Hello World
Rickydoc is in a pretty good mood today. Got a little work done this morning (Aint nothing like the power of a woman when it come to inspiring a man to get his work done let me tell you. I hope Im as good to her as she is to me.)
Just got back from the delta. Sis. Beverly Bond’s Afroam folk at the Univ of Memphis brought me down to speak on what it means to be a delta based writer.
I just love it when my homefolk claim me. Cause Im representing as hard as I can. Im stupid proud of being from Memphis Tennessee. Stupidproud of being from the Delta. From the Gate thereof. Legbas Child. Memphis is my heart and its Mississippi riverwater running through my veins.
That’s what lead me to hoodoo and the blues as my primary motifs. I consider both of them delta based African American spiritual systems. Transforming Adversity into Strength. As is the case with many of the cutting edge artists in African American literature, my work piggybacks the power of hoodoo and the blues.
The power of Memphis.
Bob Law in an interview once asked me, How does it feel to be part of the mythopoetic tradition of the delta.
I had to think about it a moment, savor the concept. Finally told him it Feels good, feels real good. I have since been aware of my own life as myth. The mythmakers greatest myth
For in my heart of hearts, that’s all I am, a delta mythmaker. As a mystically inclined writer in the griotic tradition I am a Mythmaker. As an intellectual inclined to ideological orchestration I am Mythmaker. As a practicing hoodooman, a cultural custodian taking care of the tribal soul and destiny, Mythwork is one of my primary powers. As I Define so shall it be. For you see my friends I am a Conjuror.
To Conjure. Making real into the world that which was not. Conjuration. Turning the key in the hoodoo lock. I am a Conjureman.
Probably why I just refuse to believe that I cant make this internet into a powerful hoodoo instrument. A 21st Century instrument of conjuration and ideological orchetration. I want with all my heart and soul to be a player. To have some sayso in this world. To have influence on the ways of things. To make things happen. To conjure.
For both individuals and peoples to conjure a new reality you must conduct yourself as you aspire to be. As a people we must conduct ourselves as we aspire our generations to be. The Illuminated Children of the Sun.
Its Mythwork that shapes a peoples Destiny.
Samesame individuals. Conduct yourself as you aspire to be and you shall. I aspire to be a prophet of the hoodoo way and so I shall conduct myself as such and expect reality to eventually reflect this conjuration.
Reality has often yielded to my Will.
So let me see, the issues of the moment upon which I wish to conjure. Let me start with the Sudan.
Latest Developments in the Sudan:
According to recent and must read Human Rights Watch report Sudan still deploying Janjaweed raiders in a progrom of genocide and ethnic cleansing, Sudan style.
Arab Janjaweed raiders are raping and pillaging, killing and exiling blacks from the Darfur region. The International Community, afraid of upsetting the Sudanese peacetalks with the Blacks of the South, has been slow to condemn this atrocity. A recent UN Human Rights Commission report was watered down from accusations of crimes against humanity (including genocide and ethnic cleansing) to bland language supported by both the European Union and the African Union.
Chad, trying to help the refugees that have crossed its border, is under external pressure from the Sudanese government and their proxy raiders and domestic pressures from their own substantial Chadian Arab population and an inability to care for all these refugees. Peace talks are being held in Chad between the government and the rebels. The last of many.
Khartoum has banned relief and news agencies from the Sudan and is trying to stall until the International Community is presented with a fait accompli. We shall see.
Whats Happening With Iraq:
Impending sovereignty: The American public might be falling for this shell game of Occupation Light but you can bet the Iraqis will understand that they are still under Occupation. This latest gambit is just another example of the neocon fantasies that got us in Iraq in the first place and just like the others, it will not fly.
Bushs proclivity to lie to the American people is still in force. Im hoping that as the Election heats up the increased spotlight will make his lies more and more untenable.
Bush and Crew keep telling us we have to “stay the course” in Iraq or the dominos will fall. (Sounds familiar doesnt it?) That may be so, but its more likely that we will have to let them decide their own future. Whatever it is. Democracy is Democracy after all.
Islam the West and the Rest of Us:
This doesn’t have to be a Battle of Civilizations but it is quickly becoming one. That will be a real tragedy. If for no other reason than we might lose it.
Mostly because the Bush Administration doesnt have a clue. They wouldnt recognize a nuance if it stepped on them. Bushs Christian fundamentalist worldview is setting this up as a battle of good and evil. No good came come out of this attitude. Our fundamentalists against theirs. Folk want to tsk tsk Islamic fundamentalism but we just as slave to our own.
In both of these societies, the hard right is in charge. We Progressives of the Third Way have to temper both of these folk, both Islam and the West, in their tendencies toward the repressive.
And in spite of Bushs peculiar myopia, you cant talk about cooling out Islam without talking about Israel/Palestine.
I put the onus of this on Israel. Israel is the Occupying Force, Israel is the Power. One understands how they have gotten so neurotic and insecure about this. (Look what one good strike did to us.) But Israel keeps trying to take all the marbles home and that just wont fly. They have got to realize that they at some point have to give the Palestinians a fair deal if they want to normalize relations and live relatively normal/secure lives.
And the more they abuse the Palestinians now the more problematic eventual normalization will be. Right now Israel seems to think they have the God given right to keep their jackboots on the Palestinians necks forever. This morally corrupt position has fueled Islamic radicalism globally and made Israel a fulcrum of global tensions that is almost biblical.
O Israel, where are your prophets when you need them.
The Bush Administrations carte blanche backing of Sharon’s intransigence is problematic for both Israel/Palestine and the rest of the world. Unfortunately we cant expect any different from Kerry and the Democrats. TheMiddle East will continue to Fester. Until Israel decides it wants to fulfill its own mythwork. Or the Arabs finally bring her down.
The Election: Kerry Tacks Right:
Kerry thinks he has his Progressive wing locked up because we are so desperate to get rid of Bush. Conventional presidential strategy demands he tack to the center for the general election. Hes probably going to tack further to the right than we will be comfortable with. Secure in the knowledge that we have no choice.
Nader is not an option. Neither is Not Voting. We got to turn out the troops on this one. But don’t expect Kerry (or any politician) to be The Answer. They just Instruments.
Blackfolk and PostBlack Blackness:
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I had a promising black student in my workshop this semester kept writing stories with no black people in them. I finally and somewhat timidly asked her whats up with that. She said she doesn’t feel any sense of obligation to identify black. She was real adamant about it. I had to acknowledge her right to feel that way. But I told her and I probably shouldnt have, that I was disappointed in her. The hurt was too deep not to say something. Got a lot of that going around you know. That PostBlack Blackness.
The question will become ever more pertinent as we hurdle into the multiculti world of the future. But for me the question is even more fundamental. Will we continue to be a distinct people and culture or will we fade away and disappear.
For all the troubles that come with it, I like being black and my question is not do we or don’t we identify black but how do we empower black culture so it is one of the definitive cultures of the future.
An illuminated culture to which other folk aspire.
At its best Afroam culture is one of the most powerful cultures in the world and I will do everything I can as a conjuror and cultural custodian to minimize the dysfunctional and emphasize the transformational.
Guess it comes with being from the Delta. The Holyground.
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