This article is based on this dutch article of Martijn Benders
The Devil has always played a kind of taskmaster role in Tarot. In the Rider Waite Tarot, you see a giant goat that has enslaved humanity. Once again, a brilliant choice by Veronique to make the bagworm moth, which lives on the tea plant, the Devil in Butterfly Tarot:
Exploiting people, slavery. The bagworm builds a house on its own head, in which it then transforms into a moth. And that’s the moth that feeds on our tea.
For our afternoon relaxation, just as the rubber on my vacationing parents’ car tires came from Congo, where the most gruesome things took place. Look at this interview on Left Laser and remember that in 1959, Harold Charles d’Aspremont Lynden was still knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau, even though it was already very clear that the situation there was rotten to the core. Two years later, Lynden had Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first elected president, tortured and executed:
I will honor Lumumba with a poem in my new collection. He’s a beautiful addition to the incredible life story of Fela Kuti, and maybe I’ll also give a place to Selassie and other African saints. This past year, I immersed myself a bit in Swahili, such a beautiful language, really. I even wrote a song in Swahili:
Nyimbo Fulani
Nyimbo fulani
zinakufanya ufikirie
kuku waliokatwa vichwa.
Nyimbo fulani
zinakufanya ufikirie
kuku waliokatwa vichwa.
Zinaendelea na zinaendelea.
Bila mwisho.
Koo koo na kee kee,
zinapiga hadi usikie kiziwi.
Wanatoa haja kila mahali hizo nyimbo
Kinyesi hapa,
kinyesi pale.
Koo koo na kee kee,
zinagonga masikio bila kukoma.
Nyimbo fulani
zinakufanya ufikirie
kuku waliokatwa vichwa.
Nyimbo fulani
zinakufanya ufikirie
kuku waliokatwa vichwa.
Je, kiitikio hicho kinaenda wapi?
Je, kiitikio hicho kinakokwenda wapi?
Ohooooo!
Kukudie Kukuda Kukude
Kukudie Kukuda Kukude
Kurukuruku tjik tjik
Kurukuruku tjik tjik
Je, kiitikio hicho kinaenda wapi?
Je, kiitikio hicho kinakokwenda wapi?
Ohooooo!
Kurukuruku tjik tjik
Kurukuruku tjik tjik
Je, kiitikio hicho kinaenda wapi?
Je, kiitikio hicho kinakokwenda wapi?
Ohooooo!
Nyimbo tamu
Watoto wanaruka ruka
Kwenye milima na mabonde
Wakicheka na kucheza
Wanapiga makofi kwa furaha
Nyimbo tamu
Which, by the way, immediately resulted in a semi-erotic message from some old musician boomer on Soundcloud. I was ammmmmmaaaazzzziiiinnng! Whether I wanted to listen to his ‘melodic safari.’ Preferably not, actually.
That’s what Africa was for the aristocracy: a place where you could shoot at strange animals.
The world is still full of slavery. All your stuff is made by people who have to work in factories for a euro a day. That was called ‘globalization’ at the time, giving it a cosmopolitan aura, allowing our leaders to sell it as progress.
Martijn Benders, 01-10-2024