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Yimhotep >as far as that I concerned, >I don't know… I won't >even really call it "guilt" >because I think that guilt >is a useless, bourgeois concept…
this is true, "guilt" i've been told, is not a feeling we traditionally give much credence. but u knew what i was getting @.
>but I just wish there >was something I could do.
this statement is particularly funny since in nearly the same breath u say
"I hope to use my art >to "represent" where I'm from >and at the very least >give it more of a >profile. "
media well is just that, a nmedium for the transmittal of info. now instead of telling oral histories we rely on television, radioetc. to transmit our info, including our self-image. So what u r doing is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (enough o's?) crucial, i think that is one of the best ways, using art and media to transmit an accurate self-image. if i were so inclined i would love to make short films that show our connections. we do so many things similarly africans onthe continent and africans thruout the diaspora, often those in the diaspora don't realize where we get it from (shamefully, i just learnt a couple of months ago that some of the words i use often in jamaican patois are Twi, b4 i was just like "there's no english equivalent! isn't that cool?")
>I know I can't be president >(for various reasons) but you >know, I'm an artist… one of the things >that eats me up here >as an African living in >the States is the invisibility >you endure… it's like you >don't exist. people know you're >from Africa, but that's all… >nobody cares to know which >country (most people seem to >think Africa IS a country) >and definitely not which "nation" >(I really appreciated you asking >that, btw, and not saying >"tribe"). when you watch a >movie that features, say, American >actors acting as French people, >they'll all learn French and >make sure all the accents >and settings are accurate. even >some shit like Star Wars >and Star Trek… they need >to make sure the Klingon >language or what have you >is accurate.
i never actually thought about that ppl never just say "so and so's european and leave it @ that, they say "Irish (and definitely due to numbers alone, u could call that a tribe in comparison to say Yoruba), or Kurdish, Serb, French, English, Spanish, Italian." i kinda know what u mean tho' i mean everybody w/ an accent is Jamaican as long as u have dreads and we probably have Bob to thank for that. when ppl say somebody had a jamaican accent that means nothing to me b/c dude could be from grenada or something.
>that's >why, as a filmmaker, I'm >really trying to develop the >movie industry in Nigeria, which >I guess looks like a >sort of trivial and even >decadent concern for a country >with so many other problems.
well i guess i addressed this above, it sounds like u know what u want to do. we need ppl everywhere yeah? not everyone has to be president and chances r u'll have a much more widespread influence than the president of Nigeria could.
>people aren't making stupid >Survivor shows there and saying >"it's a jungle out there!")
pre-sept. 11th, i was waiting for Survivor: NYC to come out, b/c ppl who live there r the one's "surviving" but know i doubt that any such thing would happen and to suggest one at the very _least_ would be seen as "not in good taste." ![](./images/happy.gif)
>oh yeah... i didn't answer your >questions about my expectations and >stuff... i'll get to that.
no prob.
Shemhotep ************ "Be not arrogant because of your knowledge. Take counsel with the ignorant as well as with the wise. For the limits of knowledge in any field have never been set and no one has ever reached them. Wisdom is rarer than emeralds, and yet it is found among the women who gather at the grindstones." -The Book of Ptahhotep(excerpt)
Kemetian -------------------------------------- check it out: www.natureworksforyou.co m
"Pour libation for your father and mother who rest in the valley of the dead. God will witness your action and accept it. Do not forget to do this
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