Pilot Guides.com: West Africa: Background And Travel Essentials Guide to visiting West africa, Visas, food, health, people, travel, In Mali,for example, the dogon people are physically distinct from the rest of the http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/africa/benin_burkina_faso_and_mali/
Extractions: BUY ONLINE Globe Trekker Video: - Order now from the Pilot Shop var zflag_nid="355"; var zflag_cid="1112/1088/1011/969"; var zflag_sid="42"; var zflag_width="468"; var zflag_height="60"; var zflag_sz="0"; To the south of the Sahara Desert lie the three former French Colonies of Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin. The unpredictable and often primitive conditions of this West African region are what Western travellers find so enticing and its experience contrasts cultural vibrancy with striking rough and barren landscapes. Benin With a rich but unsettled history, Benin has managed to keep its distinctiveness despite its increasing popularity as a tourist destination. Home to the former Slave Coast of West Africa, Benin was colonised in 1800 and brought under French control. Having regained its independence in 1960, The country is only just recovering from a highly unstable political and economic situation and years of military intervention, several attempts at reform having failed.
Western-Soudan Western Soudan tribes , Mali Songhay, Djenne Senufo, Bambara, dogon, Tellem, Lobi . Their migrations are indicative of the mobility of African peoples in http://users.telenet.be/african-shop/western-soudan.htm
Extractions: var site="sm5african" This is the name conventionally given to the savanna region of West Africa. It is an area dominated by Islamic states situated at the southern ends of the trans-Saharan trade routes. Back to african tribe list The sculpture here is characterized by schematic styles of representation. Some commentators have interpreted these styles as an accommodation to the Islamic domination of the area, but this is probably not an adequate explanation since Islam in West Africa has either merely tolerated or actually destroyed such traditions while exerting other influences.
African Circumcision Rites While most indigenous peoples in Namibia have done away with the Among theDogon, the circumciser is an old blacksmith who works with the aid of a small http://www.circlist.com/rites/african2.html
Extractions: Male Circumcision In Africa (Part 2) Return to Part 1 NAMIBIA: TRADITIONAL METHODS OF CIRCUMCISION ... WINDHOEK - Journalists jostled for positions at the house of the Herero paramount chief Kuaima Riruako in Windhoek recently to witness the public circumcision of an 11-year-old Herero boy. While most indigenous peoples in Namibia have done away with the traditional circumcision of young boys, the Herero have vowed to stick to the practice which is deeply rooted in their tradition. Debate on the subject was rekindled after a Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) news program earlier this month, which showed a young boy being circumcised with a blunt knife. The program unleashed criticism from the National Society for Human Rights which described the procedure as being "tantamount to torture." The society's senior spokesperson, Zen Mnakapa said: "The method used constitutes both physical and psychological torture and is in definite conflict with the rights of children." In a letter published in The Namibian, the deputy minister of Fisheries, Dr. Abraham Iyambo, says the recent pictures carried by NBC television on circumcision can only be branded as disturbing, nauseating, painful, cruel and stupefying. "Those crying children could ask whether the painful procedure was not in contravention of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child," says Dr. Iyambo. He said only good and painless cultural practices should be upheld and defended; painful, bad, obsolete and deforming cultures should be condemned, abandoned or reformed.
Gays: Guardians Of The Gate By Malidoma Some Mens Conference Malidoma spoke eloquently on indigenous peoples views ofgay men. And the great astrologers of the dogon are gay. They are gay. http://www.cultural-expressions.com/thesis/gay.htm
Extractions: Gays: Guardians of the Gates by Malidoma Some I found this page on the internet via the African Traditional Religion forum and found it appropiate for this CE Thesis Link. The original link is added below. This article apeared in the Sept 1993 issue of M.E.N. Magazine. It consists of an interview with Malidoma Some by Burt H. Hoff. Bert: At Conflict Hour you told us that your culture honors gays as having a higher vibrational level that enabled them to be guardians of the gateways to the spirit world. You suggested that our Western view limits itself by focusing only on their sexual role. Can you elaborate for our readers? Malidoma: Now, gay people have children. Because they’re fertile, just like normal people. How I got to know that they were gay was because on arriving in this country and seeing the serious issues surrounding gay people, I began to wonder it does not exist in my own country. When I asked one of them, who tad taken me to the threshold of the Otherworld, whether he feels sexual attraction towards another man, he jumped back and said, "How do you know that?!" He said, "This is our business as gatekeepers." And, yet he had a wife and children no problem, you see.
A Glimpse Of The World: Africa: The Hard Truth If the dogon, a smallish ethnic group with modest lands, could win the Outside africa, few people even today understand the connection between the http://www.howardwfrench.com/archives/2004/09/08/africa_the_hard_truth/
Literary Encyclopedia: Diop, Cheikh Anta Africoid peoples, were the indigenous peoples of Kemet who built the civilisation Besides Kemet, many African peoples including the Yoruba, Igala, http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5908
Center For Archaeoastronomy: A&E News Archive and practices of indigenous African peoples. Why study African Astronomy? Instead of telling the star lore of the various African peoples, http://www.wam.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/ae28.html
Extractions: by Jarita Holbrook, History Dept. UCLA Stellar Navigation: Stellar navigation is a method of using the stars to determine directions when traveling at night. During my field work in Tunisia, North Africa, I discovered that the fishermen of the Kerkennah Islands still used stellar navigation to reach their fisheries at night (Holbrook 1998). Since then I've unveiled several sites of stellar navigation all over Africa. A second site which I am researching is the Afar people in Eritrea (Holbrook 1998). During the struggle for independence which ended in 1993, the Afar where consulted to navigate troops at night. Other potential stellar navigation sites are in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and Madagascar. Most but not all of the sites as associated with ocean travel. Summary: My preliminary findings on African Astronomy reveals a continent rich in astronomical traditions. I have presented four of these traditions as separate from each other, but in fact they overlap in interesting and unexpected ways. Such as stars being named for their use in navigation or being named for the season which begins with their appearance. In addition to the four topics mentioned here there are several more focusing on the moon, the sun, the major planets, and the relationship between the stars and man. I continue to search the literature for mention of African astronomical traditions as well as taking trips to Africa to interview people about their astronomy.
"Faces Of Africa" Photographers On Their 30-Year Endeavor Through our books and lectures we tell people about africa s core values; Unique dogon Culture Survives in West africa Photographer Fights african http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1020_041020_africa_faces_2.html
Extractions: Site Index Subscribe Shop Search Top 15 Most Popular Stories NEWS SPECIAL SERIES RESOURCES Front Page "Faces of Africa" Photographers on Their 30-Year Endeavor Fisher: Despite the visual change, in that many people now wear Western clothing, the underlying values and beliefs often remain fairly intact. But this may not last for much longer, which is why so many African elders welcome our efforts to document the ceremonies for future generations. How do you work as a team and how have you managed to gain access to the most intimate ceremonies in Africa, including male initiations, where typically women are not allowed? Fisher: We always make the approach with respect and humility through the proper channels. Usually this means first meeting with the elders, who are usually men. Once they know who we are and what we are trying to do they open the way for us. The men make it possible for us to attend male ceremonies. Beckwith: Usually we have no problem attending female ceremonies. We have found we have much in common with the women of Africa. We have a deep respect of their culture and way of life and participate as much as possible. In Niger, Wodaabe women asked if they could transform us to look more attractive and dressed us up in embroidered tunics and wrappers and painted delicate designs on our faces.
American University Library - African Mediagraphy (text) The Bible and the gun. africa. 1983. 1 videocassette (50 min.). vast mineralresources, while the indigenous people have been condemned to poverty. http://www.library.american.edu/subject/media/africa_t.html
Extractions: See also Central Africa Eastern Africa Guinea Coast , and Southern Africa With the advent of colonialism, African peoples become subjects of European states. While colonial doctrines differ among the European powers, particularly on the question of direct versus indirect rule, all Africans are affected by the imposition of new legal, religious, and economic codes. The development of anthropology as a scientific discipline coincides with Europe's closer association with African peoples, resulting in a greater understanding and appreciation of African societies, belief systems, and artistic practices. The ethnographic work of Marcel Griaule, among others, inspires Western interest in artworks from Mali created by Dogon and Bamana artists , and later the terracotta sculptures in Dakar, Senegal. Originally introduced as souvenirs from North Africa by Senegalese Muslims returning from the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, paintings on glass become a popular artistic medium in Senegal. Created by applying paint to the reverse sides of glass panels, this method becomes an attractive and durable means of producing portraits and illustrating religious stories and parables. Devotional portraits of Sufi saints and leaders of major Sufi Muslim brotherhoods is the primary genre of Senegalese glass painting.
Extractions: by Anthony Sattin What stands out most brightly in my mind are the trip up the river, the music of the clubs of Bamako, the Malian capital, the quiet charms of Segou, the country's second-largest town, and the stunning mud-brick architecture of Djenne, whose mosque has become something of an icon for the country. Four things are likely to pull you to Mali: the chance of digging deep into the Sahara, of cruising up the Niger River to Timbuktu, of visiting the Dogon, until recently one of the most intact of West Africa's indigenous people, or of feeling the rhythm of the Delta blues. I went to do some research for a book, to see the lie of the land, the bend of the river, the dune-surrounded houses of Timbuktu and to talk to people, to hear their views of their country and its history. What stands out most brightly in my mind are the trip up the river, the music of the clubs of Bamako, the Malian capital, the quiet charms of Segou, the country's second-largest town, and the stunning mud-brick architecture of Djenne, whose mosque has become something of an icon for the country. Bamako: Mali's capital is one of Africa's safest cities, its hotels the best in the country and the shopping good, though there is better elsewhere. Not the most exotic place, but it has several great nightclubs where you can hear Mali's melodic music, made famous on the World Music circuit by Ali Farke Tour (himself a resident of Niafounk). The Flamboyant, Hogon and Djembe clubs are popular, as is the French Cultural Centre. I wanted to stay by the river at the Mande (00 223 211 993) but it was full so I stayed in the nearby Oasis (£32 per night, 00 223 775 940) and used the Mande's facilities.
Extractions: Highlighting both his remarkable achievements and his fatal flaws, this documentary is a dramatic portrait of Adam Clayton Powell, the flamboyant black Congressman and minister who became one of the most powerful, controversial politicians of his time. AFR Video 529 African American Artists Affirmation Today . [Washington, D.C.]: National Arts and Humanities Education Program : National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, [1994]. 1 videocassette (29 mins.), 25 slides, 1 study guide, 1 book This instructional kit presents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of 19th and 20th century African-American art: the video presents interviews with five contemporary African-American artists; the slides show the work of twenty-five artists represented in the museum's collection; Regenia A. Perry's book gives a comprehensive look at African-American artists from the 19th-20th centuries in the Museum's collection and their contribution to American culture. AFR Video 198 American Legacy Video Collection. Vol. 1.
Extractions: An Interview with Malidoma Somé Malidoma Somé recognizes that he learned more through his initiation as a Dagara tribesman than from his PhDs from the Sorbonne and Brandeis University. His name means "be friendly to strangers," and he is charged by his elders of the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso (east of Nigeria and north of Ghana) with bringing the wisdom of his tribe to the West. His book Ritual: Power, Healing and Community (reviewed in this issue) is highly praised by Michael Meade, Robert Bly and Robert Moore. If you were not fortunate enough to catch his reading at the Elliott Bay Bookstore last August, you can find out more about him through the book and tape reviews in this issue. During one of the Conflict Hours at the Mendocino Mens Conference Malidoma spoke eloquently on indigenous peoples views of gay men. He kindly agreed to elaborate on his views as he sat with me among the redwoods of Mendocino.
NPR : Voodoo And West Africa's Spiritual Life African slaves brought voodoo with them to plantations in Brazil, Haiti, a Nonprofit Organization Promoting Rights of indigenous People http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2004/feb/voodoo/
Extractions: Feb. 9-11, 2004 Vodun is an ancient religion practiced by some 30 million people in the West African nations of Benin, Togo and Ghana. With its countless deities, animal sacrifice and spirit possession, voodoo as it's known to the rest of the world is one of the most misunderstood religions on the globe. The Sights and Sounds of West African Voodoo Video: Epe Ekpe "stone" festival in Glidji, Togo
NikonUSA Experience the Indigineous People and Places of West africa showcasing herphotographs of West africa s vanishing cultures and indigenous people in http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=130907&TICK=NIKON&STORY=
Air Jamaica Skywrittings / Curacao Kura complete with gables representing Ogotemelli, the deity of the dogon people . africa s role in the slave trade is illustrated in 19th century Dutch http://www.airjamaica.com/skywriting/Junesky/curacao.asp
Extractions: Register Here! HISTORY: Jill Yesko Among the objects displayed are examples of ancient Sumerian cuneiform writing, once the international language of diplomacy and the precursor of the modern alphabet and lagash, conical clay objects used to hide secret messages in temple walls. Other rooms contain swords, oil lamps and figurines from the time of Alexander the Great that illustrate the Greek influence in the Middle East. With a kingdom that stretched from England to Azerbaijan in Central Asia, the conquests of Alexander the Great contributed to the Diaspora of Middle Eastern peoples into Egypt, Asia and Africa. "We need to understand our history to know where we're going."
Untitled Document The Ancient Wisdom of indigenous people reveals a The dogon tribe s startlingknowledge of Sirius and its dwarf companion is well known, thanks to the http://www.queenofcups.com/AR23article.htm
Extractions: startling hidden side of history by Julie Gillentine Anthropological orthodoxy assures us that history began in Sumeria six thousand years ago, and modern "man" is the pinnacle of culture and evolution on the planet. Circa World War II, humanity shattered the rails of our technological play pen, sporting new atomic bombs. Space-faring ETs suddenly took notice, and a proliferation of silver saucers filled the skies. The UFO era was born; Roswell was a defining moment. Or so the story goes. But an emerging, alternate view is compelling. Mobilized by fulfillment of long-heralded warning signs of prophecy, indigenous elders from around the world are breaking their vows of silence and sharing their secret stellar wisdom. While we slept for millennia in Western egocentricity, the indigenous peoples of the planet guarded the hidden history of humanity, quietly maintaining contact with our visiting and resident stellar family.
AFRICA To justify their barbaric treatment of the African people, the British launched affected a disunion of indigenous African people from their traditional http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~yaselma/africa.htm
Extractions: Be as proud of your race no matter what was the case ! today, as our ancestors were, in the days of yore. We have a beautiful history full of mistiry We shall create another and dedicate it to the African mother. in the future, that will astonish the world Africa was and still the most colorful continent on earth even before the colonization. The diversity in Africa is seen every where, climat, nature, languages, colors and cultural diversity. This diversity makes it difficult to generlize ideas and stereotypes about Africa and Africans.
Extractions: Echoing Images Couples in African Sculpture The Metropolitan Museum of Art February 10 to September 5, 2004 Commemorative Couple, Vezo peoples, Madagascar, 19th-20th Century, wood, male figure is 22 7/8 inches high, the female figure is 17 11/16 inches high, private collection By Carter B. Horsley In contrast with the stupendous and gargantuan exhibition on Byzantium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the spring of 2004, this intimate show of "Echoing Images, Couples in African Sculpture" at the same institution demonstrates the maxim that small can often be better. A themed rather than chronological show, it is not encyclopedic but the few objects on display are mostly of extremely high and memorable quality. The finest "couple" in the exhibition is unquestionably a 19th-20th Century commemorative couple, Vezo peoples, from Madagascar. The male wood figure is 22 7/8 inches high and the female figure is 17 11/16 inches high and both come from a private collection. Somewhat eroded, these figures are remarkably graceful and have quite lyrical and almost Oriental poses. These world-class figures are exquisite. Commemorative couple, Sakalava peoples, Madagascar, 19th-20th Century, wood, male figure is 70 7/8 inches high, female figure is 61 7/16 inches high, private collection
CHRISTIANITY, AFRICAN RELIGION AND MENTAL POWER The African/Negro peoples worldwide must return to the powerful religions of Hence, when Africans, American Indians and other indigenous peoples around http://community-2.webtv.net/PAULNUBIAEMPIRE/HARRYPORTERANDTHE/
Extractions: THE BRUTALITY SUFFERED BY JESUS CHRIST AND PORTRAYED IN THE MOVIE "THE PASSSION OF THE CHRIST" BROUGHT EMOTIONAL FEELINGS AND TEARS FROM MANY WHO SAW IT, YET, IF THESE SAME PEOPLE WERE TO SEE PORTRAYALS OF THE BRUTALITY SUFFERED BY AFRICAN SLAVES IN THE US, HAITI, THE CARIBBEAN, LATIN AMERICA BEFORE 1865 OR THE BURNINGS ALIVE, LYNCHINGS, AND CRUELTY OR JIM CROW, OR THE NEW SYSTEM OF RAPE, , BRUTALITY, CONFINEMENT OF BLACKS IN THE US, AUSTRALIA, ENGLAND AND LATIN AMERICA, OR THE PRESENT RAPE, RACISM, GENOCIDE AND DESTRUCTION AGAINST BLACKS IN SUDAN, WEST PAPUA, COLUMBIA, THEY WOULD CRY AN OCEAN OF TEARS.
