ISSUE #9 SEP 2014 M A G A Z I N E ROOTS / ROCK / REGGAE / RESPECT REWIND LUCIANO WORLD A REGGAE JAH MESSENJAH ANANSE RESPECT NAN-C BRYAN ART MIDOSE MUNGO’S HI-FI NEGRITUDE REPUBLIC TANYA STEPHENS BLUE KING BROWN SPOTLIGHT THE UPRISING ROOTS META & THE CORNERSTONES THE HEMPOLICS IRIEMAG.COM ISSUE #9 / SEPTEMBER 2014 “ We are all children of the Most High God and as a Rasta man, I acknowledge that I am a child of Emperor Haile Selassie I because all of his teachings are in my songs.” - Luciano Nicholas “Nico” Da Silva Founder/Editor in Chief IRIEMAG.COM ROOTS. ROCK. REGGAE. Ananse Modise Sepeng Luciano Conversion of a Story Negritude Republic Jah Messenjah RESPECT. REWIND. RIDDIMS. Kindah Danny Creatah Irie Trax One Family World A Reggae Roots / Rock / Reggae TABLE OF CONTENT. USA ROOTS. ANANSE Conversion of a Story ANANSE Conversion of a Story By nan-c FOLLOW nan-c Annancy is a trickster, a hero of the people that can settle injustice within a tale even though in reality has not been settled. It is through the Anansesems that the shape of the world has been established and accredited to the creation of many of the physical and social norms of both, man and animals. Annancy is a teacher who through his own misdeeds becomes an example for man on how to live and prosper in the world. Annancy is a semi-deity and trickster hero, both spider and man. He is able to talk with the sky-god, Nyame as well as walk upon the earth to represent man. The art of storytelling is captures through the creativity and spirit of the storyteller that turns tales about the ordinary into adventures of the extraordinary. The storyteller is truly the real trickster behind each tale and has the imaginative power to grab upon and expand myths, fairytales and folklore. The storyteller that is filled with the spirit of Annancy is culturally conscious and is from a proud lineage of orators that have been telling his tales for centuries. Famine has come to the land. Annancy has gone up to Nyame, the Sky god to persuade him to relinquish all the stories named after him. Nyame believes that Annancy must be insane from hunger and tells Annancy that he will give him all the tales in exchange for the bees, alligator and tiger. Nyame gives his word to Annancy. And Annancy returns to earth to begin his task. Annancy passes by a tree where the young bees are rehearsing. The buzzing is strong that he peeps inside to watch and listen for a while. He then tells the song leader that the bees sound awful and that he could teach them a better song and a better way of singing. The only stipulation is that the IRIEMAG.COM song leader has to leave. The bees want to sound better so they demand that the song leader leave in order for Annancy to take over. Annancy tells the bees that in order to sing better they must go into the gourd. The gourd has a special sound that will help them. The bees agree and allow Annancy to hold the gourd while they all fly in. After the last bee has entered, Annancy corks the opening and takes the gourd up to FOLLOW nan-c Nyame. Nyame is quite surprised that Annancy has completed the first task. He accepts the gourd of bees, drowns them, and waits for Annancy to complete the other two tasks. Annancy enters the marshlands. He roams around until he finds Alligator. He approaches Alligator and tries to convince him that he is longer. Alligator at first does not fall for Annancy’s nonsense but Annancy is so convincing that Alligator begins to doubt himself. Annancy goes and gets a long piece of bamboo. He tells Alligator to tie him to it first and mark how long he is when stretched out. Alligator does exactly that. Then Annancy tells Alligator to stretch out to determine how long he is but Annancy says it is difficult to do. Annancy convinces Alligator that it is best to be tied down in order to measure exactly. Alligator agrees. Annancy proceeds to tie him to the bamboo in three places. Alligator comments on how tight the rope is but Annancy says nothing. Finally when all is completed and Alligator is good and snug Annancy picks up the bamboo stick securely and takes him up to Nyame. Again the sky god is amazed. He accepts the second task fulfilled, he kills Alligator and waits to see if Annancy is capable of completing the third task. Annancy goes to the bush in search of Tiger. He sees Tiger eating on a small creature and screams to him. “When I was coming here I saw a bunch of gazelles that were talking about you. They were laughing about how you could not catch any of them.” Well this made Tiger quite angry. He told Annancy to show him where these gazelles were so that he could catch one of them. But Annancy told Tiger it would be impossible to show him where 2 of 5 IRIEMAG.COM the gazelles were without leading him through the bush with a rope around his neck. Tiger was so angry that he agreed and allowed Annancy to place the rope around his neck. Well with every step the rope got tighter and tighter around FOLLOW nan-c Tiger’s neck. Tiger feeling strangled told Annancy about it but Annancy ignored his complaint as he dragged him straight up to Nyame to complete his mission. Nyame accepts Annancy’s last part of the deal. He kills Tiger too. He then turns over all the stories that were once called Nyamesems to Annancy. He makes an official presentation by gathering all the chiefs, dignitaries and villagers to tell them that for now and forever all stories are to be called Anansesems. The story begins by explaining that there was a problem in the land (draught). All was not well in the land in which the storyteller lived. The people were not being taken care of and food and water were scarce. Annancy went to the chief to discuss the situation. And the chief was not sure of what the problem was. IRIEMAG.COM But Annancy knew. He knew that vanity, stupidity and greed were causing the destruction of his people. And until those issues were removed from the community nothing good could prosper. So Annancy confronted the problems by stroking their egos. He led each to the chief so that he could remove them from the area in order for Annancy to have a decent life style for both his family and community. Each creature represented a weakness of man. Each weakness had to be destroyed FOLLOW nan-c in order for peace and harmony to flow throughout the land. The spirit of Annancy changed as he crossed the Atlantic in the slave ships to the new world. He remained in the memories of his people. They looked up to him, admired him for his cleverness and humor. And they loved him because he was able to roam freely in their memories not shackled down, beaten, or forced to work a land that was not his own. So the stories adapted to fit comfortably into their environment. During the Transatlantic slave trade a large quantity of Ghanaians were deposited in the Caribbean region. With such a large population of Ghanaians located in one area a stronger cultural thread was visible. Nightfall brought forth a tired worn out slave who then transformed into a teller of tales and from the only freedom he still possessed – his memory and imagination, the storyteller conjured up tales of Spiderman Annancy. The hero for them was able to conquer “masta” and the overseer. Perhaps because Annancy was able to have more of his people together the physical characteristics remained and the thread of stories were stronger and longer lasting. The storyteller replaced the village chief of the village with a person that deserved no respect and could not solve any of their problems because “masta” and the overseer were the problems. Annancy was constantly outwitting the larger creature that represented this foe. Annancy was still under restraints but posed as a man upright more often than in the tales found in the United States where he appeared often as a dwindled down small black spider. 4 of 5 IRIEMAG.COM The strong fibers of Annancy’s web kept their spirits strong when their bodies weakened. Tales grew from anger, defeat, and fear. These tales were sometimes the only bandage present to cover a broken ego, which could keep the spirit from dying and could keep humor in a workplace that could only be thought of as hell. Laughter and smiles overpowered the body aches, mental anguish, and abuse of the day for at least a moment. His tales closely resembled home, family, and love, while freely flowing with the spirit of adaptability to the environment they now were in. There was no sky god FOLLOW nan-c for Annancy to make deals with in these stories. He is on his own carrying with him a survival kit stuffed with wit, adaptability, and mental freedom. There are bigger creatures for him to overcome (“masta” and overseer) while still causing changes in nature. The tale of how Annancy acquired all the stories is one that survived the journey and is told without Annancy negotiating with Nyame but instead he is proving himself to Tiger (masta), the king of the forest, displaying that he is worthy of having the stories named after him instead of Tiger.