A chat with Ama Mazama on Voodoo

Ama Mazama (aka Marie-Josée Cérol) is Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Programs of the Department of Africa American Studies at Temple University. She received her PhD with highest distinction from La Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III. After graduating from La Sorbonne with Highest Distinction in Linguistics for her doctorarte, Professor Ama Mazama taught at the University of Texas, Pennsylvania State University, before arriving at Temple University in l993. She established a reputation as the principal exponent of the African origin of the Guadeloupian language. In two books, Langue et Identité en Guadeloupe: Une Perspective Afrocentrique and Une Introduction au Créole Guadeloupéen.She is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Black Studies. Her publications appear in journals in three continents. Well known as an educational consultant for the infusion of African content in American schools Mazama has written several books for teachers in addition to her major scholarly works in Afrocentric philosophy and theory. Two co-edited encyclopedias, the Encyclopedia of Black Studies and the Encyclopedia of African Religion, earned praise for their pioneering work from the National Council of Black Studies. Her scholarly works critique domination and hegemonic philosophies, reveal the cultural, linguistic, and religious bases of Caribbean culture, especially Vodu, and examine cultural and critical methods of establishing an ethic of justice and equity.

Sit back, relax and enjoy! #mynigerianfolktales

⁣Different different fever na him dey
Different different fever na him dey
Different different fever na him dey
Different different fever na him dey

Malaria fever nko? (e dey!)
Jaundice fever nko? (e dey!)
Hay fever nko? (e dey!)
Influenza fever nko? (e dey!)
Inflation fever nko? (e dey!)
Freedom fever nko? (e dey!)
Yellow fever nko? (e dey!)

[Chorus]
Na him dey bring the matter now e dey!

Yellow fever nko? (ee dey!)

[Chorus]
Na him dey bring the matter now e dey!

say tell them make them hear (You say!)
All fever na sickness (You say!)
Original sickness (You say!)
Hay fever na sickness (You say!)
Original sickness (You say!)
Malaria na sickness (You say!)
Original sickness (You say!)
Jaundice na sickness (You say!)
Original sickness (You say!)
Influenza na sickness (You say!)
Original sickness (You say!)
Inflation na sickness (You say!)
Original sickness (You say!)
Freedom na sickness (You say!)
Original sickness (You say!)

Yellow fever nko? (You say!)

[Chorus]
Original and artificial e dey!

Yellow fever nko? (You say!)
One more...

[Chorus]
Original and artificial e dey!

Bom bom bom, tell me now...

Original catch you
Your eye go yellow
Your yansh go yellow
Your face go yellow
Your body go weak
I say but later if you no die inside
The yellow go fade away

Artificial catch you
You be man or woman
Na you go catch am yourself
Na your money go do am for you
You go yellow pass yellow
You go catch moustache for face
You go get your double colour
Your yansh go black like coal
You self go think say you dey fine
Who say you fine?

[Chorus]
Na lie, you no fine at all!
At all, na lie!

My sister, who say you fine?

[Chorus]
Na lie, you no fine at all!
At all, na lie!

Yellow fever

[Chorus]
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach!


You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
African mother
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
Sissi wey dey go
Yellow fever
Stupid thing
Yeye thing
Fucking thing
Ugly thing
Yellow fever
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
African mother
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
Sissi wey dey go
Yellow fever

Now to the underground spiritual game
Underground where dey down for school
Over there for school, yes

Where dey go say: teacher
Oya!

[Chorus]
Teacher!

Who steal my bleaching?
My precious bleaching?
I buy am for shopping
For forty naira
How I go yellow?
How I go fine now?
I go die o
I go die o
I go die o

According to complaint
Complaint must get answer
I beg please, help me help teacher
Oya, foolish
Oya!

[Chorus]
Foolish!

Who steal your bleaching?
Your precious bleaching?
You buy am for shopping
For forty naira
You self wan yellow
How you go fine now?
Your face go yellow
Your yansh go black
Your mustache go show
Your skin go scatter
You go die o
You go die o
You go die o
You go die o

[Chorus]
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach!

You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
African mother
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
Sissi wey dey go
Yellow fever
Stupid thing
Yeye thing
Fucking thing
Ugly thing
Yellow fever
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
African mother
You dey bleach, o you dey bleach
Sissi wey dey go
Yellow fever

⁣Reduplication is one of the most sophisticated linguistic tools in human language and Jamaicans have been doing it for centuries.
Linguists at Cambridge, UC Berkeley, and Oxford have studied this phenomenon across hundreds of languages. What they found? Repeating a word to intensify, extend, or deepen its meaning is a grammatically structured, cognitively grounded system — and it is especially alive and well in West and Central African languages like Akan, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and Gbe.
When enslaved Africans were brought to Jamaica in the 17th century, they came from dozens of different language groups — but reduplication was a thread common across all of them. It survived the Middle Passage. It survived colonialism. It survived centuries of being told our language was "broken."
It didn't survive by accident. It survived because it works.
Saying something twice feels like doing it twice. Feeling it twice. Meaning it more. Linguists call this iconicity — when the form of a word mirrors its meaning. It's one of the most natural things a human being can do with language, documented even in how babies first learn to speak.
So the next time someone tells you Patois isn't a real language — tell them wi no chat so by accident.
Wi carry Africa ina wi mout!

Ananse and the Sky Kingdom

Le professeur John Henrik Clarke, qui dévoile la face cachée de Louis Farrakhan et Maulana Karenga.

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African people seem to be lacking a culture. This man would not have been allowed to walk around in Jean Jacaques Dessalines Haiti.