World History

[Ms Ezi]

Weezo,

If you're referring to my blog, it is not a work of fiction. My very first post clearly sets the tone of the blog by giving a brief account of of my family history. Those are not doctored images on my blog. When I say my mother is ada, it's because she is. When I say my parents are Igbo and from Nigeria, it's because they are. What is history without the personal accounts of the very people who are living it or have lived it? My parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and so forth have lived through what only some can are able to grasp from textbooks. My blog is written in the spirit of them and from what has been passed down to me.

[weezo]

Ms Ezi,

Nice to make your acquaintance. Who are you and where is your blog?

[Ms Ezi]

Weezo,

Thanks. Nice to meet you as well. This is my blog:

http://migrationstoriesofnigerianigbo.wordpress.com

[Lhoffman]

Hello Ms. Ezi.    Nice blog.   Many interesting cultural details.   I'm curious about one of the pictures in your November entry.   It looks like it  might be a painting of workers building a tomb around a priest.   I clicked on properties, but it is only sourced to your blog.   Do you recall where you found this?

[Lhoffman]

I was also interested in your comment related to Ibo as a bastardization of Igbo.  Do you think this might be related to linguistics and the difficulty non-speakers have in translating tonal language?

[Lhoffman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keZXlDZlluI&feature=related

[Ms Ezi]

Lhoffman,

Thanks. I think I know the image you're referring to. From this post:

http://migrationstoriesofnigerianigbo.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/igbo-ukwu-archaelogical-site/

I can't recall off the top of my head where I found it, but it is also in Catherine Acholonu's book, "They Lived Before Adam: Prehistoric Origins of the Igbo, The Never Been Ruled."

Regarding Ibo/Igbo - yes, the pronunciation of Igbo ('gb' sound) was and still is difficult for non-speakers.

[weezo]

Ezi,

An excellent blog! I've put a link from my educational site to the blog from several pages that have to do  with Africa. Here is the link to a ning done by a friend of mine who has published on genealogy and African genealogy. You will want to share your blog with Anita and see what comes of it.

Here's the link to Non-Fiction History Writers Network started by Anita Wills: http://nass2009.ning.com/

[Ms Ezi]

Thanks Weezo!

Your link did not appear. Can you repost it in your message?

 

[weezo]

Thanks Weezo!

Your link did not appear. Can you repost it in your message?
 

Sorry - I do that a lot in email - promise an attachment and forget to link it... comes of getting a bit crusty about the habits....

The link is: http://nass2009.ning.com/

[nytempsperdu]

Wow, a whole new field of long ago and far away to think about!   Sort of a relief after messages I've been getting (from people involved with the Enough Project, V-Day, UNICEF and others) about the horrendous goings-on in the Congo that have left an estimated 6-7 million dead over the last dozen years (Holocaust comparisons, anyone?), enlisting support for efforts by various groups trying to alleviate same, which coincidentally came at the same time as my daughter was reading King Leopold's Ghost!

Sometimes when the here and now are too much, it's wonderful to learn about there & then.  But for the more but not most recent, I thought this exhibit/collage, whatever it's called, was beautifully done--a huge photo (it covered --and may still--the side of the building of Museum of African Diaspora in SF) made up of many, many individual photos you can click on to view (one could spend hours):  http://www.moadsf.org/salon/exhibits/photomosaic/index.html


 

[weezo]

Both Basit and Hamza, from Ghana, asked me early in the correspondence is I was a part of the African Diaspora. Told them no, and put Basit in touch with an African American, with whom he managed to be politically incorrect to end the correspondence.

I have had a recent event with my Ghana guys that brought home the fact that you can only give small nudges, but following your heart can break it!

[Lhoffman]

I have had a recent event with my Ghana guys that brought home the fact that you can only give small nudges, but following your heart can break it!

I'm sorry to hear this, Anne.   What happened? Or is it something you would rather not share?

[weezo]

Laurie,

I don't think I'm ready to share the story as yet. It may not be over.

But to be succinct, I suspect the laptop I sent back in the fall may have been sacrificed to the voodoo gods!

The young men of Ghana are being introduced to the Internet, but no one is explaining it to the Elders. 
 

[madupont]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS


African and African American Studies
Book News February 2010   

Saturday, February 27: Scott Christianson will sign copies of his new book Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War at the Underground Railroad Conference in Troy, NY.

Scott Christianson at Underground Railroad Conference, Troy, NY 
   
  Date   Feb 27, 2010
       
  Time   5:30 pm - 8:00 pm   
       
  Location   Rensselaer County Historical Society, 57 2nd Street, Troy, NY
       
  Sponsor   UGRR History Project of Capital Region and Rensselaer County Historical Society
       
  Event type   Lecture
       
  Views   298
       
 
Freeing Charles
The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War
Scott Christianson
"Absorbing and eminently readable. With a large cast of characters, this stirring historical narrative centered on one incident also uses a wide-angle lens to reveal many other facets of slavery's impact during the antebellum years."--Jean M. Humez, author of Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories
   
Paper
978-0-252-07688-6
$24.95

Pub Date: 2010
Pages: 240 pages
Dimensions: 6 x 9 in. 
Illustrations: 19 Black & White Photographs, 3 Maps

The dramatic, daring rescue of a fugitive slave

Freeing Charles recounts the life and epic rescue of captured fugitive slave Charles Nalle of Culpeper, Virginia, who was forcibly liberated by Harriet Tubman and others in Troy, New York, on April 27, 1860. Scott Christianson follows Nalle from his enslavement by the Hansborough family in Virginia through his escape by the Underground Railroad and his experiences in the North on the eve of the Civil War. This engaging narrative represents the first in-depth historical study of this crucial incident, one of the fiercest anti-slavery riots after Harpers Ferry. Christianson also presents a richly detailed look at slavery culture in antebellum Virginia and probes the deepest political and psychological aspects of this epic tale. His account underscores fundamental questions about racial inequality, the rule of law, civil disobedience, and violent resistance to slavery in the antebellum North and South.

"Christianson explores the complications of the law, and he captures the drama of Nalle’s escape and attempted recapture and the complexities of citizens willing to defy the law for a higher principle."--Booklist

"In this magnificently conceived and subtly rendered book, Christianson not only brings to life the men and women of the Underground Railroad as they carry out one of the most dramatic rescues of a fugitive slave on record, he also guides us unflinchingly along the heartbreaking fault line of racial relations that warped life in America--in both the North and the South--in the age of slavery."--Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America

"Christianson's beautifully written story of fugitive slave Charles Nalle's dramatic escape, recapture, and then rescue is one of the long forgotten yet incredibly important events in our nation's history. Christianson serves up history like a master storyteller: a great dose of drama, tragedy, triumph, love, illicit sex, and a cast of characters that will surprise and delight."--Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero

"Extensively researched and finely analyzed, Freeing Charles tells the gripping story of a fugitive slave rescue that has largely escaped our attention until now."--Richard J. M. Blackett, author of Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War

"Absorbing and eminently readable. With a large cast of characters, this stirring historical narrative centered on one incident also uses a wide-angle lens to reveal many other facets of slavery's impact during the antebellum years."--Jean M. Humez, author of Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories

"A vivid and arresting biography that focuses on one mid-nineteenth century man and his family, whom slavery constantly imperiled even after they freed themselves not only once, but several times. It is such stories that help us learn how much was at stake for anyone held to slavery and the lengths to which some white people would go to reverse attempts at self-emancipation."--Philip J. Schwarz, author of Migrants against Slavery: Virginians and the Nation

Scott Christianson is the author of With Liberty for Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America and many other works. He lives in New York state.

Series:
The New Black Studies Series

Subjects:
Black Studies / History, Am.: 19th C. / History, Am.: Civil War / Southern History & Culture

* This book has an unbelievably colorful, very active sense of motion, work of art as the cover which I could not reproduce here. In the very bottom lower right corner, you can just make out the left hand side of Harriet Tubman's shoe and skirt and arm extended to wrestle Charles away again from those who captured and stole him after she had already taken him out of slavery.  It is a veritable tug of war.