By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
BEFORE THE poetry, the judging and the awards, Atiba opened with stories and music at Redbones the Blues Café last week Wednesday night.
A good audience was on hand for the third annual literary awards featuring poets who had read in the Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, cultural hub and swanky hangout's 'Contemporary Literature' series. Marsha Hall, Ishion, Kelvin Thomas, Anna Brown, Duane Francis and Christine Neil-Wright delivered three pieces each before a panel of judges.
These judges were Trevor Rhone, Yvonne Brewster, Gina Rey Forrest and Amina Blackwood Meeks. At the end of the evening, Anna Brown came out on top, followed by Duane Francis and Ishion in that order. In addition, Anna Brown's Running was selected as the 'Poem of the Year'.
However, the judge of Atiba's presentation was the entire audience, including the diners, and the attention he commanded while he performed, as well as the applause which punctuated the end of each piece, was ample evidence that he passed with flying colours.
Atiba opened with percussion accompanying his story, weaving the rapid-fire beats into his voice, which soared and dipped, growled and practically chirped as he told his tale. His eyes rolled, opened, squinted and glinted with merriment as his face accompanied the music and the voice and that was before he paused to say hello.
MORAL OF THE TALE
"You have to give something to get something back!" he said, translating the moral of the tale, which was delivered in a language spoken in the southern part of Senegal.
Atiba's presentation was a lesson as well, from the language to the stories to the instruments. He gave the history of the instruments, as well as placed the stories geographically and historically. He utilised a flute for his next item and there was a hush over Redbones as he played a piercing melody. It was not only the flute, though, as Atiba put his voice at least, the vocal accompaniment to his breathing - into the song as well. He ended on a high, trilling note.
He continued with the story of Moshu, whose job was to carry a rug to the market for his mother, the most famous salesperson in the village. 'One day his mother was ready to go, but Moshu was nowhere to be found. His sister Aisha found him playing with his friends, but as Moshu was going to do his duty he heard a flute playing. It was a crocodile in the river'.
Redbones was attentive as Atiba related how the crocodile tricked Moshu into carrying him in the rug over a hill and into the water, where it decided to eat him. The boy's fate was left up to the next three persons to pass by, who had to say whether a good deed should be repaid with a bad deed or a good one.
MANNERISMS AND VOICE
Atiba's face, mannerisms and voice became that of an old lady and a war-horse, whose personal experiences were that a good deed was repaid with a bad one. Moshu was in a rather sticky situation, until an old man came along and reversed the trick on the crocodile.
"...As they say in our neck of the woods, what goes around comes around. Remember that when a two-legged crocodile comes around you," Atiba said.
The Kings Lambon followed this well delivered and received lesson in crocodile and human nature, Atiba explaining the role of the jeli, popularly know here as the griot, or oral historian. "I thought we would like to do this as an acknowledgement of the nobility of everyone here," Atiba said.
It was indeed a regal tale with equally majestic dancing from Tioma during an extended run of percussion. With the drums underpinning his voice, Atiba reminded those present, as well as those who should have been, that we are the sons of the sun/daughters of the moon/even silence respects us.
"We are Africans; we are Africans," Atiba ended the lesson in history and self.
