Sometimes, my pen...is my talking drum.
In AFRICA, they use the 'Talking Drum'.
"You do not know what wars
Are going down there;
Were the SPIRIT
Meets the BONE."
( Lucinda Williams )
In the days of yore, the talking drum was 'The Messenger' that drove men, women and children from the nooks and crannies of the hamlet or countryside, to the 'CENTRE of THINGS';
The Village Square.
It celebrated the birth of princes; it bemoaned the death of kings.
It spoke to the elders in proverbs, and to the children in riddles.
It told tales that were profound and far-reaching:
It told of GOD...and MAN; of warriors as well as of distant places that were waiting to be conquered.
I remembered the drummer boy: he would wake the village dwellers in the morning, as the 'Cock Crowed At Dawn'.
He would lull them to sleep at night, weaving 'Tales By Moonlight'.
He brought men close to each other, face-to-face.
He summoned women, breast-to- breast, eyeball-to-eyeball.
He beckoned on children, one to play next to the other.
ALL of them Together, ALL of them as One.
"And I wish on ALL the Rainbows
That I SEE,
I wish on ALL the People
Who really DREAM"
( Fresh 4, feat.Lizzy )
TODAY, the pen can travel more PLACES...even 'see' more PEOPLE, far and wide, beyond the village square.
The writings...of Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ayi Kwei Armah, Chinua Achebe, Yvonne Vera, Bessie Head, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie...to mention but a few, have roamed the universe.
"So Long A Letter" ( Maria ma Ba, 1981)
"The Trials of Brother Jero ( Soyinka, 1964 );
"The Personal is Political" ( Yvonne Vera, 1998 )
"A Question of Power" ( Bessie Head, 1974 )
"From A Crooked Rib" ( Nurudden Farrah, 1970 )
"Decolonising the Mind" ( Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 1986 )
"Americanah" (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013 )
"The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born" ( Ayi Kwei Armah, 1968 )
"Why Are We So Blest? ( Ayi Kwei Armah, 1972 )
They have taken the tales formerly told by the African Talking Drum, to the Centre-Stage of the WORLD.
Their pens, seeking to cultivate MAN, have warmed the HEARTS and trained the MINDS of men, women and children, creating A GLOBAL VILLAGE.
TODAY, the WORLD is in constant turmoil:
Men are hungry with AMBITION, and thirsty for WORK.
Women are pregnant with BABIES, and their breasts waiting to nourish HOMES.
Children run around the PLAYGROUND, searching for CLUES, and curious to DISCOVER the WORLD.
TODAY, these are our DREAMS; and these are our REALITY too.
"Soul Eyes", sang John Coltrane.
"Just Give Me the World", crooned New Empire.
NOWADAYS, the world is very much unlike Shakespeare's 'A Mid-summer Night's Dream';
It's more like Achebe's 'No Longer At Ease'.
When the chips are down, men crave conversation, and women seek company.
There comes the bottom-line!
When the Soul grows thirsty, and the Mind is hungry, a Man becomes an 'Open Book'...ready to receive the 'ink of testimony' or STORY.
Authentication!
Dreams...and LOVE...and SEX...and LIVING.
EVERY human QUEST is a STORY...above all else.
A story about man looking outward...leaning forward.
It's a tale that really, really...never ends!
And the world is ALWAYS changing...and forever changing.
World everlasting.
So, sometimes My Pen becomes a ready writer...my own Talking Drum.
It comes from that phase of my life, or 1 FACE of my world...same as our world, When I Do SOLO.
But the aim, we MUST remember, is ensemble!
To reach People.
To touch Lives.
Around the World.
My 'Talking Drum', which is my pen, is trans-continental or cosmopolitan. And knows no Colour Line!
"I Celebrate myself
And Sing myself;
And what I assume,
You shall assume also;
For every atom belonging to ME,
As good belongs to YOU."
( Walt Whitman )
In telling S-t-o-r-y, we seek ( hard as it may ), to go against the grain, and to severe that worn-thread that weaves Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart'.
TODAY, we seek above all else, to create a 'Centre That Holds'; a diversity that works!
We seek...to walk towards PROGRESS, hand-in-hand.
The BIG PICTURE is working together as one;
To reach a common goal...When We Do COLLABO.
Finally, Our LIFE-STORY occurs in two phases: one-on-one, then hand-in- hand, aka 2 FACES.
EVERY man's story, 'all protocols observed', is in a smaller sense an auto-biography that is SELF-WRITTEN and in a larger sense, a biography that is OTHER(S)-WRITTEN.
Mind you, when children PLAY, their games are for REAL!
The PROGRESS we achieve in the long run, is one too many; I beg your pardon, UNIVERSAL.
One God.
One People.
One World.
This is the End-Game or the Big Picture.
It serves to 'humanise' MAN, and 'deify' GOD.
Heaven is big enough...for One, as well as for Many:
All.
Long, long ago, before the advent of Bill Gates and the Internet, the Pen had created A GLOBAL VILLAGE!
"Hold your breath,
'Cause you've taken mine away;
You can give it back
Another day.
Have you noticed that 2 plus 2,
Doesn't equal 4 always?
So count me in,
You can count me in.
As you breathe me in,
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME.
Just give ME the WORLD,
And I'll give it back to YOU...
And distance won't keep
Me away;
And distance won't keep
ME away from YOU."
( New Empire )
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