You Voted For This (And Other Songs)

Elections don't make for great subject matter for music (or art in general). They are typically uneventful in most countries. And most would rather sing about love, conflict, loss or betrayal. Audiences don't favor the banal when escapism, gossip, or spicy takes are available.

Still, there is a certain strain of art that emerges when elections are contentious, or if the personalities involved are striking in some way. The loss may hurt more, the win might be long overdue, or against all odds, the results might be shocking...

Joy, shock, upheaval or outrage rightly deserve an artistic response. In contrast, the poet of the quotidian lives in considered penury, envious of her more successful peers.

Hands down, the greatest artistic reaction to an election is B-movie by Gil Scott Heron. It starts with the immortal line "Mandate, my ass", and goes on from deconstructing Ronald Reagan's 1980 election to painting a pointillist portrait of a nostalgia-ridden USA (said nostalgia endures).

Beyond the biting poetry, set to that militaristic bassline, the performance benefits from its panoramic scope that moves beyond Skippy's loss, and RayGun's ascension, to a cold-eyed assessment of the wider culture.

(His band would soon be renamed the Selective Amnesia Express.)

The song, B-movie, like the earlier Winter in America, continues to resonate due to the range of his ambition and careful economy of the execution. The sparse musical arrangement is just the icing on the cake.

The prescient lyrics, of course, diagnosed, at length, Bush 2004 and Trump's MAGA appeal:

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia
They want to go back as far as they can - even if it's only as far as last week
Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards

But if B-movie is sui generis, what about the more routine reactions? Sticking to music and what is available on YouTube music, and focusing on the USA, I give you a representative playlist of twenty songs that cover the past twenty years. As usual, I have a few thoughts (call them liner notes)...

• You Voted For This, a playlist (YouTube, Spotify)

The most recent reaction songs started right after the November 2024 US election. The most typical response contains the expected mix of disgust, I told you so, you've made your bed, now lie in it, this is your mess etc. In short, schadenfreude, anger and fear prevail.

While I understand the impulse and there's certainly the urge to react, politics remains a contact sport. One wonders: what is the intent of all this sound and fury? What is the underlying theory of change?

Anger may motivate to wrath while disappointment often leads to depression and disengagement. Perhaps the idea is that even though writing in righteous anger, or singing the blues, may not change the world, their palliative relief is very welcome. Perhaps we should look elsewhere for change.

(But perhaps I'm not the wisest person to opine on such matters, after all I've written 5,000 words on an html button, 7,000 words on a taxonomy useful idiots, and even 9,000 words on a bookmarked tag. What change did I drive?)

Every act of creation should be celebrated. Moving on...

The most impressive finding comes from the aptly-named band, Friends of USAID. Newly-formed in 2025, they fully embrace the satirical mantle. Opening this playlist is the just-released I Voted For This. A delicate duo, melding male and female voices, they add sweet insult to injury

Calm delivery, sample lyrics:

My cousin's kid caught the measles - I guess that's kinda sad
But at least she won't have to learn how slavery was bad
The crops are dying, the aid is gone, but I don't care 'bout that
At least I don't have to speak Mexican and hear 'bout them eating cats

The inspired band name highlights the the Doge cuts that have decimated the mission of the eponymous agency. The artwork of the 15 singles they have released this year accentuate the effect. As do the songs themselves sample titles: Thoughts and Prayers, inc, Reverse Robin Hood (The Tariff Two-Step).

I hope that, like Randy Rainbow, they commit to the bit and continue to release more music. They have an album's worth of material already. We could all do with more biting satire to leaven the next few years.

More typical in the 2025 crop is You Voted For This Fool by Lazy Radiographer which reeks with disgust. The chorus: "You chose the fire / Now feel the cost / Watch freedom burn / While you praise the boss"

This Is What You Voted For (I Hope You're Happy) by After Everything continues in the vein of anger and outrage. It's rock-infused so less restrained. Lyric: "Sooner or later they'll come for you and you'll be the next in line". Bleach is the cover of their last album title A-Jax Everywhere

Is This What You Voted For? by Rhett Sawyer is more earnest and conciliatory, seeking to question and start a conversation. He's a country musician worried about his country and reels a litany of problems starting with "a land of the lost, locked up and poor", and carrying on from there

Cory Legendre is all bitterness in You Get What You Voted For - off his album, We Tried To Tell You (cover with Putin and Musk and a sitting Trump). Albeit looking at vote counts in the recent election, I'd hope the b-side would address those who didn't vote.

Lopkerjo has fully signed up with the resistance and has Nobody Voted For This, the titular track of his furious album... Still, methinks that Liz Cheney Hero of Integrity is where I step off (I would have added a question mark to that song title at the very least, but your mileage may vary).

Late in 2024, Me & Melancholy wounded by Trump's victory released We Never Voted For This. Working fast but protesting too much, I think. Who is the We he is talking about? I would rather point him in the direction of Antibalas's 2010 album, Who is this America Dem Speak of Today?

YaBoi Dirty is more philosophical with Who You Voted For. His is more a plague o' both your houses missive. The kind of demoralized outlook that would lower voter turnout - and perhaps that is the point of his intervention. Politicians are crooks, spokesmen for the rich etc...

Stepping back to 2022, we have part of Ben Frank's standup comedy routine which is riffing on political hypocrisy with This Is What You Voted For. The private sexual mores versus the public severe prudity. Cynicism about the bonafides of leaders.

Turn to hip-hop also in 2022, Mr Trumptastic released You Voted For Jb You Must Be Smoking Dope. He'd had enough of a whole year of Joe Biden's presidency and was looking forward to Trump's rightful return. One wonders if he'll have more to say for the current moment.

in 2021, Art Neuro, more punk than rock, chimed in with This Is The Stuff You Voted For taken from his Sadistic Ineptitude album. Not quite mellifluous, his is a rather acidic take.

Preaching reconciliation in 2021, JCAR93 weighs in with Come Together (Even If You Voted For Trump), trap rap noodling. I suspect The Beatles were more artistically successful being all sugary and omitting the snark.

In 2020 from England, we have If You Voted For This Then You Are Part Of The Problem by Dannydangerously, his grime flow is less outraged at Boris Johnson's shenanigans than of his countrymen's continued voting for the Tories. England was then the new epicenter of the covid pandemic.

In 2015, Me Time released You Voted For This. Again punk-inflected, and furious about the GOP's assault (presumably under Bush) on gun control, the EPA, bloody wars, corporate cronyism.

"Thank God we chose to back the GOP / The world is a wasteland / It's piles of grass, ash and sand"

Also in 2015, The Walking Toxins chime in with You Voted For Them. Angry at a fascist state that dropped the bomb (unclear whether it was Obama drones or Bush shock and awe that drew their ire). Like the music they produce here, they are not happy campers.

In 2012, Zygsville sound bewildered in Who Voted for This, a nice uptempo joint that one can do a line dance to. More musically interesting with some nice guitar licks. Giving the date of the release, I suspect Barack Obama wasn't his favorite but the lyrics are rather ambiguous consequently the song has legs.

In 2008, Beatnik Turtle whistles his acute observations on buyer's remorse, describing how the new guy becomes "the incumbent, he's got the peoples mandate, but he's passing wacky laws now, showing all his flaws and he's the guy that everyone hates. And all of a sudden nobody voted for this guy"

The humourous point is well taken about how partisans turn quiet when those they put in power screw the pooch. And, quite likely, this year we'll be repeating the observers are worried mantra.

Stylistically, then, the songs are mostly country, rock and punk, perhaps because I stuck to the Anglosphere. It's not easy listening as the singers are trying to provoke a reaction. Where we have hip-hop, the political commentary is a sideshow, braggadocio is a necessity in that form.

I do think that the songs with songs that broaden the perspective will likely endure but I appreciate the lesser works as fodder for the time capsule, cultural artifacts for later historians mining the zeitgeist of these trying times. I hope we make it to the other side.


Bonus beats: Your Mess by Omar, timeless soul, and an extract from Black Wax the film that featured a live performance by Gil Scott Heron of B-movie

• You Voted For This, a playlist (Youtube, Spotify)

File under: USA, England, election, humour, satire, music, review, culture, observation, perception, Creative Process, hatchet job, Buyer's Remorse, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log: May 4, 2025

Kindness for Weakness

While it may feel good
  To use me as an emotional crutch
   Don't mistake my kindness for weakness

The neediness though understandable,
  At length, can be grating
   Shall I compare thee to a leech?

A bit of restraint, please,
  It's a little too much
   The straw that broke the camel's back

I know you're tired
  But taking it out on those close to you can be dangerous
   Even dormant volcanoes sometimes erupt

Kindness for Weakness, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Don't Take my Kindness for Weakness by The Soul Children
• Don't Mistake Kindness for Weakness by Albert Collins
• Don't Take my Kindness for Weakness by Meshell NdegeOcello
• Don't Take my Kindness for A Weakness by Earl Gaines
• Don't Take my Kindness for Weakness by Glen Washington
• Tuff Nut by Dennis Brown

Bonus beats: Emotional Pump by Prince. Still fascinating that he thought it would be something Joni Mitchell would sing...

File under: humour, culture, observation, perception, hatchet job, poetry, toli

Writing log: September 10, 2022

A Comfortable Unease

Ambitions are somewhat tempered
In this autumnal season
The earlier aspirations slightly tarnished
But still remain well within reach
Clear-eyed about the task ahead,
The obstacles will be surmounted
The searcher's gaze resolute and firmly set
Focused on the promise of better days
Traveling light, with bags at the ready
The journey presents itself as ever
Proceeding on the road to freedom

II.

Off kilter living is our lot, it seems
A pose of preemptive cynicism readied

Prescience perhaps, and lessons learned
And so we make the best of things

Caution, my kin, take heed
For fairweather friends loom

Such is our jaundiced perspective
The sense of dislocation prevails

That we are guests in our own lives
And truly behold the shock of the familiar

We make homes for friends alike and visitors
As we cross these boundaries seeking shelter

Weapons of restraint. Contra provocation
We turn to conversation, and quiet reflection

Yet we were left unrequited, aching with yearning
While, beneath the surface, understanding was on hand

We were promised: our liminal dreams would be fulfilled
Still we engage in the struggle, if they would only listen

The burden of early sacrifice, in this, our quiet revolution
Has left an impact that can only be discerned in the stillness in time

The broad outlines emerge of a duty of care, if not a philosophy
And so pause, momentarily, to trace the reflections in the mirror

It's fine to affect hospitality, for it doesn't cost you none
Most of all, speak softly, my friend, speak softly, your time will come

III.

The sad fact of our fraught modernity remains
Our sole assurance in this life of precarity
Is to live out elusive dreams of normalcy

Good enough, some say, good enough
Hold them to their precious words
We heard of liberty and equal protection

Yet experience has taught us harsh lessons
All their rules were made to be broken
And the inconvenient ones rewritten at will

Who do the laws serve? We deserve an answer
Justice and freedom are the heart of the matter
The rhetoric ought to be more than propaganda

Presented with the reality of a fickle state
Replete with escape clauses and underlying conditions
We recognize that we tread a fine line of liability

So we made our peace with this life
Consoled with a comfortable unease
But vigilant, we will bear witness

A Comfortable Unease, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• (If You Ain't) Comfortable by Lynden David Hall
• Welcome to the Colored Section by Donnie
• It Could Happen to You by Ahmad Jamal
• Blue 7 by Sonny Rollins
• Electric Relaxation by A Tribe Called Quest
• The Colored Section by Donnie
• Umi Says by Mos Def
• Cry Together by The O'Jays

See previously: The Fleeting Canvas

File under: culture, observation, perception, displacement, immigration, poetry, toli

Writing log. June 2, 2022

Gunboat Diplomacy

A kiss in a shadow
Trying to catch the wind
The person who tied the bell must untie it

Gunboats on the Pearl River
Treasures loaded onto their wagons
Silver was drained from our veins

Torches in the Summer Palace
Countless lives lost under the lie of "Fair Trade"
Today, those same powers that pushed opium
Now threaten with trade wars and blockades

We're going to live together very happily
So face up to the rational voices
The shackles you cast will clasp your own wrists


After Presidents Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Ministry of Commerce spokesman, He Yadong (April 23, 2025)

Diplomacy, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Diplomacy by BB Seaton
• English diplomacy by Mighty Sparrow
• Diplomacy by Lucky Clover
• A different kind of diplomacy by Michael McEvoy

Bonus beats: Learn Chinese by Jin

See previously: A Very Beautiful Thing and Facilitate

File under: humour, satire, language, politics, power, culture, observation, perception, USA, China, history, Great Game, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 24, 2025

Location is Everything

I took it as an omen perhaps, or a propitious sign
When the then-fiancée defended her PhD dissertation
The setting where scholars had their meeting of minds
The culmination of her Harvard education was in Room 419
Others remarked wryly about the uncanny juxtaposition
Real estate agents would say: location, location, location

Nine months later, marital bliss
The Wife's first academic trip
Butterflies, a case of separation anxiety
For this newly minted professor of African history
Put your game face on, it's about dollars and sense
Modernity too, this was the Science in Africa conference
Auspicious, and a touch surprising, but then what can you do?
It turned out that the proceedings were held in Edinburgh zoo

Location is Everything, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Proper Education by Mikey Dread
• Side by Side by Dianne Reeves
• Africa by Toto
• Sound Education by I Roy
• At the Zoo by Simon and Garfunkel
• Location is Everything by Daniel G. Harmann

File under: humour, culture, observation, perception, juxtaposition, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 29, 2022

Facilitate

It wasn't easy, but this was the government lawyer's brief:
The word facilitate. A novel argument about its meaning
Where it applied and, indeed, how and to whom
And whether it was of solely domestic applicability

And if it seemed obvious to the Court that there was a plain meaning
His own job was to fully explain the proper, legal interpretation
For he evinced great concern for the separation of powers and its extent
And a justifiable worry for an unseemly unconstitutional precedent

That the judiciary in the shape of the present court
Was arrogating for itself the realm of executive power was self-evident
Overreaching and inserting itself where it should not
Infringing wholesale on the prerogative of the president

These were strange days of ever more outrageous claims
Stretching past the outer bounds of plausibility and shame
When norms were being shattered daily, and rules broken with impunity
Regulations glossed and discarded willy-nilly, testing the very limits of propriety

The government lawyer advanced his preferred reading
That his clients were in full compliance with the court's ruling
For their actions, after all, made it exceedingly clear
They would "remove any domestic obstacles
That would otherwise impede the alien's ability to return here"

But it turned out that further discretion was for the weak
And so the government attorney stuck to his emphatic brief
He concluded, the most powerful government in the world couldn't do a thing
As a matter of law, and in practice, the word facilitate didn't mean anything

Facilitate, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Can't do nuttin' for ya man by Public Enemy
• Easier said than done by Angie Stone
• Time's a wastin by Erykah Badu
• Ain't that easy by D'Angelo
• Gettin in the way by Jill Scott
• Obey by Dwele
• Not up to me by Frida Farrell
• Obstruction by Gabo Rio
• It don't mean a thing by Omar

Bonus beats: Objection overruled by Gregory Isaacs and My prerogative by Bobby Brown


After: Trump administration says it is not required to help wrongly deported man return to US

...

I seem to be departing from my normal practice of delayed publishing. I suppose the above will not be as topical if it were to be published as initially scheduled in 2036. Let me know if I should continue preempting the vault. I am somewhat tickled that the previous piece, entitled Expulsion Orders, written three years ago, mined somewhat similar terrain

File under: language, law, humour, satire, rogues, politics, USA, huhudious, culture, observation, perception, hatchet job, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 16, 2025

Expulsion Orders

For some, this was the second go-round, a reprise of the upheaval
The scenes at the ports, palpable despair, teeming, almost primeval
When the land borders briefly opened, a brave few chose that route
A long, dangerous journey with opportunist predators to boot

You would think there would be sympathy for these returning wretched
Yet the provisional government called them "recalcitrant and hollow-headed"
You see, earlier on, most had simply voted with their feet
Foregoing chaos, they'd packed their bags and left the country

Now, exiled souls twice removed, this was their homecoming
Leaving in a hurry, running away with just what they could carry
Tough love from the authorities on both ends, no tears for aliens
And extra scrutiny at the border, "non-Ghanaians are not welcome"

Ghana must go is how the trauma is recorded in folk memory
The damage was done and, worse, it was all so unnecessary
But such is the fraught and bitter legacy of the expulsion orders
As goes the proverb, try not to die when you are surrounded by vultures

Anybody could have told the authorities in Lagos that is is impossible to evacuate 700,000 (their own estimated figure) under their own imposed stringent conditions, within the period of one week that they opened the land borders

— Talking Drums May 1985

Talking Drums, May 20, 1985

Expulsion Orders, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify)

• Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers
• We trying to stay alive by Wyclef Jean
• Refugee Rolling by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
• The Exodus has Begun by Prince & the New Power Generation
• Get out of Town by Ella Fitzgerald
• Refugees by Gerard Musgrave
• Go Home by Gerry Mulligan & Ben Webster
• Pitche Mi by Youssou Ndour & Super Etoile de Dakar
  stately and mournful from the excellent contemporaneous album, Immigrés

Bonus beats: Shame on me by Alexander O'Neal

See previously Bags and Stamps

File under: Ghana, Nigeria, culture, immigration, displacement, exile, memory, Africa, history, politics, dictator, coup, loss, observation, perception, refugee, Things Fall Apart, Ghana must go, poetry, toli

Writing log: August 17, 2022

Blues Grinder

Nose to the grindstone
The mortar of regret
The days stretch, unending
Shackles untethered,
Healing foregone
A sameness, repetition
The blues grinder in effect

Late at night, exhaustion
Barely able to catch a breath
Restless spirit, searching
The feeling of being alone
Hopeless cause,
Unbearable odds
Still, the truth is our sanctuary

Blues Grinder, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Blues Grinder by Ronny Jordan
• Chains and Things by B.B. King
• Grinder Man Blues by Memphis Slim
• Confirmed Truth by George Freeman
• Hey Lordy Mama by Abbey Lincoln
• In the Wee Wee Hours by Junior Wells
• Blues Grinder (live) by Ronny Jordan
  I once had the pleasure of seeing Ronny Jordan live at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town. It was exhilirating as expected; he is sadly missed.

A few remakes to round off the blues grinder. Keep your head down, your time will come.

File under: culture, observation, perception, displacement, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 16, 2022

A Very Beautiful Thing!

Some day people will realize
That Tariffs for the United States of America
Are a very beautiful thing!

What's going to happen to the markets,
I can't tell you, but our country is much stronger.
Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something

Hang tough, it won't be easy,
But the end result will be historic

They are coming to the table.
They want to talk
But there's no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis.

Our past "leaders" are to blame
For allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!


A sonnet after Donald Trump

Puff, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. Self regard is everything. (spotify version)

• He's Misstra Know-It-All by Stevie Wonder
• Talking Loud and Saying Nothing by James Brown
• Legend in his own Mind by Gil Scott-Heron

File under: hatchet job, language, humour, satire, rogues, absurd, economics, politics, USA, huhudious, culture, observation, perception, Observers are worried, poetry, toli

Writing log: April 6, 2025

The Logic of Dreams

You finish composing the email,
Making sure to cc the right people,
And click Send

Promptly enveloped, encased in a package
The soft fabric, crinkly with its sheen, surrounds you
Wrapped up, bundled into a mailbox
Bumpy, you hit the rugged sides, blue metal

Then other envelopes and packages come in
What is this? You are getting pushed down
Crushed against the sides of the mailbox
Congestion, you think, even at this hour

Yes, you seem to be stuck in the first mailbox
The first of many. When will you get out?
You know the envelope has markings on the outside
But will it be inspected? Postal inspectors for email?
It's getting dark. More mail comes in. More packages

Finally, movement, your message is on its way
Floating, the envelope moves through the mail system
The thought occurs: should have marked it as urgent, high priority
Comfortable but stuck in the envelope, this must be a dream. Damn
Next router, another mailbox. More congestion, more packages
You have to wake up, you won't make it

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups
The email address you entered couldn't be found
You can't wake up. Message undeliverable

Packets, packages, parables
Finally you laugh, the comfort of the envelope
Lucid, the logic of dreams

Logic of Dreams, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• A Dream by Donny Hathaway
• Weird Fishes/Arpeggi by Radiohead
• Paradise Circus by Massive Attack
• Lucid Dreams by Blu
• Just Can't Understand by Paul Hardcastle & the Jazzmasters
• Weird Lullaby by Wynton Kelly

Bonus beats: I can't wake up by KRS-One


File under: dreams, life, observation, perception, poetry, toli

Writing log. August 6, 2022

Running Away

The lyrics in the songs always mentioned running away. Flight, escape, danger in its many variations. Embedded in the outlook, punctuating the very choruses was a sense of precarity. And yet these were not dirges, these were not laments. They'd long made their peace with the world as they'd found it, nay, they were comfortable even if clear-eyed about this existence.

And they watched.

Running away, heading for the hills and the rocky terrain. Running away, heading for higher ground, for those parts that only those close to these lands would know. The caverns where they could hide, holding their breath, stifling all sounds, covering the mouths of the infants.

And they waited.

Holes in the ground, the entrances disguised, dark caverns where the ancestors were said to have sought shelter from previous predators. At most a dozen could fit in the largest ones so you had to be prepared to seek out other spots, ever calculating as you ran up over the rocks how many had already made it, and if you would be able to use this particular refuge.

Oftentimes it was a gamble.

To enter the hiding places, you crouched, crawled and wriggled. The earth would envelop you, surround you with its embrace. You could expect to taste the slightly acidic crumbs as you pushed your way in, to smell the faint trace of clay. The earth would resist the touch, implacable and stern, until it would yield all of a sudden, plunging you forward into the void of the cavern.

You hoped, you wished for a soft landing.

You had to be methodical even in the heat of the moment, deliberate even as the senses were heightened by the danger. First, to dislodge the covering by pulling at the right spot, the intricate branch structure that only careful hands could pry open, and then to preserve its camouflage so that it would appear undisturbed to the raiders in pursuit. The architecture of escape, the provisional sanctuary.

And they prayed.

No matter how many times they had practiced, no matter how many warnings, no matter how many songs they had sung, no matter how much advance notice they'd garnered, they knew that there would be something lost, that there would be someone lost. It was the nature of life in those times. Something, someone would be snatched from you. Pieces of yourself dispersed, shredded away, leaving only the memories.

And they wept.

Farmers and pastoralists, they never had a standing army. Millet and maize in small fields, custodians of the northern territories, eking out enough to support the clan, to trade some guinea fowl and kola nuts, to enjoy the gifts of the earth, to husband it. This patch of land on the lower Sahel was unforgiving but it was theirs.

And they stayed.

But, at length, there had to be some edge they could wield to surprise the raiders. Running away might ensure survival for many, but more was needed. They taught the youth about all the plants and their uses. Those they ate, those they treated with as part of aromatic bitters, those with properties that were prized, their nighttime potency recounted, astringency debated, and medicinal effectiveness evaluated. And once they proved adept and facile with the identification of the flora, they would learn about what in extremis could be used in the poisoned arrows that were always reluctantly fashioned. Weary, wary, reluctant but necessary.

And so they studied.

The elements of survival were well known. Swift recall, preparation, decisiveness under threat, knowledge of topology, and luck. For the gods were capricious. Even the fleetest of foot, the strongest, and the most agile could be brought low and fall prey to the human hyena that roamed the lands. And Babatu's men were implacable and determined trackers. Tears would be for nought when in their grip. Best to fight when caught, to resist with all one's heart. But, above all, to flee when attacked, to live to see another day, to rebuild and restore when these interlopers would leave, for they would surely leave as these lands only yielded bodies to them.

And they ran away.

Taboo. A famous dirge recounted how one of the twins was unable to stay silent, a hard demand of a toddler, let alone in the darkness of the cavern. Their position having been given away, tough decisions had to be made. Father and the one would give themselves up hours later, when it became clear that this set of raiders would wait them out, they were a patient lot. Mother and the other twin would retreat further into the second chamber, deep in the dank bowels of the earth and stay for three days. It was hard to breathe, it was hard to stay silent and still, and there was only one gourd of water and the few nuts hidden in the fold of her cloth. They clanged to each other, charged with the burden of loss, of memory, of survival. Pieces of themselves lost for good. But they lived to tell the tale, to recover possession of the land.

And they survived.

Strangers have come into our land
Raiders have come for our bodies
Take heed, my brother, and run, run away
Caution, my sister, and run, run away
For we will all, someday, be turned into sand
And all that will remain is our story

Running Away, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• Running Away by Roy Ayers
• Running Away by Bob Marley
• Kunta Kinte Dub by The Revolutionaries
• Man in the Hills by Burning Spear
• Hiding by Breakestra
• Slavery Days by Burning Spear
• Kunta Kinte by Horace Andy
• Man in the Hills (live) by Burning Spear
• Hiding (Quantic mix) by Breakestra
• Kunta Kinte by Mad Professor

Further reading:

• Raids and Refuge - The Bulsa in Babatu's Slave Wars by Franz Kröger
• Slavery, Memory and Orality by Emmanuel Saboro
• Wounds of our Past by Emmanuel Saboro

A later discovery: Beyond Elmina: The Slave Trade in Northern Ghana by Joachim Jack Agamba mined similar terrain to great effect.

This note is part of the Things Fall Apart series. Do let me know what banner might be appropriate.

File under: slavery, Bulsa, Ghana, Africa, culture, memory, music, history, observation, perception, fear, dislocation, escape, griots, Things Fall Apart, poetry, toli

Writing log. July 24, 2022

Literature Only

Literature only
Life vest under your seat

Literature only
Parental advisory

Literature only, put aside your childish ways
Literature only, this is grown folks' business

Literature only reads our manifesto
We try harder, even with no bells and whistles
From spare and unadorned prose through the densely elliptical
The experience is sometimes said to be life changing and mystical

Literature only, storytelling is our mission
Your franchises and universes are mere diversions
Commerce marks the tomb of the unknown author
But the fact remains, the tales are immortal

Literature only, the issue is survival
When it hits your soul, the sensation is unrivaled

Literature only, it's a matter of perspective
All consuming and focused on the narrative
Dialog, repartee, conflict, motivation
Interplay, romance, thrills, observation

Literature only and occasionally poetic
Our brand of storytelling is the original cinematic
Perception is all, this life of ours is a mystery
Truths, secrets and lies, the rest is history

Literature only, we never stand for ceremony
We make no prescription and traffic in irony
Exploring the boundaries of the human condition
The interface between modernity and tradition

Literature only, it's beyond dispute
Caution, my friend, accept no substitutes
Bask in the glow and let the narrative unfold
The urgency of folk memory, the story simply had to be told

Literature only, plan to be a believer
A cast of thousands, all of them word scribblers
Apt to spontaneously declaim, these occasional rhymers
Mind you, the griots among them are also keen listeners

Literature only, enter the lyricists
Deep thinkers, philosophers and moralists
Villains, hacks, and, of course, the polemicists
Witness the hatchet jobs from the propagandists

Literature only, this is a serious matter
Specialists in all styles, we've got you covered
Hardboiled tropes, greed, revenge, and dense plotters
Love, hate, lust, youth and comedies of manners

Literature only, scribes and scriveners
Bask in what springs from the minds of these dreamers

Literature only, style and aesthetics
Savor the pointillist skewering from the satirists

Literature only, indelible heroes, ever dramatic
Our protagonists are always charming and charismatic
World builders, the terrain of the unknown, mining the imagination
Outrage too, a surfeit of reality that exceeds description

Literature only, we're not the usual suspects
Afflicted with the journalistic impulse, we simply have no regrets
Essayists and wordsmiths expounding on nothing and kindred subjects
Small things, the world is our oyster and practice makes perfect

Literature only, allusions and exhilaration
Literature only, excess and repetition
Literature only, even as the form varies
Literature only, filling your libraries
Literature only, as yet undefeated
Literature only, fasten seat belt while seated

Literature, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• This is my story, This is my song by Thelonious Monk
• Fairy Tales by Anita Baker
• Stories by Carleen Anderson
• I Could Write a Book by Miles Davis
• Tell me a tale by Michael Kiwanuka
• Poetry by RH Factor (ft. Q-Tip and Erykah Badu)
• I Could Write a Book by Dinah Washington
• 8 Million Stories by A Tribe Called Quest
• I Could Write a Book by Ella Fitzgerald
• Just Another Story by Jamiroquai
• Literature Beyond My Mind by Blue Moon Swing
• Imagination by Count Basie
• Poetry Man by Phoebe Snow

...

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

File under: humour, literature, culture, observation, writing, craft, perception, whimsy, poetry, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log. July 24, 2022

The Dynamics of Worry

Blame the losses incurred during the South Sea bubble
Owing to which, the great man's credibility suffered such a tumble
While mankind adopted his search for fundamental laws of heavenly bodies
(Their tangible motion was unarguable, elliptical totems of physicality)
History fully discounted his later findings on the dynamics of worry

Thus I reproduce here the lost chapter of Newton's Principia
Whose discourse moved beyond those musings on objects' inertia
The simple formulae that laid down the outline of the classical analysis
The formal statements that derived from the moral calculus of the treatise

The first law states that anxiety expands in proportion to the depth of feelings
But that the capacity for worrying will eventually approach a ceiling
The paradox of approaching this asymptote of anxiousness
Weighs heavily on the mind, leaving one in a state of uneasiness

The famous equation can be shown to result in quasi-equilibrium
The disorder presents as a fraught subject in the generalized version
Especially confounding, as the parameters of worry have a time component
Still, careful experiments confirmed the findings with decisive evidence

The second observation is that public concern accentuates the degree of anxiety
This finding on the stresses we incur in life has the well known corollary
At its worst, the most apprehensive symptom is unbounded depression
Net attention can thus be said to vary inversely to the bearer's perception

The quantity theory of pessimism accounts for the enduring appeal of bad news
The marginal existence of our ancestors transmitted said affinity as a virtue
Replaying the past, and its influence, enhances the effects of solitude
The reaction, opposite in direction, ends up equal in magnitude

The third lemma concerns the propensity for debilitating panic
The damage of unfocused worry is piecemeal but renders one frantic
The general dynamics that govern the fundamental paradigm
The study of how the mind might develop or alter over time

The crucial point: interaction being the key to matters of identity
The essential insight, namely that human beings live in communities
The currency of social capital, thoughts expressed in conversation
The friction of human intercourse raises simultaneous frustration

Ever since we left Eden, we've borne the weight of the certainty of death
The precarity of life, a constant, and the gravitational pull it exerts
The comfort of a touch can steady the soul and bring a body to rest
The countervailing force of passing time acts as a blanket of neglect

With nagging doubt lingering at the back of the mind
Seized with insecurity at the most inopportune time
Enter imposter syndrome and its many liabilities
Evaporating any confidence in one's abilities

All this is independent of the righteousness of one's cause
Even with the best preparation the observer effect is quite remarkable
Knowledge was our stolen gift, lifted from the gods
Who would render us naked to ignorance for our troubles

A state of uniform emotion cannot be countenanced without internal displacement
Off kilter and unbalanced, the pressure that amounts leads to much resentment
And in the reverse of the process, to settle the mind's confusion
And descend from the peaks of worry, and finally be able revel in relaxation

To the toll of mounting discomfort that external forces exert
To counter the dark impulses, how best then to allay concerns
The load one is bearing leads directly to a surfeit of unease
The constant velocity of what amounts to a social disease

The research shows that the most propitious cure is conversation
Prolonged engagement serves to relieve stress and isolation
The underlying mechanism for the diffusion of distress
The gaze of an audience helps scale the heights of nervousness

None shall escape the cardinal embrace of worry
The fundamental principle at work is its irreversibility
Because once a soul succumbs to its seductive gaze
Unease becomes part and parcel of the bearer's days

Folk remedies have been proposed by noted cultural alchemists
But when two irresistible forces meet traveling at equal velocity
The final outcome will depend on their relative acceleration
Thus the saying, observers are worried, borne of close studies of such collisions

Over time, coping mechanisms can be found for some measure of mitigation
Yet these last are only palliative, permanent relief remains a fiction
Indeed, the dynamics of worry fully hinge on these matters of cultural sensitivity
The frame of reference is everything, an early statement of the theory of relativity

Worry, a playist

A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)

• Three Little Birds by Bob Marley
• Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing by Stevie Wonder
• (Don't Worry) If there's hell below, we're all gonna go by Curtis Mayfield
• Not to Worry by Abbey Lincoln
• Dem no worry we by Super Cat
• Don't you worry by Alice Russell
• Don't Worry be Happy by Bobby McFerrin
• Why Worry by Aaron Neville
• Worry, Worry by Buddy Guy
• Why Worry by Dire Straits
• Dem a Worry by Mighty Diamonds
• (Somebody) Ease my Troublin' Mind by Sam Cooke
• Worry Walks Beside Me by Michael Kiwanuka
• Worries by Robert Glasper Experiment (ft. Dwele)
• No Worries by Robert Glasper Trio

..

See previously in humanity's curriculum:

• The Laws of Grief
• The Economics of Whimsy
• The Physics of Shame
• Fortress of Ignorance
• The Ingredients of Catharsis

File under: worry, culture, observation, perception, life, humour, whimsy, humour, satire, poetry, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log: June 28, 2022