WEDNESDAY ADDENDUM
okay, i will give this till sometimes this weekend
just enuf to imprint the narrative headset then i
will get back to working on the text while
maintaining this extraction
WEDNESDAY
so these are notes from the epic studies im doing now
man i wish i had been doing this all along, but consistently
certain threads of research have led me deeper into the text
im loving this on a lot of levels, its going to give me a tone
for all the historical texts in the work, which were at the
moment sterile and academic (though lyrical, its not to
my satisfaction yet) and it gives me the kind of biblical
detail that i have envied in other sacred works, im
going to try to maintain that sense of mythic grace thruout
also these are just notes, im just getting the stories
down now and maybe running a riff here and there
but im going to poetic them later, ima make them sing .. . .
initial goal is get essence of storyilne down in my own words
which divorces me from their text and makes it mine
and all thru this text ima take poetic license, i figure
there is no way my historicals will hold up to scrutiny
folk more familiar than i will challenge me repeatedly
so im going to take liberties and just change shit
ima truly make it mine
then i figure i will make note of where folk have
corrected me and incorporate all that in HBOF 2.0
ima have to close 1.0 down at the end of the year
i could easily work on this another 10 years
also ima scrub them of all the scatalogical and gross shit
this gon be a wisdom text and ima use it to refine the african way
and accept the chastizement the traditionalists gon lay on me
these notes are coming from a book, oral epics from west africa
i must have about 20 books on african epics on tap now and about
two weeks (half in india) before school starts, yesterday
i started actually working the text, enjoyed it but now im
thinking if i got sense of priority its got to be extracting
these spic works, thats whats going to be me a new
narrative sensibility for when i do start working text
got to rehearse my indian CD licks too
im behind again . . .
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The story of sundiata is told by many peoples, the bamana, the jula,
the khasonke, the wangara and the maninka, anywhere they speak the
mande language, told by the likes of fa-digi sisoko tells of the travails
of his mother and father, the buffalo woman and the king of mali, we
will dispense with the Christian and Islamic mythwork and concentrate
on our own, let us then begin in wagadugu settled by kanu simbon and
Kanu nyogen simbon, it is from kanu nyogen the line of berema, dana,
juluku the holy, belo komaan and so forth to feta magan, father of
sundiata by sugulun konde, the ugly, woman of far away du who
delivered a child hours after her co wifes child but because the bardess
tumu maniya told him fata magan of sugulun kondes child 1st, sundiata
was named his 1stborn, covered with hair the old women announced
that subulun had born a lion, the lion thief but when fata magan dies
the cowife declares her own Son the heir and hires a muslim holyman
to put a curse on sundiata that renders him lame and therefore not fit
to rule for 9 years he crawled on the ground, unable to stand but on
the 10th day of domba, his mother in despair cried out king of nyani,
will you never rise, rise up o king of nyani
and so the wizard asked him mother, go to the blacksmith and have
a staff made, seven fold forged, so that magan konate may rise and
with that staff the wizard drew himself up but he could not rise,
have the blacksmith make it stronger he cried and w/the 2nd staff he
was soon risen and with no effort he drew himself upright and his
mother cried out magan konate has risen, but a rival crippled is one
thing, a rival standing power is another, he is exiled by his brother
while he is gone the sorceror kng of susu, sumamuru kante
conquered the manden and drives out his brother, his mother
dies, in order to guide him from beyond and his buried wher
Her power cannot be stolen, he asked the king of mema to
Give him land to bury his mother and prince birama said
He would get nothing unless he could pay the price
Sunjata gave him feathers of guinea fowl, leaves of arrowshaft plant
wild grass reed, red fanda vines, a measure of shot and a haftless knife
prince birama called his 3 sages, all seeing sage, all saying sage and
all knowing sage to read the signs, when showed the contents all
Seeing said anybody can see the answer, im leaving, all saying
Said anybody give the answer, im leaving but all knowing said
nobody can see or give this answer, these are all things of ruin
the wizard threatens you, gie him what he wants and he will leave
but when sunjata returns and does battle with sumamuru he is defeated
by sumamurus greater power and his sister sogulun kulunkan volunteered
to find his power, she shared sumamurus bed and found his power
he would have to kill a pure white cock, uproot barren groundnut
plants, strip them of leaves and put them around my fortress
this is what she told her brother, also she told him that sumamuru
had stole his nephews wife, and so sunjata made common cause
with fa digi and together the laid the magic, together they defeated
Sumamuru, caught him without power on the banks of the niger
where his fetish remains to this day, at kulu koro, ask any favor
From fa jigi
the blacksmith ancestor was old fande
there is no blacksmith older than old fande
eternal life is not possible, death comes to us all
this is a good thing, room must be made for the new
This is not a lie, this is not fiction
this is not a song falling off the tongue
fa jigi when to mecca for redemption
for that which should not be
since jigi died, the world has calmed down
fa jiji returned from mecca in a sorcerors shirt
And bilow that had too much to say
I will fight your enemies, I will give you komo
If the battle is won I will accept your praise
If the battle is lost I will take the blame
The epic of bamana segu by tayiru banbera
I jeli tayiru I come from ngoni
these stories of segu are from long ago
in segu of the 4000, 400 and 4 balansa trees
not every native understands and no strangers
segu had one entrance one exit
the bamana ruled them both for 200 years
biton kulubali, the man killing hunter rulerd for 40 years
the diviners tell him that the slave child ngolo will challenge him
He tries to kill the slave but unable to breach his power
he is sold to Moorish salt treader who take him into the desert
when he returns it is with fetish and bitons day is done
his son banbugu nc assemble the bamana for an oath
from the death of ngolo to the end of his descendants
no bamama will step between them, they chewed red
kola nuts and cut their arms for the blood
If anyone spoils this alliance may the 4 great boliw of segu not spare him
may bakungoba not spare him
may nangoloko not spare him
may contara not spare him
may binyejugu not spare him
ngolo sent his first son to bangugu
his 2nd son monzon
SUNDAY
last night i dreamed of ruby wilson
and woke this morning to read she
dead - got ruby wilson on my mind
wondering what she trying to say
legends come, legends go, legends
live on, long live de queen of beale
SATURDAY
so reading these griotic texts and hrcw as last pieces basically
and its so cool because a big issue has been avoiding the historicals
being boring and now im going to put them is this griotic format
enjoying vol2 of HRCW much better than vol 1, real personalities
have done madam collins of memphis and doctor easy
also have decided ima retire after my leave, yesterday my hands
were trembling so bad i couldnt type, its escalated and what it
tells me is that nothing lasts forever, i got a short shelf life . .
and whatever few pages i got left in me are not going to students
i cant afford to retire but im going to do it anyway, im done
sometimes i get feeling that the students dont really appreciate
me anyway, except for the ones that i end up bonding with
deep how its never the ones you think you gon bond with
im gone, got to tranform notes to passages, then we gon
start on the draft, this is a this weekend kind of thing
get a little work done before my hands stop working
one thing is certain, if i got to crawl ima crawl
all my love
rdoc
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