Dibia’s World: Life on an Early Sugar Plantation


Book Description

Dibia was educated in Africa, stolen across the sea and sold into slavery. He spent the rest of his life on a sugar plantation, where he worked with Agoüya, drank Aboré’s rum, married Izabelle and had a son named Paul. This book tells the story of the community he lived in with a hundred others in a colonial outpost of the Caribbean. It depicts the everyday life of enslaved Africans and Native Americans in remarkable detail, showing their names, relationships, skills, health and interactions, as they contended with and resisted their enslavement. Most studies of plantation life examine well-established colonies in the century before abolition. This work provides a counterpoint by depicting the founding population of an African-American community in the early years of the industrial sugar plantation complex. Drawing on a planter’s manuscript, shipping records, missionary accounts and seventeenth-century scraps of paper, Dibia’s World will appeal to specialists as well as general readers interested in the early Atlantic world, Creole societies, slavery and African-American history.




Intimate Frontiers


Book Description

A collection of multinational scholarly contributions on various cultural aspects of the Amazon region in the 20th century.




After God is Dibia


Book Description




Fine Boys


Book Description

A coming-of-age tale told from the perspective of Nigeria’s Generation X, caught amid the throes of a nascent pro-democracy movement, demoralizing corruption, and campus violence. Ewaen is a Nigerian teenager, bored at home in Warri and eager to flee from his parents’ unhappy marriage and incessant quarreling. When Ewaen is admitted to the University of Benin, he makes new friends who, like him, are excited about their newfound independence. They hang out in parking lots, trading gibes in pidgin and English and discovering the pleasures that freedom affords them. But when university strikes begin and ruthlessly violent confraternities unleash mayhem on their campus, Ewaen and his new friends must learn to adapt—or risk becoming the confras' next unwilling recruits. In his trademark witty, colloquial style, critically acclaimed author Eghosa Imasuen presents everyday Nigerian life against the backdrop of the pro-democracy riots of the 1980s and 1990s, the lost hopes of June 12 (Nigeria’s Democracy Day), and the terror of the Abacha years. Fine Boys is a chronicle of time, not just in Nigeria, but also for its budding post-Biafran generation.




The Literary History of the Igbo Novel


Book Description

This book looks at the trends in the development of the Igbo novel from its antecedents in oral performance, through the emergence of the first published novel, Omenuko, in 1933 by Pita Nwana, to the contemporary Igbo novel. Defining "Igbo literature" as literature in Igbo language, and "Igbo novel" as a novel written in Igbo language, the author argues that oral and written literature in African indigenous languages hold an important foundational position in the history of African literature. Focusing on the contributions of Igbo writers to the development of African literature in African languages, the book examines the evolution, themes, and distinctive features of the Igbo novel, the historical circumstances of the rise of the African novel in the pre-colonial, era and their impact on the contemporary Igbo novel. This book will be of interest to scholars of African literature, literary history, and Igbo studies.




AFURAKA/AFURAITKAIT - The Origin of the term 'Africa'


Book Description

AFURAKA/AFURAITKAIT - The Origin of the term 'Africa' Numerous scholars over the centuries have attempted to delineate the etymological origins of the name Africa. However, they have failed because of a lack of understanding of Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) Ancestral Religion, cosmology and culture. Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan is the first to elucidate and publish the actual etymological origins of the name Africa demonstrating the name to be derived linguistically and cosmologically from Afuraka/Afuraitkait – the original male and female aspects of the name. This includes showing the actual term written by our Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) Ancestresses and Ancestors in the medutu (hieroglyphs) of Ancient Kamit (Ancient Egypt) – a discovery which heretofore had never been accomplished. Afuraka/Afuraitkait is an indigenous designation for the continent first propounded by Afurakanu/Afuraitkaitnut (Africans~Black People) prior to the existence of any other people on Earth. The myths put forward by eurasians seeking to locate the origins of the name Africa outside of the continent of Afuraka/Afuraitkait (Africa) and in the greek, latin, sanskrit, arabic, phoenician and other languages, have been shown in this article series to be a deliberate attempt by the non-Afurakanu/non-Afuraitkaitnut (non-Africans/non-Blacks) to misinform Afurakanu/Afuraitkaitnut (Africans~Black People) and dispossess us of our heritage and culture. This is nothing new. We have been and will continue to be at war - culturally, intellectually, spiritually and physically - with the whites and their offspring, their culture and their pseudo-religions (inclusive of all forms of christianity, islam, judaism/hebrewism, hinduism, buddhism, taoism, pseudo-esotericism, etc.) until the whites and their offspring no longer exist in the world. We will always meet the challenge and will emerge triumphant on every level. The proper etymology of the term Africa was first given to us in the 12990s (1990s) by our Nananom Nsamanfo – Akan term for our Honored or Spiritually Cultivated Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) Ancestresses and Ancestors. It was our Nananom Nsamanfo who would also lead us to the tangible evidence supporting the etymological origins of the term in the languages, cultures and ritual practices of Afuraka/Afuraitkait (Africa) – inclusive of Ancient Khanit and Kamit (Nubia and Egypt). We would subsequently release our publication: KUKUU-TUNTUM The Ancestral Jurisdiction in 13002 (2002), wherein we defined the term Afuraka/Afuraitkait and its cosmological roots in the first section. The release of our article series in 13007-13008 was designed to provide a more detailed analysis of the nature and function of the name Afuraka/Afuraitkait (Africa) as it applies to Black People – and Black People only – and to expose the misinformation which continues to be propagated deliberately by the whites and their offspring, as well as by misinformed Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African~Black) scholars, teachers, authors, etc. This four-part series is the first volume of a greater series. There are numerous manifestations of the term and name Afuraka/Afuraitkait (Africa) all over the continent and in the places we traveled after having migrated away from the continent thousands of years ago for the first time in our trustory. This is an attestation to the ancient spiritual roots of the name Afuraka/Afuraitkait. The information can and will fill many volumes. This is a never-ending project. ©Copyright by Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan, 13007, 13008, 13011, 13014 (2007, 2008, 2011, 2014). All rights reserved. www.odwirafo.com




World Dance Cultures


Book Description

From healing, fertility and religious rituals, through theatrical entertainment, to death ceremonies and ancestor worship, World Dance Cultures introduces an extraordinary variety of dance forms practiced around the world. This highly illustrated textbook draws on wide-ranging historical documentation and first-hand accounts, taking in India, Bali, Java, Cambodia, China, Japan, Hawai’i, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Africa, Turkey, Spain, Native America, South America, and the Caribbean. Each chapter covers a certain region’s distinctive dances, pinpoints key issues and trends from the form’s development to its modern iteration, and offers a wealth of study features including: Case Studies – zooming in on key details of a dance form’s cultural, historical, and religious contexts ‘Explorations’ – first-hand descriptions of dances, from scholars, anthropologists and practitioners ‘Think About’ – provocations to encourage critical analysis of dance forms and the ways in which they’re understood Discussion Questions – starting points for group work, classroom seminars or individual study Further Study Tips – listing essential books, essays and video material. Offering a comprehensive overview of each dance form covered with over 100 full color photos, World Dance Cultures is an essential introductory resource for students and instructors alike.




Omenuko


Book Description

Omenụkọ (real name: Igwegbe Odum) whose home in Okigwe, Eastern Nigeria, was a popular spot for field trips by students in schools and colleges, as well as a favourite attraction for tourists in the decades before and after the Nigerian Independence in 1960. Generations of Igbo children began their reading in Igbo with Omenụkọ, and those who did not have the opportunity to go to school still read Omenụkọ in their homes or at adult education centers. Omenụkọ was a legendary figure and his 'sayings' became part of the Igbo speech repertoire that young adults were expected to acquire. Omenụkọ, a classic in Igbo Literature, written by Pita Nwana and published in 1933 by Longman, Green & Co, Ltd, London, is in this translation made accessible to a global audience. Emenyonu utilizes his mastery of both languages (Igbo and English) to faithfully present to his audience a complete rendition of Omenụkọ as originally written. The timeless significance of this novel as a progenitor of the Igbo language novel is again underscored.




The Archaeology of Alcohol and Drinking


Book Description

From the Publisher: Through its complex history, alcohol has served many cultural functions, often constructive ones. For centuries it has been used as a valuable economic commodity, a medicinal tool, a focus of social gatherings, and a mechanism for psychological escape.




Inheritance and Innovation in a Colonial Language


Book Description

This book takes a fresh approach to analysing how new languages are created, combining in-depth colonial history and empirical, usage-based linguistics. Focusing on a rarely studied language, the authors employ this dual methodology to reconstruct how multilingual individuals drew on their perception of Romance and West African languages to form French Guianese Creole. In doing so, they facilitate the application of a usage-based approach to language while simultaneously contributing significantly to the debate on creole origins. This innovative volume is sure to appeal to students and scholars of language history, creolisation and languages in contact. Chapter 3 is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.