The Dinka Origins of Rap Music - Happiness from Cows

Dominic Duddy Mathiang sent me this YouTube video after he saw how pathetic my Saturday clay cow sculptures were. He wanted me to understand the importance of cattle to his people and to hear a traditional bull song that is sung in honor of a boy's bull -- a ritual of pride and prestige among the Dinka.

I went to the video and a smile came to my face. In 2008, a Sudanese man in America, a.k.a. a "Lost Boy," can locate a 'bull song' on YouTube and send it to an American who is clueless of this tradition. This is bizarre, but beautiful.

I admit, too, however, that it is also sad in light of the news placed before New York Time's audiences today by Nicholas D. Kristoff, "There will be more blood" -- a harsh prediction of future genocide in the Sudan and more tragic war over oil. Saving Darfur is nothing, he says, compared to what is coming.

Yet, for this posting, I am grateful to the fact that Dominic found this video for my American ignorance. How can I not be happy from such bovine utopia?