<Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> do <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> do do <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> do <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> do <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> <Program starts at 9 minutes 18 seconds mark> testing one two three one two hello and welcome to Museum Nights i think yes you can see me that's great I’m here up in the corner of the screen let me give you some more art in the background and turn down the music a little bit that's fantastic it is wonderful to be here with you on another second Thursday of the month every second Thursday of the month we meet for Museum Nights we've done it in person for years we've been doing it online for months and having a lot of fun with amazing guests um performers tonight and with all of you we welcome your comments uh along the way in the YouTube chat box we'll um enjoy seeing what you have to say um share your applause there and your kudos for our performers tonight um I’m presenting a partnership with we're presenting in partnership with a lot of people all the people the Harn who are working on this as well as our colleagues from the Center of uh African Center for African Studies i want to bring in Agnes Leslie here where she comes to join us Agnes Leslie is a wonderful partner at the Center for African Studies and she's just going to join us to say a welcome hi Agnes thanks for being here hi eric I’m delighted to be here good evening and welcome to everybody on behalf of the Center for African studies i welcome you to this wonderful event first i would like to work to thank the Harn Museum for their partnership in these events indeed the Harn has been our partner in promoting African art and culture and education to schools and communities for several years we treasure the Harn museum's enthusiasm in organizing these events this allows the Center for African Studies to showcase our faculty and students vibrancy tonight is a testimony of celebrating the diverse African culture I’m so glad we can still share this during the time of the pandemic thank you to my colleague and storyteller and poet Kole Odutola whom i have not seen since the pandemic Felicity a talented designer a treasure to this community and Barakissa Coulibaly ballet a formidable and energetic African dancer i am so delighted to have all these three in this lineup this evening we are in for a treat this evening thank you all and enjoy the evening Agnes thank you i think you said it better than i possibly could and when you said we are in for a treat this evening that is absolutely right the um the talented people you mentioned are all really incredible and thank you and thank you eric for all that you do you know with so much enthusiasm we owe you so much in the Harn museum thank you so much our pleasure and our honor you're welcome good night Agnes enjoy everybody knows we enjoy this show as well watch us on YouTube yes from the rest of our audience right okay bye now bye let's see what we got going here um put this in the background again uh so in a moment I’m going to bring on our first performer Kole Odutola i want to say that tonight um the event oh i know what we want to do we want to look at my background right um uh and you can go ahead and sign off Agnes okay I’m leaving there see in my background if i can get out of the way that is Sankofa this is museum night Sankofa and Sankofa that's um a figure that you'll see in adinkra symbols a bird with its head turned backwards looking behind us it's the symbol for the word Sankofa which is from the Akan and Twi uh Fante languages uh in Ghana and uh it evokes the idea of it's used in a phrase that um says it is not wrong it's translated many ways I’ve read it's not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten to remember the past to retrieve the past and use it as you then go forwards that looking back is a positive thing and so for us we're excited at the idea of the artists today who are drawing on traditional arts of the past arts with a long history and making them very current for us today that said um our first uh performer I’ll go ahead and bring in koala yeah and here he comes okay did i get you there you are I’m here I’m here and we're here very hard i love it what beautiful colors Kole Odutola is Yoruba lecturer is doctor Odutola i should say a Yoruba lecturer here in the at UF in the department of languages literatures and cultures he's a poet he's a storyteller he's a photojournalist he's an environmental activist a renaissance man i would say he has studied botany and media studies and communications in Nigeria in the united kingdom in the united states he's performed worldwide we are so lucky to have him here at the university of Florida here in Gainesville and here at Museum Nights and tonight um uh Kole is going to perform for us a story um Ìjàpá his wife Yánníbo a few of my friends are going to join me uh so that um Kole is not alone in his room i welcome Mimi and Paige to un uh to share their videos if they are able to do that are going to do that um and there's Heather you have a guest with you thank you for being here tonight and Kole with that i think uh you'll take the floor and tell us what we need to do when okay well like i would say a traveler who has taken the journey from afar and has come deserves a welcome and the traveler who does not give a welcome does not receive welcome from those at home i greet you i greet the spirit in you all and i say that i bring fraternal greetings from the people who sent me from the spirit that propels me i say welcome to all of you who are gathered this night by neon lights to listen to my story but you know what this story i want to tell you was told to me by my father the story was told to my father by his own father my father's father told the story to my father's father and it has all wrong in my family so it is not a story to be taken lightly and stories from where i come are very delicate when we tell stories those who are listening must be a part of our story or else when it's exactly 12 midnight your stomach will grow as big as the drum used in the market square if you don't want your stomach to be big then you must follow me and say along with me whenever you need to be a part of a story you might not know it's that stories are a part of a family stories and songs are brothers and brothers or sisters and sisters if you like there is hardly any story without a song and there is hardly a song without a story they always go together anytime you find them a story a song a song a story a story and a song a song and a story a story and a song a song and a story and so it is that they keep on advancing it is the way the world our world is made but tonight when i say Àlọ̀ọ̀ you all who are listening to me i can talk would say ah lo can i hear let's practice it Àlọ̀ọ̀ Àlọ̀ọ̀ very good yes you can clap for yourself you can clap because you have done a good job your stomach will not be as big as a drum in the market square at 12 midnight so that is how we start the story and as you know all the stories are always once upon a time and you would say time time time are you there we're here it's upon a time time time time very good once upon a time yes the story I’m about to tell you rolls and rolls the story rules and tumbles like the thunder and it lands in the house of Ìjàpá in your own culture and in your own language you call that the tortoise the jacquard is one of those crafty little animals a little scratchy thing and a jacquard of course has a wife and the wife is called Yánníbo what did i say the wife's name is what yes the wife's name is what very good so this story is about Ìjàpá and Yánníbo yes yes those are the two characters that are going to be part of our story today so Ìjàpá is one of those men I’m sure you all must have met them one time or the other in your life they do very little they don't know where the the broom is they don't know where the sugar is in the house they don't know where the the matches they just are men who just love to wake up and walk around in Ìjàpá was exactly like that in Ìjàpá in the morning will wake up hand will call yon would come running like a dutiful wife of course those of you who are married know about how you got over your husband you know okay oh come here okay so women are so wonderful god created them differently and so Yánníbo she would sing the praises of Ìjàpá and whatever Ìjàpá wanted whether it was tea or was coffee or was a camel it was even ordinary water honey but the wife would go sit everywhere and she made sure that her husband had everything that he needed so in the afternoon what do you think that um Ìjàpá does in the afternoon anybody yes you anybody what do you think Ìjàpá does if you don't talk your stomach could be as big as the the drum of the market square so what do you think hijacker does yes he takes a nap yes who else what do you think he does he departed a nap in the afternoon yes who else wears worse your stomach will not be big anybody who does not talk this night at 12 midnight your stomach is going to be as big as the drone played in the market square heat oh yes it does Ìjàpá does nothing he would not stroll into the house having visited friends and family and visited all sorts of people doing next to nothing and he will come home expecting lunch ha lunch lunch ah there are times when he will come home for lunch and he expressed to see a steaming port of amala with begiri and abu lah there are times when he will come home and he would all want to see that that meal what is that meal you like tell me somebody there tell me what is your meal what do you like yes yes what kind of meal do you like anything is that would like it tell me yes yes pizza yes it will be a very big one who else who else was if you don't talk your stomach could be as big as the drunk place in the bucket square lasagna it will be very hot and that is what anything that um the ejaculates body wife will make sure that it is ready in the afternoon and hijacker would eat and eat and he will put his hand to the bone oh he would lick his fingers he would lick the ball he will eat so much and he will be so happy and his stomach will be satisfied and sometimes don't tell anybody i told you this promise don't tell anybody because there are times when the Ìjàpá will eat and he will fall asleep by the time he wakes up your neighbor would have packed all the plates washed all the place and put everything into their proper places now when it comes to the night you would expect that is Ìjàpá will do what men are supposed to do but no no hijab would do nothing like that so yeah in year out this month next month how do i say this in the presence of these thoughts i don't even know their names and people who are watching me from afar how i i i wish my father was around he would have told you exactly what did not happen to your neighbor but i have to say it because i agreed when dr eric said to me colleen you are going to tell the story at the museum night ah i said hey hey can i tell this story would these people be all right well let me not hold you too long and you know you know that yes you know now ah look at the doctor already laughing he knows we are we all know these things and i can see i can see with the corner of my eyes you two are laughing you are laughing yeah this is true that em became very worried that we have been doing 19 night out yeah nothing has happened hey we need this little little uh feels you know children that will be pulling things and doing that we need them around the house but you are not pulling your weight and so um nonnie buddy wife said i i think we should do something you should do something about this matter is anybody here who knows what they can do if you don't even know what is wrong your body will not be having a solution to it is any is somebody nick there somebody take somebody please help me i want what do you think they should do don't leave this story for me no no because if you don't talk the story will go back into my stomach and that is it so somebody what do you think what do you think that they should do what should they do eh they should adopt a pet hey they should go to a doctor hey where would they find the doctor they don't have insurance eh hey so what you see who else where somebody has to talk somebody look hey the story is about to go please please please tell me tell me what do you think they should do hey they should spend time together going to places like museums see the authority is very good in fact when they start coming to the museum and they start coming to the museum like they will get ideas they will begin to imagine things different things they will see different artifacts they will see a veggie you know in the museum they have some yoga artifacts that will tell them of what their forefathers did and how they did it anyway the reason why they are not going to go to the museum is because of this pandemic you know but the museum has now decided that we can do it virtually and Ìjàpá is a lazy man instead of him to switch on the computer and go to the museum and watch anyway um no nebo had an idea do you know that women are always having ideas they are very very good when it comes to ideas so univo one day calculated this and ah he said that i said oh oh how many years do you have did you question how many times did i call you the doctor said you called me three times okay so you are past that it means that you are alive and you are listening to me you know him i have been thinking that since that thing has not happened i think you should go to um the wise old man with white hair who lives up the mountain you you you know him ah said of course i know baba why didn't i think about it so the wife said i think tomorrow morning at exactly seven o'clock in the morning you know that we are having this story it started at seven o'clock at night the wife said at seven o'clock in the morning get up and start going because the place is very far and there's no rts you know the return to sender bus service oh sorry um regional transport service you know that goes around the blue that's why I’m wearing blue you know the bus that goes around they don't have it in their own village so they Ìjàpá has to walk no he has to walk and exactly exactly 6 40 no nebu work in the power she had already prepared akara and akamu akara is bean cake akamun is back hot things with all the ingredients all of those tasty things that you can find ah they were all in it immediately his daughter woke up and smelled the coffee you know you know as you wake up he smelled akana and akamu he went to work he filled himself by the time it was seven a.m your neighbor said on your way and the Ìjàpá started the journey one step two steps three steps ah go with one step and three three steps first i need kept on walking down walking and walking even me i cannot tell you how many steps the part to go you were long it was a long journey but he finally he reached baba's place ah and he greeted baba and the father of secrets greeted hijab welcome my child so what is it that we have come to do baba said hey wait so brother brought out curry shells which we call oh yo and he gave to Ìjàpá he said speak into it and the Ìjàpá spoke into the curry shells and baba took the curry shells and threw it on the divination board and he started away from and he went on with the incarnations and he was going on and was going on that was going on and finally who appeared the solution to a Ìjàpá's problem a Ìjàpá had not even told baba what he had come from but baba was able to use this spiritual theoretical conventional non-conventional system to break into the past and bring it out it is not like your own science but this is what we call spiritual science it is only for those who know and the solution came out does anybody because if you listen to me too long the story will run away does anybody know what the solution was yes somebody there tell me what was the solution what do you think the solution was uh doctor eric you can't talk because you will say we should come to the museum i know but that was not the solution we know that coming to the museum is a very good thing yes who else and if you have not talked this night you better talk because if you don't talk i will not be around at 12 midnight when your stomach will grow as big as a drop in the village i warned you so you better talk now what do you think the solution was eh eh hey now hey you don't know hey i don't know too i don't know where this one was uh okay my father told me the solution okay okay you want to tell us okay tell us yes tell us here yes what was this you're laughing no she's laughing she's laughing oh she's laughing come and see her laughing laughing travel the world oh travel the world you are a traveler okay got it all right yeah your stomach will not be as big at 12 midnight as the village square drop because you have tried something but um the solution that came out from the diminution board the solution that came out was that baba would go into his inner chambers and baba went into his inner chambers and there he communed with the gods and he communed to the gods and the gods came up with ingredients and a meal that is different from anything you have ever seen in the world and baba prepared it he prepared it with seven different ingredients and after about uh 17 minutes hijab was already getting impatient you know he's a man who does consistent but that came out he came out with this dish in a calabash covered and he said to Ìjàpá take take this to yonibu your wife take it to her let me tell you do not eat it and is Ìjàpá accepted and he carries the the ball and he started his walk back home one step after another who take us there one step after another will take us there one step after another will take us home one step after another will take us home and that was it he went on and on and when it remained just seven minutes what did i say it remained how many minutes how many minutes seven minutes seven minutes seven one two three four five six seven minutes that was all that is remained for Ìjàpá to get home and the spirit that pushes men to do wrong things came from somewhere and started to hold dialogue with the jaguar hey baba said you should not eat it what you are carrying is not eating it is a something he didn't say don't eat something he said don't eat it hey but the reason you should not taste it you can taste it so the diet again eat that don't sat down and you put one finger one small finger he put it he opened the calabash he put one finger hey hey this thing is very sweet though hey hey is it look let me not drag this story for too long because i know you want to know the end of the story you also you are as impatient as that you know i know it's your impatience you want to know the end of the story okay all right he Ìjàpá everything everything he licked at your hand he licked everything and finally and finally after he licked it you know his face clad you know when people do bad things after they have done it then they will look right and and say this was not my yeah i didn't do it hey the devil pushed me to do it the devil would just give you a smack i didn't eh he's not my fault it was not your fault all right and so and so he had to cover it and behave like a man so those of you who know men who know that they can do something and then they will just with a straight face you know that love they give okay and so Ìjàpá did the same thing you know yes this is only one time he's gonna carry anything and then he went home and he gave the calabash to Yánníbo i said baba asked me to give you this step outside into the yard lift one of your legs listen though say lift one leg and once you lift that leg say kosher caution tongue all right so uh Yánníbo beautiful wife woman collected the thing went into the yard and lifted one leg of course that one did not say which leg whether it was the right leg or the left leg that is what men do they always find a way to blame you and you instead of asking for correct information no neighbor was too much in a hurry and so she went she opened it and there was nothing there the Ìjàpá was on his bed rubbing his stomach like i have done this one hey it was not quite it was not quite 27 minutes if that passed too much started to grow big ah eh emo his his mouth his head whoa his legs everything started to go ah he rolled out of the bed and went to your neighbor's wife you never what do you think is happening again and you know that that daughter will be the longest done in his life he decided to go but as he was going we need to help him on the way with the song when i sing i will raise my hand and you say i look beanie so let's practice being can very good very good you are very good you are very good you are very good so if Ìjàpá started the song and you would have to accompany him so baa baa law mo baby um uh and he kept on singing and all the winds and all the deities in the forest were singing with him and when he got to baba immediately baba saw him he said what did you do you know unfortunately you see this part of the story my father says if i don't know the names of all of the people who are listening to the story i should never ever tell them what happened you will have to figure it out to yourself oh what did baba tell hijaba and what happened after so ladies and gentlemen of the museum night my father is dead i cannot bring if he was alive i would have been able to tell him to come and tell you but he says that you all are very smart and you have great imagination so you have to figure out how the story ended and on that note dr eric this is how far i can go with you i can't go any further in this journey so um that is the end of my story i wish you all a wonderful night as you start to figure out what happened what did the baba tell it about what did hijacker do what happened to Ìjàpá what happened to honorable questions questions and questions that is your own part of the night thank you ladies and gentlemen until another time when i come your way again I’m the voice that gets into your heart through your ears I’m the one that expands even when you're asleep and the one in which tomorrow morning you will begin to hear that i said something because he who goes every leave taker does not take a leave they have left something and have left something into your world it may it grow maids grow and bear fruits thank you thank you Kole so you have left us all with the story to finish not just those of us here with you on the screen but a whole bunch of people on the YouTube chat so um we'll all finish the story together let us prepare to bring in our next talented people thank you so much for joining us uh heather and paige and heather's daughter and um mimi uh let me there we go so I’m delighted to bring to our Museum Nights uh dance beginning in just a moment sorry I’m imagining a little bit of technology in here um so uh let's bring in betty keisa and I’ll introduce her i think that they'll be you send them a note they'll join us momentarily uh and while they're getting to join us um barakissa uh kalibali is a master west African dancer and choreographer from aboubo abhijan in cote d'ivoire and she's traveled and taught in many countries including Spain Japan Greece and of course well France and the United States uh they are on board let me spotlight them so we can see their their studio um welcome i don't hear y'all so I’m sure you'll turn on your mics soon um i was saying uh she teaches at the University of Florida uh she's an official unesco international dance council member uh she's director of Mosso-Kan West African Dance and Drum Ensemble and you can see some of the ensemble there on the left side of your screen um and for museum night she's joined by members of Mosso-Kan as well as students from her UF West African Dance and Drum class so how's our sound can i hear you oh i heard a little bit and then it cut out uh are all the mics on that's kind of suppressed the very end it popped in that sounds good i hear someone is everybody can so i have done an introduction for you all we are ready when you are to begin we have a really excited audience who have just enjoyed an amazing story by Kole um do we need any more av check tests here are we all good yeah one over here can you hear me that sounds super clear yes that's excellent test test okay yes that's cutting out of it that was cutting out a lot do you think we should just uh back is it that mic ah i don't know it sounded good earlier in our early for uh check i don't know and at some point go ahead I’ll mute myself that was fantastic loved it okay yeah let's go you gotta start do it means family community it is said from the one comes the many out of many comes back to one this is a cornerstone understanding of African civilization itself for where would we be without diversity unity it stands the same for African music and dance where would we be without the djembe where would we be without the junjung and of course where would we be without the Balafon and of ah where would we be without the expression of the dancer and the storyteller tonight you will witness diversity do the demonstration performance of three African dance and drum rhythms the first is ali of the guru people a dance representing the power grace and beauty of the woman yes queen yes a dance celebrating the harvest of rice a staple in west Africa and known throughout the African diaspora of course oh I’m getting hungry and three ah celebrating the love of our mothers where would we be without our mothers ah yes interesting about the malenke yes they spread across many borders you should know in Burkina Faso for example we know it is dimbledom but in Guinea solely ah diversity unity without further ado ladies and gentlemen madames and my shoes senor and senores the university of the Florida Harn museum is proud and pleased to present to you tonight sigia oh so so do so what the **** do so so ah a dance honoring the mothers it is said that all humanity comes from one African mother ah in all societies we must allow our mothers for prosperity and abundance so tonight University of Florida's west African African Dance class is performing dibadon here tonight i have seen them as you have oh get ready for amazing all right do uh wow so incredible uh you wouldn't believe the uh chat on our YouTube stream blowing up with love people playing the gym at home people dancing i was dancing uh thank you so much you're beautiful that was incredible and thank you to these amazing performers musicians the griot the dancers the students take a bow please hey Turbado hey oh man beautiful thank you so much we're so grateful to all of you for sharing your amazing talent tonight um it translates beautifully on the screen believe it or not um you'll see when you have a chance to see on YouTube people loved it thank you good night be well but to our audience don't go away because we have more talent joining us in just a moment Mimi you want to drop in and uh tell us what's next let's um let's say goodbye here and let me remove the spotlight on that okay i think you're good to go Mimi all right so i have the honor of introducing our next speaker uh Felicity Tackey-Otoo who is a graduate student at the UF Rinker School of Construction Management Felicity has worked with us at a lot of Museum Nights in the past and is passionate about traditional and modern Ghanaian clothing and fashion she's going to discuss Ghanaian textiles she works with and she's going to explore some of the connections between works in the Harn collection and her own garments so I’m going to let her in and she'll be right with this hi Felicity hi can you hear me yeah sounds good how are you fine well i just uh introduced you I’m going to make sure you can share your screen okay you should be able to share your she's going to screen some of the connections between works in the Harn collection and her own garments hello should i go ahead and talk yes are you able to share your screen oh yeah sure hi everybody good evening my name is Felicity and i come from Ghana so today I’ll be giving a presentation on African workspring and I’m going to give a little history on how and why i decided to you know do something like this so let me go ahead and share my screen share screen second screen sure hi so there we go so yes as i said my name is Felicity i come from Ghana and um i work my I’m a construction management graduate student and I’ve worked with the fan museum for some time so when i was little i mean we go to the market my mom will take us to the market we buy our own fabrics and then we'll go to a tailor or a seamstress and we'll be measured and they sold the outfit for us i was just intrigued by they never clicked and then i came to America and i wanted to you know still work on fabrics i wanted to sew my own clothes basically i wanted to sew my own clothes so i did some research on the on these fabrics and i hope you enjoy it so a little brief history about what's um the the work sprint so the work sprints that goes way back west well west Africa way back so the history hasn't that um the the Europeans when they were trading on the west coast of Africa all the way southern part of Africa into Asia um they went to Indonesia and in Indonesia they saw the technique of java works printing and so they decided to replicate it where they could use a wax resistant techniques well they did that and they took it back to Indonesia and unfortunately um it didn't hit on their way back to Europe they passed through west coast of Africa and Ghana at the time was called the gold cruise it became a very huge success in Ghana and while they found a market in Africa especially in Ghana and especially the west coast of Africa and this is just a brief history i don't want to go into details but yes this man right here you see his name is Ebenezer fleming he was one of the big importers of what i am wax points into Africa and he did a lot of business in the 1890s in 1893 and he's he's from Scotland and he used to trade um fabrics from west Africa back and forth in Europe and west Africa and so this is blissful that companies name one of the paneer companies um name this is um the fabric what um the fabric they outdone for their 170th anniversary and it depicts their factory in the Netherlands or holland um yeah so blissco has been around for 170 years and over yes and blisto is just a short form of a name pf1 bliss singh jin and then after some time they're shorting it to blizzco so yeah that is it and now you wonder why who names these fabrics how do they come about the names how when you know all these questions they keep bothering well not bothered but i ask myself these questions when you go to the market the markets when they know the names of the fabric just name it and they get it they give it to you so let's not forget that in the past we didn't have internet we didn't have mobile phones we didn't have all these things so of course the manufacturers when they you know print out their prints they then the fabrics they index it right like zero zero one two zero zero three when they bring it to Ghana or west Africa these markets women had engineer um they found ways to name these fabrics and then it stays so can you imagine going to the to the market you don't know you don't know the name of the fabric you don't have a mobile phone to show to the market to my hey this is the fabric i want you don't have any of that how do you describe it so you see these markers may come together find names using events um going around in the world um situations um even looking at the pattern of the fabric and naming it accordingly right so sometimes some of these names is not like um the same throughout the west coast of Africa it means something different in ivory coast something different in Ghana something different in Togo being in Nigeria you know so I’m going to explain that but because today's theme is on soundcover I’m going to go a little into Sankoa and then we'll go straight in so these fabrics are just Sankofa fabrics yes if you look into it I’m going to tell you why some of them are Sankofa Sankofa and Sankofa simply means going back to take from i guess yeah going back to take something good from the past right so it's depicted by a a a bed facing forward frame rooted forward and with his head turning backwards and picking up something so it's just forging ahead but going back to pick up the good things and moving them so it's not it it's not everything in the past that is bad so it's i guess employing us to always look back and then take the good things from them add it to what is we have now and move forward with it so these are some of the so sun means return it's an akan language um a tree language sun means return core is go and then far is to take right so that's what the sankofa means I’m I’m going to tell you about this one this fabric is called troubling or ten left um it's a proverb it means don't show the way to your house with your left hand as many African countries and i don't know some other parts of the world the left hand is not accepted like you can't greet people with your left hand you can't touch food with your left hand guess what I’m left-handed so you can imagine the struggles i had to go through growing up but through it all i guess i i mean i came to america i was like wait what you can use a right left hand for anything and everything i can't use my left hand for a lot of things including using the computer mouse right because i was trying to use that i couldn't use my left hand I’m left handed but i can't use my left hand to eat i can use my left hand to do a lot of things so it's saying don't show the weight to your house with your left hand it's a ton of disrespect so basically tell me that in the future when you make it and when you become successful always remember your roots right so this is it and then this one this one right here is also the editing card symbol for sankofa if you look closely it's like two best puts um you know facing the backs so that's what this fabric is talking about it's also like an editing craft symbol for sankofa the next one so in 2015 the Harn museum had an exhibition on uh um some some Ghanaian outfits from some um designers very good designers in Africa in Ghana and then the first one right here is shades of shirt afric and then we have designers like christy brown so you can search for them shed a freak christine brown a japan gallery pestis and then bridget um murky so they had their outfits in the Harn museum in 2015 um i had an exhibition on it right and these are most a lot a little more of those um fabrics the next one we have is I’m going to categorize it into fabrics um how their names the categories they come they're coming from so these fabrics were named after personalities yes so I’m going to give you a lot of some fabrics that name after permanent personalities the first one right here is nelson mandela's fabric right so this one was lunch um you know nelson mandela was the first black um president of south Africa he was released from prison in 1990 february 1990 so today is exactly 20 31 years i think yeah he was released so this one was done by vlisco to commemorate his um release from jill yeah the next one right here is called the incruma pencil yes kwame nkrumah is the first president of Ghana so this fabric i guess was nameless honor when i was doing my research on this fabric was interesting so for some people the incrima pencil is just a sign to show how i guess knowledgeable and smarter he was he went to school in america he um um lincoln invest in pennsylvania so on the other hand some people think some people want it once well make once you like used by his political openness that he had the pen in his hand the pen was his power so when he signs your difference i guess you're dead but I’m just presenting the information so you decide what she wants you you know what to make of it so that is this for the increment pencil the next one we have right here is called kofi and ajini or the kofi non brain so kofiyan is the seventh un secretary general and he's from Ghana so this fabric was simply named in his honor to show i guess his brain how smart he was i think so it's just called coffee and a journey um these fabrics they come in various colors so when you go to the market the women the women the market when they know these fabrics and they can easily tell you these fabrics the next one we have right here is called the Michelle Obama bag ooh I’ve I’ve never seen this fabric in Ghana and well the whole time I’m saying i never saw but it was very intriguing that a fabric would be named after her but because when i think about Michelle Obama um i don't think about handbags you know fashion and all her fashion series but it was interesting amazing that they had a whole fabric named after her when she when she came to Ghana some yes not Ghana he came her visit to Africa some years ago right the next one is the tree of Obama once again you know i don't know how they come up with these names tree of Obama as you can see it looks like a tree and a key um up there you have a crown inside the branches and the leaves you have an airplane and all these other things going on in there it's called the trip of Obama yes and gliscor launched it in 20 and 2008 and now this one this one right here is called the dashiki so in America a lot it's very very this one is very very popular here in America so it's called the dashiki fabric in Ghana it's called the Angelina this well according to my research some people say that this fabric was learned and it coincided with the time um a song was released in Ghana called Angelina by the sweet talks band and it starts from you can always search for that the sweet augments some people call it the Mariam akiba some people call it the dashiki and some people call it the mashaila so it depends on i guess where you are in the world and what you guys call it and now the next one I’m going to talk about some fabrics that talk about your people's status in the society it's very interesting and for me intriguing that sometimes the fabric you wear will show your status in the society but I’m going to give you a few of them so here you go this one is called the bo bo boujee boujee boujee yes so in 1940 Portuguese trader named nogueira arrived in um um Netherlands and custom ordered this wax print so he conceived the ideas that they should use six plugs if you look closely is the plugs that they put in cars like the the indicating that they were the wearer is having a six cylinder car so if you have a six cylinder car you can wear the six bougies fabric so it was commissioned but when the war came everything just went down but after the war this um risk was that they're reprinting all these things again um and then somebody thought they should happen to eight so if you have an ace another guy can get the ace bojica how about that yeah so this one is like okay i have it i have a six cylinder car why not get a six cylinder um um six bhuji fabric to match my car or now if i have an eight cylinder car so yeah interesting and this one during my research i was intrigued about this one this one is called the mama Benz so the women especially in the francophone countries Ghana Togo and um they deal in fabrics these women are called Mama Benz they were rich they were very um they had status in the society for you to be able to sell fabrics and be that rich so after you get so most of the women have been like the vehicle banks and they commissioned their own fabric called the mama base and then you just wear it and then fill Mama Benz um yes so this this fabric merchants in Togo they are called the Mama Benz and in my research i found this and it was very interesting um so many years ago one of the mama ben's leaders her name is madame amigo she was appointed the minister for social welfare in 1977 even though she couldn't read and write so you should you can imagine the um the amount of power they they they had in in in their countries so this is the mama Benz the next one is called the buckley's bank um it's called the manda or the ubura raccoon balloon in Nigeria and and other places so as as the name goes mama um the backless bank so it's just called the backless bag because it was named after the bank and i guess when you wear it i guess you feel you have backlash back or maybe you actually have money back with monk um the next one we have the rolls royce or the flowers so this one is sort of or sometimes people some people call it the francophone countries it's called the wedding flowers um it's believed that when you wear it you have a lot of suspects coming to you so just call the the rose words all the flowers i knew about the flowers i didn't know about the rosewood but as i said um it depends on where you go they have different names for that so the next one we have the gramophone plate so when i used to tell the elementary school kids about this I’ll have to say gramophone like what is their grammar phone so i have to show them a picture so now i decided to add the picture to the presentation so that i can show this the grammar it's like a big c you know you have to describe it's like a big cd player and then you you play it um you play it on it so this was printed on fabrics before the gramophone plate in Ghana and that is it this one right here is called the showers of blessing fabric showers of blessings what is what is what is what is cooler than light in the bathtub with a shower over you and then shuffle the water pouring on you i guess you're just enjoying your showers of blessing yeah so this fabric is just called the choice of blessing fabric and then I’m going to talk about the theme called in family and life so the ones that talk about life and family and all that this one is also very popular in Ghana it's called the diacrogin from ebu it simply means that when one tree takes all the air is going to break so for instance if you have you know the same force of wind coming to hit a group of trees the group of friends can we'll be able to withstand it but when one should decide to take that same force of when they look it's gonna break so this fabric is just um encouraging strength in unity so just unite and then um yeah when you're nice you can do a lot together so this fabrics they approaching from my ebook and it's one of my favorite fabrics i really love it because it's i guess it speaks to me this fabric right here is called effie booster it's one of the oldest um lists of lisco fabrics they did one of the designs um it says that um um it says that the people who hurt you the most are the people closest to you so when somebody close to you hits you it hits you and you feel the head more than somebody you know so far away from you so this one speak about life like the first one if you're quoting from my book and this one if you're busy this one right here is called a confirm i confirm it's a guinea fowl however i describe it it's like it's it's not it's smaller than a chicken and they are very fast and swift they usually work in groups so this fabric basically say when you see just one guinea fowl walking around don't think that um it is lonely the crowd is somewhere there i try to read some meanings into it some of these fabric they speak so much to me so that when i see the fabrics i can actually i can i speak to me okay so when i when you live in Florida and your child is going off to college in California that's so far away so it's something you can give to your child like yeah you know you're so far in California but we are with you we support you we love you and we're wishing you all the best so don't think you're alone just like the guinea fowl they work in groups yeah another one about like life is um abraham strada life is like a soul so when you have a plank of food and you want to cut it with the soul you have to go forward come back go forward come back go for it come back so i guess this this is what it means life is like a soul sometimes it's sweet sometimes to sound but hey keep going life is like a song so i guess when you see this fabric i hope it reminds you of this um this thing yeah and the next one is the watchulia over actually is for the ladder of death in Ghana in the middle of the middle picture is the ending class symbol for what you did just a ladder so basically the proverb says um everybody will not everybody will climb the ladder of death so i guess we have to be we have to treat everybody with respect be kind to one another and just know that a lot of the everybody's going to climb it nobody's invincible you're going to climb it but on the other hand some of them this same fabric some people um it's sometimes mean um some people call the staircase to heaven well i guess you have to die before you get to them so it's still there oh some people some people say um this one it's about um growing in your self-confidence experiencing wisdom climbing the ladder and then improving in life so here you so here you have it you can decide however you want to to to to interpret it the lander of death the stake is to heaven or slaughter of self-confidence the next one we have here is called actual depo sugarcane once again i put in the sugarcane because some people some people did not know what the sugar is so i just put a picture so sugarcane is very it's a very cumbersome thing to be eating i love it but it's just too much work for me for me so sugar cane you know when you're chewing it you have to peel it and then you have the sweet pot you chew it and when you get to the nuts it's so hard you have to break it away and continue with the sweet part so basically life can be sweet and sour you just like the sugar i can keep going and keep eating it so this is just simply called acidifier once again if you go to the market stores market fabric stores in Ghana and you say you want the actual report they know what you're talking about and they're going to give you this fabric so yes this one right here is called Obama Obama simply means good woman so if you have any good woman in your life you want to appreciate here this is a good fabric to give to them it's called the obapa fabric yes another one i like one of my favorites is the sikawa in turbine in proverbs 23 verses five it says money house means it's fleeting so i guess this is this fabric reminds me of how fleeting life can be and how how yeah basically fleeting life can be so if you have i guess money you have to take care of good profit and then if you don't it's going to fly away so i guess it can be used as a financial literacy if you're teaching kids on how to be financially responsible you can start with this and remind them it's in the bible proverbs 23 verses 5 and this fabric is called sikawa ataban yup so i quick i want to quickly go through this one is also called amine pancasa it simply means royal beast do not rattle royale beast dino rattle it's one of my favorite um fabrics and the equivalent in English is probably empty barrels don't make noise and this is why i love it it's just called royal beast rattle I’m going to quickly skip through and then we'll go to this theme called the love last heartbreak this one talks about marriage it's this fabric is simply called what our visa means before you enter a marriage ask questions so they employ you to ask questions you don't want you want you don't want to enter married to find out the man has children or other somebody or even is married and you did not know so this public is basically employed and it's one of the same i can't say it's okay yep the next one it says yanfa is apparent power ray once again this is from Ghana they named it in Ghana so you don't get married with an empty hand you're encouraged so so i guess once again you have to read your own meanings into it what does it mean as a young lady or as a young man or something you don't don't don't go into marriage empty-handed make sure you have something to do so that i guess you contribute something to the marriage you don't just go empty-handed this one is called last for eye um it's from code what the name the the name kodevo last four eyes why in my research it says well if you're interested in somebody and the person can't get the sign i guess when you write this fabric they will know so it's just simply called the last four eye fabric um um it's popular in code this one is called and farming one don't take me for a snail so another another way of saying don't take me for a fool right you've you've taken me for food don't take me for a full so this fabric is called a famine one yeah and in Nigeria it's called big bible yeah in Nigeria this fascinating fabric is called big bible in Nigeria it's called in Ghana it's called infamil this one right here is very very popular this one is very really really popular it's called the hibiscus um very popular in guinea and ivory coast um people usually ask they usually add it to their package answer part of the diary it's also called um no flower no no hibiscus no wedding no hibiscus no wedding yeah so that is it this one right here is called sumatri it means if you leave i will leave um when i read through some of the reasons it gives well well basically telling a cheating spouse that well continue cheating if i if i if you if you leave don't think you have one who can fly if you fly i can also fly but for me when i looked at this fabric that was not the first thought that came into my mind i was thinking about oh liberation being free you know in a you can see a bed in a cage and some of them are some of them are in cages and some of them have been let loose and fly away so that is what this is called in some fungal porn countries and some places in Ghana too so it's very very it came very very popular than um 1983 so that is what it means but i guess once again you you wish you owe me into it yeah the next one we have here is called the santana fabric oh don't turn your back on me this one was named after in an abyss remember i was telling you about another base in togo elvini so her name was santa anna nelly so they named this fabric santana oh don't turn your don't turn your back on me and then we have this the wounded heart yeah the wounded heart or the love bomb i guess if you're going through it i really can't tell but this is simply called the love bomb as you can see from there it's a dynamite that has been lighted up with the love sign at the at the end so it gets it's going to explode and then they have some fabrics that throw shade you know they call it toy shade this one right here say akonya's too that i can't say uh if you if you have something to say about me get a chair and sit because there's a lot to say so i guess i guess a message to haters haters ah unfortunately i have the same fabric but I’m not saying any message to anybody this old fabric is also called the king's chair or hinigua so it has this it's it's it means the same one like if you get some if you want to say something about me get a chain likewise it can mean something about something royal but in the the amongst the evil people in Nigeria it's a very famous fabric and it's a must-have for um newly married couples so so well once again it depends on where you what many you want to read into it this one is the fascinating one because i have it too so i really liked it i liked it because of the horse but this one is the jumping horse oh i ran faster than my rival who i don't know who I’m riding faster than but i just love it in Ghana it's called poncua bottom so the mad horse in in um ivory coast is called iran faster than i run faster than my rival in Nigeria is called the jumping horse so this is it and this one is called the eye of my rival so if you have tensions within the same family members be in there in the same family like a polygamous whom like a man with so many wives and all that so this is what it is and then last well almost last but not least this one is called if affibia sign some yes are bad that's what it's called in Ghana if you say a few business side but some people call this um is it macronial spaghetti or in other parts of the world so 2020 i guess it was an appropriate way i promised time to wear in a fabric like this because it says have to be assigned some yes I’m bad and then we have something called assassin where they mix up different parties together to form one backlog so an example is this one the assassin it will interest you to know that um last year when the combination came um the Ghana textas prince which is the subsidiary of lisco Ghana textile sprint is located in Ghana in tema they they released a series of fabrics called the lockdown collection and um I’m going to show you just a few of them and i have one so yes this is called the log now it was designed by garniers and it became very very popular so this one is the one i have right here and it's called the lockdown as you can see it has all these links and you have a padlock holding it down so this was um depicted during the lockdown in Ghana in april 2020 and yeah so that is the lockdown version um the lockdown it came it came in so many different designs so these are some of them and then this one is the lockdown to be doing the ease of the lockdown this one was designed by um somebody um stanley atipu he was the creator it's called the eating of the restriction um yes so this is this was designed by him and then during the lockdown the presence of Ghana will come what other like april may june july about he used to come every week um um every sunday evening to speak to Ghanaians about the lockdown and the measures um the government is taking to you know to help the citizens and you know basically protect ourselves from the covenant and so forth and so forth so they designed this fabric for him well well not for him but it had his name he so that's the the president of Ghana right there and then the the round glasses so he's known for wearing brown glasses so the fabric depicts around the glass so it's called the fellow Ghanaians radio wave fabric so um that is it and we just have more so i guess that is it for my presentation um and yeah um you're welcome to ask any questions and thank you so much i wanted to shout out your um instagram the your account because you post all of your designs on there and they're so beautiful so um if you don't follow Felicity uh her account is akumez yeah that's my meeting at aku am ez so go check out all of her really beautiful garments um and some of those fabrics you showed you i saw that you used them in some of the ones that you've posted so yes thank you so much we are always having me I’m very passionate about sewing and fabrics and stories behind fabrics yes something um basically it makes me happy and yeah you are a designer thank you and this i have this one here the money has well money has wings so anytime i wear it it reminds me that hey you better be careful Felicity thank you so much that was a these are our amazing fabrics you have um shared with us beautiful material and then you've elucidated it for us so elegantly eloquently so thank you very much for joining us at yet another museum night you've presented fashion with us there's a lot of chat pages remembering your fashion show susan cooksey was uh complimenting your your commentary so thank you so much lovely to have you tonight thank you for having me thank you so such a pleasure for us well that is a museum night i am going to close it out um let me just share one last thing as we say farewell and there we go so i just wanted to um uh hopefully that'll come up for you uh share with you some upcoming programs that you can look forward to of course um you can visit the Harn website Harn.ufl.edu to find out more about upcoming programs uh family day seeing stories online is february 25 again go to our website you'll find the family programs and there's also a tot time coming up um art for all on march 5.
Um next Museum Nights um is march 11th we're partnering with the Center for European Studies i have threatened to call next Museum Night's “EuroVision” my staff has rebelled so you're going to have to stay tuned to see on our what our website what the museum night title is for march 11th but we look forward to seeing you there we had such amazing storytellers dancers musicians uh fashionistas with Felicity designers join us tonight and we're so grateful to everyone who made this museum night and grateful to you who attended with us your comments and energy shared in the chat really brought joy to us and um and our participation our performers tonight will enjoy seeing what you had to share when they go back to see the recording all of our Museum Nights are available to be viewed anytime on the Harn YouTube channel you're welcome to explore that there's lots of material there's things to do on our website there's activities there are things to watch Museum Nights and lectures so we invite you to explore those materials anytime but of course the museum is also open in fact we've just expanded our hours we're now open again six days a week tuesday through sunday closed on mondays as always um and we're open from 10 in the morning till five in the evening tuesday through saturday sunday one to five those are our current hours always check the website to make sure there's no changes and of course inside the museum as everywhere on the uf campus you're required and asked to wear your mask maintain social distance and we encourage you of course to wash your hands and take good care of yourself and be extra safe we look forward to seeing you in the museum there's amazing exhibitions on view that we didn't even touch on tonight so we'll see you there good night
https://howtoplaythedjembedrums.com/museum-nights-february-11-2021/
No comments:
Post a Comment