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Books by
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
Before the Palm Could Bloom
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Becoming Ebony /
The River Is Rising /
Where the Road Turns
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Finding
My Family
By Patricia
Jabbeh Wesley
Good friend, please help me
Did you happen to see
two boys when you lived in Kataka?
One dark, chubby?
The other, light with dark eyes?
Good friend,
did you see them while you lived
in Ganta?
One would have been ten
and the other this tall.
My big boy, Nyema, the small one,
Doeteh.
Good friend, can you tell me
if they went to Tapeta?
Were they given weapons, did they
kill?
Good friend, can you say
if they walked to Bassa?
Did they starve to death?
Good friend, can you say
if there was a mother walking by
their side?
Was she healthy? was she treated
well?
Oh, good friend, so this is where
they took them out of line?
Good friend, were they hungry
when they met their end?
Oh, good friend, I will follow
to wrap up their bones.
Thank you, good friend
But how will I know their bones? |
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Where the Road Turns
By
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
In this her
fourth volume, I witness Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
courageously dipping her pen into her own wound and
splashing vivid imagery upon the canvas of her own
skin. That is an illusion, for that pen is really a
scalpel cutting the gangrenous and the rotten out of
her nation's violated flesh. But that too is an
illusion. That scalpel is a steel tongue in a
powerful Grebo woman's mouth weaving a fine gauze
from dirges, love songs, praise songs, fragments of
aphoristic wisdom, fables, new myths, narrative and
lyrical dialogues in order to bind our own wounded
psyches.
Proud Grebo
women's voices burst through her mouth to chastise
depraved men who harvest babies to stoke diamond
wars as they blaze through forests of dry human
bones in their imported death chariots. Beyond
celebrating these fiery taboo-breaking warrior women
who are passionate about peace, justice, their right
to forbidden fantasies, she also claims her place,
though exiled, in the lineage. Condemned to bear
upon her back her home, she is the strong earthen
vessel that safeguards the essential spiritual Grebo
values bequeathed to her by the village elders in a
circle. Because moving is never a leaving, memories
of home constantly surge through the poet's wry
humor and wit that serve as balm for the
ever-nagging pain. |
To honor her ancestors' memories Wesley has planted
these enduring trees whose fruits must nourish us all if
we are willing to avail ourselves of her poetic gifts.
These are brave and fearless poems in a harsh dark
season, yet necessary for the witness they bear to human
folly while insisting on our capacity to love. With each
new volume, her voice grows stronger as it blends with
those of Ama Ata Aidoo, Alda do Espirito Santo, and Jeni
Couzyn. She is without doubt among the most powerful of
the younger generation of African poets.—Frank
M. Chipasula, editor,
Bending the Bow: An Anthology of African Poetry/
co-editor of
The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry
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Pray the Devil Back to Hell
A film directed by Gini Reticker
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
is a captivating new film by director Gini Reticker. It
exposes a different story angle for the largely
forgotten recent events of the women of Liberia uniting
to bring the end to their nation's civil war. This film
is amazing in the way it captivates your attention from
the earliest frames. It doesn't shy away from showing
footage of the violent events that took place during the
Liberian civil war. But the main story of the film is
that of
Leymah Gbowee
and the other women uniting, despite their religious
differences, to force action on the stalled peace talks
in their country. Using entirely nonviolent methods, not
only are the peace talks successful, but Charles Taylor,
the president of Liberia, is forced into exile leading
to the first election of a female head of state in
Africa. The women of this film are truly an inspiration
and no one can fail to be moved by the message of hope
that comes through clearly in this film. These are
heroes that deserve to be remembered and with Pray the
Devil we are able to do that, gaining both a knowledge
of the history we are ignorant of through archival
footage and an understanding of the leaders of this
movement through close-up interviews with the many women
who lead it. The film also offers a great soundtrack &
inspirational song- "Djoyigbe" by Angelique Kidjo &
Blake Leyh.—Amazon
Reviewer |
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Mighty Be Our Powers
How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
By Leymah Gbowee
As a young woman, Leymah Gbowee was broken by the Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that tore apart her life and claimed the lives of countless relatives and friends. Years of fighting destroyed her country—and shattered Gbowee’s girlhood hopes and dreams. As a young mother trapped in a nightmare of domestic abuse, she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, propelled by her realization that it is women who suffer most during conflicts—and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. In 2003, the passionate and charismatic Gbowee helped organize and then led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest, confronting Liberia’s ruthless president and rebel warlords, and even held a sex strike. With an army of women, Gbowee helped lead her nation to peace—in the process emerging as an international leader who changed history. Mighty Be Our Powers is the gripping chronicle of a journey from hopelessness to empowerment that will touch all who dream of a better world.—Beast Books / Pray the Devil Back to Hell |
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Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf (video)* *
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 4 October 2008
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