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Here are egte South African stories that flirt with legend and
history, go to bed with world literature, and produce a golem
elephant, a talking fish, Black Jim the colonel of dragoons, a
Green Man in the Cotswolds, a donkey on heat in Pofadder, ancestral
voices and much more. The sangoma Malibongwe Ngingingini is an old
friend who moves in realms of consciousness along with his beloved
apprentice Anna. Their task is to heal, which they do in ever more
inventive forms as they travel in South Africa and then further
afield. This first collection of tales from the shaman's record
will be followed by further packages of their exploits between the
light and dark.
In the fetid depths of a Jamaican prison, the half-caste bastard
son of an eighteenth-century Jamaican sugar planter is turned into
a zombie and banished to the diamond-hungry colonies of the Cape.
Thwarted by an unrequited love he unleashes a dire curse, which
reverberates across the continents and generations. From the
imagination of Peter Merrington, author of Zebra Crossings: Tales
from the Shaman's Record, comes an eclectic tale, woven with
folklore, fairy tale and magic, that draws urban shaman Malibongwe
Ngingingini and his beloved apprentice, Anna Persens, into a quest
to heal their land of the zombie's curse: a foul emanation of fog
and narcolepsy. The Zombie's curse affects two family dynasties on
either side of the Atlantic. Guided by Maria Juanita – the
shape-shifting Sister Moon – Malibongwe and Anna's journey takes
them from Cape Town to Great Bushmanland, and on to the mystical
deserts of New Mexico and the voodoo-fuelled New Orleans, where
Lord Tantamount, the Zombie Prince, haunts the highways. The Zombie
and the Moon is a blend of real social issues and deep spiritual
symbolism that includes a fanciful exploration of astral travel,
the role of the ancestors, animist earth spirits, utopian visions,
quotidian squalor, social injustice and an aged goat.
Reception studies have made film audiences increasingly visible,
while surveys track trends and policymakers gather information
about audience preferences and demographics. But little attention
has been paid to the specific contextual relationships and
interactions between films and individuals that generate and
sustain audiences. This monograph develops the idea of audiences as
interactive and relational, introducing three innovative concepts:
'personal film journeys', five types of audience formations and
five geographies of film provision. A major challenge of audience
research is how to capture the richness of people's social and
cultural engagement with film. To achieve this, the book uses an
innovative mixed-methods research and computational ontology. It
develops ground-breaking theory and concepts and an innovative
methodology based on an extensive data-set derived from the
under-researched area of British regional film audiences. -- .
This is a story of a very ordinary person who had a few unique
experiences. Anyone could have made the choices I did, which have
culminated in a wonderful life of grace. What happened to me could
happen to you too. I share my story optimistically that it might
inspire you, but I wish for more: I'm hoping that you're encouraged
to make braver and better choices, to pave the way to a better and
more meaningful life now. You don't have to be special in the eyes
of the world to benefit richly from life; that would make it
exclusive and only for the elite. We're all special and I hope to
show you a way to a rich and fulfilled life no matter who you are.
My story is about change. Part of my story is about injustice, the
ways in which the state, society, and creed systems can suppress
the life of individuals like you and me. But, through and out of
this, I also speak of the miraculous release and deeper
transformation that comes from wise and courageous choices - and
Ram Dass and the friends that led me, in my own life, to that path.
This is my story. It begins as a nineteen year-old incarcerated in
military detention and solitary confinement during South Africa's
apartheid past. It's about a young man having to face his personal
demons and the injustice of others, the ways in which state,
society, and creed systems suppress the life of individuals like
you and me. It's about religious fanaticism which upturns love and
compassion in favour of forceful, cruel and unsympathetic adherence
to dogma; the actions of overly zealous, spiritually myopic people
who believe they are called to judge others even if the
consequences of their decisions rip families apart, leave fields of
broken hearts and decades of hurt. But, out of this, I also speak
of the miraculous release and deeper transformation that comes from
wise and courageous choices. Ram Dass, my spiritual teacher and one
of the most beloved contemporary spiritual figures serving four
generations, led me, in my own life, along a different path. It is
a story of change. What happened to me could happen to you too. I
share my story optimistically that it might inspire you, but I wish
for more: I'm hoping that you're encouraged to make brave choices,
to pave the way to a better and more meaningful life for yourself.
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