The Rosie Doc London 16 -25 May 2005
COWPASTOR 420-8037 (Bdos Wilcox Ridge I wd call it/we move in eve of Wed July 18 1996 - Joan, DreamChad, me. I pour white rum. Th & Fri spenn chillin out. will pho former owners Joan & Clement Marshall in Canada 905-640 5393 (ax chad pho Ronnie 19/7/96 but she say NO) in the end Ronnie return my call & is Chad spk w/her. THE HOUSE REALLY FEEL GOOD - lass night late out in de moonlight - the SWEET herbs, the insects, the QUIET
like Ghana, like IT before the disasters - tho of course as the carpeter say, WE DONT LIVE HEY
*There are NINE main and intimately connXed issues at *CP*
[CowPasture is the name I have given to this unnamed pasture of contention - an old Plantation (Wilcox) pasture-land some 2 miles long & some 1/2 mile wide, composed of tuft/crab grass and scrub and duncks trees, its western section (mainly grassland) used by the some of the residents of Thyme Bottom, its northern boundary and some of the residents of Parish Lands, its western boundary, as a serengetti for their cows and blackbelly sheep. On a good typical day on CP, there wd be upward to some 25-30 cows grazing (at stake) on the pasture (and once a year the calves), along w/sometimes 2 some times 3 nomads of blackbellies of some 12-14 individuals of all ages thru perhaps three generations. On the periphery of the Thyme Bottom & Parish Lands sections of the pasture - poultry - the usual variety of Bajan fowlcocks & hens and a few guineafowl
CowPastor is the name I give to the place (the palenque) whe we live - named from the pasture and its Bajan pronunciation 'pasta' but converted to 'pastor' because its was a friend of mine from the church who helped me find this place. The strip of the pasture (c2 mi long, 1/2 mile across) that is CP runs along the southern ridge of the Wilcox Ridge, above what is now called Gibbons Terrace (Gibbons being the old Plantation contiguous w/Wilcox which has now been converted to Housing Development. When we arrived at CP in 1996, the Gibbons area still had air to breathe. Now (May 2005) nearly every space has been taken and people have started to add second & indeed third floors and stories to these already opulent mansions on the terrace below Wilcox ridge - all these ridges representing the various beaches of the historical geography of our coral island as they rise thru millennia from the ocean of their birth & formation
The section of the pasture which carries CowPastor is clearly the area where some at least of the old Wilcox Plantation buildings & activity was
There is/was a large pond to the right of the dirt track - as it reaches the 'entrance' to CP but just beyond the CP 'line' - that runs off from the Airport road to CowPastor. This pond - common and essential to all plantations (main water and water reserve supply - and it is interesting to note that altho the pond these days is dry during the dry season of the harmattan (full however during the rainy season) and is now upping-grown w/ mangrove and a variety of small evergreen trees, shrub, scrub and bushes, so that this pond has in fact now become a circular gully, transit spot for monkeys coming up from the lands below Gibbons enroute to Thyme Bottom and Hannuman knows where else, an that the cows, whenever they gain or are given the opportunity, will congregate along the shores or slope of the pond's 'gully-hill' and will also be brought there for the bulls during their taurean mating moment/season
Just beyond the western end of the pond, and also unfortunately just beyond the CP 'line' or rather marking it, there two covered stone wells, one low like a grave, the other perhaps 8 feet high - cd be a small flat-top Aztec pyramid. and it is here that miraculously, on this dry pastureland, there flourishes a fledgling 'Los Barbados' - a bearded fig-tree - the old sacred Amerindian tree that, its is said, caused the Portuguese to call the island Barbados - the place of the then profusion of these trees, now almost all gone and surely on the 'rare' 'Protected' status - but right now (May 05) w/in an inch - literally - of the tractors who out of nowhere, and with no apparent owners (!/noBody admitting responsibility for irresponsible actions - the New Machiavellian Discourse of the early 21st cent) - have since mid-Feb, destroyed most of the pasture, uprooting all the grass & trees & replacing it w/rubble (see pics)
On the CowPastor property itself, there is the remains of a Plantation wall and a small stone outhouse. One of my projects, as soon as there is time or when I can get someone to help - my History Dept ?colleagues at Cave Hill, who you wd have thot wd have jumped to help w/this whole CowPastor/CowPasture crisis, have like evvabodyelse in Barbados, inc of course the Authorities, have remaimed MUM = unresponsive and silently (so far) 'somewhat offended' - will be to locate the Wilcox Plantation maps & papers in order hopefully to get a clearer picture/insight into the history & realism of the place, esp in view of the phenomenom of NAMSETOURA
Directly behind the small outhouse (remains of what might well have been slave quarters - hence the need of the MAP) - there is a clump of trees - the only such clump of a collection of large surviving trees of the pasture. This clump - GATHERING is a more appropriate word - consists of trees and plants traditionally connected w/slave ceremony, ritual, naming, burial - marking the place - like the breadfruit - where slaves lived their vivid; but while the breadfruit traditionally marks the secular - the breadfruit is the food tree so it timehries whe you live(d); these other ritual non-food bearing (but medicinal) titulars - lignum vitae, cordia, clammacherry, eucalyptus (see also the po 'The Cabin' in ROP and the poem of this gathering in WNLT, Born to slow horses and The Namsetoura Papers'), croton, wild ceresee, piaba, dwarf coral cactus. It is here, at the 'entrance' to this gathering - this oumfô - that one afternoon, attempting (Aug 2000) to photograph a spider - Ananse-Ellegua-Anamse - that I receive into my camera and its print-out and image of Namsetoura (the Namsetoura doc poem appears below and in the Tom Raworth website tmraworth.com/wordpress/)
a place
- and in my own beginning homeland -
to live the poetry
my archives
my opportunity to in-gather my library and archives (my cosmology) des
-troyed @ Irish Town in the 1988 Gilbert Hurricane Jamaica. At present
my archives (the survivons of the holocaust and the difficult but continuation since then) are scattered & divided between Kingston, NYC and Barbados
In Kingston, where most 'archival' and most of the library is, the material, rescued from the hurricane, is stored in unsupervised & climatically uncontrolled boXes, which have already suffered one major termite attack, and a recent (March 05) break-in by robbers. and indeed, the Jamaica archives have been subject to human and climatic attack since 1980, when we moved to Irish Town
This archive [see also the letter from Timothy Reiss to the Deans of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, NYU 27/4/05 in ARCHIVES, and my HELP! doc [ditto] to the UWI, Mona community of 1988/89, and comments on the Mona attitude in ConVERSations with Nathaniel Mackey (We Press 1999) contains books, pamphlets, literary material inc publications, drafts & letters (correspondence) from my early writing at school, my entry into Bim/Barbados w/Frank Collymore from 1950; the Cambridge archives (1950-55) inc Cambridge lit magazines, drafts of early unpub material inc 'The nature of West Indian sensibility' (w/comments from F.R Leavis, Henry Swanzy, Bryan King, and Richard Hoggart), the many many drafts - some already lost - of the novella The Boy & the Sea, and of course the poems written at that time, inc 'Elegies' and 'Notes from a Hitch-hikers Journal', and the early dreamstorie 'The Black Angel' some of which appear in Cantab magazines, several on the BBC's Caribbean Voices, ed Henry Swanzy, Vidia Naipaul and Edgar Mittelholzer, among others; the Ghana archive (1955-1962) which inc exercise book and other drafts of material towards two Ghana novels and a kind of Ghana diary; the poems (inc the 'Sappho Sakyi' sequence) and literary criticism I begin at this time, inc first drafts of 'Jazz and the West Indian novel'; reel-to-reel tape recordings of hundreds of hours of Ghana radio (inc speeches by Kwame Nkrumah, high-life, traditional music of course & the music of Ephraim Amu) and copies (courtesy J H Nketia) of some of the music from his Institute of Ghana Music archives; hours of reel-to-reel recordings of poetry & music, mainly w/Zea Mexican; recordings of many Ghanaian authors inc Efua Sutherland, J H Hoh, A A Opoku's great longpoem 'Afram'; recordings from Henry Swanzy (qv)'s literary radio magazine, 'The Singing Net'; documents and ms and ts drafts from my work as an Education Officer, inc my work w/the Children's Theatre started at Saltpond 1960 w/Zea Mexican, inc the Christmas Plays, the Ananse Plays, Pageant of Ghana, Edina and Odale (among others), w/reel-to-reel and photo recordings of some of these, esp the Pageant of Ghana (tho alas most of the thousands of photographs and later 16 mm movie film from this Ghana period have perished at IT from fungus, worm and water of hurricane. There is also the Ghana correspondence (some already gone) esp w/my Mother and w/Frank Collymore (qv), both in Barbados, and the large collection of Ghana art & art objects (stools, akwaaba dolls, sculpture (some from contemporary artists) & musical instruments - added to later by work from Nigeria, Senegal & Kenya and general collection - again - alas - much here lost to deterioration and/or theft
There is also the St Lucia archive (1962-63) which contains my work as an ExtraMural tutor for the UWI at Mona And here we have a large archive of work connected w/this project inc some reel-to-reel copies of the at least once-a-week Extra Mural radio broadcasts on WIBS, inc a Homecoming Christmas programme that inc the voices of Roderick Walcott and Geo Odlum. There are paintings by Dunstan St Omer and Harry Simmonds and the archive connected w/the publication of Iouanaloa and the series of articles and book reviews I write for the Voice of St Lucia at this time
The 30-year Jamaica archive is enormous, and we moved to 'The Dump' at Irish Town [IT](our first palenque & oumfo) in order, really, to set up and sort out our Library of Alexandria. Here is/was what I set out above, + the 30 productive Ja years which inc the drafts & versions of Rights of Passage [ROP], Masks, Islands, Black+Blues, Third World Poems, Jah Music, X/Self and later the beginnings of dreamstorie and sycorax; the correspondence w/OUP ref ROP; w/Longman archive ref The People who came; the New Beacon archive ref Folk culture of the slaves and History of the Voice and OUP ref Creole Society; and the archives connected w/projects such as The African Pres in Caribbean lit [and culture] w/the National Heroes project (1973) in Jamaica; the National Heroes Poem (Ap 1998) Barbados; Casa de las Americas esp over the trans of Black+Blues; my university work of course - the lectures, bibliographies, curriculum ideas, esp the doc ref the postRodney 'The New Degree Structure' of 1970, the CONTRADICTORY OMENS archive, and my research material & draft versions ref work on slave rebellions, maroon societies & culture and 'History, Society & Ideas'; the 'Love Axe'/l project and archive, which contains a documentation and commentary of the 'Cultural Revolution' at Mona & St Augustine (c1968-c72) and then into the angloCaribbean generally and its conseQuences
The Carifesta Archive esp Guyana 1972, Jamaica 1976 and Cuba 1979
The Caribbean Artists Movement (1966-1972+) archive
The Poetry Bio-Bibliography Project, inc a Directory (w/correspondence) of/w Caribbean Authors
The Savacou Publications Archive (since 1970), inc now SavacouNorth in NYC since 1990
Tape recordings in Jamaica
The LP collection
The New York Archive (since 1990)
The CowPastor Archives (since 1998)
KB Recordings Archive: a primate recco/selection only
RH/1960
The Modern Jazz Sextet/KB's jazz poems to rec music (Miles, Billie, Basie, MJQ, Trane)
Daddy talking
Richard Clarke talking
My Mother talking
Family talking in RH drawing room
**** reading Naipaul's 'Mechanical Genius'
Ghana (Saltpond 1960-62)
Po & (rec) music (KB & Zea Mexican)
Po reading (his own & poems from DW's 'Tales of the Islands') John Figueroa
Po & (rec) music Ben Beniaku - AA Opoku's 'Afram'/in the Eng trans from Swanzy's (ed)
Voices of Ghana, 'River I am passing'
Ben Beniaku reading from I.A Hoh's 'Ewe Poetry' from Swanzy's Voices of Ghana
Ananse and the Dinner Drum - reading from play by KB/Zea Mexican w/Mexican, KB and
Ben Beniaku
Saltpond Children's Theatre Plays - The people who walk in darkness
Anansesem
Edina
The Pageant of Ghana (Mfanstiman Production)
Odale (Mfanstiman and U of Ghana (Legon/Accra)
Production
Discussion this production on GBS/Radio Ghana
Recordings in Saltpond Primary schools
Efua Sutherland teaching & talking (about) & reading her poems, esp 'The train to Ahafo'
and 'At Harmattan' in Saltpond Primary
Recordings from Ghana radio - inc Ghana music (traditional singing, drumming, festivals
etc; the music of Ephraim Amu and other choral masters, Nkrumah speeches, newscasts,
features esp lit & cultural
Recordings (copies) from the J H Nketia Collection of Ghana Music, Inst of Culture, U of
Ghana, Legon
Recordings (short wave/Voice of America) - Willis Carnova's jazz programmes, 'Music
USA'
SL 1963
The Dept of Extra Mural Studies Radio Broadcast reel-to-reel archives
Ja 1964
Frances Herskovits talking w/KB @College Common, UWI/Mona
Arna Bontemps, ditto
Bdos 65
Frank Collymore reading his poems at 'Woodside'
RJR Studio rec for broadcast of xtracts from KB's ROP (Baugh, KB, Kevyn Arthur, Alfred Pragnell/reading 'The Dust' and 'Rites')
Ja 1965-66
KB, versions of ROP and early Masks
Ja radio: music and literary
London 1967-68
The CAM archive (later copied by Anne Walmsley for her book on CAM. Some of these copied rec have now (2005) been deposited by Walmsley w/Stewart Brown at Birmingham U and in the Geo Padmore Instit at New Beacon, Finsbury Park
Ja 1968-1990
Po readings inc Tony McNeill, Oku Onoura, Zinc Fence (for BBC)
The Archie Lindo Literary Programme (RIR)
Yard Theatre archive (inc Marina Omowale Maxwell (co-ord), ZMD, Bongo-Jerry, Jean
Small, Mortimo Planno, Barry Chevannes, **** Record, Martin Mordecai, Pam
Hitchins/Mordecai, Doreen White, Whats-yr-Name-again,
ROP Productions: Yard (Marina Omowale), ACLALS (KB), CAC (Noel Vaz)
ACLALS Conf (1971) archive (but mainly in Radio Unit, UWI/Mona)
The Bob Marley Funeral Sound archive from the live radio brodacasts and later material
Bob Marley Tribute - KB tapes
Jazz Classics tapes
Recorded Poetry on LP and cassette (from TS Eliot to Cherry Natural)
Field recording of Zion, pukko, kumina (inc the Queenie Archive), Spiritual Baptists,
Bedwardites in August Town, Rastafari grounnations, Bro Everald Brown
Poetry inc Tony McNeill, Dennis Scott, Bongo Jerry, Zinc Fence readings, Oku Onuora's first post-jail performance, Mickey Smith, Poets in Unity, Victor Questel (TT), AJS (Guyana), Bruce St John in Jamaica
Savacou Poets sessions, inc occasions in SV (Shake Keane, Blazer, NAM) and the Barbados Poets launch of Barbados Poetry a checklist at the Barbados Public Library
History of the Voice archive
Carifesta 72/Gtown, Guyana archive
This is a pretty comprehensive archive of cassette recordings and a coll of brochures,
programmes, hand-outs and photographs (these last from the Carifesta Secretariat and
the Guyana Info Serv)
NYC & Barbados since 1990
inc US jazz marathons from radio stations, WBAI programs, the ARK archive (on cass,
video and CD)
The CowPastor and Namsetoura archive (Bdos 1998-2005)
The Photo Archive
From box camera Bdos 1948-50, thru Exacta Europe (1950-55) & Ghana 1955-1962); the Nikkon NYC & Bdos (1990-2005). The digital Bdos & Spain & London 2005
(3) The Bussa Institute
(4) the unethical enclosed nature of Government acquisition & the danger of undemocratic undemonstrated 'Em inent Domain' - when I bought in 1997 what I have named 'CowPastor', a strip section of what I call 'CowPasture', part of the old now disappeared Wilcox-Gibbons plantation(s) complex, I did not then kno (i was informed not even hinted at by noBody) that this pasture, separated from the western end of the Grantley Adams International airport by the 'Airport' road, was clearmarked for 'airport development' and that in fact Gazette Notices has been issued to the effect that all the property on this pasture, not yet in Government hands (most of the 2x1/2 mi area of the pasture was in fact already owned by Govt, no doubt acQuired from the Old Plantation) was being compulsorily acquired (under the old feudal/feudeal principle of 'eminent domain') for the purpose of Government expansion of the airport
The plans ref this expansion ref CowPasture have been however, certainly from my point of view and time of involvement, been xtremely vague, contradictory, lacking in transparency. There is clearly an unwillingness to discuss what the plans are, what the xpansion involves (esp where it concerns CowPastor)
(5) The insult to the pyscho-so-
cial environment & divine eco-
logy of CowPasture - and to >
what (undisclosed) end -
(6) Namsetoura/see the po placed just before (9), below. For far more on Namsetoura, inc the photo, and the whole CP cultural contxt, see The Namsetoura Papers, Hambone 17 (Nathaniel Mackey 2004), repro on Tom Raworth's http:// tomraworth.com/wordpress/
(7) The Namsetoura Papers
From: "john muckle" <jrmuckle@hotmail.com>
Date: 22 May 2005 12:53:21 BDT
To: tmraworth@ntlworld.com
Subject: "Braffit"
Dear Tom
Just read the Namsetoura Papers.
What a powerful, beautiful piece of writing.
I'd expect him to bring the whole history
of the Caribbean to bear on his struggle, but it's the aching lyricism and the wit of the thing that gets to me. If poets
were really unacknowledged legislators,
"Braffit" would indeed be a great prophet.
I can't help but believe in the efficacy of such spells.
Good luck to him and to you.
Best
John
(8) the Q of Emmmerton, Com- pensation and Alternative Resi- dence (in a society w/no alter- Native tradition)
I'm not getting a lot of enthusiasm from colleagues in publishing them, but I'll keep trying.
One reporter asked me what's the difference between a road being built on your land or
any other person. Can u believe it? It's as though the displacement of people and their lives
should be the norm in this country. I asked him if he'd ever heard Gabby's Emmerton. Respect. Don't give up. Ricky /Btown18 May 05
Dear Ricky, Good to hear you and sorry to hear of the persistuant lack of enthusiasm. Is only in these times of crisis that we come to learn of a-we culture. I first had to confront this kind of disappointment - the realization that despite the cultural euphoria about the communal warmth of Black culture, we (certainly in the Caribb) might be WELCOMING to Columbus-like others, but among ourselves we prefer to remain residual strangers, staining the space between each other w/insult, askance and mamaguey, so that when we really need each other, sometimes even w/in families, there is no or little coming forward; no crucial future emotional & psychological HELP. We are asked and xpected to conform to Authority. Blackbelly sheep. Wth that same false semblance of independence
I first emerge towards this - begin to discover this - fine this out - at the time of Zea Mexican death (see ZMD) when all my friends suddenly become 'former friends', some crying crocodile tears about how God Will Provide, but not a one employing any of thr vaunted elements of a-we culture - the circle, the capsule, the nam, the brother/sisterhood, the xtending family, the soul, the hood - that we suppose to be about, that is suppose to have brought we ova and keep we into the 21st century from being continuing slaves and zombies. But I discover in 1986-1990, dur my Time of Salt, as I say that it wasn't so; and now here it again in this period of the Second Emmerton
I have heard what yr colleague say before on call-n radio - part of the Is-who Braffit tink he is. We have not yet come into the possession of our soul & soil and therefore will continue to be too easily sold and slave. On the plantation our chattel (!) houses were - praxis and symbol - not allowed to take root, to be foundation w/out codicil. Instead our simple homes had to be placed on stones or blocks, without foundation, so that they cd be easily moved whenever Massa seh so. An so is so. So is still so
Namsetoura
Kamau Brathwaite writes that he's only slowly beginning to understand what the Namsetoura tellin him that day
‘I mean she curse me proper. didnt xpect that! Usually ‘revelations’ are coach in ‘culturally correct’ revelatory language - like in Rev- elations! Nvr xpec a ?revenant (every word here chall enges new - certainly diff - meaning! ) not only to use ‘bad-words’ - nvr xpected - we have her picture & yet we still don’t kno how old she is - acadacia? ancient? - indeed some people not even sure is female at all!!
'But when she speak me. there is no doubt her gender - I mean that’s the POINT! - apart from the history of the voice itself - she make that (her genderSEX) what you wd call ‘vulgalarly clear’ - like when yu facin Zilli Dantò
KB says that one of the roots of the words - Gye Nyame - Namse speaking to him here on CowPastor Barbados - is one of the central 'tenants' of Akan culture. is symbolize in the royal regg -aalia, on the ‘soul goods’ and (not to too oversimply-size) on the adinkra cloth. It says Only (Gye) God (Nyame) 'but is fascinating that she combines
this w/biriw which seems to involve being painted ritually black as a sign or stage of certain ‘rites de passage’ boys & girls at puberty have their heads shaved &their skulls painted black to mark or prepare them for the 'next step'. Queen Mothers (Yaa Asantewaa, Grandee- Nanny, NzingaNzi-nga for xample - Namse's ancestors - and also, i remember, my grandmother's sister) ‘wear’ black-dye heads
'But from the ENERGY she use in NOMMONIZING her xpression. i kno thatbiriw is also connected to possession - in both its senses - can yu imagine! [KB continues] - all this information still slowly being reveal to me from this one sudder shaft of sunlight. .
abíribiriw (Akan Twi) = epilepsy, sacred insanity, po- ssession. and biribíwa = ‘the little property which is (still) left to me.’ - like a ref to CowPastor. at that v/moment (& still!) under threat of xpropria-tion by the Govt of my own home/land - my emmerton
biribíwa - to make way - up-ROOT - for a road - en- ROUTE - to a golf course/golf curse . ‘Or as she saying it - and all this ‘info’ - the voice of this info - still revealing to me - like what i writin here in NYC right now - 2 Dec 02 - 18 feb 04 - two now four clear years since the first intensity of this ‘event!’ - that both she & mwe - mirrors of each other in a way - bo th in a state of crisis
‘The other amazing concacenation [sic] - moment of multiple info inwhto a sing. al nam or instann - is when she mocks mwe with yu know whe bosomtwa? - wha < call it so?
‘The ujal Bajan way of sayin this - askin this Q - wd be - wha call so?
‘but Namse (her name by the way is a NAM NOMMO form of Anan se) puts in the rhythmic/empha llatic italic quite typical of ‘Black speech’ (look de people-dem a-come etc) to draw attn to the mecon - bosomtwa. knowin fully well. I’m sure. that years ago I make my own pilgrimage to Lake Bosomtwi. the sacred lake of the Asante people. and my (second) wife. who’s w/me at this Namsetoura moment (is her Kodak camera that finally ‘gets’ the pic) is nam name Chad. the lake of the soul of Africa. So Namsetoura kno i kno
'But when instead of twi she = twa (and to leave no doubt she ‘show’ me where she mean!) - me almos swoon wid shame - like if yu
mudda talkin dirty to yua! - the image that she sayin = the sa cred lake of pussy/the sacred pussy of my lake - is whe yu comin from - I mean she nvva say 'vagina' or anything 'polite' like dat - that's what i talk in bout! - the water & the fire
d
From what far cost
of Africa to this brown strip
of pasture on this coral
limestone ridge
cast up some three miles
from the burning sea
the grave
hidden w/in the clump
of prickly man
-peaba . red cordea trees
& clammacherry leaves
& countless eucalyptus bush
& sinkle-bible
. the spider
warn me of her entry. trie
to prevent my photograph
ruin three lenses
brek down the hi
-tec pentax
cameraderie
i click the pic
-ture w/ a simple borrow
(ed) kodak. it burrow through
the wave
of dark
that bring us this past midnights of yr silent humming
. the musky smell
of turning in yr sweaty bed
the coir whisp
-ering of springs
still centuries away
no sing
-ing water in these wells
the cistern
dry. the empty moral
memory forlorn
its axe head off
and nvr nvr nvr
yr sweet mouth bash
& brutalize
my sister mother o my aunt my ancestor
the one eye sink away from her
-story
all down yr neck
along the spine now welt
-ing w/ the busha blowes
yr back a modern mural of dis
-tress
. the whip of auctioneers
gold
bangle blink. in in yr ear. a nugget
in yr nostril
it is this other eye that blows my mind
wind in a torch. you blaze
upon me from yr baleful stare
suns
i have nvr known
world i can nvr nvr travel in return
and yet you tell
me this. you tell
me this
no calabash or flower on my mound no
nine night wake no forty days of journey thru the salt lagoon No fruit to heal these lips No okra at my hip
What happen here to me is like yu vomit up a rodent in Kaneshie market. Tree hundred years i staring here under dis spider web & bush. ananse of my door of herbs. and now you come dis. turb me w/ yr camera. destroy theruin of my spiral with yr flash . O wash me now my child my nephew metaphor . flash of my flesh . great great grann
brudda from dis udda world. Yu think they dis. possessin you? Yu think yu tall? Yu tink yu rastamouttamassacouraman?
wreck. on yu rave?
Yu say yu writin po-
em about slave? You evva hear wha Grandee Nanny tell de backra bout she black backside? Buh looka yu dough nuh! Look wha become a yu! a backra broni backsite bwoy eatin de backra cul
cha. dah backra backsite culcha eatin yu!
gyebiriw
say wha?
De man yu say is man yu say
doan unnerstann dis shoal?
too many chrystels
missin in yr engine?
yu brain like winn-
mill spinnin widdout cane
de caat-
whip cut yu tongue?
.
Write dis in flash
befo de nex red season come
Doan write it down in coral dat is water . dat will spill
Write it inside my oumfô body
berry berry burnin coal
gyeNyamebiriw
gyeNyamebiriw gyeNyamebiriw
.
Gye only under God the fire
But only from my bosomtwa
mi tell yu
Yu kno whe bosomtwa?
wha call it so?
Gye only under God
mi tell yu
an dis bosomtwa
th
LiberNation
❊
(9) for all all the above, I give Thanks & Ises. For God is great And I'm move(d) & humble(d) <Kamau> London 20 May 05 >>