Celebrating an African Experience
I reviewed this book for Story Circle Book Reviews (reviewing books by, for, and about women) and the review appears on Amazon. It’s good for the book and the whole shebang whenever you mark a review “helpful” there. Love it, if you would…..Janet ____________________ A Coming of Age Story of a Girl and a Country…
These eight men comprise a Portable Village. They bring the feeling of the village and the values of the village to the American Stage, so longing as we are and so needing this as we are as a culture. Click here to view and here video on You Tube with Ladysmith Black Mambazo performing. My…
Portable Village is a phrase that came to me in 2002 when I gave a talk at the Writers Center in San Rafael, California, on “Celebrating an African Experience.” Friends from New Mexico, Lake County, and all around came to support me in this event which combined readings, a slide-talk,good food, and a ceremony in…
In my 60th year, I set out for Africa, the continent that transformed my life when I first sojourned there thirty years before. I’d waited half a lifetime to return, and could scarcely believe that the waiting…the exile…was finally over. Yes! It’s true. I’ll be 60 at the end of December. Yes! It’s true. Africa…
At the Mercy of the River: An Exploration of the Last African Wilderness by Peter Stark “There is always something new coming out of Africa.” –Pliny the Elder
The current issue of DRUMVOICES REVUE commemorates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.” I taught his novel as a Peace Corps teacher in Ghana and Botswana. I meant a lot to me then and I still consider it one of the world’s masterpieces. Eugene Redmond, Poet Laureate of East…
A refugee is a person whose heart has been broken. “My daughter, who was 11 at the time, also loves Bessie’s books and was deeply influenced by living for two years in Botswana. One of my favorite expressions from there is Ke moto fela – “I’m just a person.”–Barbara Bamberg Scott (Read her impressive bio…
Click here to go to African Great Lakes Initiative Dear Friends, For me the most poignant time of the day was when we were in the field and I noticed a small toy compound obviously made by the kids. Their toy compound was built solely of dirt, rocks, and twigs! Quite neatly and nicely done—much…
HOMEWORK LINKS 1) Click here to read Obi Nwakanma’s article “Nigeria: A Soyinka Symposium in Carbondale” published in the Vanguard (Lagos) WOLE Soyinka, one of Africa’s leading modernist voices excites a following that is both cultic and diffuse. 2) Also, check out Eyinju Odumare’s photos and commentary “All for Soyinka in Carbondale” ———————— “Culture dialogues…
Earlier this year Nigerian poet Obi Nwakanma filled my Gathering Room with talk that made the world right for the hours he shared himself and conversation. We exchanged poetry books at the end of our time together. I sent some of Daniel’s hardworking roses home for Obi’s wife. In the days that followed our encounter,…