Tag Archives: Griot

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

November 12, 2010

A griot woman, robes and calabash flowing in the air, takes the Persona into the heart of darkness.  Sogolon, Sunjata’s mother. A dense jungle, a village in a clearing. A compound, a round, mud-brick hut.

Raped and brutalized, bodies, and a refugee camp. Hutus and Tutsis, Rwandans and Ugandans, Congolese and many factions.

A grieving, healing griot song, rings out above the human misery.

Mbeku, the Flying Tortoise, lifts the Persona to skyland, back to the Moon.

Out of America, out of Africa, back to the Moon.

Frederick Glaysher

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Ezeulu in Igboland, Nigeria

Igboland, Nigeria

Ezeulu in Igboland, Nigeria

November 5, 2010

Ezeulu, a priest. A compound in Igboland. A dirt floor and a kola nut. Wearied by a long journey, an illness overwhelms the Persona, a heart of darkness dark as the darkest human heart.  Clara, a nurse. Bitterleaf and palm nut soups, foofoo, yam potlage, cassava lightened with green banana.

Chalked half white, a circle around one eye. Words of Ezeulu to the Poet of the Moon. Drums, song, dance. Feet pound the earth, the village moves… Masks.

A Griot woman, a calabash…

Frederick Glaysher

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