4th

I had a lovely weekend in Columbus, Ohio. The drive was short enough that I didn’t have to make any stops and long enough that I got to clear my head and scream along to my favorite songs with the windows down, of course. I shouldn’t have worried that I wasn’t going to have a good time. I had an AMAZING time with my family. There was lots of yummy African food, family I had not seen in years, dancing, beer-just all around good times. Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures but I will share the few that I have.

Watching Ghana v. Uruguay on the edge of our seats/floor. This game was intense. Epic overtime. You should’ve seen the faces of my family when Ghana missed a goal or the loudness of the house when they did score. Minus my father who is actually sleeping in one of the pics. Even though you didn’t win, we are proud of you Ghana!

“little cousins who aren’t so “little” anymore”

“Dancing with the Devil”

There are a couple of different devils that we have in the Mende culture. This is a Goboi devil. I’m not sure what each devil represents, but they are spirits that dance and bring joy. Which confuses me as to why they are referred to as a devil. I enjoy and even anxiously await the devils appearance at parties now. When I was younger it was a different story. My sister and I were we were deathly afraid of them. Especially the black, Bundu devils (video below). We always knew when they were coming out on the dance floor. You can tell by the music. The normal West African music with horns would stop and very tribal music with drums at a fast pace and older women whining in Mende would replace it. As soon as we heard it, we bolted to my mom and dad to hide from the devil. We were such crybabies! Here are some videos I found of youtube of the devils dancing so you can get an idea of what they do.

The video above is of a Bundu devil! The one that frightened me as a kid. This video doesn’t do the devil justice. The devil dances wildly-shaking and jumping everywhere. This is only the beginning of the dance. I wish they filmed the whole thing.

This is a Goboi devil. Sometimes at an event two different devils come out. One for men to dance around and another for women. This, is obviously one for the men.