.

Nude woman, dark woman,

Oil unwrinkled by winds, oil smooth on athletes' thighs, on the thighs of the princes of Mali,

Delightful play of the spirit, image of red gold on your flaming skin.

In the shadow of your hair, my anguish is relieved by the nearby suns of your eyes.

Nude woman, black woman,

I sing your passing beauty, fixing your form in eternity,

Before a jealous fate turns you to ashes to feed the roots of life.

Enjoy All!!!!!!!

Salif Keita

Salif Keïta (born August 25, 1949) is an afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the "Golden Voice of Africa" but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, sundiata Keita. This royal heritage meant that under the Malian caste system, he should never have become a singer, which was deemed to be a griot’s role. Keita was born in the village of Djoliba. He was cast out by his family and ostracized by the community because of his albinism, a sign of bad luck in Mandinka culture.  He left Djoliba for bamako in 1967, where he joined the government sponsored super Rail band de Bamako. In 1973 Keita joined the group, Les Ambassadeurs. Keita and Les Ambassadeurs fled political unrest in Mali during the mid-1970s for Abidjan, Cote d'ivoire and subsequently changed the group's name to "Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux". The reputation of Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux rose to the international level in the 1970s, and in 1977 Keita received a National Order award from the president of Guinea, sekou Toure.

Keita moved to Paris in 1984 to reach a larger audience. His music combines traditional West African music styles with influences from both Europe and America. Musical instruments that are commonly featured in Keita's work include balafons, djembe, guitars, kora, organs, saxophones, and synthesizers. Keita found success in Europe as one of the African stars of world music, but his work was sometimes criticised for the gloss of its production and for the occasional haphazard quality. However, shortly after the turn of the Millennium he returned to Bamako in Mali to live and record. His first work after going home, 2002's Moffou was hailed as his best album in many years and Keita was inspired to build a recording studio in Bamako, which he used for his album M'Bemba, released in October 2005.

www.salifkeita.net/en/

Clothing!!!

Africa is a vast continent in which thousands of different tribes live. Each of these tribes has its own unique language, culture, faith, tradition, and way of life. Similarly, the way the people of these numerous tribes dress up varies a great deal too. So when we talk of traditional African clothing, it can mean anything, right from dresses made of grass to loincloths to intricately designed kaftans.
Here are some examples that I hope you guys might like.
These clothes are from Ghana, Guinea, South Africa, Senegal, Ivory Cost, Zambia, Namibia, Djibouti, Algeria, Libya, Congo, Morocco and Mauritania.

Traditional African Weddings

Traditional African Weddings

Hey guys,
Today, I am all about African Weddings. Hope you all love them because I do. As you all know, the African society is a mixture of culturally diverse traditions and rituals. After doing some research, I learned that there are certain similarities that can be drawn between some weddings but also that each country, region, or tribe that exist in Africa has its own way of celebrating weddings. As a whole, African weddings are known to be family affairs, and are often not only dependent on the relationship between the man and woman, but on family input and approval as well. Marriages in Africa are strongly dictated by religious influences. Many Northern African marriages are decided by their Muslim faith, while other regions follow the traditions set by their ancestors. Another similar tradition in many parts of Africa, is the paying of a dowry prior to marriage. In South Africa, for instance, this is referred to as lobola and is a gift of cattle or money given to the father of the bride. Wedding celebrations can last for as little as a few hours up to several weeks. The types of foods served during these occasions differ from region to region, depending mainly on local food trends. Another main feature of marriage celebrations in Africa is the enjoyment of music and dance. There is so much to tell about African Weddings that I could write a whole book on the subject.
But I am going to stick to some examples:

Ghanaian Wedding:
In Ghana, the influence of family and religion is apparent in the wedding ceremonies performed. There are three distinct steps involved in the wedding ceremony which can last from one day up to one month. In the first step, a prospective groom and elder male members of his family must first go the bride's home and perform what is called the “knocking”. During this visit they bring alcohol, that is used for the libation, and money is presented to the brides' family along with the intentions of the groom. If the family approves of the proposal, they will then accept the gift and request another visit to interview the groom. This next step is often referred to as the interview. If the groom is unknown to the family, they will use the interview as an opportunity to learn more about the groom and his family. They will also prepare a list of gifts that the groom and his family are required to complete prior to the wedding, or engagement. The final stage of the wedding ceremony is the engagement which is the actual wedding ceremony. Before invited guests, the two families will go through introduction and prayer and the requested gifts are submitted for approval. During this process, the groom does not speak and the bride is hidden from view. If the list has been met, the bride will be revealed and she must consent to marry the groom when asked three times by her father. With her approval the groom may give her his ring, there are prayers and the pair is presented with a Bible as a symbol of the importance of religion in marriage. Although this is the ending of the traditional ceremony, in today's society, often times this ceremony is followed by a westernized church wedding. During the engagement ceremony, the wedding party will wear traditional outfits of kente cloth with the bride wearing a headwrap or crown, boubou, or a fitted skirt with a buba top and the groom in a Grand boubou or dashiki. The wedding attire, just like the ceremonies, differ from region to region and can include garments made of aso-oke and Adinkra cloth.

Senegal:
Traditional Wolof wedding ceremonies, the parents of the groom-to-be sends elders to the girl’s
parents with kola nuts and money to ask for her hand in marriage. The girl’s parents consult their
daughter and either consent to or reject the proposal. If accepted, the parents of the bride to be distribute the kola nuts among the family and neighbors. This distribution is an informal way of announcing the impending wedding. In more traditional practices, the groom to be’s family paid the girl’s bride price in the form of money. This tradition, has been modernized and dowry is paid in money, cars or even houses. After the completion of the groom’s obligations, the two families set a wedding day. Before the wedding day, the groom’s family gives a party to welcome their daughter-in-law and to prepare her to live with her new family. The imam and elders advise the groom with the presence of the some representatives of the bride’s parents. Weddings traditionally take place at the groom's home. Parents receive guests with food and drink (but not alcohol), while guests bring gifts of money, rice, drinks, ships, sugar, or spices. After the ceremony people feast and dance with guests hiring a griot (praise-singer) and giving further gifts to the groom’s parents. The girl moves to the husband's (or his parent's) home or compound, bringing utensils for cooking which she buys with the money from the bride price.

Here are some link if you wants to learn more about the subject:
http://www.africanholocaust.net/news_ah/africanmarriageritual.html
https://www.facebook.com/AfricanWeddingPlus
http://www.weddingdetails.com/lore-tradition/africa/

Here are some pictures;

Guinea: Sites Touristic

Guinea is a country situated in West Africa. The land that is now Guinea belonged to a series of African empires until France colonized it in the 1890s, and made it part of French West Africa. Guinea declared its independence from France on October 2nd 1958. From independence untilthe presidential election of 2010, Guinea was governed by a number of autocratic rulers, which has contributed to making Guinea one of the poorest countries. However, there are some extraordinary sites to visit. Here are some of them:

The Lady of Mali:
On Mount Loura at 1500 m, a woman of remarkable beauty defies the ages. Shaped into the rock by the wind erosion with all her anatomy visible, "the lady of Mali" is nature's masterpiece. Mali town is 588 km from Conakry, and easy to access.

Beach at Bel Air:
Situated at 225 km from Conakry in the Boffa area, Bel Air beach provides 7 km of white and silver sand. Gentle sea breezes and luxuriant vegetation make it a paradise.

The Dog that Smokes (Bondabom):
Only 42 km from Conakry, on the crest of Mount Kakoulima, is a phenomenal image on the rock face; an enormous silhouette of a dog's head. A sculptor's hands could not do better, and it's even more striking when there's a thick fog, and a wispy smoke seems to come from the animal's mouth.

Slave Road . Located along the coast (Conakry, Forecariah, Dubreka, Boffa and Boke) it's a grim reminder of the Slave Trade. A joint project of UNESCO and OMT, access is partly by asphalt road, local trails or by the river road.

Bride Veil:
A marvel of nature, 146 km from Conakry and 13 km from Kindia on the Mamou road are two waterfalls that create a veil of exceptional beauty and whiteness. The name "Bride Veil" attests to its natural charm. There's a stage for cultural dancing, 10 bungalows, a restaurant and bar.

Les Ballets Africains

Created in France in 1952 by the Guinean poet and choreographer Keita Fodeba, Les Ballets Africains was born in the middle of the fight of the African countries against colonialism. Created to showcase a vision of justice for Africa by giving witness to the humanity of the black man through its choreography, Les Ballets Africains was a model of African art & culture, illustrating the authentic personality of the continent of Africa.

The troupe was initially called Les Ballets Africains of Keita Fodeba. When the Republic of Guinea, an ancient colony of France, became independent in 1959, the name was changed by the first president, Ahmad Sekou Toure, to Les Ballets Africains, the National Ensemble of the Republic of Guinea, and endowed with the mission to be the “Ambassadors of Culture.”

During the past 50 years, Les Ballets Africains has experienced world-wide success & recognition, offering an artistic expression of the rich cultural traditions of Africa. It has been led by such visionaries as Amadou Cissoko, Samuel M’Carthy, Sekou Seacho, Frankis Magloire Camara, Hamidou Bangoura, and by Italo Zambo since 1988, who is currently a member of the World Forum of Arts.  The amazing ability of this troupe has made it one of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world. The passion & beauty of the African tradition that has become the hallmark of Les Ballet Africains will again be on display for the 50^th year celebration.

http://www.lesballetsafricains.com/

Storytelling

Hello all, today I am going to tell you about storytelling. When I was a kid, I spent most of my vacations in the village with my grand parents, my cousins, sisters, brothers. During the night, we would sit around a fire and tell stories or play games.

There is no art more ancient than the art of story telling. This was especially true in Africa where a story was usually accompanied by dance and music. Africans love the oral tradition. They had no written language in past times. That is why the griot was, and still is, such an important member of the community. The griot is a highly respected storyteller and musician who is responsible for passing traditions from one generation to the next.

Folktales and myths speak to a unity between ancient and present day peoples. The same emotions which people felt long ago are in us today; joy at birth, grief at death, love of parents, forgiveness, jealousy and so on. We tried to express these emotions by telling stories.

Here are some stories, I found.


“The Wise Fool”: A Folktale from West Africa
A poor peasant woman bore many sons. All except one lived normal, useful lives and did well. Naturally, their mother loved them. But one of them was born a fool, and he was neglected and left to shift for himself as best he could. All day long he worked on a large patch of sandy soil, not far from the village. Everybody laughed at him all the time.

One day the mother went to her garden and there found a baby with very long hair lying on its back under a fig tree. It was crying and kicking. It looked hungry and neglected. The woman fed and nursed it, and soon it fell asleep. She worked all day on the farm and no one came for the baby. When night fell, the woman took the child home with her. Again, the next day, no one came for the baby, so she cut its long hair and took it in.

Soon afterward, a troupe of fairy people came to the village to claim the baby. When they found that its hair had been cut, they demanded that it be put back. This of course, was impossible. They demanded that if the woman could not make the baby’s hair grow, she was to be taken away and killed. The chief of the tribe and the elders did everything in their power to appease the fairies. They offered gold ornaments, slaves, land—but to no avail. The woman was to die!
Then the fool walked up and demanded to be heard. “Listen to me. The fairies say my mother should die, and maybe this is a just punishment. But the fairies walked across my sandy plot of land as they came to the village. I demand that they rub out their footprints before they are allowed to take my mother away!” This seemed a foolish and meaningless demand and everyone said “how simple” and agreed.

At sundown, the fairies were still working on the sandy plot that belonged to the fool. Days went by. Then a week. Then another. Because just as one set of footprints were gone, another set appeared. By the end of the second week, the fairies had covered the entire plot with footprints. At last they gave up and let the woman live.

This is why even today, children who do not do well are not cast out, but treated fairly. Wisdom hides in many places.


TWO SISTERS AND AN OLD MAN:
A long time ago in a little village, there lived a man who had two wives and two daughters – one daughter from each wife. Bisi was the daughter of the first wife and was only a few months older than the second wife’s daughter, Ranti.

The family lived together in the same compound so the girls often played together but Bisi was fond of bullying her younger half-sister just like her mom was fond of being mean to Ranti’s mother. Ranti would go crying to her mother and sometimes she would tell her mother how she wished to hurt Bisi just like Bisi had hurt her. But her mother would tell her “never give bad in return for bad, nothing good comes of that”. So Ranti remained good and continued to show love in return no matter what Bisi did to her.

One cloudy day, Ranti’s mother passed away after a brief illness. Without her mother around, it did not take long for Bisi to crank up her level of meanness towards Ranti. Soon Ranti was doing all of Bisi’s chores while Bisi just lazed around, dressed up, ate, slept or visited friends. Ranti would wake up early in the morning before the cocks crowed, place a large clay water pitcher on her head while carrying another in her arms and walk to the river to fetch water for the family’s use. It required several trips back and forth before the huge water pot in the compound was filled. Then she would sweep the compound with a broom made of dried palm fronds before peeling yams for breakfast. Her list of chores stretched out until dusk by which time she would be exhausted and just collapse to sleep on her raffia mat. She was too busy to even feel sorry for herself. And everyday, this process was repeated.

One morning as she made her daily trip to the river, she saw an old man sitting by the river bank. He appeared to be covered in sores and he looked really pitiful. Ranti went to meet him “Baba, are you alright, can I get you anything?” she asked. He wanted some water which she gave to him then she washed his sores. “My child, you have a wonderful heart and you deserve wonderful things” he told her. He directed her to go to a garden just beyond the river. He told her she would find two trees – one with golden fruit which she was not to touch, and the other one with rotten fruit. He told her to take one of the rotten fruits home and once she gets home, she should break open the fruit.

She did as the old man instructed. When she broke the fruit, riches beyond her wildest imagination appeared, filling every inch of her bedroom. When Bisi discovered this, she insisted that Ranti tell her where she got the riches from.

The following morning, after several cock crows, Bisi got up from bed. She hoped the old man would still be at the river as she picked up a pitcher and headed to the river. Luckily for her, he was there looking exactly as Ranti had described him. She went to him and asked “Baba, which way to the magic garden?”. The old man showed her and he also told her to pick the rotten fruit, not the golden one. Bisi dumped her pitcher and headed to the garden. She saw the tree with the rotten fruit and the one with the golden fruit and she said to herself “That old man must think I’m stupid. These golden fruit are mine!”. She picked a couple of golden fruits, as many as she could carry in her hands and went on her way.

When she got home, she went into her bedroom and closed her doors as she did not want anyone stumbling in to discover her riches. She threw the fruits hard at the floor to break them, but instead of riches, snakes, worms, rodents and all manners of horrible things appeared.

ANANSE AND THE POT OF WISDOM.
..or NO ONE PERSON CAN HAVE ALL THE WISDOM IN THE WORLD

This is a very old story told when the world was young . It is about how Mr.. Ananse the Sly and greedy one among all the animals in the forest outsmarted himself.

As the story goes Ananse, that is still his name , but did you know that his first name was Kweku because he was born on a Wednesday ? One day Ananse collected all the wisdom in the world and decided to keep it all in a large pot for himself. Now he said “I have all the wisdom of the world for myself. At least that was what he thought being such a greedy person.

Kweku Ananse then tied the pot of wisdom around his neck with a strong vine rope and let the pot hang in front of him. But then he was afraid that someone would find the pot of wisdom and steal it.” What shall I do with my pot of wisdom” He thought and thought and at last he said,” I shall hide the pot on top of the the tallest tree in the forest.” So he searched the forest until he found the tallest tree which happened to be the thorny silk cotton tree and brought the pot of wisdom to the tree. While Ananse was trying to climb the thorny silk cotton tree his son was watching him.” Father,” he said,” "What are you doing" "Well" said Ananse , I have in this clay pot all the wisdom of the world and I am going to hang it on the top of the tallest tree away from everybody , then I will be the wisest in the whole wide world." "I have an idea." said his son " Why not hang the pot behind you instead of in front of you. Then you will be able to climb the tree”. Well the sly one Ananse hung the pot behind him and to his surprise; he was able to climb to the top of the tree with his pot.

Finally Ananse sat on a branch of the tree holding the pot of wisdom. “I thought I had all the wisdom in the world” He thought to himself.

“I thought I had it all in my pot but my own son has wisdom that is not in my pot.” Then he made a statement that we still use today.” No one-person can have all the wisdom in the world.”On his way down he dropped the pot and it smashed into many pieces and scatted all the wisdom all over the world.

If you want to read more folk tales here is a link you could check out.
http://www.allfolktales.com/folktales.php