Das Reich Bornu

 

Whilst revisiting various sources on Bagirmi and Wadai, we were reminded of a German article by Ulrich Seetzen. Based on interviews with natives of Waday in 1808 who passed through Cairo, Seetzen's informants provide a glimpse of parts of Sudanic Africa not well known in Europe. One of his informants, Hassan, helped Seetzen "map" out the larger region as he conceived it. Intriguingly, this Waday native seems to place Sennar, Fez (Morocco), and various other places within a larger Borno "empire." Clearly, as late as 1808, the stature and reputation of the Sayfawa across much of the African continent was still recognized, even from tributary or vassal states which were striking against Borno.

Outer Spaceways Incorporated

If you find earth boring

Just the same old, same thing

Song For My Father (Live at the Penthouse)

Amazingly, a relatively new release of a live recording of Horace Silver has come to our attention. Featuring the legendary Joe Henderson on sax, there is a rousing rendition of "Song For My Father." Henderson's solo is more sedated than the studio recording, but still fascinating to hear him perform live in Silver's group. Silver also stretches out a bit here, but always with that soulful and funky style. Unfortunately, the group did not perform "The African Queen" or "Tokyo Blues" but other gems from the LPs featuring those songs appear. 

Tokyo Express

Seicho Matsumoto's Tokyo Express, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, is a fun (and short!) detective novel from the 1950s. Featuring an older provincial cop and a detective from Tokyo Metropolitan Police, this novel revolves around cracking a seemingly perfect alibi of the person who killed a key witness. The victim, a lower-level government employee important for the investigation into corruption of his government ministry, is killed (but faked as a love suicide). A waitress from a Tokyo restaurant, is believed by local police to have died with the government ministry employee. When a few things about the case don't add up, the local police officer does a little bit of investigating that raises more questions about what actually happened. In Tokyo, the younger detective also investigates the matter, which takes him across Japan from Kyushu to Hokkaido. In order to crack the suspect's alibi, timetables for trains and domestic flights becomes key. Perhaps to highlight just how common corruption was in 1950s Japan, with near impunity for higher level ministry officials like Ishida, the novel ends without a satisfactory conclusion for the sleuths, despite his success at cracking the seemingly impenetrable alibi). It is also somewhat held back by the bare details provided on the central characters. Mihara, for instance, is revealed to have a wife in the end of the novel. Exposition sometimes suffers from jarring transitions or lackthereof. But as a suspenseful and clever mystery novel, it is largely successful. 

Cacique Guarionex Remembered

  El cacique Guariones
 defendió con patriotismo,
 luchando con heroísmo
aunque falleció más tarde.
Borinquen vencida es
decía con aflicción
y con desesperación;
clamó nobles traidores
no caben vuestras labores
del árbol del corazón.

The final part of a décima from Puerto Rico referring to a cacique named Guarionex and his resistance to the Spanish conquest. Unfortunately, J. Alden Mason and Aurelio M. Espinosa did not name the composer in their "Porto-Rican Folk-Lore. Décimas, Christmas Carols, Nursery Rhymes, and Other Songs."

Bei Mir Bist Du Schön

Alice Coltrane showing her more advanced style in this recording date with Terry Gibbs. Although we don't usually associate Alice Coltrane with Jewish music, she's one of the best things about session from her days in the group of Terry Gibbs. It helps that we've long enjoyed "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" ever since hearing it in an episode of The X-Files several years ago...

Favorite Pictures from Le vodou fon dans le Royaume d'Allada

  

Although the quality of the images and the binding of the book made it difficult to use or interpret all the photos in Le vodou fon dans le Royaume d'Allada (Bas-Dahomey): ses images et ses symboles, we had some favorites from the bunch. A very short book comprised of photographs by Montilus and short captions describing them, all centered on Fon Vodou in Allada, there are some striking images. Some depict animal sacrifice, temples, various types of priests or priestesses, hunsi and sacred drums, or people tied to the Allada court. Unsurprisingly, the priests affiliated with royal cults seem to have the finest and most elaborate styles of dress.

The "traditional king" of Allada even appears in one photo. Presumably this is a Adjahuto, descendants of a figure appointed by the king of Dahomey after the Dahomian conquest of Allada in the 1720s.

One photo that was partly cut off by the binding showed a vast crowed gathered for a prayer by a temple associated with the kings of Allada. 

Some of the photos of Vodou temples were grainy, but this one is quite clear. It appears to lack any figurative paintings but the different patterns on the exterior wall presumably have some meaning not explained by Montilus.

The dokpe of Allada are sort of our like cumbite but in the Fon context also involved in burials or funeral services.

A bokono is also included. In the Fon context, they are specialists in Fa or Ifa divination. We still consider it intriguing that this sense of the word has been lost in Haiti and boko became a term for sorcerers.

Unfortunately, Montilus did not provide much detail on the Allada king's traditional court and their role in the ancestral cults.