KIMATI DINIZULU
Ancestral Spirits
1. Africa Aye! - Ft. Yolanda Lee & Abajahni 2. The Coffle - Ft. Antoine Roney & Gino Sitson 3. Auction Blocks & Slave Ships -Â Ft. Yolanda Lee 4. Plantation Blues - Ft. Donald Smith 5. The Journey - Ft. Abajahni 6. African Heroes and Sheroes 7. 500 Years - Ft. Chief Bey & Black Moon Rising 8. Sankofa - Ft. Yolanda Lee
THE JOURNEY (ancestral spirits) by Dr. Salim Washington PhD Ancestral Spirits. Indeed. This musical outing, ostensibly led by master percussionist, Nana Kimati Dinizulu, in fact involves the energies, histories, and the understandings of ancestral spirits through-out the African Diaspora. ! The informing spirit that most guides this enterprise would have to be the late Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu (neé Agustus Williams Clarke), Kimati’s father, and a pioneer in the mid- to late-twentieth century movement that reintroduced traditional African music and dance to the United States. (“Nana” is an honorific, literally meaning “grandparent,” that denotes respect and authority. Interestingly, this word has survived in contemporary African American vernacular, meaning “grandmother”). The feminine resonance of the term in United States tradition is particularly apropos for Dinizulu’s story. In this family, women play a central role in providing not only sustenance, encouragement, and help, but also direction, wisdom, and clarity of vision. It was a woman who through divination foretold the destiny of the elder Nana Dinizulu. ! This same man found his mission as an African percussionist through the guidance of a woman who danced for the first African dance company in the United States, Nana Afua Owusuwa Dinizulu, (nee Alice Brown) who would become Dinizulu’s wife and Ohema of the Akan in America. She helped insure the development of the Dinizulu Dancers, Singers and Drummers not only as a stellar dancer but also as a capable administrator. As his widow and the mother of Nana
Kimati Dinizulu, Nana Alice Dinizulu would continue to show leadership in the work of archiving, teaching, and dancing. The elder Dinizulu was a photographer and himself the beneficiary of spiritual inheritance from his biological and cultural families. His uncle, Kid Chocolate, aka Robert Williams, was a bassist with Art Tatum, and was notorious and daring (perhaps not unlike his later namesake who would lead the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP to fire back against racist white vigilantes) inasmuch as he was known to date the likes of Lucille Ball and Doris Day at a time when black men were lynched for allegedly looking at a white woman. He also had a step father, Edward Bolden, who was an inventor and saxophonist. His own great grandmother was a root worker, one of the medicine men and women who kept traditional knowledge and practices alive throughout the history of African America. Nana Dinizulu lived at the famed intersection in Harlem !of 116th street and Lenox Avenue, across from the temple for the Nation of Islam. And Dinizulu was in fact a friend of Malcolm X. It was at this physical location and into this cultural milieu that Kimati Dinizulu was born in the late 1950s. At the time Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu was active as photographer and producer and Kimati’s mother, Alice Dinizulu, a dancer with Asadata Dafora, who brought about the first African dance concert in the United States in 1938. Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu started his own dance company showcasing African dance and music. His company included Esther Rolle, Chief Bey, Joe Commodore and other very talented individuals. Luminaries such as James Earl Jones, Geoffrey Holder, Alvin Ailey, Carmen De Lavallade, Babatunde Olatunji, Oba
Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi, Maya Angelou, Art Blakey, Chuck Davis, and Charles Moore were associated with them as well. Kimati’s great grandmother, Nana Ama Jennie (neé Jennifer Williams) was a root worker. That is, she was a diviner using tea leaves, and various other African-rooted systems of divination and healing, taught to her by her elders in Augusta Georgia. When she and her family migrated to Harlem in the 1940s they brought with them these knowledge systems and practices. As an African spiritualist, Nana Ama Jennie divined that her grandson, at the time known as Gus, would lead many people on a journey to recover the history and knowledge disrupted through the African Holocaust of Enslavement, the Atlantic slave trade. She delivered a large volume of information that she had received from her ancestors, elders and spiritual forces.! Shortly afterwards he visited Ghana from 1966-1967 where he studied African culture including traditional dance and drumming. He met and became friends with G.W. Amarteifio, an Olympic boxing referee and major political force in Accra. While Dinizulu is a name from the famed South African leader, there is a special history attached to the other family name, Opare. During Dinizulu’s first trip to Africa he met Nana Akua Oparabea, who was then the Chief Priest of the Akonnedi Shrine of Kubease in Larteh, Ghana.! It was then revealed to him that he was a direct descendant of the Opare family, for it was known that there was a young man who was stolen from that family during the Maafa and forced into slavery. The elders of the Opare family had divined that one day
this young man would return home again.! Consequently, it was through the auspices of Nana Akua Oparebea and her elders that he was informed that the prophesy retained by the Opare family had been fulfilled. He was the first of many of the lost sons and daughters of the Opare family who would return from across the waters and renew their faith in their ancestral culture.! Nana Akua Oparebea and Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu both trace their ancestry to Nana Atwidan and Opare Kwame Mensah of Nsaba who are descendants from the Agona clan in Asante.!! It is important to note that women are very instrumental in the transmission of the power and history of this family. The prophesy that drives this story is from a woman ancestor from Kimati’s paternal line. The maternal line is no less important. In fact, Kimati’s mother, Alice Dinizulu, is the person who was a primary influence in facilitating ! Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu in regard to African drumming and dance. She was a principal dancer for Asadata Dafora’s Dance Company, which was the first dance company to put African dance, song and music on the Broadway stage in the United States as early as the 1930s. Alice danced with the company in the 1950s, during which time she studied cultural history under Dafora. She would later continue her formal training in history under no less than the renowned Dr. John Henrik Clarke. Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu studied drumming with C.K. Ganyo at the art centre of Ghana, which was set up by the great anticolonialist, Kwame Nkrumah. There is a certain poetic symmetry in one of the pioneers of African drum and dance in the
United States being initiated in the culture in the land of the first African nation to throw off its colonial shackles. Interestingly, Nkrumah set up nine art centers, one for each of the nine regions at that time, ensuring the integrity of specific cultural and artistic traditions. Nana Dinizulu became an initiate into the Akan mysteries under the tutalege of Nana Akua Oparebea. He learned about the ancestors, the various spiritual forces, the trees and rivers of the Akan people, and eventually became a priest in their tradition. He also fulfilled Nana Ama Jennie’s prophecy, for he not only brought hundreds of people to visit and learn in Ghana (importantly for us, including his son, Kimati), he brought Ghanaians back to the United States to teach and share their rich traditions.
Fulfilling Nana Ama Jennie’s prophecy (carrying the tradition): Upon his return stateside, he moved from the Queensbridge Projects to the Jamaica section of Queens and started teaching what he had learned in Africa. Earlier he had taught youth and adults at the Jacob Riis center, but later set up his own cultural center. ! It differed from earlier efforts by African American artists to set up traditional dance companies and arts centers. While Pearl Primus and Katherine Dunham were primarily focused on the cultures of the Diaspora, especially Haiti and other Caribbean nations, Dinizulu’s engagement with the Diaspora resulted in his bringing Africa to New York City and eleswhere. In Queens young Kimati
initially found his New World African identity problematic. The storied richness of his father’s inheritance and gift to him was temporarily occluded as Kimati had to deal with the vicissitudes of 1970’s urban life in America. The cultural gains of black consciousness and the Black Arts Movement were unevenly learned and applied, and thus Kimati suffered the taunts of his peers for his name, Afrocentric lifestyle, and public embarrassment from constant harassment of his family by the fire department and law enforcement due to his father’s drumming in the projects, and so forth. Also, Kimati was a somewhat short child entering puberty and adolescence, and felt that the Akan identity was thwarting his emergence into sexual maturity and experience. However, he learned about the Akan system of spirituality, and was trained in the divination system, which is a central aspect of most African religions. He would learn to throw cowries and hear the forces through his fathers instruction. He would later learn about Bisi (kola), divination from Tigare priests in Ghana. !He continued his immersion in the knowledge of African culture and learned about various herbs and plants important for the healing systems and divination systems of various African and New African cultures. When he was 16 years old, Kimati got into some trouble with the gangs of his community. He learned quickly that the brotherhood that gangs were supposed to represent was contingent, and could even be ephemeral, and so he left the world of the Savage Skulls, and took to the drum in a serious and sustained manner. He played the drums all day and all night.
He began to accompany his father for ceremonies, rehearsals, and performances. The cats noticed, and began to show him things, and so drumming took over Kimati’s life. This is when Kimati began to read African musicologist, Kwabena Nketia’s Drumming in Akan Communities of Ghana. Again, the Ancestral Spirits guided Nana Kimati Dinizulu as he learned to play “Asafo” warrior drums, and the miraculous powers of drum languages of the Fanti in Ghana. Kimati dropped out of college and went to Ghana on a one-way ticket in 1977. He stayed until 1979 right before the Rawlings coup. !Just as his father had done, Kimati learned from C.K. Ganyo at the the Arts Center of Ghana in Accra and also the Arts Center of Ghana in Tamale and some local villages, located in the northern region of Ghana. He studied and lived with Sule Monra while living in the north. When Kimati returned stateside he went to work as a drummer, touring Haiti and Puerto Rico, both strongholds of African drumming in the New World. He also learned some of the Afro-Brazilian drumming traditions. Kimati Dinizulu’s involvement in Afro Brazilian music dates back to his association with the late Loremil Machado and Jelon Vieira, who brought Capoeira to the United States in 1975. This Afro Brazilian art form is comprised of song, dance, martial arts, and more. Capoeira is also one of the enduring cultural forms through which the African-based Brazilian religion, Candomblé, especially the Angolan based form of it, is taught and maintained. (Just as there are various forms of Christianity practiced in the US, there are several types of Candomblé
practiced in Brazil). In 1980 he founded the Kotoko Society, which in addition to drum and dance included a choir. He began to play with a wide array of artists who were commercial stars in the jazz world, including Bobbi Humphrey, Noel Pointer, Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, and his fellow Queens resident of ! “Jamaica Funk” fame, Tom Brown. In the mid-1980s, Kimati teamed up with his long time associate and friend, saxophonist Rene McLean and toured Europe with Rene’s father, the redoubtable jazz giant, Jackie McLean. Amazingly, Kimati does not count himself as a jazz musician per se, despite his recent longterm membership in Sonny Rollins’ band (there is only one living jazz musician who can claim similar importance in the history of jazz as Sonny Rollins). In J-Mack’s band, Kimati was already playing with some of the great spirits in the music, including drummers Freddy Waits, Billy Hart, Mulgrew Miller, Hotep Idris Galeta and Hilton Ruiz. He even met and played with the master musician (and teacher) Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy was suffering from diabetes and using a walking stick (complete with pop bottle tops on it!). Diz advised young Kimati to “take your time.” And take his time he did. ! Nana Kimati Dinizulu has never fallen into the traps of the nether worlds that have afflicted so many musicians over the years. Rather, he has ridden the spirits and grown in the music. Beginning with his ancestors he has travelled a path that has led to his own chieftaincy and elevated status in the Akan culture, and mastery of percussion. His journey into the heart of the music has been no less spectacular, and we are now blessed with the fruits of his wisdom.
The Music (New Generations): All songs composed and arranged by Nana Kimati Dinizulu
“AFRICA AYE” This song begins with an excerpt from Nana Kimati’s field recordings from Ghana. Here we hear the stone drums, played with stones, located at the site of Pikworo Slave Camp in the upper east region of Ghana. The chanting and drumming, with its identifiably African timbres and rhythms, represent in this work, the African motherland as remembered by those enslaved at the beginnings of the growth of the Afro Brazilian population. This song utilizes one of the myriad variations upon the Samba rhythm, though its bass line and underlying harmonies are reminiscent of Reggae. The overlapping of the chorus and the beautiful lead voices of Yolanda Lee and for the Brazilian portion, Analu, firmly marks the formal organization of the piece as African. The parallel harmonies of the chorus echo the parallel harmonies in the African preamble to the song. “Africa Aye” is imagined as a vehicle through which the Africans captured and brought to Brazil are teaching the first Brazilian born generation about their origins. Musically it embodies this cultural bridge by coupling the stone drumming of the Old World with the samba form of Brazil,
and the wide range of the African Diaspora is reinforced through the chanting of Jamaican DJ Abajonai. Interestingly, the theme was composed on an African instrument, the bass thumb piano. Most notable is the New World engagement with modernity represented in the Rene McLean’s jazz flute improvisation, doubled by the guitar work of Lamont Savory.
“THE COFFLE” This composition is haunting. And that is decidedly the point of the performance. It is based upon a chant that is hummed rather than sang, with a slow 6/8 percussion palette underneath. The opening evokes the terror and existential angst through the labored breathing audible at the start of the song. It is like the panting of someone undertaking an arduous task upon which the stakes are as high as life itself, as though the breather has spent his every morsel of energy. Antoine Roney’s soprano saxophone, with its ethereal, serpentine lines weaves throughout the piece with the supreme mastery of space and feeling that helps make this song effective. The song is redolent with moans, whispered breathing, melismatic, non-tempored, dissonant unisons, eloquently painting the emotional picture necessary to carry us to the time and place of the coffle. Supporting this are the rhythms played
by Nana Dinizulu on an Udu drum and a gourd (grown in North Carolina). The Maafa, or African Holocaust, had its terminus upon the auction blocks and plantations of the Americas, but began in Africa, often with conquest and/or sale. “The Coffle” depicts the beginning of the journey towards the dreaded Middle Passage. Captured in the interior, Africans were chained together in a coffle and marched to the coast for weeks or months, as other captives were added to the coffle to add to the coffers of the slave dungeons where they were held until their numbers sufficed the needs of the slavers. Roney’s saxophone throughout comments as though representing the accompanying spirits, including the ancestors, that gave spiritual succor to the captives as they headed for their uncertain destiny.
“AUCTION BLOCKS AND SLAVE SHIP” This piece is preceded with a field recording from 1971, again with the call and response format ubiquitous in African music. When the song itself starts we are immediately transported to another world. The disruption caused by the “auction blocks and slave ships, auction blocks and shackles” are audible as a decidedly New World experience, as the entrance of Africans into European modernity in fact
occurred through the African holocaust. Underneath the women’s voices are a funky drumbeat, soulful bass line and a rhythm guitar playing with a “wah wah” pedal. The rock guitar solo that soars above this arrangement through its sonic resonance with the turbulent 1960s further juxtaposes the creativity and innovations of the New World Africans with the horrors subsequent to slavery that made them necessary. With the rhythms of Adade, an Obosum of iron and war, we hear the martial qualities of the music, as the captives, now slaves, begin their inexorable march into their American experience.
“PLANTATION BLUES” An actual blues with “wordless” vocalizations gives rise to our imagination of the proto-blues developed on the plantations of the antebellum South. On their one day off slaves could socialize and, if only clandestinely, worship their gods in their own vernacular and with their own rituals and cultural forms. The great Donald Smith, not only delivers gospeltinged Hammond B2 playing, but also sings all the parts here ranging from baritone to a piercing falsetto, and expertly delivers the Gospel tinged mumbo jumbo, with moans, almost a shout. The whistles and moaning that he adds gives musical portraiture of these moments of relative repose. Also, the
language of moans, screams, and shouts, speaking in tongues, scatting, and all the other musical interventions for which African Americans are famous are on display. Listening to this track it is easy to understand how black music quickly became a lingua franca expressing not only the humanity of black folk, but also their imaginings of how the world should be fashioned.
“THE JOURNEY” The voice narrating the details of the Middle Passage speaks with the distinctive musical patois of Jamaica, recited by Abajonai. In fact, the vast majority of the African captives were actually brought to the Caribbean. The afuche, agogo bells, marimba, and rhythmic exhortations create a mosaic of interlocking motives that remain steady throughout, save for periodic pauses during poignant passages of the narration. But during the breaks the rhythm goes on in our heads and is returned to faithfully after the pause without any disruption. We are musically drawn to contemplating the monotony of the long voyage. Would that monotony was the worse of it. We learn of the physical conditions of slave ships made famous through the iconic photograph, published in an article in The Youth’s Cabinet in July 7, 1837, showing how people were packed like
sardines in a can to maximize the “cargo”. The stench, the inability to sit upright, the darkness and suffocating closeness enforced by chains, are all narrated over the steady beat.
“AFRICAN HEROES AND SHEROES” This song is played entirely on traditional instruments. A tremolo by the marimba and trills by the flute bring us into the playful rhythms of the percussion and keyboards. The improvisation is mostly on the shruti box, from India, played here by Clara Reyes. The drum signals a change and then the flute improvises over a cut time rhythm, as the tempo speeds up dramatically. The song slows back to the original tempo marked expertly by a clave, played by bell and shekere, that remains consistent throughout the switches in tempo. When the next shift occurs to the fast tempo it is the marimba’s turn to improvise. In the hands of Bryan Carrott we are treated to a melodious display of virtuosity on this instrument; he brings to mind the modern day vibraphone geniuses in jazz such as Lionel Hampton. Again to the slow tempo with the low pitched shruti box soloing and then bringing the fast tempo in yet again with musical rolls with syncopated interjections. The constant back and forth of tempos and
various instruments coming to the fore is perhaps a musical representation of the communal nature of African American life and the interdependence and equality of the genders. While official historiography privileges males, women, so important in Nana Kimati’s personal life, “hold up half the sky” as Mao once said.
“500 YEARS” The use of Native American rhythms, combined with African song forms depict the kreolization of African American life. Also highlighted here are the experiences of the maroon societies. In yet another Pan African plethora of rhythms the main themes are chanted over not only Native American rhythms, but also the merengue rhythms of the conga drums, the berimbau played by Loremil Machado, and the surdo, the dramatic bass-like drums of Afro-Brazil (Angola), played by Herculano Federici. The 500 years of settler colonialism that brought about the African Holocaust and the Native American genocide began with Columbus’ conquest of, and reign of terror over the Island of Hispaniola which includes Haiti. While today we associate the merengue with the Dominican Republic, earlier musicological sources cite the rhythm as Haitian. Another interesting set of historical cross-referencing in the piece is embodied in the musicians and
instruments used. The legendary New York-based percussionist, Chief Bey performs in the opening skit of this track and also sings the lead vocal on the boating song from the Congo which follows. He then plays Asheko drum during the main body of the piece. The Asheko drum which he used here is the one he received decades ago from Nana Kimati’s father. This particular drum belonged to an African drummer who worked with Asadata Dafora. Perhaps this drum was the one used by Chief Bey on Art Blakey’s iconic recording which included African percussion.
“SANKOFA” The return of displaced Africans to their spiritual and physical homeland is represented by the Sankofa bird, and is today celebrated as one of the keys to the psychic survival of African peoples throughout the Diaspora. “Sankofa” uses the same guitars as “Africa Aye!,” ably handled by Lamont Savory, thus providing the circular resolution that the Sankofa concept symbolizes. The voice, soothing and melodious, is perfectly accompanied by the two guitars. Dinizulu here has introduced to us Yolanda Lee, whose artistry is surely a force to be reckoned with. There is a beauty and simplicity in this track that presages the peace, spiritual and physical, that awaits the world when the wholeness of the peoples is
accomplished. She sings of cooperation, liberation, salvation, the return to the old ways. May the Ancestral Spirits guide us all to the Sankofa experience. Ashé.
THE LYRICS This is an excerpt from an abolitionist newspaper called Youth始s Cabinet published in Boston on July 7, 1837
THE JOURNEY In the men's room, each one is allowed six feet in length by one foot and four inches in breadth. See how closely they lie. They are compelled to remain in this position, on the hard deck for several weeks together. And there, in the centre, you see the boys. They are allowed 5 feet by 1 foot and two inches. And the girls are packed together in the stern of the vessel. They are allowed four feet in length by one foot in breadth. The women are allowed five feet and ten inches by one foot and four inches. The height from the place where they lie to the deck above them is five feet eight inches. The men are fastened together two and two by handcuffs on their wrists, and by irons riveted on their legs. Do you know why the slaves are thus brought from their homes? It is simply because slaveholders in America will pay money for them. If we could abolish slavery everywhere, we should not need any laws nor any cruisers to stop the slave trade. But look again at the picture. Perhaps one of those men is the slave Paul who was stolen away from his old mother who was a widow, and from his wife and four children. In the crowded hold, he breathes the suffocating air. His thoughts fly back to his native village, and he thinks, with feelings of anguish, of the wife of his bosom,
and his beloved children. He tries to get upon his feet, when the galling irons remind him that his feet and legs are claimed by another. They are not hereafter to be employed in providing food for those who are dearer than his life to him. He does not now know that he is to be compelled by the 'bloody cut of the keen lash' to use those hands to gratify the avarice and laziness of his tormentors. In Ball's narrative you will learn that Paul was brought to the United States where he was treated so cruelly that he hung himself to obtain relief from his torment. But you will of course suppose that the room where the slaves are confined will soon become very filthy. The slave traders will not forget that, for if they should the slaves would all become sick, and die in a horrible manner. They love money too well to let their victims perish in their own filth. About eight o'clock in the morning they are brought up on the main deck. As each pair comes up a strong chain, fastened by ringbolts to the deck, is passed through the irons which confine them together. This is done to prevent them from fighting against their tyrants. They are permitted to remain on deck about eight hours, if the weather is favorable. During this time, they are fed, and the room
below is cleaned. About four o'clock, they are forced back, to spend sixteen hours of wretchedness in the gloomy hold. When the weather is bad, they are not even allowed this privilege. They are then only permitted to come up in companies of about ten at a time, to remain for fifteen minutes. The picture was taken from a vessel called the Brooks, of Liverpool. You there see only 294 slaves. That same vessel did carry, at one time, 609 slaves. They are packed together on large shelves so that none of them could sit upright. Gustavus Vassa gives the following account of the commencement of the voyage, when he was himself brought from Africa. The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerable loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship's cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate, added the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and
brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died. The wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. One day, when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together, (I was near them at the time,) preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea: immediately another quite dejected fellow, who, on account of his illness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed their example: and I believe many more would very soon have done the same, if they had not been prevented by the ship's crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most active, were in a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion among the people of the ship as I never heard before, to stop her, and get the boat out to go after the slaves. However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully, for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery.
AFRICA AYE Lead: Africa the home of our mothers The fertile land nourished by our fathers Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Lead: I miss the scent of the morning dew An the sight of the green mountain view Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Lead: I miss the sounds of the market place And the happy look on ole grandmother’s face Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Lead: A million miles from my mother’s smile A million tears and I still hear her voice in my ears Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Lead Overlap with Chorus: Africa oh Mame Africa will I ever see you again A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O 2nd Section with English language and Afro - Portuguese (Canon Style) Lead: Bean cakes with pepper A Bahiana like the samba de roda Ancestors of Palmares, I hear you
The echos of your spirit Africa... A Ya Ya Yea O Africa ... A Ya Ya Yea O Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Lead: As I cleanse my soul and prepare for the journey Ogun shall dance Maculelê with his iron machete. The Capoeira masters will clear the path for victory. Sacred waters of Oshun will refresh us Lead: Africa A Ya Ya Yea O Africa A Ya Ya Yea O Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Djali: Can’t you see my people suffering? Yo, what’s up with all of these financial crisis? Bio Chemical Warfare. Poverty increase daily. All these concrete jungles out there, what’s going on here? Lead: Back to the motherland... back to the motherland... Africa A Ya Yea O Djali: (overlap) Got to repatriate, repatriation is a must. Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Chorus: Africa Aye, Africa Aye, Africa A Ya Yea O A Ya Yea O Copyright Kimati Dinizulu 2010 All rights reserved. Published by Cowrie Shell Music (ASACP)
AUCTION BLOCK & SLAVE SHIPS Lead: Giving birth in the hole of a Slave Ship. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm... Lead: After being raped by the slave whip Blood...
who wailed Woo Woo Woo... Lead: They raped my daughter while she gave birth Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm... Lead: And then they discussed how much the baby was worth
Lead: Tight packed in the hole to economize Tight packed. Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh...
Lead: When we landed we were sent to the auctioneer Woo Woo Woo Woo...
Lead: A Dahomean mother cries as her baby dies, ow!
Lead: Who the history books call a pioneer
Lead: Ninety days of hell on the high seas
Lead: He sold my sister to a man called Joe Woo Woo Woo Woo...
Lead: The captain’s mate beats your mother down on her knees Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh...
Lead: She picked his cotton and made his indigo. Made his indigo
Lead: Nine English men throw your son overboard And it’s all done...
Lead: Swamps and hound dogs we got to get loose Ibo Landing or the Hangman’s noose
Lead: And it’s all done in the name of the Lord. In the name of the Lord...
Lead: While we made their rum they built their Kingdom Kingdom
Chorus: Auction Block & Slave Ships, Auction Block & Shackles, no one can deny this holocaust, Maafa! Maafa! The African Holocaust... No more...
Lead: They banned the Drum because it spoke Freedom Freedom
Chorus: Auction Block & Slave Ships, Auction Block & Shackles, no one can deny this holocaust, Maafa! Maafa! The African Holocaust... No more... Lead: From Elmina to Congo Square we sailed. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm... Lead: Millions on the ocean floor
Chorus: Auction Block & Slave Ships, Auction Block & Shackles, no one can deny this holocaust, Maafa! Maafa! The African Holocaust... No more... Chorus: Auction Block & Slave Ships, Auction Block & Shackles, no one can deny this holocaust, Maafa! Maafa! The African Holocaust... No more... Copyright Kimati Dinizulu 2010 All rights reserved. Published by Cowrie Shell Music (ASACP)
SANKOFA Lead: We must go back to the old days Where our people followed the ancient ways Where the spirit of peace and love ruled all of mankind And without that spirit we fell behind But I and I possess the secret Called by our elders... Chorus: Sankofa... Sankofa... Sankofa Lead: It's peace and love,… peace and love... peace and love …. peace and love, Organic ways just like in the old days Unity for all society Cooperation no discrimination Liberation for the oppressed nations Sankofa... Lead: We must go back to the old days Where our people followed the ancient ways Where the spirit of peace and love ruled all of mankind And without that spirit, we
fell behind But I and I possess the secret Called by our elders... Chorus: Sankofa... Sankofa... Sankofa...Sankofa ... Sankofa... Sankofa... Lead: It's peace and love Oh Oh Oh... peace and love It's peace and love Oh Oh Oh peace and love Organic ways like in the old days Unity for all society Sankofa... Sankofa... Cooperation no discrimination Liberation for the oppressed nations Chorus: Sankofa... Sankofa... Sankofa... Lead: We've got to reach back to the old bring to the new. Chorus: Sankofa… Sankofa... Sankofa... Copyright Kimati Dinizulu 2010 All rights reserved. Published by Cowrie Shell Music (ASCAP)
SANKOFA MUSIC
1. AFRICA AYE! Lamont Savory - Acoustic Guitar, Herculano Federci - Acoustic Guitar, Aeion Hoilett - Bass Guitar, Christopher Cabba Tyrell - Drums, Rene McLean - Flute, Kimati Dinizulu - Percussion, Yolanda Lee - Lead Vocals, Analu - Lead Vocals Brazilian, Ann Henry - Background Vocals, Krystal Small - Background Vocals, Sarina Constantine - Background Vocals, Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded at Avatar Studios by Peter Dorris, Recorded at Tuff Gong Studio, Jamaica, West Indies by Roland McDermott, Oneil Smith and Michael Howell Assistant Engineers
by Kimati Dinizulu at African Room Music Studios and Tuff Gong Studio,
Jamaica, West Indies
6. AFRICAN HEROES & SHEROES
Kimati Dinizulu - Gome, Atiba Wilson - Flute, Brian Carrot - Marimba, Kwe Yao Agyapon - Atoke, Clara Reyes - Shruti Box, Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded at York Recording Studios, “D” - Engineer !
7.! 500 YEARS 2. THE COFFLE Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded at African Room Music Studios, Engineer - Kimati Dinizulu, Post Mix by Gary Sutherland / Tuff Gong Studio, Jamaica, West Indies 3. AUCTION BLOCKS & SLAVE SHIP
Aeion Hoilett - Bass Guitar, Robert Browne - Lead and!Rhythm Guitars, Christopher Cabba Tyrell - Drums, Michael "Ibo" Cooper Piano, Yolanda Lee - Lead Vocals, Ann Henry - Background Vocals, Krystal Small - Background Vocals, Sarina Constantine - Background Vocals, Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded at Tuff Gong Studio by Roland McDermott,! Oneil Smith and Michael Howell - Assistant Engineers.! !
4.! PLANTATION BLUES
Donald Smith - Hammond B2 Organ and Vocals, Kimati Dinizulu Congo Drum, Jerome Jennings - Guatemalan Goat Toenails Rattles, Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded at Powerhouse Studios NYC, Kennan Keating - Engineer!!
5.! THE JOURNEY
Abajonai - Recitations, Kimati Dinizulu - Percussion, Yolanda Lee Field Hollers, Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded
Loremil Machado - Berimbau & Vocals, Herculano Federici - Surdo & Chants, Kimati Dinizulu - Asheko & Vocals & Chants, Black Moon Raising - Native American Vocals, Chief Bey - Vocals - Asheko & Vocals & Chants, Kwe Yao Agaypon – Percussion, Fernando Tambora, Güira & Chants, Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded at Variety Recording Studio by Alex ! !
8.! SANKOFA
Yolanda Lee - Vocals, Lamont Savory - Acoustic Guitar's, Composed and Arranged by Kimati Dinizulu, Recorded at Tuff Gong Studio by Roland McDermott.! Oneil Smith and Michael Howell Assistant Engineers ! ! All tracks Mixed by Roy Hendrickson All Tracks Mastered by Fred Kevorkian Coordination in Jamaica West Indies by Michael “ Ibo” Cooper ! Copyright Kimati Dinizulu 2010 All rights reserved http://kimatidinizulu.com Record Label: African Room Music LLC http://africanroommusic.com Publishing:! Cowrie Shell Music (ASCAP)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My mother the late Ohema Afua Owusu Alice Dinizulu My father the late Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu My grandmothers Louise Bolden and Geneva Brown My grandfather Edward Bolden My aunts Mattie Brown, Bert Commador, and Alberta Blumer My uncles Bill Brown, Bennie Brown and Robert (Chocolate) Williams The late Baba Chief Bey The late Ralph Dorsey The late Kwa Yao Agyepong The late C.K. Ganyo The late Nii Adama The late Baba Ashanghi The late Louis Celestin The late Alphonse Cimber The late Loremil Machado Frisner Augustin Nana Ajabo Waldon The late Charles Moore The late Lavinia Williams Elombe Brath The late Dr. John Henrik Clarke PhD Professor James Small The late Dr. Charshee McIntyre PhD Dr. Roslind Jefferies PhD Dr. Leonard Jefferies PhD Ismael Calderon Dr. Jackie McLean PhD Dolly McLean Rene McLean Michael “Ibo” Cooper
Natalie Barnes Nina Simone Eartha Kitt Toni Morrison The late Nana Akua Oparebea Agogohene Nana Kwaku Sarpong Abosumfo Atta Ahia (Numo) Johnny Eshun Nana Kofi Asinor Boakye Dr. Sam Williams PhD Dr. Kobinah Abdul-Salim PhD Dr. Salim Washington PhD Street Corner Joe Tom Downs Roy Hendrickson Fred Kevorkian Peter Doris Donald Smith Mickey Newby Zebedee Collins Wesley Snipes Eli Kince Ausettua AmorAmenkum D Majeeda Snead Esq. Kweku Agyeman Cheryl Johnson Infama Arson and to all my family and friends MEDASE!
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: NANA KIMATI DINIZULU
MIXED BY:
ROY HENDRICKSON @ AVATAR STUDIOS, N.Y.C.
MASTERED BY:
FRED KEVORKIAN @ KEVORKIAN MASTERING INC., N.Y.C.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY:
TERRENCE A. REESE, TAR PRODUCTIONS, N.Y.C. / ROLAND HYDE N.Y.C.
GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR ALBUM COVER & DIGITAL BOOKLET BY: CAMILLE BRETT
ART DIRECTION & GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR THE PHYSICAL CD: DR. KOBINAH ABDUL-SALIM PHD
ART DIRECTION FOR THE ALBUM BOOKLET: NANA KIMATI DINIZULU
LINER NOTES BY: DR. SALIM WASHINGTON PHD
© 2010 Kimati Dinizulu All rights reserved FBI anti-Piracy Warning: unauthorized copying is punishable under federal law. Manufactured and Marketed by African Room Music LLC