names for where i’m from
7 August, 2007 | 1 comment | Category: ethnicity, love.of.words!, peace & conflict, thinking...
ethiopia. itiyopia.
abyssinia. habeshania.
kush. cush: nation?
ethiopiawit, abesha, habeshawit
ye kush sew, yeHagere Lij: country-fellow?
names make me wonder who “we” exactly are (this musing being with much more urgency and bafflement than the words ‘muse’ and ‘wonder’ relay.)
Who called whom those names to what end in the beginning?
There is a Ghanian proverb Sankofa, that describes the concept of reaching back to sprint forward. Sankofa is expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg, symbolizing the future, in its mouth.
“Sankofa” teaches that we must go back to our roots to understand why and how we came to be who we are today; to learn lessons from histories and mistakes in order to move forward. It is also necessary to go back and fetch the mistakes without shame so that they may be forgiven.
Each country is constructed through history. Each name derived and sculpted; at times, mystified due to a scramble of resources or a lack of information. Any country’s history is tainted with identity crises, nationbirth, nationrearing, nationbuilding. in no particular order.
The current condition of our adolescent human history opens up massive floodgates for a wad of people asking: who am I? It’s a complex paradox: the flat world is busily chopping up “indigenous/native” sentiments because of increasing immigration and intermarriages while the round globe is raving-mad replete with ethnic tension.collision.explosion.collateral damage…where i am from included.
It has always been time for fighting for resources. Now it is the time to fight for the pride turf, for “me” and those i believe are mine: who i am roars that I claim what’s rightfully mine!
oh i wouldn’t be great if we had a way to correctly transport back to the past without the excess baggage of history?
And then, only then can the real though work can finally begin: peaceful reconciliation. did desmond tutu end up coauthoring an “idiot’s guide to…”? i need a remote control. what a success for a country to have gone through apartheid and back! fast forward to reconciliation of ethiopia. click. play.
oxfordClassicalLiterature.companion
Ethiopia, the land of the ‘burnt-faced men’ (Aithi?p?s) according to the Greeks, situated with vague delimitations in north Africa, between the equator, the Red Sea, and the Atlantic, but especially describing the lands south of Egypt. Aeschylus had the Ethiopians extend to India, and Herodotus distinguishes between straight-haired (Asian) and curly-haired (Libyan) Ethiopians. Neither Greeks nor Romans penetrated further south than Meroë, and consequently their accounts of the various Ethiopian tribes are scanty and confused.
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Graying of these here Pink Shades
- The Uncomfortable Truth: Nneka
- Flattery: Fast-tracking Success?
- Murky
- Kill Aid!
names for where i’m from
7 August, 2007 | No comments | Category: for.the.love.of.words!, nation & ethnicity, peace & conflict, thinking...
ethiopia. itiyopia.
abyssinia. habeshania.
kush. cush: nation?
ethiopiawit, abesha, habeshawit
ye kush sew, yeHagere Lij: country-fellow?
names make me wonder who “we” exactly are (this musing being with much more urgency and bafflement than the words ‘muse’ and ‘wonder’ relay.)
Who called whom those names to what end in the beginning?
There is a Ghanian proverb Sankofa, that describes the concept of reaching back to sprint forward. Sankofa is expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg, symbolizing the future, in its mouth.
“Sankofa” teaches that we must go back to our roots to understand why and how we came to be who we are today; to learn lessons from histories and mistakes in order to move forward. It is also necessary to go back and fetch the mistakes without shame so that they may be forgiven.
Each country is constructed through history. Each name derived and sculpted; at times, mystified due to a scramble of resources or a lack of information. Any country’s history is tainted with identity crises, nationbirth, nationrearing, nationbuilding. in no particular order.
The current condition of our adolescent human history opens up massive floodgates for a wad of people asking: who am I? It’s a complex paradox: the flat world is busily chopping up “indigenous/native” sentiments because of increasing immigration and intermarriages while the round globe is raving-mad replete with ethnic tension.collision.explosion.collateral damage…where i am from included.
It has always been time for fighting for resources. Now it is the time to fight for the pride turf, for “me” and those i believe are mine: who i am roars that I claim what’s rightfully mine!
oh i wouldn’t be great if we had a way to correctly transport back to the past without the excess baggage of history?
And then, only then can the real though work can finally begin: peaceful reconciliation. did desmond tutu end up coauthoring an “idiot’s guide to…”? i need a remote control. what a success for a country to have gone through apartheid and back! fast forward to reconciliation of ethiopia. click. play.
oxfordClassicalLiterature.companion
Ethiopia, the land of the ‘burnt-faced men’ (Aithi?p?s) according to the Greeks, situated with vague delimitations in north Africa, between the equator, the Red Sea, and the Atlantic, but especially describing the lands south of Egypt. Aeschylus had the Ethiopians extend to India, and Herodotus distinguishes between straight-haired (Asian) and curly-haired (Libyan) Ethiopians. Neither Greeks nor Romans penetrated further south than Meroë, and consequently their accounts of the various Ethiopian tribes are scanty and confused.
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Graying of these here Pink Shades
- When I’m Back
- The Uncomfortable Truth: Nneka
- Flattery: Fast-tracking Success?
- Opposite Sides of the Border