I have tried to experiment with audio blogging and I have decided it might just be the remedy I am looking for. After all I am not a writer, author nor journalist... besides I don't think I will be fulfilling my blogging responsibilities to the fullest- blogging is real business!
And so I just might be speaking more than writing in the hope that it catches your attention and maybe, just maybe instill some kind of emotion.
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Friday, 19 February 2010
Dub, lost kingdoms of africa & chinese new year
It never ceases to amaze me how the Chinese embrace their culture so openly and in turn we non- Chinese enjoy and celebrate with them ( even when most of us don't know what the year symbolizes lol!)- year of the tiger????
The lost kingdoms of Africa- a BBC feature that explores the heritage and culture of Africa, made me even more proud of my 'africanness'. Yes it might be considered sad that I have to view my roots through the eyes of a westerner, but sometimes an alternative view is needed to see clearly! In the museums of the western world lie artifacts from home that have been stolen or should I say 'taken' from the people because the white man didn't believe that works of such beauty and intellect could be produced by a people better known as barbaric.....
To be honest I have never really explored what my roots has to offer, I mean of course we did study our culture, people and heritage in school but learning by African standard was for future prospect(s) - go to university, get a job (preferably white collar), get married and then the cycles starts all over again with the next generation. learning about who you were was more related to your tribe and defined by where you grew up, the school you attended, family and friends around you etcetera. If you happened to migrate to a new location with people who are disimilar, you were not really encourages to get to know them as such, there was the underlying rule- safety in numbers & sticking with your kind. it is a rare and wonderful feeling to know that even if we who are Africans take for granted what we have, the world still appreciates and pays homage to a history so rich and colorful.
Any one reading this must be thinking i am having a 'rootz moment' and you are not far from the truth. It might be because I find myself subconsciously assessing myself or maybe i try to see how things are connected, I mean after all everything is related- 'cause and effect' or is it??? take DUB for example. what is DUB you might ask? well my dear reader I will try to educate you on what I know. DUB is a genre of Jamaican music that started all kinds of music. Its history goes as far back as the 60's in a time where the talent of a man was determined by the work of his hands. where music and its instruments were made from broken down equipment by legends such as 'scratch'- who for the love of the music and the purity of the sound; made it possible for we the ones after them to still have respect and derive joy from it. Many a DJ still use it for meditation, try to incorporate it into their sound but like my people say ' if e no be panadol, e no be the same thing as panadol'. simply put, DUB can not be created the way it was back then. These DJ's agree that hip hop as we know it now rap and thing evolved from DUB. You might disagree with this but the concept of rapping over a track came from MC's 'toasting' over a track that had been dubbed..again I am in awe of how strong the history of our people really is. for more info on DUB, visit http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/dreadlibrary/bush.html
I leave you now with a quote that is really dear to me- 'to thyself be true'... so easy to say and yet so hard....
The lost kingdoms of Africa- a BBC feature that explores the heritage and culture of Africa, made me even more proud of my 'africanness'. Yes it might be considered sad that I have to view my roots through the eyes of a westerner, but sometimes an alternative view is needed to see clearly! In the museums of the western world lie artifacts from home that have been stolen or should I say 'taken' from the people because the white man didn't believe that works of such beauty and intellect could be produced by a people better known as barbaric.....
To be honest I have never really explored what my roots has to offer, I mean of course we did study our culture, people and heritage in school but learning by African standard was for future prospect(s) - go to university, get a job (preferably white collar), get married and then the cycles starts all over again with the next generation. learning about who you were was more related to your tribe and defined by where you grew up, the school you attended, family and friends around you etcetera. If you happened to migrate to a new location with people who are disimilar, you were not really encourages to get to know them as such, there was the underlying rule- safety in numbers & sticking with your kind. it is a rare and wonderful feeling to know that even if we who are Africans take for granted what we have, the world still appreciates and pays homage to a history so rich and colorful.
Any one reading this must be thinking i am having a 'rootz moment' and you are not far from the truth. It might be because I find myself subconsciously assessing myself or maybe i try to see how things are connected, I mean after all everything is related- 'cause and effect' or is it??? take DUB for example. what is DUB you might ask? well my dear reader I will try to educate you on what I know. DUB is a genre of Jamaican music that started all kinds of music. Its history goes as far back as the 60's in a time where the talent of a man was determined by the work of his hands. where music and its instruments were made from broken down equipment by legends such as 'scratch'- who for the love of the music and the purity of the sound; made it possible for we the ones after them to still have respect and derive joy from it. Many a DJ still use it for meditation, try to incorporate it into their sound but like my people say ' if e no be panadol, e no be the same thing as panadol'. simply put, DUB can not be created the way it was back then. These DJ's agree that hip hop as we know it now rap and thing evolved from DUB. You might disagree with this but the concept of rapping over a track came from MC's 'toasting' over a track that had been dubbed..again I am in awe of how strong the history of our people really is. for more info on DUB, visit http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/dreadlibrary/bush.html
I leave you now with a quote that is really dear to me- 'to thyself be true'... so easy to say and yet so hard....
Friday, 12 February 2010
beginners blog
its supposed to be simple this blogging concept or is it? I mean its sharing your thots, views, fears, aspirations with no one or an ever growing audience (If your lucky). I should have tried this a long time ago but my fear was not knowing what to blog about. I am not a 'qualified' blogger but then who is. Its just random rantings after all, so hard can it be?
I was told long ago, to be able to write well is to write what you know (or was that a line in a movie)? anyway I am going to apply that here and write what I know. This could be random rantings, emotional words, dark thoughts or perhaps things with no meaning what so ever. I think I should make this my online diary that will allow me say all the things I want to say but still give me the sense of anonymity... I shall stop here for now hopefully I will be back with a witty piece of writing or nothing at all.....
I was told long ago, to be able to write well is to write what you know (or was that a line in a movie)? anyway I am going to apply that here and write what I know. This could be random rantings, emotional words, dark thoughts or perhaps things with no meaning what so ever. I think I should make this my online diary that will allow me say all the things I want to say but still give me the sense of anonymity... I shall stop here for now hopefully I will be back with a witty piece of writing or nothing at all.....
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