Author: Dr. Y.

I am an African in love with the history of the world, and particularly that of Africa. I am a child of love, an artist, a scientist, a lover, a friend, a human. I am in love with nature and beautiful things, art, history, geography, travel, dance, food, science, and technology, and much more.

Happy Taombaovao Malagasy: Celebrating the Malagasy New Year

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Madagascar
Madagascar

Last week, March 10-11 marked the celebration of Malagasy New Year… the Malagasy new year is not in January, because the Malagasy calendar is a lunar calendar with thirteen lunar months of 28 days. Each lunar month starts with the first moon. Up until 1810, every region of Madagascar had its own calendar; then under the Kingdom of Madagascar whose kings reigned from 1810 to 1896, the calendar was standardized. From 1810 to 1881, the Kingdom of Madagascar’s new year always started with the first day of the month of Alahamady, i.e. the first moon of the month. This month corresponds to the end of the rainy season, and the rice harvest, rice being the staple food of the Malagasy people. Compared to the Gregorian calendar, the fararano and the Alahamady occur between March and April around the first moon closest to the 21 March equinox. With the fararano, in the olden days, Malagasy people would congratulate themselves on having emerged victorious from the violent winds, the torrential rains, landslides, devastating fires, but also from the period of Maintso ahitra or famine. The month of Alahamady is a month of celebration, and symbolizes power, wealth, and even royal power. The great king  Andrianampoinimerina, at the origin of the unification of Madagascar, is quoted with this famous formula, “I have no enemy, except famine.” He was also born on the first day of the month of Alahamady, thus his formula symbolized victory in general, but victory over famine in particular.

Depiction of the 1895 French war in Madagascar.

Starting in 1897, the celebration was officially abolished by the French colonial period which viewed it as pagan, and as a tradition that would undermine the Malagasy conversion/obedience as it linked them to their pasts, their ancestors, and culture; it was thus celebrated in secret by some. Since the 1990s, the celebration is now seeing a resurgence. Today, it is a national celebration known as the Taombaovao Malagasy, literally Malagasy New Year. It lasts 2 days and is observed throughout the entire territory. It helps to convey and spread the 7 foundations of the Malagasy philosophy: faith in zanahary (The Creator, God), the value of Aina (life), the fahamasinana (the sense of the sacred), the fihavanana (solidarity and mutual aid), the fahamarinana (the sense of fairness and justice), the fahasoavana (happiness) and the link to ancestral heritages.

Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar

This year, it was celebrated on 10 and 11 March. In the opening, Princess Ratsimamanga, a descendent of Queen Ranavalona III, the Last Monarch of the Kingdom of Madagascar, performed the rite of Tsodrano, the blessing, and said during the official ceremony to all officials and public present, “I bless you in the name of the seven royal tombs so that you and your families be in good health, so that you could have the strength to contribute the the well-being of the nation.” She added, this Taombaovao ceremony symbolizes “a spiritual renewal in the hearts of Malagasy people… Us, Malagasy, our ancestors have not gone far, and are always with us. It is our ancestors who pray for us to be together, for us to produce good things in the future, for the harvest to be good.”

After the blessing, comes the ceremony of Tatao, where the people share a plate of rice cooked in milk and sprinkled with honey. Princess Ratsimamanga explained, “rice represents abundance so that there will be no famine. Milk is for offspring. And the honey is to make things sweet. These three things that we put in the pot and share with everyone symbolize the fact that we are productive, that we have the strength to fight evil in the country.”

La taille n’est pas tout / Size is not everything

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Python

Il ne faut pas s’effrayer d’un python à cause de sa longueur (Proverbe Bété – Côte d’Ivoire).

You should not be frightened by a python because of its length (Bété proverb – Ivory Coast).

“Raconte-moi”/”Tell Me” by Véronique Tadjo

On By Dr. Y.In Great Literature3 Comments
Senufo face mask (Kpeliye’e) exposed at the MET

Slavery dealt a big blow to Africa. It dealt a big blow to her strength (imagine losing millions upon millions of some of your strongest children), to her self-confidence (imagine her children fearing for their lives chased into the depths of forests and savannahs), and to her soul. Then came colonization with forced labor, depersonnalization, confiscation of History, disregard for local cultures, cultural alienation, and colonial oppression. Slowly, the awakening is upon us; and slowly Africans are linking back to that glorious past of African civilizations, science, and cultures. The poem below by Ivorian author Véronique Tadjo is anchored upon that re-discovery of the African self in all its splendor, and connection to its roots in order to continue the legacy.

The poem “Raconte-moi” was published in Latérite / Red Earth, written in homage to Senufo culture, which won a literary prize from the Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique. The poem below was re-published  re-published in Anthologie Africaine: Poésie Vol2, Jacques Chevrier, Collection Monde Noir Poche, 1988, and translated to English by Dr. Y. Afrolegends.com .

“Raconte-moi” de Véronique Tadjo / “Tell me” from Véronique Tadjo

Raconte-moi

La parole du Griot

Qui chante l’Afrique

Des temps immémoriaux

Il dit

Ces rois patients

Sur les cimes du silence

Et la beauté des vieux

Aux sourires fanés

Mon passé revenu

Du fond de ma mémoire

Comme un serpent totem

A mes chevilles lié

Ma solitude

Et mes espoirs brisés

Qu’apporterais-je

A mes enfants

Si j’ai perdu leur âme ?

 Tell me

The word of the Griot

Who sings Africa

From times immemorial

He says

These patient kings

On the peaks of silence

And the beauty of the old ones

With faded smiles

My past returned

From the depths of my memory

Like a totem snake

To my ankles linked

My loneliness

And my hopes shattered

What will I brink

To my children

If I lost their soul?

Proverbe sur une fondation faible/ Proverb on a Weak House

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Bamboo forest in Africa

Un bambou tendre ne peut pas être ardemment désiré (pour la construction). – Un homme qui essaie de bâtir un mariage solide tout en courant après d’autres femmes est comme celui qui utilise des pousses de bambou pour construire une hutte. (Proverbe Chewa – Malawi, Mozambique, Zambie.)

A tender bamboo cannot be eagerly desired (for building). – A man trying to build up a strong marriage while going after other women is like one who uses bamboo shoots to make a hut. (Chewa proverb – Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia.)

History Repeats Itself: Destabilization of Africa during Slavery times – Alcohol as a tool

On By Dr. Y.In Great Civilizations3 Comments
Gungunyane, the Lion of Gaza

We have seen that there were quite a few African kings who forbade the sale of liquor by Europeans on their territories: Gungunyane of the kingdom of Gaza in Mozambique, Mirambo: the Black Napoleon, king of the Nyamwezi people in Tanzania, and now the Almanny (which means leader) cited during Wadstrom report to the British Committee in 1790s (Royal Resistance to Slavery: the Case of an Almany of West Africa in 1780s). Just like Gungunyane, Mirambo thought that alcohol weakened societies. There are quite a few other African leaders throughout history. Why would they prohibit the sale of alcohol on their territories? In history, we have seen this tactic used by the Europeans in the Americas where they gave cheap liquor to the Native Americans turning them drunkards, violent, in order to dispossess them of their lands.  Below is an account by the abbey Gregoire who clearly saw alcohol as a tool used to destabilize African societies during slavery times. It is good to note that history repeats itself: today in many African countries, the main breweries are owned by European companies, and particularly in countries with a lot of resources, the people have been slowly turned into drunkards (this will be a story for another day) while their resources get siphoned out.

Mirambo, towards the end of his life

Abbe Gregoire, for his part, emphasizes that Barrow attributes: “…the current barbarity of some parts of Africa to the slave trade. To obtain it, the Europeans created it, and they perpetuate the usual state of war; they poisoned these regions with their strong liquors, by the accumulation of all kinds of debauchery, seduction, rapacity, cruelty. Is there a single vice whose example they do not daily reproduce before the eyes of the Negroes brought to Europe, or transported to our colonies? I am not surprised to read in Beaver, certainly a friend of the Negroes, and who in his African memoranda is full of praise for their native virtues and their talents: “I would rather carry thither a rattlesnake than a Negro who would have lived in London “.

Bwemba Bong, Quand l’Africain etait l’or noir de l’Europe. L’Afrique: actrice ou victime de la traite des noirs? MedouNeter (2022), p. 165; Barrow, African memoranda, relative to an attempt to establish a British settlement in the Island of Boulam, by Phylips Beaver, in 4, London 1805. I would rather carry thither a rattle snake, etc., p. 397, cited by abbey Gregoire, p. 43-44.

Industries in Pre-colonial West Africa

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Carl Bernhard Wadström

The Swede abolitionist and explorer Carl Bernhard Wadström (Charles Berns Wadström) once described his travels in West Africa from October 1787-1788 with fellow Swede Anders Sparrman and Carl Axel Arrhenius. They were sent by King Gustav III of Sweden, with the official goal of making new discoveries in natural sciences, history, and of course the non-official goal to help with the king’s colonial ambitions. The scientific expedition was quickly aborted when they were in Senegal, where they then witnessed diverse aspects of the transatlantic slave trade. As we saw earlier, Wadström was later called in 1790, to testify in front of the British Government Select Committee; published in a report entitled “Minutes of the evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Commons, being a Select Committee, appointed to take the Examination of Witnesses respecting the African Slave Trade.” Wadström described the advanced industries found in that part of Africa, ranging from textile, indigo, soap, leather, and gold… he even noted that he had never seen such advanced work in Europe! Accompanied by his doctor friend Sparrman and chemist Arrhenius, they were dumbfounded to realize that Africans had a large materia medica which listed over 3000 plants.

View from Joal on the coast of Guinea, 14° and an idea of the kidnapping of slaves there

The Select Committee on the Slave Trade was keen to know about the quality of culture in that part of Africa. They asked Wadström: “Have they any manufactures amongst them?”

Mr Wadström’s reply was most edifying: “I have been surprised to see with what industry they manufacture their cottons, their indigo, and other dying articles, as well as several sorts of manufacture in wood; they make soap; they tan leather, and work it exceedingly well, and even with good taste … they work bar iron … into several articles, as for instance, lances, instruments for tillage, poniards, &c.; they work in gold very ingeniously, and so well, that I never have seen better made articles of that kind in Europe; a great number of articles for ornaments of gold, silver, brass, leather, &c.”

Wadström further stated that: “Their cloth and their leather they manufacture with uncommon neatness; and I have samples with me to shew [sic] in case it should be desired.” 

As we saw earlier, the king who was called Dalmanny was a well educated man; he had held the position of Grand Marabout before becoming King. His subjects were very honest and hospitable and showed Wadström “all civility and kindness.” In addition, they had “an extraordinary genius for commerce.” Interestingly, they also had a “Materia Medica” of “about 2,000 or nearer 3,000” plants. 

Royal Resistance to Slavery: the Case of an Almany of West Africa in 1780s

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View from Joal on the coast of Guinea, 14° and an idea of the kidnapping of slaves there (Carl Wadstrom, ca 1802)

The Swede abolitionist and explorer Carl Bernhard Wadström (Charles Berns Wadstrom) once described his travel in Africa from 1787-1788 with fellow Swede Anders Sparrman. He wrote of an African king’s resistance to slavery and the kindness he observed. In 1790, he was called to testify in front of the British Government Select Committee; his testimony was published on 11 May 1790 in a report entitled “Minutes of the evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Commons, being a Select Committee, appointed to take the Examination of Witnesses respecting the African Slave Trade.”

An African King who was called King of Almamany [Dalmanny] “had entirely prohibited the Slave trade throughout his whole Kingdom, so that they could no longer contact the French slave traders anchored in the mouth of the Senegal [river].” He also banned the sale of alcohol. However, the Senegal Company [Compagnie du Sénégal], a French company which administered the territories of Saint-Louis and Gorée island as part of French Senegal, initially attempted to bribe the King to change his policy on the trade in people, but he refused their presents. Consequently, the Senegal Company resorted to bribing the lighter-skinned Moors to attack and kidnap Dalmanny’s subjects. The Company supplied the Moors with the necessary arms, gunpowder and ammunition to carry out the raids [does it not remind of something today in West Africa with all these jihadists? History repeats itself]. Many of his subjects were made prisoners and taken into slavery. Wadstrom himself had seen a few in the enclosures. They were chained two by two by the ankles; wounded in combat, they did not receive any kind of care. There were also individual kidnappings. Wardstrom said that “Negroes never venture to go out into the fields unless very well armed.”

From Bwemba Bong, Quand l’Africain etait l’or noir de l’Europe. L’Afrique: actrice ou victime de la traite des noirs? MedouNeter (2022), p. 165; George Kay, La Traite des Noirs, Robert Laffont (1968) p.129

Royal Resistance against Slavery: the Case of Afonso I, King of the Kongo Empire

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Mbanza Kongo, capital of the Kingdom of Kongo, in 1745

History repeats itself! It is extremely important to know our history. We have already shown that the narrative that states that African kings sold “their” own into slavery was very flawed and was made up to shift the blame of slavery from the European merchants and their powers (kings and queens, the Catholic church with the papal bull, and much more) to the Africans themselves (the victims). How many times in modern day have we seen how the blame is placed on the victim rather than the aggressor? As we read here another account of an African king who hated slavery, it is important to note the similitude with modern days: the king did not want slavery, therefore attempts were made on his life; does it not remind you of Patrice Lumumba, Sylvanus Olympio, Amilcar Cabral, Ruben Um Nyobé, and so many… when African leaders opposed the narrative being played, they were eliminated! And this behavior spans centuries! Below is the account of an attempt made on King Afonso I [King Nzinga Mbemba] on his life; this is the same Kongo king who wrote to the King of Portugal against Slavery.

“The hatred devoted by Affonso I [King Nzinga Mbemba] to the overseas slave trade and the vigilance he maintained so as not to see his authority erode earned him the animosity of some of the Portuguese merchants living in the capital. On Easter Sunday 1540, eight of them tried to make an attempt on his life while he was attending mass. He escaped, a bullet having simply passed through the fringe of his royal tunic, but one of the nobles of his court was killed and two others wounded.“

Adam Hochschild,  King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa p. 228

Proverbe Angolais sur les clients / Angolan Proverb on Customers

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Quem faz muitas perguntas nunca compra nada (provérbio ovimbundu – Angola)

Celui qui pose trop de questions, n’achète jamais rien (proverbe Ovimbundu – Angola)

The one who asks too many questions never buys anything (Ovimbundu proverb – Angola)

‘Iwájú’, First Pan-African Series to premiere on Disney+

On By Dr. Y.In Great Laughter7 Comments

For the past few days, I have received several messages about Iwájú, the first pan-African series to premiere on Disney+. I congratulate the authors, and send them encouraging messages to keep up the great work.

Excerpts below are from AfricaNews.

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Video on demand service Disney+ has collaborated with pan–African studio Kugali Media for a innovative animated series set in futuristic Lagos – Nigeria.

…

The series which is expected to premiere globally on February 28 explores themes of class and defiance. …

Iwájú’s casted Nigerian vocal talents Simisola Gbadamosi as Tola, a young girl from the wealthy island, and Siji Soetan as her best friend Kole, a self-taught tech expert.

The duo explore the dangerous tapestry of a neo-futuristic Lagos filled with greed and corruption alongside voice actors Femi Branch, Dayo Okeniyi, and Weruche Opia.

The soundtrack, out March 1st, will feature African-influenced music by renowned Nigerian composer Ré Olunuga. “I rarely bring my own emotions into writing a score. In this case, it couldn’t be avoided,” Olunuga said in a press release.

“In addition to Tola’s adventurous spirit, Kole’s ingenuity, and the many other fun and beautiful emotional threads explored in Iwájú – the score is steeped in my own very deep love for Lagos and its multiplicitous layers.”