Reflections on April
Dear Friends,
If you’ve been around for the last four weeks, you must’ve noticed a difference in the format of the MA podcast as we discovered traditional African folk music. First, we talked about and listened to samples of the seemingly endless options for musical instrumentation among different African people (rivers, rocks and the Mother Earth Herself) in the overview of musicality in African folklore. Then, we dug into Ngano – the musical folktales of the Venda and Shona, trotted across the Sahara with the camel-related songs in Tuareg folklore, and mourned Bashir Abbas, a pilar of Sudanese folk music. (Did any of you figure out who his American hip-hop star relative is? )
I really enjoyed working with audio files, as opposed to the usual text and photographs. It all made me realize just how much more there is to know and enjoy about African mythology and folklore. This was far from an exhaustive treatment of the topic so we will likely explore this soundscape again. In the meantime, some resources I found immensely helpful:
What to Expect from MA in May
In May, we’re turning back towards folklore in modern African literature to look at how folklore about places, plants, people, animals and deities weaves through Ibrahim al-Koni’s Al Majus (AKA The Animists or The Fetishists) and Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu. As I mentioned earlier this year, I am really looking forward to talking about Al Majus. It’s an extraordinary book, overflowing with folkloric references, many of which you won’t find in mythology and folklore reference books. It read like going on a long journey with the Sahara Desert, during which she told you stories about the things she’s seen over the years.
Have you read them? What did you think? May be we can have a Substack chat about them as part of this month’s activities!
Meanwhile…
I realize I am much less interactive on Substack than I historically have been with other Mythological Africans platforms. It can feel, sometimes, as if accessibility and availability are required from people who do public facing creative work so I’d like to experiment with creating without being so front and center, without needing the validation and instant gratification of likes and shares and comments. I’d like to create for the sheer pleasure of it and also give the people who enjoy MA the chance to take in the work without feeling any pressure to respond one way or another. This wonderful piece by artiste extraordinaire, kening zhu, explains it better than I could.
Rather than constantly consuming, or allowing ourselves to be consumed, we focus our attention, fullheartedly, to creating. Rather than performing our lives and businesses in pursuit of an end goal, we live the internet as a way of being — as an expression of our creative process and practice, made public.
— kening zhu
This is not a permanent arrangement but it feels right for where I am emotionally and psychologically at the moment so I thank you all for understanding.
As always, be well <3
Helen