Enter Mr. Riley

need i say more....
in ya dis ya time

This Bitch of a Life

Fela Anikulapo Kuti
honoured to present the high priest of the kalatuta republic
on the side bar of visionaries deh (s'about time!)
das him pon stage doin his ting
bin havin a Fela moment in dis here past daze
and was dying to catch the musical, if it happen to him our shores
then i came across this:


"....At issue is the alleged flagrant misuse of copyright by the producers who, when their paltry offer of $4000 for stage and film rights was turned down by Moore, several years ago, went ahead nonetheless and created the musical, presumably thinking that the author would never have the resources to challenge them.  They were wrong: he received the backing of a group of respected and highly principled African Americans. Their support indicates a growing infuriation with corrupt and unscrupulous impresarios and producers who find it acceptable to violate the intellectual property of creative artists for their own profit and gain."
bookaholic got more on that here.


but Tenisio Seanima has the latest exclusive on the saga
more detailed and much more informed
and you can catch Dr Carlos Moore here
in ya dis ya time

Negro with a Hat

Hon Marcus Mosiah Garvey
Das him deh on da side bar chillin with his hat
Negro with a Hat is the title of the book by one Collin Grant:
"....the exhibition of “The Dandy in Photography” that toured the UK that year was conforming to type with its alluring, black and white images of Cecil Beaton, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward & co, when half-way round the gallery, I was pulled up sharply by one print – the profile of an anonymous black man wearing a fedora.The caption read: ‘Negro with Hat’. Adjacent to it was another portrait by the same photographer; it showed a white man in fancy dress wearing a theatrical turban. It’s title: ‘Man with Hat.’ The juxtaposition seemed to pose a question: is a Negro not a man?"
you can read the  rest of the intro  here.
and also check out the review of the book by one Jeremy Taylor which i think is succinct and such a pleasure to read


in ya dis ya time.

Haile Gerima - tellin it like it is

I respect this man
waht mo can i say
a truest storyteller
very rare
in ya dis ya time

oh and yu can check out part two here

Isangoma: Urban Shaman

A film by Zanele Muholi

In ya dis ya time

Linea 105 - Cento Cinque

there is a circulating joke among insiders

that goes sumtin like this:

do yu kno what the 105 [105 is the bus number] stands for?

It stands fo; 100 foreigners and 5 italians including the bus driver riding in that bus

And that’s not far from the truth

The bus leaves from termini [rome central station] up to grotte celoni along via Casalina

105 is not only 105 but its express tho it makes all the stops along the route

And its almost the only bus that covers that casalina route

And as an insider you will know that that is where you will find the immigrants in rome

That’s where most of us live and all the immigrants shops and businesses are located

You will be overwhelmed by the number of foreign faces packed in that bus

the route goes sumthing like this:

Remembering Funk

For as far back as i rememba

me always organized mah music in biographical order

The stages in my life’s trajectory

Those memorable events that shaped us into who we are today and going forwards

Those never to happen again but never to be forgotten

Those life shaping moments

I particularly rememba mah groove soul funk period

The seventies funk the cheek and sleek of it all!

t’was Graem aka Boeta G pon the decks who was making us groove and gyrate

Back in cape town otherwise known as Kaap Staad 

at a place call 206 with a red chillie sign hanging there

Down in the basement and up pon the roof top

upstairs we usually skanked to some reggae beats

while downstairs would usually be funk hip hop jungle drum n’ bass

Live bands dj sets afro funk seventies funk cape town funk

Muslim gals foreign blondes local dreadies and dem gugulethu rude bwoys

Everybodi and anybodi,  burning down the house at 206

Dub master China was in the running of tings even then

and the Fong Kong Bantu Sound System was still not conceived even then

and Moodphase 5ive was still an underground band/outfit then

and DJ Ntone had not started Chimurenga then

he was heavily rotating in the dj circles

and he would hit us with his own special blend of funkadelic afro souol funk

of days gone by  long side Boeta G 

t’was about grooving t’was all about blending

Tings times space moment

They happen they don  happen

They become memories trajectories

To be encountered and perhaps retold

For what is man without his story…

A wombman for iver lives out her story

In ya dis ya time