The Spirts Wanted to Travel.

Nanse Ntontan

Marlon Griffith is the Artist who has created the concept and design for this years MAS Camp, he writes:-
"Commemorating:

• The Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.
• The Bicentenary of the birth of the Shakespearean actor, Ira Aldridge.
• The 20th anniversary of Black History Month.
• The 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence.

The winds and waters of the Atlantic brought our ancestors from Africa to the west; their bodies in chains but their souls inexorably tied to mother Africa.

This presentation is about that journey - its spiritual, physical and physic dimensions.
The portrayal shows how spiritual life, dance and song took root and grew in the new soils of the Caribbean. Elements of this survival can be seen in our language, dances and beliefs.
Today as survivors of that African- Caribbean Diaspora, we remain individual sparks from that original source. Our survival have been protected and guided by the spirits. this protection and guidance have enabled us to become who we are drawing on the heritage of the ancient civilisations but creating from them and evolving invented legend of our passage through history.

These spirits are the custodians, sentinels and guardians of this heritage. These spirits are our protectors, symbolising fortitude, constancy and eternal stability as they deal with the cycles of birth, life, death and rebirth.

The pantheon of these spirits is represented in the MAS as a complex Spider's web.
Nanse Ntontan - The Spider's Web. "



Working drawings


Asking Marlon about the concept... he tells how was talking with a friend of his, a Brazilian Priest. They were talking about the immense power of the spirits of Africa. How when they were so powerful did they allow the capture and enslavement of people from the African continent that they protected?

The Spirits Wanted to Travel.

It is an empowering thing to reclaim and rewrite our own histories.