July 25, 2015
the divine consciousness that I yam
ni infinitely grateful for the magic of growing vijiji,
blessings of he/artfully cocreating a world with courage, compassion
en responsibility to each other, captured in moments kama
riding with overflowing abundance ya upendo
April 19, 2010
you’ll (never) believe that happened!!!!
Hadithi? Hadithi? Nipe hadithi? Nipe Mji…..
Made in Tdot
There’s a book I read called The Truth About Stories (A Native Narrative), written by Thomas King, that instantly became one of the touchstones in my (literary & spiritual) journey….I’ll tell you parts of his-story because he said that I could, and I quote…..”It’s yours. Do with it what you will. Cry over it. Get angry. Forget it. But don’t say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you heard this story. You’ve heard it now.”
najua hadithi ya mumbi na nambi, oshun, oya na Yemoja, ya audre lorde na assata shakur, bell hooks na Brenda fassie, Cherie moraga na chan mubanga, dbiyoung.anitafrika en adhri zhina mandiela, dionne brand, Jamaica Kincaid, Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia Butler, Angela Davis, Bernedette Muthien, Field Marshall Muthoni, Mekatilili wa Menza, Mbuya Nehanda, Nana yaa Asantewaa, Nyabinghi Muhumusa, Wahu Kaara, Wangari Maathai, Philo Ikonya, Muthoni wanyeki, Sylvia Tamale, Winnie Mandela..all the way to Zanele Muholi, and I know more than these 31 en some stories, the ones that I keep for guidance and (true) hope, that remind me that WE are the ones we’re looking for, we have all the answers that we need, in our true true stories…..
(tukona) Soul.hadithi…….
‘in the beginning’ hadithi…..
Lakini kwanza, nitakuambia hadithi ya how the Q werd was born from the Truth about (our) stories (a pan-afrikan narrative). We were listening to others because we thought we didn’t have any good ones of our own, even though we KNEW different, that those ‘other’ versions were still our own, just diluted & distorted through centuries of retelling…..
and because so many hadithi have been made up about US (people) and corrupted for exploitative reasons, then we have to at least try and set the record straight, while we still have the means…but don’t get it wrong, this non-fiction ain’t no luxury, en its (not) a free show,
(i got this on good authority) the truth about stories is that’s all we are. The metis singer Andrea Menard reminds us of this in the first verse of her song ‘The Half breed Blues’
I was born the privileged skin
and my eyes are bright, bright brown
You’d never know there is Metis blood raging underground
let me tell you a story about revelation.
It’s not the colour of a nation that holds a nations pride.
It’s imagination. It’s imagination inside.
hadithi? hadithi? nitakuambia hadithi yetu….lakini kwanza nipe mji?
to be continued….
Molisa wa NyaKale