STARZ American Gods

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

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Coming to America 1697 C.E.

Mr. Ibis writes a story of a Dutch slave ship and the shackled people within its hold who are being transported to America to be sold. A man, Okoye, prays in desperation to Anansi, pleading for help and telling him he would give him gifts if he had them. Mr. Nancy manifests from a spider and begins to tell them a story. He informs them that they are Black and will be enslaved by white people for centuries, worked to death, murdered, shot in the back by police. Okoye is angered by what he hears and Anansi tells him to use that anger to go upstairs to kill the Dutch slavers and set fire to the ship. Another man says that it will kill them all and Anansi replies that they're already dead and might as well die in sacrifice instead of subjugation. He frees Okoye and leaves. Okoye frees the rest of the the slaves and they set fire to the ship. A plank of the destroyed ship washes ashore and Anansi the Spider arrives in America.

Good 21st century adaptation, though in real life Anansi is a non-worshipped follk tale protagonist.
Br'er (Bruhthuh) Rabbit fables are the same as Nanci stories and Anansesem.

This type of oral literature is why some say Aesop was an Aethiop.

[anansi]

Oh I'm feeling this series, can't wait for the next installment.

Prepared to not be shocked, Mr Anansi is my absolute favorite.. the shipboard monologue was spot on.
Honorable mention is Thoth and Anubis and the sex goddess Bilquis although she is not actually a Goddess either, more of who needed to be in the flick are Yemanja who have more of a following and Shango ,Eshu Elegba within the confines of the United States.

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

I might follow your lead and make Mr Ibis my avatar ... psyche!


Well, I was flabbergasted the genre even acknowledged black gods.
Thoth (Mr Ibis) and Anubis (Mr Jacquel) are cast as inner Africans.

Mr Ibis narrates mini-episodes within the episodes.
He chronicles the old gods/folk 'heroes' immigration.
How they got to America via their followers.
Like in real life, no god it seems can travel on their own.
Their human believers must transport them as icon, oral 'literature', or scripture.

Mr Jacquel is "St Peter" facilitating the departed's afterlife destination.
An Egyptian immigrant's racial assumptions give way.
Islam suppressed her native Egyptian cultural retentions.
They resurface when Mr Jacquel comes knocking.

While real life Anansi is not a god Mr Nancy is.
Probably a better choice than a real akradinbosom.
Nothing he does or says later comes anywhere close to my last post's clip.
For that matter neither does any published sociology of the Blacks.

Bilquis is a problem for me.
She's loosely associated with a fantasy Aksum Ethiopia and Marib Yemen.
But the character is definitely not the Makeda/Bilqis of Semitic lore.
She was famous for her naive virginity.
The Bilquis character serves the white man's need to deify his black whores.
Maybe the 21st century black woman who believes her secondary purpose is the world's whore, too.
Bilquis is indeed a 'black hole', between her legs lies "the vagina nebula".
The character seems a tad based on misogony:
"Women, they gobble you up with their big hairy snatch."
But seeing as weeze all gotsta die, what better way to go!


None of the new gods (technology, mass media, global corporation) are black.


The protagonist is played by a part black Irishman.
As protagonist he is the "hero" and in Greek that means sonofagod demi-god.
We really don't know who his parents are.
Some dialog and narrative suggests both may be sky and/or astral gods.



Never read the novel but American Gods is an outgrowth of the author's earlier book, Anansi Boys.

[zarahan]

They seem to have some enlightenment, if they are recognizing them.
Refreshing for a change.

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

They (author or screenwriters) steered clear of deities worshipped today.

Orisha or other Afr interactive divinities arw still worshipped.
In the Western Hemisphere they acquired Euro Indio and Latino supplicants.
Hindus still revere their age old pantheons.
Buddhist ashrams are all over the West.
The HippyTripee set flirt with the Hindu pantheon.

The screenwriters did add one the author never used.
Jesus the Son of Mary mother of god.
I guess being white and this the supposed post-religion millenium
enabled them.
Each Jesus is in his followers'image.

But Oester gets pissed off about Easter and rolls back springtime to show who's the boss!