It’s a spare spot I know. It’s a set of floaters. A small project in public. It’s a mic check. It’s bouncing words on rhythms. It’s trying figure some things out. Not often what to say. Just how to say it. & that changes. That’s the only constant here. Thoughts will bounce around.
Yalangange in Criollo Kongo means: Welcome/Enter. Quilumbo is the camp in the forest where one learns one’s fundamentals. It is also the camp of war. You keep the gunpowder there. It’s also a temple. It’s also the place one goes to test the craft they’ve learned. It’s a wood shed.
“Yalangange quillumbo” may be used as a formal way to invite someone into their Nzo, into the temple’s heart by a Palero when they’re putting on the dog. It can be used to indicate the respect with which the door guardian admits someone of good counsel or much force after the challenge at the door. Both words as spoken by chanters are also images that hold more associations that dream themselves many other ways. Some people may relate to “quillumbo” in many ways as well. Palenque. Palmares. A Seminole camp. I offer it here in those ways too. & for the meanings it always means.
I also say it because it is pretty & it pops & rolls.
So here’s some work. It’ll grow.
OK then: “Yalangange quillumbo” & I mean it.
