Just saw this great video about Sabar, the drumming events that happen in Senegal. This is what I was helping to document when I lived in Senegal many moons ago. Still blows me away.
Or if you just want to watch some kick-ass Sabar dancing.
Here is an amazing kickstarter that I can’t wait to read (and to submit to)! Check out Long Hidden.
“Most written chronicles of history, and most speculative stories, put rulers, conquerors, and invaders front and center. People with less power, money, or status—enslaved people, indigenous people, people of color, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and religious minorities, among others—are relegated to the margins. Today, mainstream history continues to perpetuate one-sided versions of the past while mistelling or erasing the stories of the rest of the world.
There is a long and honorable legacy of literary resistance to erasure. This anthology partakes of that legacy. It will feature stories from the margins of speculative history, each taking place between 1400 and the early 1900s and putting a speculative twist—an element of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or the unclassifiably strange—on real past events.”
So yeah, I did my entire dissertation on an historic Maya village from the 1850’s, basically trying to move away from the British-focused history of Belize, because there is a whole silenced history out there needing indigenous, non-European perspectives.
AND, I write speculative fiction (or try to).
Perfect, why yes, yes it is.