Snapshot: Pati Gbos Gbos

so wi dae na di pati oh
mi tinap
mi man lap
na im wan oda bra grap
bigin mek yap yap

dem bonga raray man vibes
wey dem kin don chak
tae i trifut imsef
trowe im respap
doti mi nyu trosis
wey ah buy na di Gap

ah noh lef am gi am oh
ah pak am slap
i bokul mi
ah ondaswet am en swip am
i fodom bap


Response by Naiambana
----

Pat Naiambana
yeah Les, I'm thinking of changing my name to Pat Bai Naiambana-Bureh

One of the best productions I have ever been in for sheer creative linguistic brilliance and social relevance was Dele Charley's Makuba. A Krio rendition of Shakespeare's Macbeth -a story about a military commander who killed to become King aided and abetted by his ambitious ... See Morewife. A site specific production at the Paramount Hotel in 1984. We played under a huge mango tik. tik, thick, stick, get it? Used the terraces and the grounds for various exits and entrances. It was no mere adaptation or translation either but a faithful tracing and matching of Shakespeare's word play and rhythmic pentametre blank verse structure in Krio. At the same time utterly original and faithful to Sierra Leonean culture and political landscape. We performed in modern Sierra Leone Army uniform. The language imagery was so beautiful, profound and striking that even a group of peace corp first timers to Sa Lone understood the play but were not familiar with Krio. In this Diasporic Global World, The African Diaspora, the Krio language in particular contains enormous potential for intercultural dialogue and social change. Makuba was one of Dele's masterpiece. In the UK in 88, whilst trudging the cold empty of gold London pavements I tried to tell him so but the inexorable pull towards legitimacy by the dominant entertainment paradigms seemed to cause him to doubt that Makuba was/is really that good a play. Krio is not simply a derivative off-shoot of colonial domination but a supreme example of human potential to re-invent and flourish. Frogs and bats cant speak or save themselves from extinction. Krio is an example of Africans speaking themselves into being and the future.

I have also been in a competent Nigerian patois adaptation of Macbeth, didnt come close to Dele's technical mastery or the poetic power of krio. The utter lack of an awareness of the supernatural in Western Theatre makes swathes of Shakespeare arid but not so in African world views or Sa Lone socio-cosmology, just to mention one example of where we creatively sparkle with aesthetic options.

The same could be said for Dele's One Paun Flesh - The Merchant of Venice - this is hardly ever played with laughs anywhere in the world - but in the Sa Lone context it was serious and tear-streaming hilarious. The Jew Shylock became Sarjoh di Fula man. But the business flair and protectiveness of Fula man for en gyal piken was not the dark prism it normally is in the eurocentric perspective. Denis Nelson-Streeter, who played Sarjoh (Shylock) I have always maintained is one of the world's most brilliant storytellers and captivating comedians. In his hands this role matched maybe transcended Pacino's very strong portrayal (check the DVD of the film) simply because the Sa Lone perspective allowed a humorous pathos - we have a way of putting political correctness firmly in it's place and therefore deal honestly with and transcend dilemmas of difference. Look at the way someone might say - 'mi mama na bin haf cast'.

I have played some of the biggest theatre gigs in the UK and we are more than in the mix with a lot to offer- with our aesthetic sensibilities allayed to an art for life's sake quotient we should be a lot more visible than we are. Given the proximity of the English language, history, culture to our jazz processes of creolization we should not be invisible. Perhaps Culture-preneurship is a way forward. Sorry for the essay folks, but we must value what we have, what is inalienably ours. Clues to Change paradigms for Sa Lone/Africa lie in the untapped aptitude for innovation and adaptability embedded in our cultural forms. Madeleine lets keep looking for that moment to suture forces and resources. ;-) I will go back to a few lines here and there now Les - Dele Charley was a monumental artist and teacher, a leader, a humble man. Got to be said. Sad thing is - I remember Dele Charley presenting a script for Blood of a Stranger to a major UK theatre. They didnt understand the place of dance as narrative within the text and dismissed it. It was also a political critique of european and african complicity in the exploitation of land. I faced a similar resistance with my gigs but not from audiences. So what's the moral of the story?

stori cam, stori go, e lef pan u!