Burst Into Bloom 💞

Hello World! And Happy New Month.

Today, I bring to you a post where I will talk like a real African.

I am already a real African, so don’t ask.😂

And as you read this post, listen to Becca’s African Woman in the background.

*clears throat*. This post is dedicated to All African Women, especially my mother.💕

If I had Akan font, I would have written the entire post in Akwapim Twi, and most people will not read it because they can’t read Twi.

A moment of silence….😓

I admit that there would be spelling mistakes if I had written this post in Twi.

Nti I will write it in English. Case closed.

*clears throat*. When you hear the noun phrase, African woman, you might thinking about a woman who lives in the bush, with children and is working on the farm. When she is coming home, she is carrying firewood on her head, holding a bunch of plantain on her right hand, and a pot of ermm... something on her left.

Is that an African Woman?

Well, maybe not. That is the ancient way of thinking.

To me, an African woman is a brave woman, a mother and a homemaker. She is a survivor and a friend of nature. She hunts and feed her off springs. She communicates with the wind, and knows when danger is approaching. She is a doctor. She is a fierce black woman.

Dear African Women,

You are beautiful, and intelligent and clever. Be proud of your colour (I’m not even supposed to tell you. You should know that!). Be proud of your heritage. Your hair might not be able to dance in the wind, but trust me, you can do many things with it. You can make it stand, you can make it relax.

You are a survivor, you know how to roll with the wind, in good times, and in bad times.

You are a treasure, a jewel, a gem. You cannot be priced because you are priceless.

Never let anyone tell you, you cannot do it. Never let anyone tell you, you are worthless.

Say what?

If someone tells you that you are worthless, use your hand to grab the words, and trample on it, or better still, THROW IT AWAY. Like, do it. I mean it. Do it in their faces. After all, we all have one brain. No one has two.

Burst into bloom. Let’s do it.

Yours truly,

Marietta

Written in purple ink

Let’s Chat: What would you like to say to an African Woman?

The Stories Told By the African Cloth

I was looking at some items in a sack bag, then I saw a smaller polythene bag with cloth materials in it. A whole lot of them that made me have a mother-daughter interview with my mum.

The Vlisco Fashion Company African Prints, and each of them had their names and type tag. It was through this one that each cloth in Africa had unique names and there are little stories behind them.

Below are some of the cloth and their respective names.

Please note. I wrote the words as I saw it on the cloth pieces. Spellings is not entirely my intention. That is how they wrote it on the pieces. You might notice different spellings for some local words, but that’s how they were displayed. Also, the groupings is done by my own interesting and naming. ;)

Animals

These are prints of animals, both domestic and wild animals.

big snail and shrimps

big snail and speedbird

snake skin

spider and guinea fowl

Basin

These ones are the most expensive ones and very quality ones

French

These have French names. I think they are from the Francophone countries. 

The meaning is written in the brackets in English.

cerceaux (hoop)  and loeil de ma rivale (my rival's eye)

jalouse (Jealousy) and  petit lion (little lion)

labre tombe(Grave Tree)

sucre(sugar) and jour et nuit(day and Night)

 Household

I named this household because they are things that can be found at home, or in a home.

opener and staircase

table ronde and steps

Objects

diamond and mask

record and helment

The record print is called that because it is like the compact disk (CD). They used to use such kind of disc to play music from. Now this is very popular among Ghanaians.

Sa Sawa

Some time ago, Sa Sawa became trendy. Almost everyone had sewn a dress with it. Sa Sawa is pieces of cloth sewn together to make one cloth.

School

I named this school because it had objects that are being used in school.

pencil and eight

wax  print abc n wax block abc

The Blues

They are blue in colour, and almost everyone has this kind of cloth.

grapes and kings chair

blue

Others

ankofna and akoufou

atche che dietchi (the back of a tortoise)

java print

sugar cain

super wax

wax print

zoba zoba

grand bassam

jowdonkwe and mboke

mopandzi and loso loso

wusa arm and zamba zamba

These are of great culture, and we carry the stories and symbols around without even noticing.

These are the stories told by the African cloth.