FREEOTWN CHRONICLES IV: BARBIEs AND WHAT IFs

Friday was ushered in with fake eye lashes, human hair which continues to irritate me and a fantastic dress by Maryzo Designs that had me emanating the “come hither” look. It was purposeful. The Barbie doll look is one I SOMETIMES aspire to, yes I use the word ASPIRE….one can have such aspirations and I believe it is quite O-KAY. However, I digress, MAJORLY.  This Easter weekend was a heap of fun, looked like the only thing I and my friends and team were up to was fun, but I/we were hard at work, and as usual, there are some moments that stuck with me, MAJORLY.

WHY AM I HERE, 'HOME'

FatouWuriePhotography |Kroo Bay| Freetown, Sierra Leone

It is a matter of perspective. I remember, vividly, when I took this image in kroo Bay. Fresh of the plane from Montreal, I think the nation could smell that I was in unfamiliar territory that I call ‘home’. My sense of direction, orientation, reaction and attraction to people and places were electric. Every story, every movement, every gesture, dream and laughter left me changed. Re-activeness was how I coped, I ran after everything, chasing those stories and possible connections. Like I said, the nation, everyone and there mama knew I had just landed.  

 I reeked of naïve yearning to belong and understand. Recently, I have been receiving messages from friends and strangers, asking me of my experiences of ‘moving back home’. I recall asking the same question to individuals living in Freetown when I too wanted, ached rather, to come back home. Now that I am at the receiving end of these questions, I never quite know how to respond. I could respond with the usual, prepare, um things don’t really work/function, don’t really trust people…trust is broken, oh and it’s a really small place, like incredibly tight, fishbowl microscopic so be prepared to be private. No scratch that, just come be open and do YOU, if you are prepared to deal with the consequences. The men, women…o la…stay single. But don’t, freetown, upline, the country..is romantic..dream A LOT. Did I mention trust is broken. Lord, just do YOU. No. PRAY. Be.

I have no answers, I only have my story. My story mine mine, the reason why I am here, how I ended up here, why I am still here….it’s mine, Be open enough to know that your story will unfold as destined….What I can speak to however as year 2 approaches is this:

1.   Its all about perspective
2. Your core…who you are, your principles, your dreams, your aspirations….protect it.
3. Secure and ensure you have a circle of love. A circle that reminds you that you are human, that you are allowed to make mistakes, that reminds you that ONLY YOU can truly know who you are, want to be, and are made off. 
4.  Be humble. Kiss the palms of the elders, drink their knowledge.
5. Listen. TRUST ME; you do not have much to say…Yet.
6. Its home, relax…all will be well. You will see the extension of your roots…your ancestors live on…all will be well.

I look back at this image with a smile. Now, today, with the very same camera and lens, this photograph would be captured from a different angle. The textures and layers,  more sensitive, more detailed, more more more…less raw.

Its all about perspective. I promise.

Fambul dem this is how we do…

CHINUA ACHEBE DIES AT 82

 “Oh, the most important thing about myself is that my life has been full of changes. Therefore, when I observe the world, I don’t expect to see it just like I was seeing the fellow who lives in the next room. There is this complexity which seems to me to be part of the meaning of existence and everything we value.”
- Chinua Achebe

It is from these legacies, these word warriors, these mind shifters & influences, these brave spirits, unafraid, free - ly- open to liberating their/our minds, emptying their bodies and allowing us in, allowing us into internal and alternate worlds...it is from these we {storytellers, artists, africans, humans} hail. His body has passed on, a truth we cannot dispel, but his words his soul remains, forever.

Fambul dem, this is how we do...

THERE ARE

There are places and spaces and moments and walls that know of a consecrated love. There are houses that have become love holding woman together while she births her child into present existence, wide, open, pink, eyes re-adjusting to the complexity of this holy temple named universe. There are feet that walk to seek that age when lips touched, hands held, movement in the body unexplainable. There are places, rocks, flowers, tender tender leaves, clever clouds, a bright moon deeming sun that act as backdrops to the “when” meeting of two eyes, communicating, flow flawless. There are fears that loom above streets that ache to love still—erasing images of spilled blood, ancestral violence ushering in forgiveness-spirits boundless. There are palms stained with human internal matter, collages everlasting, the guns, machetes, swords, wires configure a current that electrifies memory. There are minds that travel far to retrieve and rescue touch-sensual, vulnerable, a breath that holds, a release that forgives. There are winds that carry the sage secrets of love-in love-out to countries, lands, lovers, mothers, men, walls, buildings, spirits- forgiveness distributed freely, fear discarded simply, faith restored bravely, their lives love.

fambul dem this is how we do...

POP. POWER OF THE PUNNANIE. POP

I am interested in women, women and power, women in power, women who yield power over men, i am interested in women, and better yet their most magnanimous element, the PUNNANIE. This was inspired by a conversation my aunt and i had concerning my young cousin who for all purposes likes to share her......well you know what. Now, low self esteem could be one prominent reason, another being that she just enjoys sharing her body, or she has at a very early age just learnt the power of her PUNNANIE in exchange for whatever material thing she deems important in her present teenage life. Queen Eve, mother of all creation, utilized her feminine charm to lure Adam, oh the man that he was, to also bite into the ''forbidden fruit'', and the piece of apple remains lodged in this throat till today. Now, i am been flippant, to all religious people reading this blog bare with me, for my non-heterosexual readers, bare with my hetero-normative perspective- i am getting to the point.

The Punnanie, is used for alliances, the exchange of a beautiful woman forges connections and loyalities that will run for centuries. The Punannie, is used as a destructive tool of war, enter a woman without her consent (rape) and the repercussions is that an entire community has lost its honor and thus considered 'weak'. The Punnanie is the only human organ that can bring upon shame or pride to a family. The Punnanie untouched can be sold for a million dollars on the internet, it is EPIC income generation. The punannie untouched brings honor to a family, a community, a nation. The punnanie can induce madness in a man. The Punnanie is a billlion dollar industry-PORN. The Punnanie is watched, controlled, surveyed, cut, snipped, held, sucked, kissed, licked, loved, mutated, mutilated--divinity sprawled for inspection. The Punnanie is political, is identity, is fluid. The Punnanie, an entry way into the womb of life creation and thus the nucleus of the universe, ancestral, powerfilled, channel into the spiritual, an energy so elusive and yet to tangible that it has merged life and destruction perfectly.

This is for my young female cousin:

 He the young man who seduces you with words and smiles of love but chooses to know your body before he speaks to your mind or spirit is a man who knows the power of your punnanie, your body as creation. He the older man who hails your youth and adorns your with your material desires and is in a state of madness over your vulnerability, your tenderness soft,  your body as a bud yet to bloom, a nectar yet unsucked, he knows the power of your punnanie. He/they know the value of what your posses, but dear do you? Do your know that you can heal, cease wars, born life, love a warrior love that no ammunition can summon, do you know your power? You who seduces the young boy, young man, older man or men WHY do you do so, do you know? How are you using your power for self growth, self elevation, self affirmation of love and divinity? Do you know the power you possess within? The power of your punnanie?

Use it wisely.

fambul dem this is how we do.....