Cool Stuff 1:  Native America and Africa

By: Anna J. Micklatcher-Peterson

“The Sultan of loyalty, love, and wisdom”

I was very surprised in class today, to learn of the passing of Omani Sultan Qaboos, whom we had just discussed in class Friday.  

He was a great humanitarian leader who cared about the well-being of his country, whereas other foreign leaders in that area only seek to prosper themselves at the expense and labor of their citizens. Sultan Qaboos also maintained positive relations with other countries by hosting secret meetings in order to facilitate negotiations between Iran and the U.S.  Qaboos cared about peace enough that he paid half a million in 2011 to each for the securing of the release of American prisoners from Iran.  He was known as “the Sultan of loyalty, love, and wisdom”. 

“Sultan Qaboos Mosque in Sohar, Muscat, Oman”

Oman is a country that has no trains or trees and has been on the records since the sixth century BC. It was referred to as “the Hidden Port.”  Previously, its capital, Muscat, was in Africa until Said bin Sultan decided to move the capital to his much-loved tropical outpost in Stone Town.

“Mama Africa”

Miriam Makeba was a famous South African singer with Paul Simons and Harry Belafonte, who helped to introduce African music to the West.

  “Mama Africa” became the first African woman to win a Grammy and was very beautiful in the modern “Afro look” that she helped to shape while on stage performing.  “Pata Pata” was her most popular song in South Africa and became the No. 12 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. 

  She made an unusual clicking sound with the lyrics of the music, which she called her language.  South Africa speaks Xhosa and Zulu.  Both use the Roman alphabet, but Xhosa uses three types of clicks that linguists call dental, lateral, and alveolar.  They are written with the letters C, X, and Q.  The “C” click makes a tsk! tsk! tsk! sound by placing the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth, near the incisors.  Urging a horse is the sound it makes for the “X” click as you place the side of the tongue against the teeth and inhaling.  The “Q” click makes a “clop” sound by putting the tongue against the roof of the mouth and snapping it downward.  It sounds like a horse walking on cobblestones.  Each type of click paired with one of the six vowel sounds makes a total of 18 click sounds in the Xhosa language compared to 48 clicks in the language spoken in Namibia and Botswana.

     She was also a very vocal civil rights activist against the racial segregation of apartheid.  Because of her political stance against South Africa’s government, she was exiled from her country and not allowed to attend her mother’s funeral in 1960.  Her country had terminated her passport during the time she was touring and living in England and the United States.  She died of a heart attack at the age of 76 during a 2008 concert in Castel Volturno, Italy.

 

Cherokee Indians

     The Cherokee were a very large tribe that originated in the southeast part of the United States.  They migrated from the Great Lakes region to Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.  Cherokee means “those who live in the mountains”.  The Cherokee Nation has more than 300,000 tribal members.  It is the largest of the 567 federally recognized tribes in the U.S.  My great, great grandmother was a Cherokee.  Their language was Iroquoian and they occupied the southern Appalachian Mountains beginning approximately 8000 B.C.  The Trail of Tears forced them to relocate to our present-day Oklahoma between 1836 and 1839.  Today’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are located along the Oconaluftee River in western North Carolina.  Cherokee, N.C. is a tourist attraction where you can experience the traditional music, dance and clothing of the Cherokee Indian.    

Cherokee Indian Music

Amazing Grace in Cherokee language