roi kwabena – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

“Deep Obeah,” by Roi Kwabena

This is my animation of a musical spoken word poem by my late friend and collaborator, Dr. Roi Kwabena. The piece is titled “Deep Obeah” and is perhaps the most musical and most sung of the pieces that he produced and that made its way onto his Y42K album. Also, so far this is the […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Sour Chutney: The Ethnopoetics of Exploitation, Transplantation, and Violence

The feature here is the late Dr. Roi Kwabena’s musical spoken poem, Sour Chutney, from his hypnotic Y42K album, an unrecognized treasure in my view, where every one of his musical spoken word pieces is hauntingly beautiful. This is a remake of an earlier version I posted here some months ago, having produced the first […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

One Year Later: Viva Roi Kwabena!

ROI KWABENA Today is the first anniversary of the death of Dr. Roi Kwabena, someone whose presence in my own work and evolution was fundamental, a mentor and guide, a great example of a publicly engaged anthropologist — completely public, in the sense of not being tied to any academic position, and inspiring some to […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The New Blog: One Day for the Watchman (1D4TW)

My hint in a previous post about creating an offshoot blog was “1D4TW”, which stands for One Day for the Watchman, which is now live. “One day for the watchman” is a line from a Trinidadian proverb, about everyday being for thieves, but only one day is for the watchman, that one day which is […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

More on RECLAIM THE ANTHROPOLOGIX

I was very happy to receive a reply from Illcommonz, in response to questions I sent regarding the meaning of “Anthropologix,” what the words were next to the MTV logo on the screen (I was not sure if I had read them clearly), and to ask questions about the makers of the film. The response […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

New•World•Knowledge: A Caribbean Legacy and a Future Anthropology

Many thanks again to inspiration from fellow bloggers at Savage Minds with their article by Dylan Kerrigan who teaches the Anthropology of the Caribbean course at the St. Augustine, Trinidad, campus of the University of the West Indies (I had met his predecessor back in 2002, and thanks to a failing memory I am disappointed […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Dr. Roi Kwabena Has Passed On

Purely by coincidence, and to my very great shock and deep sorrow, I only just discovered a few moments ago that Dr. Roi Kwabena, whose articles and news we had reproduced on The CAC Review, a man who had regularly corresponded with me over several years, suddenly died on 09 January, 2008, a day after […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Dialogue: Newest Issue

Dr. Roi Kwabena‘s latest issue of Dialogue is currently available, in PDF format, directly from him at roi.kwabena@gmail.com. This latest issue as usual covers a broad range of very interesting topics, mostly centred on themes of resistance to slavery, African and indigenous cultures, contemporary politics in Africa and the Caribbean, poetry, short stories, biographies of […]