Around about 10:00 two nights ago [March 25, 2013] I got this great idea to start a new blog. Yes, I'm still going to publish posts on the Pancocojams blog that I started in 2011. But it occurred to me that what the world needed, or -at least what I needed- was a blog that was more focused on certain types of African and African Diaspora cultural music.

Although these words didn't come quite this clearly to me all at once, by about 11:30 PM, I had conceptualized that what I wanted to do was start a blog that "showcases examples of processionals, dances, parades, children's singing games, and other movement arts from African American culture and from other Black & Brown cultures throughout the world."

Thank goodness starting a blog on Google is actually quite easy. The main difficulty that I had with this start-another-blog idea was what to call that blog. I eventually coined the word "zumalala" [pronounced zoo-mah-la-lah]. For the story about that name, check out this post on my pancocojams blog: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/03/zoom-on-this-how-i-came-to-name-my-new.html.

When you name something you can claim it. So I claimed that name zumalala by filling out the Google start-a-new-blog form. After doing so, I got the link for that new blogspot: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com and then I was on a roll. Long before that same time the next night, I had published my first five blog posts.

The first post focuses on African American church nurses and usher board processionals.

The second & third post focus on Brazilian Jongo dance & music ("Jongo" being an important source of the Samba).

The fourth post focuses on the Jamaican children's ring game entitled 24 boxes.

And the fifth post focuses on the similarities between the body stance, attitudes, and some of the movements shown in a video of Zulu (South African) female dancers and a stomp & shake cheerleading squad from the historically African American university (Winston-Salem State University) in North Carolina.

The hyperlinks to each of those zumalala posts are found in the pancocojams post given above.

I transcribed the words to the Jamaican children's ring that is featured in zumbalala's fourth post and I'll share them in my next post to this thread, as I haven't found them elsewhere on the internet.

If you're interested in the subject matter that I've conceptualized as the focus of that blog, zoom over to zumalala.

Thanks in advance.

Best wishes,

Azizi Powell