LIBATION: A Traditional African Prayer: Part 2.
Below is an example of a libation, culled from my complete, yet-to-published multicultural literary fiction, entitled THE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER. Set in colonial Gold Coast of West Africa, the novel spans the years from the 1940s to the post independent Ghana of the 1960s. The story chronicles the life of Kwame Nyame, the protagonist ,from his scandalous birth and early life among illiterate friends and family to his dream of earning a Ph.D.in the United States.
I am seeking literary agent representation for this novel, as well as a second novel about slavery in progress, entitled: Back To The Ancestral Motherland.
The context for the libation pertains to a family event. One of the characters, an erudite elderly leader and patriarch Nana Kofi Amponsah has been summoned to pour libation before performing an “ outdooring” ceremony for a child born in the family.
Filling a glass with imported schnapps, Nana Kofi Amponsah concluded the outdooring ceremony by pouring libation. He began by calling on God, the Supreme Being, and the lesser gods and Mother Earth and the ancestors to protect the child. As he prayed, the audience responded with “ Wie, wie, wie consistently, as libation regulation demands.
Here is the libation:
Nana Amponsah: “ We call upon you, Tweendeapon Kwame, the Supreme Being and the Creator of this world, to protect this child.”
Audience: “ Wie, wie, wie “
Nana Amponsah: “ We call upon you, Mother Earth, ‘ Asase Yaa,’ to protect this child.”
Audience: “ Wie, wie, wie “
Nana Amponsah: “ We call upon you, Nana Kofi Dade, the premier village deity, to protect this child.
Audience: “ Wie, wie, wie”
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