A Day in Oklahoma

Hi! Everyone.
          Just want to share new things in my blog. I recently went to Oklahoma a State next to Texas for a visit to the Chickasaw Cultural Center. That center is in a city named Sulphur so if you happened to go to this area try to go there and discover interesting facts and the history of this people. Who are the Chickasaw? They are a Native American tribe (To those who need more explanation they are Indian Americans tribe). Some of you know the story of "The Trail of Tears" that happened many years ago when they were forced to leave their ancestors' land to go to Oklahoma. (A very sad part of the History as well) I understand what it means because coming from a culture where the land and respect of nature and ancestors is important it can be a humiliating and traumatizing experience.
        Why did I go to that center? When I was young back in the days and back in my country the only pictures and movies that were shown to us were cowboys movies I would say a very "strange" depiction of them. For some reasons I grew up with that idea because that was all we could see. However, as I became a little bit older I started to reject this depiction because knowing how African people were also portrayed in books, I decided to not believe it anymore and I simply thought that if they didn't understand our culture I wonder how could they understand Native Americans' culture and civilization as well? I started to be curious and learn about Native Americans by reading few books.
When I came to the US, I decided to further my knowledge. As a result, I decided to take an extra special class of Native Americans' History in order to learn. I wanted to break my ignorance and remove that erroneous depiction of them. I have learned a lot and my understanding was now open. I learned that they were brave with many warriors like we had in Africa. I have also learned that there were many tribes such as the Chickasaw, the Cherokees, the Utes who were living in Utah area, the Seminoles I think they were in Florida area (Somebody can correct me if I am wrong) the Navajo, the Choctaw, the Mohicans and many others. I was even surprised to learn an Indian tribe named the "Gros Ventre" which is a French word that is literally translated as "The Big Stomach." I then wondered why did the French gave them that name? ( I might do some research on Google to understand it). Then, I was thinking that if the French happened to named them they might have taught them their language as well. As a result, I thought that maybe some Native Americans were speaking French at least understanding it.

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        After watching the movie  The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio (One of my favorite actors) I had a little bit of answers. If you carefully watched the movie you remember that one of the French guy said to his superior while talking about Native Americans that the Indian chief could understand French. I think he even said a sentence in French if I remember. And in the movie, they were communicating in different languages kind of but they could still understand each other. To me it was like an answer in the sense that now I knew that they kind of spoke and understood some French. Anyway to curt short. My visit was on purpose to learn History one of my favorite subjects at school even though at some point after reading many books I realized that History has never been written with all the exact facts/events. History was not written in favor of some people...But to me it's about time that Africa starts to write her own History book and teach our own History to students at school. These books should be now included in our Education program. We had enough learned History of Europe and America. It is time for us to know well our own History.

At the library of the cultural center

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      Back in the days, learning our History requires to go to libraries on your own and have the thirst or desire to learn.  We were taught a little bit about us at school (That is very sad). We didn't have easy access to internet in that time. We didn't have google, youtube, I phone etc. The only option for those who were curious to learn was to read and read and read books as many as possible. I really want to thank my father who taught me the importance to read and to learn. Actually my first Science and History books were offered by my dad. For instance, I would be reading the map of the world to see countries and know most of the capital cities. Maybe that's why I have a good knowledge of the African continent as well (I mean countries, capital cities, a little bit of culture,History and geography) It sometimes disappoints me to see some of my African fellows who have no clue of their own continent. I met many of them here. They can't even tell you in what part of the continent a country or another country is situated. Maybe they don't have to but look! if  some people can do that why shouldn't they do the same?  Simple examples: somebody asks me where Kenya is, without any doubt I would say East Africa. Where is Nigeria or Ghana? In West Africa without any doubt. Where is Algeria or Tunisia? in North Africa without any doubt. Where is Congo? In Central Africa without any doubt.

A warrior

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         As I learned a little of our History I felt in some ways related to Native Americans' History in the sense that we also lost our lifestyle. Our culture has been modified, our tradition as well. We knew the importance of using plants and how to welcome people. I like nature a lot because I grew up learning about it and I respect people who respect nature. Native Americans also have strong respect for it. We both lost our real independence. We were colonized without knowing why and the damages have never been paid. About Africa, we have lost many people from the continent. Some of them were thrown in the ocean alive or dead who cared since they suddenly became less than human for some people. They were thrown in the water because they were trying to fight for freedom, because it was fun to throw them to feed the sharks as an entertainment or simply because they could not stand to travel in a ship.
They were taken to some unknown lands away from families. We had to fight for our dignity and pride and it sometimes surprises me when people have the guts today to ask me why Africa is behind compared to other continents. Without being rude or mean my answer is simple: " while during centuries you were taking our people to build your countries, the old generation and children who were left on their own, had to suffer another oppression which was colonization. No wonder why the knowledge that was passed on was gone already with the strongest group since we had oral tradition. Our blood worked for you...Now you understand?" Yes, it was such a Huge and massive lost even though people do not care or do not admit it but it's a true fact. Africa has lost a lot!!  Human resources is the most important wealth of a continent and country. And yet we still suffer this lost today ( I can write an entire blog about it but I won't.)  It is still a traumatic experience to go to places were our ancestors were caught before taking the ships. Our people have never been treated fairly. We were taught to forgive and that's what we ALWAYS did but when are we going to be compensated for all the wrong deeds? Well...it is still a question hanging there. However, compensated or not, I still believe that someday things will change. We are going to change things for the best in our continent.

My Native American necklace and bracelet

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    Back to the main subject of this post, I had such a great experience at the cultural center in Oklahoma and I recommend people to go there if they want to learn more. I put all the pictures at:  http://patacolorcarnet.weebly.com/carnet-de-voyage
 I saw people playing flute and drums. I met a lady who was Chickasaw and she is a genealogist.
Let me share some moments with you. (unfortunately I cannot post all of them because there are some visitors who accidentally were filmed in my videos.)
In the first one, I learned a little artistic activity

Then, a little bit of archeology

I like water. To me, water symbolizes harmony, purity, truth and peace.

Would you like to listen to this beautiful song in Native American language? I love it! Few years ago I bought a complete album of Native American flute (music) and I love it!
Sacred Spirit Yeha Noha

        That was all about my visit. I hope you like it. Since I am about to conclude this post I was thinking if you have ever had trouble sleeping at night like I did some years ago?  I was going through a lot...I could not sleep at night at all until the sunrise. That was such a difficult experience to live. My eyes were looking like the main character of the book of the French author Guy de Maupassant "The Horla" To those who have read the book you understand what I mean by that. That experience made me write this post. You can find it in my other page, I wrote something interesting: I shared few tips for good night sleep at: http://patacolorcarnet.weebly.com/carnet-de-lifestyle
If you are interested to read it you can click on that link.
          Also, my friend Sandrine has renewed her website. She now makes us discover more interesting things such as testimonies and experiences of women entrepreneur. How they started from almost nothing to build a business. She also shares social activities of her association in her city of Grenoble in France. What they have done so far for some people. she has ideas that she wrote for home decoration and DYI ideas. She shares news on jobs offer etc. And, she also asked me to write a little article about African fashion which I gladly did  (The website is in French) This is the link of my article but you can read other articles as well: http://asseg38.123siteweb.fr/412916752?b=A4D09786BEF782EE7F9249B5B4BBD84ECDE323D5
To those who speak French it would be interesting for you to go to her website you will learn a lot! She is such a gifted and nice person. I first met Sandrine online. We became friends through another person and our friendship matched so fast because we have the same passion. Since then we have been communicating and I like her a lot. She is a sweet lady! (wink)

You want to buy Style Equation Magazine? There is the new issue for the ladies who are ready for walking down the aisle. Are you ready to be a beautiful bride this year? This is the link: www.stylequationmagazine.com
Thank you for passing by!
For the French speakers this is a poem of an African well known author named Francis Bebey that I read in my list of "Poems to Our Dear Africa" in my post and my youtube channel. That poem reminds us how important it is to like and respect our culture. It is a story of an African griot (or storyteller/ genealogist teller) who are still working to keep our oral tradition.

Francis Bebey "Qui Es Tu? " (Who Are You?)
The author was apparently asking that question to the Genealogist teller (griot) and he in turn replied to him with all his experiences and passion for what he is doing. What was done and still is going to be done generation after generation telling genealogy to people through songs and using the Kora that African traditional instrument.
Thank you!

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