#Yetu

[touhouweed]

mechanically I adore Civ, I can spend hours upon hours playing what essentially boils down to a numbers game, but I can't help but feel uncomfortable with how Civ depicts and celebrates colonialism

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 2

Herlock Sholmes - Great Detective of Foggy London Town from The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures

vs.

Baba Yetu from Civilization IV

Propaganda under the cut. If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

Herlock Sholmes - Great Detective of Foggy London Town:

you’ve just been sholmed

Baba Yetu:

How many game songs can say they've won a grammy AND ALSO go on to be popular pieces for choirs to perform?

[mossnobody]

Got high listening to baba yetu on repeat while a girl was trying to sext me

[garlic-the-gnome]

ive got pregnancy symptoms even though I'm on the pill. I'm probably not pregnant and I better not be.

[wahlpaper]

Queer Identity and Autism in The Deep

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

CW: Animal Death, Attempted Suicide, Grief, War, Hallucinations, Past Slavery, Man-Made Climate Threats, Self-harm, Trauma, Ableism, Racism, Drowning, Ritualistic Fasting and Binging, Described Overstimulation

5/5

The story behind River Solomon's The Deep is just as cool as the novella they wrote. Daveed Diggs, who lent his voice to the audiobook as narrator, described it as a game of telephone. This story has been told in several forms by several people, each retelling a little different. He described this as a feature of the game and not a failing. As cool as the backstory is, there is nothing to it that I can add. Because of that, this post is mostly an editorial, small part review. I'll be focusing on queer and autistic representation in the book. To fill the gap, I strongly encourage you all to listen to the audiobook to get the full experience (especially the afterward), to listen to clipping.'s song "The Deep", and to seek outside information on the story.

The Deep tells the tale of underwater creatures similar to merfolk, primarily Yetu, their historian. These creatures, the "wajinru", are the descendants of pregnant slaves that were thrown overboard. Over time they have decided that their history is too treacherous to dwell on. Once a year they share the memories of their past before passing them back to the historian. This is called "The Remembrance". It is the historian's job or burden to remember the rest of the time and to collect as many memories as they can. It is immediately evident to me, an autistic person, that Yetu is autistic as well. She easily gets lost in the memories she carries and she does not handle sensory experiences well. As deep-sea dwellers, the wajinru communicate through sonar and touch. The Remembrance is particularly intense as the memories are incredibly immersive.

Solomon, one of my favorites, is an autistic author. Although Yetu is never explicitly labeled as autistic in the novella, she absolutely is. It is not something the characters have a word for, but even before taking on the role of historian, she was different from her community. While she was picked as the successor due to her heightened ability to receive sensory input, her ability to handle it was not considered. Ultimately, The Deep is a story about a community learning not only how to face their past, but to accommodate an autistic member of their community who learns how to set boundaries. I will not spoil how, but I promise the book ends in a healthy way.

I appreciate the way Solomon approaches autism for their characters. Both Yetu and the main character of An Unkindness of Ghosts are never specifically labeled as autistic, but very clearly are. Allister people and Neurotypical folks tend to misunderstand what autism is, drawing from stereotypes portrayed in films like Forrest Gump and perpetuated by Autism Speaks. This is a narrow and negative view that doesn't focus much on autistic adults or at all on autistic people that were socialized as women. Solomon doesn't shy away from proper representation. Each autistic person has their own mix of traits and experiences with those traits. Solomon especially focuses on heightened senses, hyperfixation, being nonverbal, and thinking in ways that are different from others. One thing that these characters are not is unintelligent, as that is not what autism is. I hope to see more accurate representation of autism in literature and elsewhere! I desire for more characters like me.

The queer content does not surface until very far into the book. At one point in the story, Yetu ends up meeting some two-legged land folks. One is Oori, someone who Yetu believes is autistic. Because of their similarities, Yetu and Oori start to bond and gain feelings for each other. Oori has lost her home and her family. Because of this, she does not easily bond with others. She does kind things for the people she knows, but not with the desire to be close to them. Yetu is different, worth getting to know. The two discuss their experiences as wajinru and human. One such topic is genitalia. The wajinru are very open to differences in gender and attraction. They all have both forms of genitalia, but some identity as women, men, both, neither, and in between. Polyamory is also quite common for them. Fantasy stories should not be afraid to ditch queer-phobia. If you can create any world you want, why would you want to keep that?

If you enjoy mermaids, Afrofuturism, positive autistic representation, or Solomon's storytelling, you should absolutely read The Deep. The experience of reading this novella is enhanced by consuming it in audiobook format, so please consider choosing that over print. As it is a novella, it won't take much of your time, but every line is worth it! Thank you Solomon for another wonderful story.

[i-love-pomegranates]

i’m half sure if i ever get to listen to a choir singing Baba Yetu live it’ll cure my atheism cus honestly i’ve’n’t gotten over this in a decade, didn’t even know it’s Lord’s Prayer till like 5 yrs ago when I took some Sanskrit for the love of it

[dreamstz1]

Kizazi cha Teknolojia: Taarifa za Simu na Gadgets

Introduction: Leo tutakuwa tukizungumzia kuhusu jinsi teknolojia inavyoendelea kubadilika na kuathiri maisha yetu kila siku. Kutoka kwa simu za mkononi hadi kompyuta na vifaa vingine vya elektroniki, teknolojia inaendelea kuleta mabadiliko makubwa katika jamii yetu. Tuambie, je, wewe ni mpenzi wa teknolojia au unapenda kujifunza zaidi kuhusu mada hii? Endelea kusoma ili kupata habari zaidi!1.…

[kyliafanfiction]

It is kinda surprising that I enjoy Babu Yetu (the Civ IV song, the lyrics of which are just the Lord's Prayer in Swahili) so enjoyable, given how much I dislike religious trappings to things.

But one, the song does genuinely slap, and two, I think the fact that it is in Swahili (which I don't understand) it's a bit removed from that religious nature for me so I can just appreciate it.

Also, to be fair, for the longest time, I thought the Civ IV song was just like... simlish (i.e. just nonsense sounds in no language that held no meaning) which in hindsight was aggressively stupid and even more aggressively American of me, but, y'know.

[nohkalikai]

he really took music frm around the world and disney-fied it. i'm kind of complaining but also they are really nice compositions.

[kimludcom]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pete Eklund (@pete_eklund)

[floridianfireflyfaith]

The fact that we have this video of people from all walks of life singing the most joyous and chilling version of “Our Father” I’ve ever known on NATIONAL TELEVISION just makes me so happy.

A glimpse of heaven. 💖

[williamcw]

Anyone else still thinking about civ 4?

No... just me?

[nineherbscharm]

a moment of silence for a ll the high school choirs that never got to sing baba yetu......

[makingqueerhistory]

The Deep

Rivers Solomon

Yetu holds the memories for her people--water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners--who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly is forgotten by everyone, save one--the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities--and discovers a world her people left behind long ago. Yetu will learn more than she ever expected about her own past--and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they'll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity--and own who they really are.

(Affiliate link above)

[momo-de-avis]

A associação Batoto Yetu, em consequência do projeto que foi este livro, espalhou uma série de placas educativas acerca da história africana da cidade de Lisboa. O problema é que elas são extremamente difíceis de localizar. Reza a história que a Câmara de Lisboa fez que sim senhor vamos colaborar e depois cobrou acho que foi 200€ à placa. Deixo aqui um guia daquelas que já encontrei:

1. Rua da Madalena, junto à Rua do Arsenal, quase no terreiro do paço, naquele que era o antigo Largo do Pelourinho Velho.

2. Rua das Pretas, junto à Avenida da Liberdade

3. Esta lamento não ter foto da placa em si, mas isto é o Campo das Cebolas, no começo da Rua do Arsenal, voltado para o jardim/parque de estacionamento

4. Praça do Rossio, e espero que a imagem contextualize porque é difícil explicar

5. Chafariz d'El Rey, está do outro lado da estrada ao chafariz

Falta aqui a do Largo de São Domingos, que até está bem visível, mas acrescento depois e vou também acrescentando consoante encontre mais.

Se alguém descobrir a do Terreiro do Paço ou a do Cais do Sodré, são os maiores. E boa sorte que esta merda é pior que apanhar pokemons