Anthony
Joseph The African Origins
of UFOs Introduction by
Lauri Ramey
Biographical
note: Anthony Joseph is a
poet, musician and lecturer. He was born in
Trinidad, moving to the UK in his early 20s.
He is the author of two poetry collections;
Desafinado (1994) and Teragaton (1997). In
2004 he was selected by the Arts Council of
England for the historic 'Great Day' photo
as one of fifty writers who have made major
contributions to contemporary British literature.
He is a touring writer with the British Council
and performs and lectures internationally.
Biographical note: Lauri
Ramey is a poet and scholar whose PhD is in contemporary
poetry from University of Chicago. She is Director
of the Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics
and a professor of creative writing and English
at California State University, Los Angeles.
Her books include Black British Writing (with
R. Victoria Arana), Every Goodbye Ain’t
Gone (with Aldon Lynn Nielsen) and The Heritage
Series of Black Poetry, 1962-1975 (with Paul
Breman). Her poetry recently appeared in nthposition,
Poetrybay, NYC BigCityLit and Lounge Lit.
Support the short story
BIC Basic
EAN13: 9781844712724 ISBN-10: 1844712729 ISBN-13: 9781844712724 Author: Anthony
Joseph Title: The
African Origins of UFOs Series: Salt
Modern Fiction Product class: BC Language: eng Audience: General/trade BIC subject category: FBC Publisher: Salt
Publishing Pub date: 01-Oct-06 Extent: 160pp Height: 216
mm Width: 140
mm Thickness: 9
mm Weight: 216
gms Supplier:Gardners
Books Supplier:Ingram
Book Group Supplier:Inbooks
(James Bennett) Availability: NP Price: GBP
10.99 Price: USD
16.95 Rights: World
Short
description/annotation:The
African Origins of UFOs is a narrative
in verse that alternates between future
– present and past. It is a fusion of science
fiction, surrealism, mythology and the carnivalesque
rhythms of Trinidadian dialect. It is a unique,
genre-busting, hybrid text that blurs the boundaries
between prose and poetry and asks difficult questions
about race, memory and the future.
Main description: In
the hot and hedonistic atmosphere of Toucan
Bay, a Caribbean enclave on the planet Kunu
Supia, the legendary hustler of bootleg melanin
Joe Sambucus Nigra returns from the desert
with a price on his head. Waiting for him at
the seafront brothel and nightclub Houdini’s,
are several of his enemies including his arch
nemesis, the gargantuan hired assassin Bo Nuggy.
An unnamed, semi omniscient narrator relates
the sequence of events that unfold at Houdini’s
the night of Joe Sam’s long awaited return.
His story is interrupted by periodic hallucinations
or genetic flashbacks that take the reader
on a journey from ancient Iere to Kunu Supia,
via present day Trinidad. And in which the
past, present and future coalesce into a more
expansive narrative that reveals his own history
through time and space.
The twenty-four chapters that comprise The
African Origins Of UFOs were written over
a five year period. The text is a time shifting
narrative in poetic prose and poetry that fuses
elements of Science Fiction, surrealism, metafiction,
Trinidadian history and mythology, to explore
issues of exile, race and genetic memory, all
told in a fresh and innovative language, infused
with the speech rhythms of Trinidad. It blends
the diasporic with the avant-garde into something
which can only be called “afropsychedelic
noir.”
Table of contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction by Lauri Ramey
1. Kneedeepinditchdiggerniggersweat
2. Malick
3. The Thunderstone
4. Killer Joe
5. Town
6. Hummingbird
7. Secret underlung
8. Extending out to brightness
9. Realtime trajectory of explicit love
10. On Kunu Land
11. Whisky lip papa
12. Aranguez
13. Ace Cannon
14. Caura
15. Voyage to the bottom of the sea
16. Malkadi
17. … before her body fell
18. Wallerfield
19. Joe Sam meets Bo Nuggy uptown
20. Crown of Thorns
21. the ’doption
22. On Kunu morn
23. She swam in heaven
24. The African Origins of UFOs
Excerpt from book:
Bo Nuggy
Bo Nuggy worked in the Jalo Ice Factory by
day, by night he studied Spinoza. But unknown
to many, Bo was also also a felon for hire
whose bulk alone would terrorise. Bo Nuggy
gut big to bully goons for illicit brass in
fibregrass alleys, Bo big but quick to whip
lash with cape stiff an cutlass blinking. Even
so Bo gulp shook when he considered Sambucus.
He remembered seeing Joe muscle flex, knocking
iron in a spasm band on Jourvert morning, quick
to clap a man, plus Joe Sam real smart.
Earlier at the bar,
Bo Nuggy talk gruff an’ stutter, “J
J J oe jus’ reach an’ a g g goin’ in ’e
m m, modicum!” And everyone laughed and
left him with the iron sweating in his palm. “History
is mine! a’ bound to mangle Joe Sam and
s s sseize all genetic contraband.”
Big Bo Nuggy wide like
samaan tree trunk, his gut swung low, his shaven
skull bore scars and sketches of wounds. his
grin never blinked. Broad nosed and bearded
Bo Nuggy ate raw duck’s eggs and boiled
hog at dawn, gut fulla dog rice, tripe and
split pea soup, cow heel porridge, yam and
red salted butter. Bo grew moss in the moist
folds of his neck, smelled like turtle rot.
Step with foot them wide like young jookin’ board.
In private Bo Nuggy would kneel—“oh
lawd, help me lose this weight.” But
the lord wasn’t listening.
But Bo Nuggy descended from a brace of ancient
ierean robbers who lived in hills above the
lost city, dry river waterfall—where
crapaud smoke pipe if bad bush stroke the mythic
behind you—Caribbean gothic—catch
you walking dead man hours they so with them
white handle razor. And Bo’s girth retained
that seed and his throat the melodious lilt
of barrackyard lingo, an when Bo came to rassle
was with high hat flippin’ an a robbertalk
which induced cognitive dissonance. Then his
aural pyrotechnics would hypnotise negroes—his
lip manipulated deft verbs and lingual tourniquets
with ferocious grace—and with ease would
then crack conks split with a thick guava stick
or blaze fools strict with a sawed off laser
whip.
Bo smoked zutz of dank
Kunu weed wrapped in brown paper—guma
guma—till tongue-tied. Wire kept his
boots tight.
Upstairs Houdini’s,
behind the jamette harem, fatback Bo Nuggy
paced a small room well hid and lit by a bouquet
of candles. Bo Nuggy sweats. wipes. A dark
green grease that stains a rag reserved for
washing ass and standing beside a window, shifting
the curtain with thick ringed fingers. across
the bay, sees, a spec of red ...
Some junker fiends been waiting for the prime
melocyte oil. Since Joe been gone they been
hungry for crisp phials and now they start
swell up the entrance to Houdini’s, bulbous
eyed and sunburnt, venal for a glimpse of Joe
arriving, somersaulting in their skins.
“Leo look the
Congo pump coming! run crack whisky, bus’ Gin!”
“Joe know Abobo
in ‘e ass but Joe back broad, know to
separate dey bone from dey marrow.”
“Joe deals it
proper Paco, he doh eat nice, is liver oil
an dasheen, whole cowfoot and butterbean he
so swallow whole.”
With a heavy hum the chrome Congo pump sweeping
down from the darkness. It hover rode the sleeping
tide with antimatic suspension, hissing imploding
air, sparks buzzin’ round the engine.
And a few pale coons run down to the jetty
when they hear the locomotion.
Bo Nuggy grinned but
his sphincter quivered as ship settled on the
waterfront. And a sly beard of sweat slid down
his neck and chilled him to the wire. If he
looked hard enough he could see Joe Sam step
down from the ship, knockin’ wrist with
waterfront bandits, grinning tears of coins.
Bo Gut big, but he ’fraid to temper Joe.
His back bend tight, he pray,
“JJJoe Sam cccom———in.
goood laawd, have mercy–e on mi black
arse tonight!”
Unpublished
endorsement : Joseph employs
a syncretic, diasporic and highly innovative
blend of genres and styles, providing an
example of how diaspora becomes subject,
inspiration and rationale for the innovative
use of form, while experimental traditions
enable him to show the diaspora in a fresh
light.
Lauri
Ramey
Unpublished
endorsement :The African
Origins of UFOs tracks the pull of place
and the pull away from place, Afro-blue to
astro-black and what glimmers in between. “Genetic
contraband” and “bootleg melanin” afford
a measure of the job it takes on. Possessing
or possessed by requisite bearings, language
and lore, Anthony Joseph is fully and beautifully
up to the task.
Nathaniel
Mackey
Unpublished
endorsement : This is great
new ‘second generation’ Caribbean
stuff – movin away from the script & the
scruff – or ratha – betta! – writin
upon it – over and under it – a
palimpsest to rahtid! – pouring out
images like Eno's – or UFOs!!!
Kamau
Brathwaite
Unpublished
endorsement : Anthony Joseph
is a talented writer with a powerful imagination.
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