West African Languages
So prosodic are the primarily tonal languages of West Africa, that most speech reverberates far, able to be beautifully mimicked, rhythmically reproduced, and literally "banged out" through the elaborate talking …
Mansa Musa: the Rejected Ruler of the Mali Empire?
Renowned the world over for his lavish pilgrimage to Mecca, Mansa Musa, now lauded as the “richest man in history”, literally put the Mali Empire on the map. He ruled …
West African Architecture
The wise words of Dogon elders emanate from the low-rising toguna (palaver hut), an architectural structure that itself, ‘speaks’. Its thick roof of millet stalks speaks to the unrelenting Malian sun, …
The Dama, Masked Dance of the Dogon
Through the medium of masks, Dogon dancers carve out an opening into ancestral, spiritual worlds, urging souls onward to the afterlife. The Dama, Through the Eyes of the Observer line of one …
West African Music
Pestles against mortars, axes against wood, the rattling of loom shuttles, and the gasps of billows all set the tempo, the cadenced backdrop, for traditional West African music. And its …
The West African Mask
As sculptural, aesthetic, and museum-worthy that the mask may be, it cannot, and was never meant to, stand on its own, at least in traditional West Africa. It is but …
Those with Feet-in-Reverse and Other Fantastical Beings
There is a certain beguiling artistry to having backwards feet. This rather anomalous attribute ―demarcating, droll, and devious ― is much-vaunted in the legendary creature realm and happens to be …
Tata Somba, Batammaliba Architecture at its Height
Kuiye, the Batammaliba sun and Creator god, is the ultimate architect, having not only built an enormously tall, multilevel Tata Somba — fortified house — in the “sun village” in …
The Calabash, a Cultural and Cosmological Constant
Although Einstein didn’t quite have this in mind when introducing this term to mathematically describe the nature of the universe, there is a kind of conceptual ‘cosmological constant’, a recurrent …
3 Yoruba Tales of Creative Deception
All of the elements attributed to classical drama are present in traditional Yoruba folktales: setting, mood, a colorful cast of characters, some intervening dilemma or an ethical contrast between good and …