⁣Link Up Podcast — Episode 4 | Featuring Ɓatɨ-Ijɔ̄ Bɛsoŋ

Hosts: Niara Esi Ìjèawelē Ọmọlará Kwento & Bakari Kwadwo Ọbatayé Kwento

with a special Abibitumi 20 Year Anniversary testimonial from Agya Kwasi Datɛ

Akɔaba, Woezɔ, Oɔbaake — welcome — to another episode of Link Up Podcast, where we connect with Abibifoɔ doing Black powerful work across Abibiman, the Black Land, and the diaspora.

In this episode, we Link Up with Ɓatɨ-Ijɔ̄ Bɛsoŋ — a committed daughter of Abibiman (born in Cameroon), an active Abibitumi member, indigenous spirituality practitioner, and serious advocate for returning to Black sanity. She shares her upbringing between urban and rural Cameroon, the powerful influence of her grandmothers, the role of indigenous food, medicine, family structure, and the lessons she received from elders before fully understanding their depth.

We discuss her journey out of imposed religious frameworks, her search for ancestral grounding, her discovery of Abibitumi, and how the platform helped her resist assimilation while living in Krakkka-ville. Ɓatɨ-Ijɔ̄ also speaks on the importance of indigenous language, why she is working to reclaim Kɛ́nyāŋ and Keaka, how language connects directly to ancestral communion, and why speaking only colonial languages creates a break in Black memory.

The conversation also moves through Cameroon’s cultural struggle, repatriation, family structure, polygyny, spirit animals, palm wine, the Sankɔfa Journey, and the work required to pass Black values from one generation to the next.

** Stay tuned after the conversation for a new Animated Cartoon series **

This is a conversation about study, transformation, community, repatriation, land, sanity, and the work required to make KMT Black again.

Feel free to share your thoughts and Link Up!

Beenie Man Drink Champs Interview clip where Beenie Man explains the difference between Dancehall and Reggae from his perspective. Beenie Man has contributed both to Reggae and Dancehall, empathasizes with Rastafarai. However, he is based primarily in Dancehall as he is a Dancehall King (though his current ranking is up for debate at this time).

I will be comparing his perspective on the issue to that of his contemporary Buju Banton in an upcoming article. In the article, I discuss which artists more aligns with Kmtyw worldview and the implications this has on our assessment of Black music (using JA music genres as a case example).