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Caribbean Folklore
Many elements of Caribbean folklore (the orally transmitted beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a group of people) are African in origin, given that slaves brought from Africa's West (or Gold) Coast made up a large majority of those brought to the region. Characters Very popular in terms of Caribbean story-telling, and a direct transfer from West Africa to the Caribbean are the Anancy Stories (Nancy Stories) told throughout the region. ''Ananse'' is the Asante word for spider. The trickster Anancy (also known as Ananci, Ananse, Anansi, Ananci Krokoko, and Brer Nancy), with his quick-witted intelligence and his knack for surviving the odds, often through trickery, is the most popular of this genre of African-Caribbean folk-tale characters, although there are other West African influences in folk story characters, including the hare (chief character in the Yoruba folktales) and the tortoise, which features in the stories of the Ibo people. In addition to these stories, Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perform some form of work while also having their location or residence dictated by the enslaver. Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, or suffering a military defeat; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as race. Slaves may be kept in bondage for life or for a fixed period of time, after which they would be granted freedom. Although slavery is usually involuntary and involves coercion, there are also cases where people voluntarily enter into slavery to pay a debt or earn money due to poverty. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civilization, and was legal in most societies, but it is now outlawed in most countries of the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mami Wata
Mami Wata (Mammy Water), or La Sirene, is a water spirit venerated in West, Central, and Southern Africa and in the African diaspora in the Americas. Mami Wata spirits are usually female but are sometimes male., p. 1. Attributes Appearance The appearance of her hair ranges from straight, curly to wooly black and combed straight back.Van Stipriaan 325.Bastian, Misty L"Nwaanyi Mara Mma: Mami Wata, the More Than Beautiful Woman" Department of Anthropology, Franklin & Marshall College. Most scholarly sources suggest the name "Mami Wata" is a pidgin English derivation of "Mother Water", reflecting the goddess's title ("mother of water" or "grandmother of water") in the Agni language of Côte d'Ivoire, although this etymology has been disputed by Africanist writers in favor of various non-English etymologies, for example, the suggestion of a linguistic derivation from ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian, such as the Egyptian terms "''Mami''" or "''Mama''", meaning "truth" "''Uati''" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folklore By Country
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, taking actions for folk beliefs, the forms and rituals of celebrations such as Christmas and weddings, folk dances and initiation rites. Each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact or traditional cultural expression. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next. Folklore is not something one can typically gain in a formal school curriculum or study in the fine arts. Instead, these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North American Folklore
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is related to the Old High German ''nord'', both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit *''ner-'', meaning "left; below" as north is to left when facing the rising sun. Similarly, the other cardinal directions are also related to the sun's position. The Latin word ''borealis'' comes from the Greek '' boreas'' "north wind, north", which, according to Ovid, was personified as the wind-god Boreas, the father of Calais and Zetes. ''Septentrionalis'' is from ''septentriones'', "the seven plow oxen", a name of ''Ursa Major''. The Greek ἀρκτικός (''arktikós'') is named for the same constellation, and is the source of the English word ''Arctic''. Other languages have other derivations. For example, in Lezgian, ''kefer'' can mean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribbean Culture
The term Caribbean culture summarizes the artistic, musical, literary, culinary, political and social elements that are representative of Caribbean people all over the world. As a collection of settler nations, the contemporary Caribbean has been shaped by waves of migration that have combined to form a unique blend of customs, cuisine, and traditions that have marked the socio-cultural development of the area. History The two ethnic cultures which are dominant in the music cultures of the English speaking Caribbean Caribbean culture results from Caribbean history and geography. Most of the Caribbean territories were inhabited and developed earlier than European colonies (1492- ) in the Americas, with the result that themes and symbols of pioneers, farmers, traders and slaves became important in the early development of Caribbean culture. British conquests in the Caribbean in 1759 brought a Francophone population under British rule, requiring compromise and accommoda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie-Elena John
Marie-Elena John is a Caribbean writer whose novel, ''Unburnable'', was published in 2006. She is an Africanist, development and women’s rights specialist, currently serving as the Senior Racial Justice Lead at UN Women. Biography John was born and raised in Antigua. After writing, she continued her career in international development and human rights. She has worked for the last decade at UN Women, the agency of the United Nations mandated with advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women. She currently serves as the Senior Racial Justice Lead. Earlier in her career, she was a development specialist, working at the African Development Foundation, the World Council of Churches’ Program to Combat Racism, and Global Rights (formerly the International Human Rights Law Group), where she worked in support of the pro-democracy movement in Nigeria and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is known especially for her work in the United Nations and at local and nation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels ('' Brown Girl in the Ring'', ''Midnight Robber'', '' The Salt Roads'', ''The New Moon's Arms'') and short stories such as those in her collection '' Skin Folk'' often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling. Hopkinson has edited two fiction anthologies ('' Whispers From the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction'' and '' Mojo: Conjure Stories''). She was the co-editor with Uppinder Mehan for the anthology '' So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future'', and with Geoff Ryman for ''Tesseracts 9''. Hopkinson defended George Elliott Clarke's novel ''Whylah Falls'' on the CBC's '' Canada Reads 2002''. She was the curator of ''Six Impossible Things'', an audio series of Canadian fantastical fiction on CBC Radio One. As of 2013, she lives and teaches in Riverside, California. In 2020, Hopkinson ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lagahoo
In the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago the Lagahoo or Lugarhou is a mythical shapeshifting monster. It is cousin to the French and the Germanic ''werewolf ''. It seems like a normal human by day, but this creature takes on the form of a man with no head, who roams the night with a wooden coffin on its neck. On top of the coffin are three lighted candles and the long loose end of a heavy iron chain, noosed around its waist, trails behind him. Often, it is seen with chains around its neck, which change size. One appendage is said to be turned backwards. It can shapeshift into various animals, including horses, pigs or goats, and said to often take the form of a creature similar to a centaur; it is also thought to be a blood sucker which is less than particular about its food source, making do with such animals as cows and goats. The Lagahoo also possesses the ability to alter its size from tiny to gigantic in an instant. To kill the Lagahoo one must beat the creature with a stic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soucouyant
The soucouyant or soucriant in Dominica, St. Lucian, Trinidadian, Guadeloupean folklore (also known as Loogaroo or Lougarou) in Haiti, Louisiana, Grenada and elsewhere in the Caribbean or Ole-Higue (also Ole Haig) in Guyana, Belize and Jamaica or Asema in Suriname), in The Bahamas and Barbados it is known as Hag. It is a kind of blood-sucking hag. Legend The ''soucouyant'' is a shapeshifting Caribbean folklore character who appears as a reclusive old woman by day. By night, she strips off her wrinkled skin and puts it in a mortar. In her true form, as a fireball she flies across the dark sky in search of a victim. The soucouyant can enter the home of her victim through any sized hole like cracks, crevices and keyholes. Soucouyants suck people's blood from their arms, necks, legs and soft parts while they sleep leaving blue-black marks on the body in the morning.Courtesy The Heritage Library via the Trinidad Guardian If the soucouyant draws too much blood, it is believed that t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mermaid
In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks, and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same traditions), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. The male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman, also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. Although traditions about and sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts. The male and the female collectively are sometimes referred to as merfolk or merpeople. The Western concept of mermaids as beautiful, seductive singers may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology, which were originally half-birdlike, but ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mama Dlo
Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent *Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels Places *Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlement in Mamsko-Chuysky District of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia *Mama Airport, an airport there *Mama (river), a tributary of the Vitim in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia *Mama Municipality, Yucatán, a municipality of Yucatán * Mama, Yucatán, the municipal seat of the Mama Municipality, Yucatán Anatomy *The breast, the upper ventral region of a mammal's torso; see: **Mamma (anatomy) of humans **Mammary gland of female mammals **Udder of female quadruped mammals Art, entertainment, and media People and fictional characters *Big Bad Mama, stage name of Lynn Braxton, professional wrestler from the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling *Big Mama, former manager of American professional wrestler Jimmy Valiant (born 1942) *Gemma Teller Morrow, a character on ''The Sons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, as well as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha ( United Kingdom Overseas Territory).Paul R. Masson, Catherine Anne Pattillo, "Monetary union in West Africa (ECOWAS): is it desirable and how could it be achieved?" (Introduction). International Monetary Fund, 2001. The population of West Africa is estimated at about million people as of , and at 381,981,000 as of 2017, of which 189,672,000 are female and 192,309,000 male. The region is demographically and economically one of the fastest growing on the African continent. Early history in West Africa included a number of prominent regional powers that dominated different parts of both the coastal and internal trade networks, suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
