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"Addresses a real need: a scholarly and ritually informed reading of spirituality in the work of a major African American author. No other work catalogues so thoroughly the grounding of Morrison's work in African cosmogonies. Zauditu-Selassie's many readings of Ba Kongo and Yoruba spiritual presence in Morrison's work are incomparably detailed and generally convincing."--Keith Cartwright, University of North Florida Toni Morrison herself has long urged for organic critical readings of her works. K. Zauditu-Selassie delves deeply into African spiritual traditions, clearly explaining the meanings of African cosmology and epistemology as manifest in Morrison's novels. The result is a comprehens...
The year is 1929. The place is Los Angeles, a segregated city as race-restrictive as the Deep South. There are three things that are very clear to Viola. First, her sister Iola is in grave spiritual trouble and needs assistance. Second, she, herself, needs to make some major life changes despite the myriad obstacles standing in her way. Third, she must bring her two nieces to New Orleans to begin their initiations, or they will suffer the same fate as Iola. The Second Line is an intergenerational story of spiritual adventure that vibrantly weaves through the shadows of a family's fight for survival, power, and legacy. About the Author K. Zauditu Selassie received her MFA in creative writing ...
An invaluable collection of vivid conversion narratives and autobiographies by illiterate but powerfully articulate ex-slaves, God Struck Me Dead is a window into the soul of America and its religious history. Gathered from the Fisk Social Science Institute's massive study during the 1930s on race relations, and originally published by the Pilgrim Press in 1969, this volume is a rich resource of liberation from those whose faith was borne and tested by the cruelest of human degradations - slavery. Includes a preface by Paul Radin, author and expert on primal religion.
Acclaimed R&B singer Bettye LaVette celebrates her storied career in show business in this compelling memoir. As a teenager in Detroit, Bettye LaVette had a hit single with “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man.” By the time she was twenty, she had faded back into obscurity and was barely surviving in New York City. For the next forty years, despite being associated with legends such as Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown, she remained relatively unknown outside a circle of devoted fans. Every time it seemed that her dream of stepping into the spotlight was finally coming true, bad luck smashed her hopes, again and again. Then, after a lifetime of singing in clubs and l...
When Toni Morrison died in August 2019, she was widely remembered for her contributions to literature as an African American woman, an identity she wore proudly. Morrison was clear that she wrote from a Black, female perspective and for others who shared her identity. But just as much as she was an African American writer, Toni Morrison was a woman of faith. Morrison filled her novels with biblical allusions, magic, folktales, and liberated women, largely because Christianity, African American folk magic, and powerful women defined her own life. She grew up with family members who could interpret dreams, predict the future, see ghosts, and go about their business. Her relatives, particularly...
A book of prayer for Orisha (Yoruba dieties) written in English by a priestess of Obatala. This book will be useful to anyone interested in African spirituality.
A haunting and affecting meditation on love from the Nobel-prize winning author of Beloved. May, Christine, Heed, Junior, Vida – even L – all are women obsessed with Bill Cosey. He shapes their yearnings for a father, husband, lover, guardian, and friend. This audacious vision from a master storyteller on the nature of love – its appetite, its sublime possession, and its consuming dread – is rich in characters and dramatic events, and in its profound sensitivity to just how alive the past can be. Sensual, elegiac and unforgettable, Love ultimately comes full circle to that indelible, overwhelming first love that marks us forever. Winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow award for achievement in American fiction ‘Love is her best work...a slender but mesmerising tale’ Evening Standard
This engaging and informative historical narrative provides an excellent introduction to the history of Ethiopia from the classical era through the modern age. The acute historical analysis contained in this volume allows readers to critically interrogate shifting global power configurations from the late nineteenth century to the twentieth century, and the related implications in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa region. Adejumobi identifies a second wave of globalization, beginning in the nineteenth century, which laid the foundation for a highly textured Ethiopian Afromodern twentieth century. The book explores Ethiopia's efforts at charting an independent course in the face of imperialism,...
Over the years little has been written about the remarkable life of Empress Menen Asfaw (April 3, 1891-February 15, 1962), who was the wife of the last reigning Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Sellassie I. With this first time translation and publication of her biography, readers can become reacquainted with the life of Empress Menen and the great contribution she made to her faith, her nation and her family. The foundation for this biography is a rare book entitled, "Her Imperial Majesty Menen Asfaw" which was written shortly after her passing in 1962. The original book has been translated from the ancient Ge'ez language of Ethiopia to Amharic and then to English. To make this a true reflection ...
In Nomads in the Shadows of Empires Gufu Oba presents accounts of why the legacies of banditry and ethnic conflicts have proved so difficult to resolve along the southern Ethiopian and northern Kenyan frontier. Using interpretative and comparative methods to dialogue the relationships between different political actors on both sides of the frontier, the work captures the dynamics of political events related to imperial contests over borders and trans-frontier treaty. A complex evolution of inter-societal relations, as well as the relations between partitioned nomads and the imperial states had resulted in persistent conflicts. This work improves the understanding why frontier pastoralists continue to experience conflict over land, even after the transfer of the tribal territories to the imperial and postcolonial states. Please click here to watch an interview with the author in Oromo.