Jetzt hat die Soullounge mal Pause. In der Zwischenzeit schaut bei http://reiseliebe.eu vorbei, dort werden wir über unsere Reise schreiben.

For now the Soullounge is on pause. In the meantime you can check out my travelblog http://reiseliebe.eu about our trip in Namibia.

One more week to go… My first trip to Africa. Supposedly Namibia is the most european of all african countries based on the fact, that many German descendants live there and parts of their culture mingled with the namibian culture. Whatever we think of this, at least it makes it easier to find access to Africa because many people speak English or German.

I have no idea what is to be expected. We do, what all tourists do in Namibia. Travelling through the country with the car, go on safaris and admire the landscape. One of my motivation was that I fell in love with the desert on my last trip through the USA. And there is a lot of desert in Namibia.

The desert is very special for me. There is not much which distracts your eyes. It is mysterious and has a certain aura of danger. As long as you sit in your car and you have enough water and gas, it is no problem. But without these two factors you might be dead. The desert is not friendly to human nature. But it brings you back to yourself, if you let the desert get to you. You have to respect the beauty and power of it. As a reward you’ll get a little peace of mind back - and the most beautiful sunrises and sundowns. Driving to the desert is almost like meditation, in a sense.

Africa - it is so exciting to go back to the roots of everything, so to say. To travel to a place where people think and live completely different then in Europe or America. My first time. I travelled a lot, but I was never so far away from my own cultural environment, as I will be now in a short time. Maybe I won’t even like it, but I will only know once I have been there.

It is a strange feeling to travel to a country, where the discrepancy between the poor and the rich is so extreme. I am not sure, how I will react to it. Will I get guilt feelings for my life here? Or will I realize once and for all, that wealthiness is very relative?

There is a lot to find out and learn for me.

Nächste Woche geht es los… Meine erste Reise nach Afrika. Es heißt ja, dass Namibia das europäischste aller afrikanischen Länder ist aufgrund der Tatsache, das viele Deutschstämmige dort leben und auch Teile ihrer Kultur sich dort mit der afrikanischen vermischt haben. Was auch immer man davon halten mag, es macht es zumindest leichter, einen ersten Zugang zu Afrika zu finden, da man mit Englisch und Deutsch relativ problemlos durchkommt.

Ich habe keine Vorstellung, was mich dort wirklich erwartet. Wir machen das, was Touristen in Namibia eben so machen. Mit dem Auto durchs Land reisen, die eine oder andere Safari und die Landschaft bestaunen. Ein Grund war, dass ich mich bei meiner letzten USA Reise in die Wüste verliebt habe. Und davon gibt es in Namibia reichlich.

Die Wüste ist ein ganz spezieller Ort für mich. Es gibt nicht viel, was das Auge ablenkt. Es ist geheimnisvoll und hat eine Aura des Gefährlichen. Solange man in seinem Auto sitzt und genug Wasser und Benzin dabei hat, ist alles kein Problem. Aber würden diese zwei Faktoren wegfallen, dann wäre man vielleicht tot. Die Wüste bringt einem zu sich selbst zurück, wenn man sich darauf einlässt. Man muss ihre Schönheit und Macht bewundern und respektieren. Als Belohnung bekommt man ein bisschen Seelenfrieden zurück - und die schönsten Sonnenauf- und untergänge. Fahren durch die Wüste ist fast wie Meditation.

Afrika - es ist aufregend, sozusagen an den Ursprung zurückzukehren. An einen Ort zu reisen, wo die Menschen ganz anders denken und leben als in Europa oder Amerika. Das erste Mal für mich. Ich bin zwar viel gereist, aber ich war noch nie so weit von meinem eigenen Kulturkreis entfernt wie ich es bald das erste Mal sein werde. Vielleicht gefällt es mir ja auch überhaupt nicht, das weiß ich erst, wenn ich es erlebt habe.

Es ist ein merkwürdiges Gefühl in ein Land zu reisen, in dem die Unterschiede zwischen Arm und Reich so extrem sind. Ich weiß nicht, wie ich darauf reagiere. Werde ich Schuldgefühle bekommen für mein Leben hier? Oder werde ich ein für allemal feststellen, dass Reichtum relevant ist?

Es gibt viel zu lernen für mich.

This is a great song. Obviously Matisyahu is around for a few years, but I only discovered him a few weeks ago. The first time I listened to jewish reggae. I love the good energy coming from the song and it is definitely unique.

Jacob Holdt (geb. 1947 in Kopenhagen) ist in den Siebzigern fünf Jahre durch Amerika getrampt und lebte dort von der Hand in den Mund. In den Ghettos der USA wuchs sein Interesse für das “schwarze Amerika” und deren Lebensbedingungen. Angefangen mit der Fotografie hat er, weil seine Eltern in Dänemark seinen Berichten über die schlimmen Zustände keinen Glauben schenkten. Bei seiner Heimkehr hat er ca. 15.000 Bilder mitgebracht. Sein Buch “American Pictures” entstand 1977 mit einer Auswahl aus seinem Werk. Er war nicht vorrangig an einer Veröffentlichung interessiert, sondern es ging ihm hauptsächlich darum, den Rassismus und die gesellschaftlichen Missstände an den Pranger zu stellen.

Man muss das Buch nicht kaufen, auf seiner Webseite http://www.american-pictures.com/ sind inzwischen 20.000 Bilder veröffentlicht. Außerdem erfährt man eine Menge über seine Reisen und seine Person.

Mich hat es am meisten berührt, dass man hier spürt, dass Jacob Holdt nicht als Außenstehender agiert hat. Sondern er hat mit den Menschen auf gleicher Ebene geliebt und gelebt.

Das drücken seine Bilder aus, sie sind persönlich und sehr eindringlich.

“Hier geht es nicht um ein Alphatier auf Entdeckungstour, sondern um einen Mann, der sich hingibt, ohne Unterlass und ohne Bedenken, politisch, emotional, sexuell. ” (Christoph Ribbat)

A portrait of Jacob Holdt - Videos

Jacob Holdt (born 1947 in Kopenhagen) hitchiked in the seventies for five years through the United States and lived basically with no money. In the Ghettos of the US his interest in the “Black America” and their living circumstances grew strong. He started with photography because his parents in Denmark did not believe his reports about the bad situation he found in America. When he returned home, he brought back 15.000 pictures. His book “American Pictures” was published 1977 with a selection from his work. He wasn’t particularly interested in publishing, mainly he wanted to pillor racism and deplorable circumstances.

One doesn’t have to purchase the book. On his website http://www.american-pictures.com/ 20.000 pictures are published. Additionally you learn a lot about his trip, his experiences and his personality.

What touched me the most is that you can tell that Jacob Holdt did not operate as an outsider. He lived and loved on the same level with the people. His pictures are expressing this, they are personal and very intense.

“This is not about an alpha-man on discovery-tour, but a man who devotes himself without cease and doubts, politically, emotionally and sexually.” (Christoph Ribbat)

A portrait of Jacob Holdt - Videos

In Mainz gibt es einen neuen Soul-Club, der nur Samstags offen hat. Die Musik ist super, die Einrichtung nett und gemütlich, es gibt reichlich Platz zum Tanzen. Der Club hat erst vor drei Wochen aufgemacht, deshalb ist noch nicht soviel los. Aber das ändert sich hoffentlich bald.

————–

A new club opened in Mainz, which is only open Saturdays. The music is great, the place is nice and cozy and there is enough space for dancing. The club only opened three weeks ago, so it is still a little quiet. But that will change soon hopefully.

Hier ist die Wegbeschreibung / Directions

Am Samstag, 5. Juli 2008 ab 16.00 Uhr findet in Rüsselsheim im Biergarten “Waldbembelsche”, Rüsselsheim Ostpark ein Free Open Air Concert statt, das man nicht verpassen sollte.

Es spielen Jonny Rogers, Pamela O’Neal & RonN mit

P.C. Bryant & Vance McKinzie - Guitars
Stephan Schöner - Keyboard
Dieter Schnapka - E-BassTommy Harris - Drums &
Backing Vocals “Pure Voices”

Special Guest: DJ Danny B. from Atlanta, Georgia

Und dann geht es gleich weiter am Sonntag, 6. Juli 2008 ab 13.00 Uhr am gleichen Ort mit dem Afrikatag 2008:

Das Programm findet ihr hier.

The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Historically, the Gullah region once extended north to the Cape Fear area on the coast of North Carolina and south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on the coast of Florida; but today the Gullah area is confined to the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country. The Gullah people are also called Geechee, especially in Georgia.

The Gullah are known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. They speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and significant influences from African languages in grammar and sentence structure. The Gullah language is related to Jamaican Creole, Bahamian Dialect, and the Krio language of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Gullah storytelling, foodways, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions, etc. all exhibit strong influences from West and Central African cultures.

History

The name “Gullah” may derive from Angola where many of the Gullahs’ ancestors originated. Some scholars have also suggested it comes from Gola, an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa, another region where many of the Gullahs’ ancestors originated. The name “Geechee,” another common name for the Gullah people, may come from Kissi (pronounced “geezee”), an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Some scholars have also suggested Native American origins for these words. The Spanish called the South Carolina and Georgia coastal region Guale after a Native American tribe, and the Ogeechee River, a prominent geographical feature in coastal Georgia, takes its name from a Creek Indian word. Regardless of the origins of these names, though, it is clear that Gullah language and culture have strong connections to the African continent.

African roots

Most of the Gullahs’ ancestors were brought to the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country through the ports of Charleston and Savannah. Charleston was the most important port in North America for the Atlantic slave trade. Almost half of the enslaved Africans brought into what is now the United States came through that one port. Savannah was also active in the Atlantic slave trade, but on a much smaller scale than Charleston.

The largest group of Africans brought into Charleston and Savannah came from the West African rice-growing region that stretches from what are now Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in the north to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in the south. South Carolina and Georgia rice planters once called this region the “Rice Coast”—indicating its importance as a source of skilled African labor for their own rice industry—but modern historians call it the “Upper Guinea Coast.” The second-largest group of Africans brought through these ports came from the Congo and Angola regions in Central Africa. Smaller numbers also were imported from the Gold Coast (what is now Ghana) and the West Indies.

Origin of Gullah culture

The Gullah region once extended from SE North Carolina to NE Florida.

The Gullah people have been able to preserve so much of their African cultural heritage because of geography, climate, and patterns of importation of enslaved Africans. By the mid-1700s, the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country was covered by thousands of acres of rice fields. African farmers from the “Rice Coast” brought the skills for cultivation and tidal irrigation that made rice one of the most successful industries in early America.

The semi-tropical climate that made the Low Country such an excellent place for rice production also made it vulnerable to the spread of malaria and yellow fever. These tropical diseases were carried by mosquitoes that were brought unintentionally aboard the slave ships that came from Africa. The mosquitoes bred in the swamps and inundated rice fields of the Low Country. Malaria and yellow fever soon became endemic in the region.

Africans were far more resistant to tropical fevers than the European slave owners. The white population of the Low Country grew at a slower rate than the black population because the land was devoted to large plantations. More and more enslaved Africans were brought as laborers into the Low Country as the rice industry expanded. By about 1708 South Carolina had a black majority. Coastal Georgia later acquired its own black majority after rice cultivation expanded there in the mid-1700s, and malaria and yellow fever became endemic. Fearing disease, many white planters left the Low Country during the rainy spring and summer months when fever ran rampant. They left their African “rice drivers,” or overseers, in charge of the plantations. Working on large plantations with hundreds of laborers, and with African traditions reinforced by new imports from the same regions, the Gullahs developed a culture in which elements of African languages, cultures, and community life were preserved to a high degree. Their culture was quite different from that of slaves in states like Virginia and North Carolina where slaves lived in smaller settlements and had more sustained contact with whites.

Gullah customs and traditions

African influences are found in every aspect of the Gullahs’ traditional way of life:

• The Gullah word “guber” for peanut derives from the KiKongo word “N’guba.”

• Gullah rice dishes called “red rice” and “okra soup” are similar to West African “jollof rice” and “okra soup”. Jollof rice is a style of cooking brought by the Wolof and Mandé peoples of West Africa. ^[1]

• The Gullah version of “gumbo” has its roots in African cooking. “Gumbo” is derived from a word in the Umbundu language of Angola, meaning “okra.”

• Gullah rice farmers once used the mortar and pestle and “fanner” (winnowing basket) similar to tools used by West African rice farmers.

• Gullah beliefs about “hags” and “haunts” are similar to African beliefs about malevolent ancestors, witches, and “devils” (forest spirits).

• Gullah “root doctors” protect their clients against dangerous spiritual forces using similar ritual objects to those employed by African medicine men.

• Gullah herbal medicines are similar to traditional African remedies.

• The Gullah “seekin” ritual is similar to coming of age ceremonies in West African secret societies like Poro and Sande.

• The Gullah “ring shout” is similar to ecstatic religious rituals performed in West and Central Africa.

• Gullah stories about “Bruh Rabbit” are similar to West and Central African trickster tales about the clever and conniving rabbit, spider, and tortoise.

• Gullah spirituals, shouts, and other musical forms employ the “call and response” method commonly used in African music.

• Gullah “sweetgrass baskets” are almost identical to coil baskets made by the Wolof people in Senegal.

• Gullah “strip quilts” mimic the design of cloth woven with the traditional strip loom used throughout West Africa. The famous kente cloth from Ghana is woven on the strip loom.

• The folk song Michael Row the Boat Ashore (or Michael Row Your Boat Ashore) comes from the Gullah culture.

Civil War period

When the U.S. Civil War began, the Union rushed to blockade the Confederate shipping. White planters on the Sea Islands, fearing an invasion by the US naval forces, abandoned their plantations and fled to the mainland. When Union forces arrived on the Sea Islands in 1861, they found the Gullah people eager for their freedom, and eager as well to defend it. Many Gullahs served with distinction in the Union Army’s First South Carolina Volunteers. The Sea Islands were the first place in the South where slaves were freed. Long before the War ended, Quaker missionaries from Pennsylvania came down to start schools for the newly freed slaves. Penn Center, now a Gullah community organization on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina Wadmalaw Island,Johns Island and James Island, began as the very first school for freed slaves.

After the Civil War ended, the Gullahs’ isolation from the outside world actually increased in some respects. The rice planters on the mainland gradually abandoned their farms and moved away from the area because of labor issues and hurricane damage to crops. Free blacks were unwilling to work in the dangerous and disease-ridden rice fields. A series of hurricanes devastated the crops in the 1890s. Left alone in remote rural areas in the Low Country, the Gullahs continued to practice their traditional culture with little influence from the outside world well into the 20th Century.

Modern times

In recent years the Gullah people—led by Penn Center and other determined community groups—have been fighting to keep control of their traditional lands. Since the 1960s, resort development on the Sea Islands has threatened to push Gullahs off family lands they have owned since emancipation, but they have fought back against uncontrolled development on the islands through community action, the courts, and the political process.

The Gullahs have also struggled to preserve their traditional culture. In 2005, the Gullah community unveiled a translation of the New Testament in the Gullah language (a project that took more than 20 years to complete). The Gullahs achieved another victory in 2006 when the U.S. Congress passed the “Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Act” that provides $10 million over ten years for the preservation and interpretation of historic sites relating to Gullah culture. The “heritage corridor” will extend from southern North Carolina to northern Florida. The project will be administered by the US National Park Service with strong input from the Gullah community.

Gullahs have also reached out to West Africa. Gullah groups made three celebrated “homecomings” to Sierra Leone in 1989, 1997, and 2005. Sierra Leone is at the heart of the traditional rice-growing region of West Africa where many of the Gullahs’ ancestors originated. Bunce Island, the British slave castle in Sierra Leone, sent many African captives to Charleston and Savannah during the mid- and late 1700s. These dramatic homecomings were the subject of three documentary films—”Family Across the Sea” (1990), “The Language You Cry In” (1998), and “Priscilla’s Homecoming” (in production).

Over the years, the Gullahs have attracted many historians, linguists, folklorists, and anthropologists interested in their rich cultural heritage. Many academic books on that subject have been published. The Gullah have also become a symbol of cultural pride for blacks throughout the United States and a subject of general interest in the media. This has given rise to countless newspaper and magazine articles, documentary films, and children’s books on Gullah culture and to a number of popular novels set in the Gullah region.

Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana recently held an event to showcase the Gullah culture. Purdue’s Black Cultural Center maintains a bibliography of Gullah publications as well.

Cultural survival

The media typically portray the Gullah people as living only on the Sea Islands, but Gullahs have always lived everywhere in the Low Country region—on both the Sea Islands and the much larger coastal plain. The media also portray Gullah culture as being “near extinction” because of resort development on the islands. Many Sea Island communities are, indeed, under serious threat, but there are islands that have never been subjected to tourism development where the Gullah way of life is very much intact. Most Gullah people live in coastal areas where resort development is not an issue and where their culture also still thrives today.

Far from being near extinction, Gullah culture has proven to be particularly resilient. Gullah traditions are still strong in urban areas of the Low Country, like Charleston and Savannah. The old ways have persisted even among Gullahs who have left the Low Country and moved far away. Many Gullahs migrated to New York starting at the beginning of the 20th century, and these urban migrants have not lost their identity. Gullahs have their own neighborhood churches in Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens. Typically they send their children back to rural communities in South Carolina and Georgia during the summer months to be reared by grandparents, uncles and aunts. Gullah people living in New York also frequently return to the Low Country to retire. Second- and third-generation Gullahs in New York often maintain many of their traditional customs and sometimes still speak the Gullah language.

Dieser Artikel ist ein Auszug aus dem Artikel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullah aus der freien Enzyklopädie Wikipedia und steht unter der GNU-Lizenz für freie Dokumentation.

Es wird mal wieder Zeit für ein leckeres Rezept. Gumbo ist superlecker. Natürlich gibt es zig Variationen davon, ich hab mich jetzt mal für diese entschieden.

Kreolischer Eintopf (Gumbo)

Kreolischer Eintopf (Gumbo)

Zutaten für 4-6 Personen:
250-300 g Okraschoten (ersatzweise Zucchini)
200 g Staudensellerie
1 grüne Paprikaschote
2 Zwiebeln
2 Knoblauchzehen
1 küchenfertiges Hähnchen, ca. 1,3 kg
3 EL Öl
Salz, Pfeffer
2 EL Mehl
2 Lorbeerblätter
6 Pimentkörner
1/2 TL getrockneter Thymian
1 rote Chilischote
8 rohe Garnelen ohne Kopf und Schale
200 g Langkornreis
5-6 Spritzer Worcestersauce
Zubereitung:

Okra gründlich abreiben, den Stielansatz herausschneiden und die Okras in Stücke schneiden. Sellerie und Paprika putzen und in Stücke schneiden. Zwiebeln und Knoblauch schälen und fein hacken. Hähnchen waschen, trocken tupfen und in 12 Stücke teilen.

Öl in einem Schmortopf erhitzen. Hähnchenteile von allen Seiten kräftig anbraten. Zwiebeln und Knoblauch zufügen und glasig dünsten. Sellerie, Paprika und Okra zugeben und kurz andünsten. Mit Salz und Pfeffer kräftig würzen.

Hähnchen und Gemüse mit Mehl bestäuben, kurz mit anschwitzen. Lorbeer, Piment und Thymian zufügen. Mit ¾ l Wasser ablöschen und zugedeckt bei schwacher Hitze etwa 1 Stunde schmoren lassen.

Chili putzen, längs halbieren und entkernen, fein hacken, Garnelen waschen und trocken tupfen. Beides etwa 15 Min vor Ende der Garzeit unterrühren. In der Zwischenzeit Reis in Salzwasser kochen. Den Gumbo mit Worcestersauce würzig abschmecken und mit dem Reis anrichten.