It’s difficult to say who we turn to in times of great transition, but we found ourselves moved by two recent findings from our archives, and thought you might be on the search for similar voices to help guide you back into a new world of wonder…at first, we came across some Bataille —"But when, on the road, the magic of panoramic landscapes began to work on me, I forgot about my decision; I wanted to live again and, on the contrary, it seemed to me that I would never get tired of horizons like those; open to the promises of a storm or the subtle variations of the light that indicate the time of day in passing from one moment to that which follows. It was, in my fever, an instant of fortuitous felicity, but it didn't mean a thing, and I abruptly returned from the pleasure of living to a state of boredom..." An excerpt from Georges Bataille's first published novella, L'Abbé C - an emotional and disruptive telling of the triumphs and perils of two brothers; one a libertine, and the other a Catholic parish priest.
And after a long day out at used bookshops around the Valley, we came across an essential compendium, for all of you out there with linguistic yearnings —"An old woman swallows mashed yam and her vagina squeaks; he who plants a cocoyam wants an edible root...a cricket on the main road digs and bends his shell..." This 150 page guidebook into the forgotten language, Efik, is one of our latest finds. Efik, is a tone language -classifiable in the Benue-Congo, and affiliated with Ibibio, Enyong, Andoni-Ibeno, Anang, Eket, and Oron. We were excited to come across this copy of Extralinguistic Usages of Tonality in Efik Folklore - and couldn't resist to share it with you. Truly a rare find. -Research gathered by Donald C. Simmons, published 1967, and includes research obtained in Calabar Province, Nigeria, from 1952-1953.
"Tone Poems...in Efik, (which) were reportably employed to commemorate such special events as death, killing of a leopard, display of superb swordsmanship, honoring of a lover, or some dire personal or societal calamity. When officially mourning, women lament for approximately one hour at dawn, and during this lamentation they speak these poems to honor the deceased and to express their grief. Authorship of many poems is attributed to women, who possibly possess greater facility than men in their composition." —This book is going to take a lot longer to read through than the Bataille, which is why we felt that these two documents were necessary companions as we move swiftly into the Summer of 2021. We hope you enjoy our recommendations, and wish you the best on your journey during the next few weeks, as the world around us slowly begins to open back up, for some countries that is. We are not sure what to expect, but are hopeful…and eager to embrace what’s to come. Yours— Gina, Maxi, and Becki