Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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toenail clippings, or skin from the foot and doctoring them with magic powders or oils
-
unraveled bits of hemp rope, and sulphur powder or goofer dust, and strew it in their
path. This mess will stick to their shoes and work on them for a long time. A shed snake
skin placed
175
An even older method echoes the Nsibidi signs or ideograms that came over from Africa.
It involves drawing cross marks in the dirt and spitting on them to activate the curse.
Common hoodoo marks include a circle with an X inside it, or three rows of wavy
F UN K
Funk is derived from the Ki-Kongo word lu-fuki (or lu-funki
dy
176
Ki-Kongo is the language of the Bakongo people. Many Ki-Kongo words and
concepts, such as funk and jazz, survived slavery to become part of African American
culture. The traditional civilization of the Bakongo people encompasses modern Bas-
Zaire and neighboring territories in modern Cabinda, Cogo-Brazzaville, Gabon, and
northern Angola.
captured Bakongo people, but it eventually became the designation for any slave from the
west coast of Central Africa.
because someone panic-stricken gives off a particularly strong scent. This may be the
basis for the use of funk also to mean a mood of depression
92
177 As
for use in polite company. 178
Today, in an interesting case of cross-cultural fertilization, Bakongo people in Africa use
-fuki to praise master musicians who have sweated to
achieve a high level of performance and have thus obtained the power to make listeners
get up and get
-fuki interchangeably
-Kiau Bunseki, an authority on Kongo
culture, told Thompson in Flash of the Spirit.
really funky person! -
yati, nkwa
lu-fukti! Ve miela miami ikewenda baki) 179
Songs:
- Jack Teagarden
-- Albert King