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Oxlade - Want You

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AND NEW!!!!! 🏆

UFC 287 - "The Last Stylebender" Israel Adesanya 🇳🇬

Record: 24-2-0

Height: 6' 4"

Weight: 184.5 lbs

Reach: 80"

STANCE: Switch

STYLE: Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

#the last stylebender

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CHARLIE, CHARLIE

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Ancestral Reflections

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“A Famous Were-Leopard”. Percy Amaury Talbot. Internet Archive.

The power of metamorphosis is generally termed Uworraw-Ukponn, corresponding to the Ibo word Ehihi, and is sometimes inherited, sometimes bought. […] Usually fast runners, and those who move with a peculiar creeping motion, are looked upon as leopard souls[.]

– Percy Amaury Talbot (1923). Life in Southern Nigeria. pp. 88, 106.

Many communities and lineages among Cross River peoples like the Ibibio and among different Igbo groups and beyond have special animals or vegetation that they have bonded with. In many cases, this came with the ability to take the form of the animal, plants, or trees through a projection of the individual’s consciousness which can happen at great distances such as from one’s home to an entity in the wild. The ability is usually first gotten through medicine and is hereditary. Sometimes these animals may have protected or saved the community before the bond. It is forbidden for members of such lineages to harm or harvest the animals, plants, or trees they have bonded with or allow others to do so because they are considered kin.

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Chukwu

Chukwu is the supreme solar deity of the Igbo, an African people from Nigeria. Chukwu is omniscient, omnipresent, and all-powerful, and is associated with the sun, rain, and plant life. The first recorded king among the Igbo was a man named Eri who, it is said, was sent down from the sky by Chukwu. Chukwu settled the lands for Eri and his family, and grew the first yams, breadfruit trees, and other plants so they could survive. Yams are a staple for the Igbo. There are not one, but two lesser deities whose sole roles are the overseeing of yams! They still receive tribute in parts of Nigeria.

Here’s a story the Igbo tell about Chukwu:

One day Chukwu decided that he didn’t really like the finality of death for his creations, so he sent his bestest animal pal, Dog, with a message to the Igbo. Dog was to tell the Igbo that if they covered their dead in ashes and buried them, their dead would be resurrected and walk among them again. Now, on the way to the Igbo, Dog was distracted by something, (yams) so he didn’t make it with the message. Determined, Chukwu sent his second bestest buddy Mr. Sheep. Now Mr. Sheep’s memory wasn’t so hot, so by the time he reached the Igbo he could only remember the second half of the message. So the Igbo buried their dead, but their dead didn’t come back up. By the time Dog had had his fill of yams and delivered the first part of the message the Igbo had given up on the idea of resurrection, and didn’t believe him. At this point Chukwu had run out of terrible animal messengers and decided to scrap the whole project.

And that, friends, is why you should never trust a dog when yams are nearby. You should probably avoid sprinkling ashes on dead bodies before you bury them too. Just in case.

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Pinback button promoting black unity, mid 20th century, Smithsonian: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Size: Diameter: 1 ¾ × 3/8 in. (4.4 × 1 cm) Medium: metal

https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2013.201.1.25

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Uli Knörzer

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Grimace - Gladiator

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Goldlink - "U Say" feat. Tyler the Creator & Jay Prince

dir. Santi

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African Canvas Margaret Courtney-Clarke

The Art of Africa is a casualty of colonial exploitation, surviving principally in the museums of other countries. ~ Nadine Gordimer

“My objective in this work is to document an extraordinary art form - vernacular art and architecture in West Africa - that is not transportable and therefore not seen in museums around the world. It is an attempt to capture the unseen Africa, a glimpse into the homes and into the spirit of very proud and dignified peoples. In much the same way as I photographed the art of Ndebele women, I have drawn on my personal affinity for the art itself, for methods, design and form, rather than the socio-anthropological or political realities of a people or continent in dilemma. These images portray a unique tradition of Africa, a celebration of an indigenous rural culture in which the women are the artists and the home her canvas.”

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Sacred Ethiopia I by Paolo Viesi

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"Everybody Dies" w/ Rita the Reaper, Random Acts of Flyness (season one, episode one)

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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president (and the women who elected her)

Last night on The Daily Show, Trevor Noah had as his guest Helene Cooper, an author and journalist promoting a book called Madame President about Africa’s first female president.

Y'all, you have to watch this clip from last night.  It’s only 6 minutes and doesn’t go into great detail, but it will absolutely make you want to find this book and jump into her story.  The way the women of Liberia banded together to elect her over an unqualified celebrity….man….it makes you want to trade a certain portion of women here for Liberia’s female population instead.

Keep reading

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Samburu people, semi-nomadic tribe,  central Rift Valley of Kenya. Africa

by  Dirk Rees