All posts tagged: anthropology

Nature is the First Witness

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Crescendos hum, the Nile snarls against new banks, the Hornbill’s beak opens skyward sinking in uliginous ground, brown coconuts refuse to crack open, the Atlantic will not carry blue ships. Vying toddler’s smile suddenly droops to his shoulders. A newly developed embryo wishes to degrow. Accra’s night air crystallises upon an inconsequential second. And the silence. The silence of The Book quietly observes these sighing eulogies. These magnificent sighing eulogies of a clamouring natural kind.

Mystics and Sages: Baiyinah Brookins on Tuareg Craftsmanship and the Ornamental Resiliency of a Nomadic People

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Join MZAB as we catch up with Baiyinah Brookins, founder of Mystics and Sages, an ethical sterling silver handcrafted jewellery brand which supports Tuareg artisans across Africa. Please tell us more about your formative years and what inspired your link to jewellery and the Tuareg. My formative years were shaped by the rich culture, history, spirituality, and entrepreneurship that surrounded me. Growing up the daughter of two entrepreneurs who founded an African Arts Boutique in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, I was immersed in a world of craftsmanship, history, and culture.  The spark that ultimately ignited my journey to create the brand, Mystics and Sages, occurred when my father returned from a business trip to West Africa and gifted me a small half moon sterling silver Tuareg necklace. This necklace was a gateway to the world of the Tuareg people. I was intrigued by the beautiful geometric designs artfully etched into the silver and carefully crafted glass beads that encircled the necklace. I fell in love with the mystical lore and …

O To Live! To Build a Quiet Life: Deep Time, Eschatology and the Anthropocene

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ANTONIO. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage, where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one. GRATIANO. Let me play the fool! ~The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare The centre, for many, seems not to be holding. Turning and turning in the widening gyre, it appears that we homosapiens have lost our way. The darkness has dropped a thousand times over and still we ignore the tensions between our profound purpose and the brevity of life… On a blue-skied afternoon in London, against the backdrop of a chorus of birdsong and the murmuring happenings of a leafy suburb, I embrace the concept that despite the socially constructed stratification of what is and what isn’t considered the ideal life, there is no real hegemony or hierarchy in one’s approach to and experience of it. To me, to live means to cultivate a quiet life. To engage with the world around us, to build meaningful relationships and to practise the avocations that make us feel most like ourselves. How …