20060428

 
Compte comme Kimbo: etá, filî, kiau-wa

Pardon, mes amis et lecteurs, je veux jamais te gêner, mais la sélection aujourd'hui est originalement en anglais et je n'ai fait que recopier.

Kimbo (cricket) is 5 foot, 6 inches in height, with mustaches and long beard; in middle life, and is intelligent. He was born at Waw-Ko-Ba, a town in the Mendi country; his father was a gentleman, and after his death, his King took him for his slave, and gave him to his son Bon-ga, residing in the Bullom country. He was sold to a Bullom man, who sold him to a Spaniard at Lombako. He counts thus: 1. etá, 2. filî, 3. kiau-wa, 4. náeni, 5. lóelu, 6. wêta, 7. wafurá, 8. wayapá, 9. tá-u, 10. pu.

Never saw any books in his country. When people die in his country, they suppose the spirit lives, but where they cannot tell.

From John Warner Barber. A History of the Amistad captives: Being a Circumstantial Account of the Capture of the Spanish Schooner Amistad, the Africans on Board, their Voyage, and Capture near Long Island, New York, with Biographical Sketches of Each of the Surviving Africans. 1846.

Cet extrait est donc un des maquettes biographique, celle-ci de Kimbo, un des esclaves à bord l'Amistad. J'ai vu au Metropolitan Museum of Art, dans l'exhibition de Kara Walker qui a lieu jusqu'au 30 juillet 2006. Le livre est ouvert à la page de Kimbo.

Ce qui me frappe c'est l'identification du pays par la cosmologie et les chiffres cardinaux. Je me demande, est-ce que ça suffit pour m'identifier?




Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?