Dr. King’s Legacy from 45 Years Back

Last night was Barack Obama’s triumph and the possibility of this nation moving closer to its’ long held back promise of equality for all. Forty-five years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.” I listened to it many nights when I was a child because my dad had a record on which it was recorded. He would play it over and over so much sometimes that I learned most of it by heart. Many may not have understood the significance of that speech back in 1963, but last night if we remember and value history we are aware that we witnessed the results of that speech four decades later.

Here is an interview that was on Al Jazeera English today featuring Walter E. Fauntroy who worked with Dr. King. Reverend Fauntroy joyfully explains Dr. King’s legacy.

A Milestone for a Trailblazer and My Country

Though I had not planned to write anymore this week (don’t miss my post below), this is a moment I want to mark in the history of my life and country.

This evening Barack Obama has been officially nominated as THE candidate for the Democratic Party. He is, of course, the first African-American to be given the honor. Though I sometimes think I have lived to long after seeing so much outlandish human behavior, I am glad I have lived to see this moment. Like my maternal grandfather was Barack Obama is bi-racial. He is only a year older than I. He is an inspiring, charismatic, and positive individual whose meteoric rise brings out admiration, jubilation, fear, loathing, or just plain ole’ envy depending on what side of the fence you are on.

Being a student of the workings of the past, I know that rarely does the chronicles of history contain leaders that are statesman. Most world leaders over the many eras were at best mediocre and at worst blunderers to put it mildly. I think that Obama has the makings of a statesman. Even though I do not agree with every thing he advocates, because I am no blind follower of any man or woman, I do agree with the majority of what he stands for and what he says he would like to bring about for this country. I do not have the naiveté to believe that he has a panacea for America’s many “diseases” which are nearly at a terminal level now here and abroad. It would take more than a man or woman to bring about a cure. Nonetheless, I do feel, being an African-American who is only four generations removed from slavery, that this is a redeeming moment for this country even if Obama does not win in November. Deep down I feel he might be able to stave off the rot for awhile that is gripping us, whereas John McCain will only hasten our demise.

This should be a time of deep reflection about our history and our present. Instead of making petty and selfish excuses, we all need to think about how far we have come since the 1960s when Dr. Martin Luther King and others accepted abuse peacefully to get us where we are now. Because of Dr. King's work that is often underrated or slightly ignored here, other minorities have come to America since then and benefited because of the humiliation experienced and blood shed by some of my people. Rarely are we thanked for that. African-Americans could have taken the violent route like so many who have sought or who are now seeking freedom and justice, and America would have been torn apart long before now. Due to what was going on when I was a baby and a little girl, this day has come about. Ironically, before his death Dr. King made a comparison in a speech between America and the Roman Empire, long before the blatant excesses that we have now.

The romantic in me hopes for change, but the realist in me is skeptical even if Barack Obama is earnest. If he is elected president, he will have to battle long held mindsets on so many fronts. He will face a wrecked economy here at home and a tainted reputation abroad. He has the confidence and the drive though. Still, will he able to have even a few victories?

Here are five of my favorite Barack Obama childhood photos. The one at the top of the post is my favorite of him as an adult.

Do we know where we’re going to…Who would have thought?

Still has that brilliant smile:)
Barack and his grandpapa. Today he has an African-American version of his grandfather's face.





Precious!

A teenage Barack Obama with his half sister.

Jean Cocteau’s Masterpiece: Beauty and the Beast

I decided not to do a long WRITTEN post this week. It will be a long VISUAL post instead containing a feature length film by the French filmmaker, poet, playwright, novelist, designer, and boxing manager, Jean Cocteau (1889-1963). Jean Cocteau was one of those artistic, renaissance people whose work I adore. In his personal life, he was a bohemian through and through.

Cocteau was a heavy participant in the French avant-garde movement. However, he was engaged in the movement with a twist. He meshed modernism with the classical and the classics. This shows in his films like Orpheus (1950) which retold the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and placed it in Paris of the 1950s. In The Eternal Return (1943) he updated the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde setting the story somewhere in modern day France.

I fell in love with his two films mentioned above and with the one I am presenting here when I was in high school. As a teenager I loved the romance, surrealism, and emotionalism of Cocteau’s masterpieces. Some of Cocteau’s artistry which was done “by hand” without sophisticated technology would today probably be computer generated.

Disney was the last production company that I know of to produce a version of Madame Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont’s fairytale Beauty and the Beast. Though good, no other production of Beauty and the Beast that I have seen can rank with Jean Cocteau’s version. It is more than a film. It is a masterpiece of artistic proportions.

Take you time, relax, read the English sub-titles, and just immerse yourself in Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast. It stars Josette Day as Beauty (Belle) and Jean Marais as the Beast (La Bete).

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Part 2


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Part 4


Part 5



Part 6



Part 7


Part 8


Part 9

The Princess and Idi Amin

I was wondering what had become of Princess Elizabeth of Toro or as she apparently calls herself now, Elizabeth Bagaaya.

After returning from the Peace Corps in Botswana, Africa in the early 1990s I happened upon her autobiography entitled Elizabeth of Toro: Odyssey of an African Princess which was published by Simon and Shuster in 1989 and is now out of print. Odyssey of an African Princesss was an engrossing read. I was going through my “African Days” then, always hunting down and on the lookout for materials on the continent, its history and people. Also I was then as now greatly interested in royalty. During that time Diana, Prince of Wales was still in her heyday and dazzling the world. How exciting it was to find a book written by a black African of royal blood.

I had heard about Princess Elizabeth of Toro years ago when I was in middle and high school through Ebony and Jet magazines, so when I found her autobiography at a discount book sale, I was so excited that I purchased four volumes for myself and some friends. Happily for me, I have found out recently that Princess Elizabeth of Toro is still around.

Princess Elizabeth of Toro was born around 1936 to King George Rukidi III and his wife Queen Kezia in the kingdom of Toro in Uganda. Princess Elizabeth is a highly accomplished individual. She is not only a princess, but her resume includes the titles of lawyer, diplomat, politician, fashion model, and actress. Her time as a fashion model and actress catapulted her to the international stage and proved that it is possible for models to have beauty as well as brains.

Princess Elizabeth of Toro completed her high school education in England. She was the only black student at her school. She had to learn to deal with being physically and culturally different from her white aristocratic classmates. The princess wrote of the experience, "I felt that I was on trial and that my failure to excel would reflect badly on the entire black race." She was accepted into Cambridge University where she became the third black woman to attend the university at the time. There she studied law, history, and political science.

The year I was born, 1962, Princess Elizabeth graduated from Cambridge with a degree in law. She returned to Uganda in the hope of practicing law after studying for three more years in London and becoming qualified as a barrister. Her father had died, so she was there to be by her brother’s side as he took on the mantle of being the new king of Toro. She became one of her brother’s most trusted advisers.

The always studious princess went on to become Uganda’s first female lawyer. But trouble was on the horizon for the monarchies of Uganda. Milton Obote who had become president abolished all of the country’s monarchies. During this time of political unrest and uncertainty, Princess Elizabeth decided to take up an offer given to her by Princess Margaret of England and her husband Lord Snowdon to come to London and model in a fashion show, the proceeds of which would go to charity. Princess Elizabeth saw the opportunity as not only a means to escape her troubled country, but as a way to put Uganda and Africa on the map in a positive way. This move would to lead to a career as an international fashion model.

During her career as a model and an actress, Princess Elizabeth would be labeled as one of the most beautiful women in the world appearing in such magazines as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In fact, she was the first black woman to appear on the cover of a high fashion magazine, Harper's Bazaar. She even got the attention of Jackie Kennedy, who helped her get to these shores to expand her modeling career. Her career lasted from 1967 to 1970, and resumed for a short time in 1984. She even appeared in a couple of films with African themes.

New adventures outside of modeling were about to begin for the princess. After Milton Obote was overthrown in a military coup by Idi Amin, Princess Elizabeth was able to return to her country. There she became a roving ambassador under the dictator. In the beginning she like many Ugandans was hopeful about Amin’s intensions. The princess only wanted to help and do what she felt was best for her country.

As time went on, Amin began to show a repressive side to his policies. He declared what he called an “economic war” in 1972 which led to the expulsion of 50,000 members of the South Asian community of Uganda. Amin severed strong ties he had with Israel and took on Muammar Qaddafi of Libya as his friend and mentor. In her autobiography Princess Elizabeth tells about how her boss Idi Amin cautioned her to keep a low profile before a visit by Qaddafi. The reason was because Qaddafi was highly religious, and Amin felt it might be offensive to the Libyan strongman if the princess, a woman, made herself too visible by asserting her opinions. Along with the expulsions of the South Asians, cozying up to Qaddafi, and human rights abuses against his own people, Idi Amin became an international pariah. Princess Elizabeth did not like what was happening, but she continued to do the best she could with her position. She was given the post of foreign minister after the previous one was murdered at the instigation of Amin.

Showing excellent skills as a diplomat, the princess’s finesse led to Arab countries giving aid to Uganda. She tried to rehabilitate her country’s image internationally and encouraged heads of state to visit Uganda. Also she tried to do what she could to have the South Asians who were expelled be compensated.

Princess Elizabeth’s good efforts, however, were to be her downfall. Idi Amin’s behavior was coming more and more unpredictable. He began to eye the princess with a mixture of envy and love. An eloquent speech she gave at the United Nations in 1974 was more in defense of Africa and Uganda in general than Idi Amin. Amin did not like this, and her speech at the UN spelled the end for her. One of Amin’s wives, a very sweet and beautiful woman, had come up dead. Many believed that Amin had had his own wife murdered. Not long afterwards, the princess got a shock when he asked her to marry him. She refused him. This was the end of her career in Amin’s government, and he was about to see that it be the end of her reputation as well. Amin had another brand of murder in store for the princess, character assassination.

Princess Elizabeth fled Uganda, but Amin’s poison was about to follow her. He came up with a gross lie that would appear in newspapers and magazines worldwide. The princess was said to have been dismissed from her job because she had had sex with a white man in a restroom in Orly airport in Paris. Princess Elizabeth sued publications in England, France, Italy, and Germany for their printing of the story and won her case.

The odyssey of Princess Elizabeth would continue. She would remain in exile for a time traveling to Europe and America. She married a gentleman of royal Ugandan background like herself. He was a pilot, Prince Wilberforce Nyabongo. He would be the love of her life, and die tragically at age 32 in a plane crash. Princess Elizabeth and her husband did their part in helping Yoweri Museveni become president of Uganda. Under Museveni the princess to her country and became Ugandan ambassador to the US. She used her influence to try to educate the American public about Uganda and Africa in general, appearing even on the American TV news magazine 60 Minutes.

Princess Elizabeth never remarried nor did she have any children. She is the guardian of her brother’s son. She is involved in charities and is once again a public servant as Uganda’s Ambassador to Germany. This is the princess in Germany in 2006.
In ending, if you are fascinated with royalty as I am check out Cinderella’s World of Royalty Blog and The Royal Forums. Cinderella also has a social network for those who love to watch royalty past and present. It is World of Royalty Network.

I love, with a capital “L” royalty. For me, it may be metaphorically speaking “genetic” or perhaps more accurately, ancestral. There is a possibility that a tiny percentage of the African slaves that were brought to America were of noble birth. Two cases in point are that of Prince Ab-dul Rahman Ibrahima Ibn Sori who was from what is now Guinea in West Africa and Cinque whose story was not very well done in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 Amistad.

When I was in Peace Corps in Botswana, some of the Africans told me that I looked like I was a member of a tribe in Ghana that is royalty. Perhaps this was only their way of complimenting me. All I know is that I have had a fascination with royalty most of my life. Whether we like it or not, we all have connections to history. History influences the world and still matters even today. Having lived abroad and known a great number of people from other countries, I have noticed that history is valued more in many places than it is in America. Some of the Europeans, that I’ve met and became close to have been extremely forthright on how they feel about America saying it is promoting democracy and human rights but at the same time ignoring its’ own less than savory history. As for myself, whether I am a descendant of African royalty or not, I would love the luxury of knowing from whence my ancestors came in Africa.

I heard on television a few months ago the tail end of a report on a project that may eventually allow African-Americans who are interested to find out about their African origins. DNA will be used as it has been done with a South African tribe, the Lemba, who are actually descendants of Jews who left the Middle East centuries ago to determine where a person's African ancestors are from. This is a very important development for me. I hope this project is developed and is affordable to everyone who wants it. To me, this is just as important as the recent formal apology the federal government gave for slavery.

More photos of Princess Elizabeth of Toro and her family can be seen here.

My Stumbles and Other Treasures, Part I

I decided to begin a randomly scheduled saga of some of my discoveries on StumbleUpon.com. I will also include items shared with me and my own findings on the web which I think are worthy of sharing with my readers.

Thank God for the smorgasbord the internet is. I love it most for being a treasure chest of information on some of the things I love like history, cultures, and art. The kid in me loves the visual aspects of it with its wonderful offering of paintings and pictures. To me, the internet is the world and beyond in a box/notebook.

I present to you some goodies to close out the week. Have fun, learn, and until sometime next week when I plan to return, have a great rest of the weekend:)

*****On occasion the world seems like a desert. We all need to escape sometimes to an oasis. Here are 7 of the world’s most beautiful oases.

*****Cynthia Marie is a blogger who is also a poet. She posted this beautiful poem about love on her blog on Thursday called Breathing Lessons.

*****Some might perceive Barack Obama as too elitist and a stuffed shirt and his wife Michelle as bitter, but what can be said about their wonderfully relaxed wedding photo?

*****Ever thought of caves being prime real estate? Well, they are in Cappadocia, Turkey.


Cappadocia has one of the most unusual landscapes on earth with its fairy chimneys and caves all produced by volcanic eruptions eons ago. The Cappadocian caves also contain hundreds of old churches from Byzantine times. Here is a site with some beauties in Cappadocian real estate. Also more photos taken in Cappadocia which should give you an idea of the surreal quality of the landscape there can be accessed here. I hope to eventually visit Cappadocia.

*****Vladimir Kush is a Russian born artist who lives in America. He describes his art as metaphorical realism which came about because of influences by some of the greats of the Renaissance on down to modern times. More of his art and information on his life can be seen here.

*****Veysel Gencten is a Turkish photographer. More of his photos of Istanbul, Turkey shot through a special lens can be seen here.

******On Bella, an online magazine for women, can be found a piece of non-fiction of minute length called What Women Want.

******I've heard that this summer, travel for my fellow Americans has been torturous due to high fuel prices, delays, cancellations, and mediocre to poor service. The last time I heard, our airlines are once again on the verge of bankruptcy like they were after 9/11. If you don’t want to go through the hassles of travel especially internationally, Google and Flickr have partnered and come up with a site called Earth Album. Just click on the Earth Album map wherever you would like to go in the world, and then click on the thumbnail photos, and see the sights anywhere you would like without luggage weight worries or security checks. Start globetrotting here.

*****I first heard of and saw Professor Howard Zinn on C-SPAN last year. I also just learned that he taught at the college I went to my freshman year, the all women's Spelman College in Atlanta. Dr. Zinn is one of those Americans we don’t hear about much because what he says and writes has substance. It's safer to focus on the trivial, and it does not take a lot of effort either. It is also difficult for an individual or a nation to look within and see its' failings. Dr. Zinn's interesting take on America past and present can be seen in the video below called A People’s History of the American Empire. It is certainly much more different from the American history I was taught in school.


*****Since I first learned about the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis as a child, I have dreamed of seeing them. However, I live too far to the south. Here are some photos and information about those dancing and flicking lights seen in the skies over the Polar Regions.

R.I.P. Isaac Hayes

He’s a complicated man but no one understands him but his woman…
(Lyrics from the theme song Shaft)

Isaac Hayes was the purveyor of “Hot Buttered” soul and funk music in the 1970s. He died on Sunday at age 65. Hayes was a renaissance man of sorts in the music and entertainment worlds. He won an Academy Award and three Grammys for his music. He is best known for his theme song from the blaxploitation film Shaft. Fans of the latter day comedy show South Park are familiar with Isaac Hayes’ contribution to the program as the voice of the character "Chef."

Isaac Hayes was the talk of the town in the black community here in the US when I was a child because of his smooth voice and lyrics in the soundtrack for the movie Shaft, and also because of his confidence, talent, and uniqueness. One of my father’s employees had the album for Shaft at the time when the movie’s theme song was a hit. Dad borrowed it from him, and quite a number of evenings afterwards we would listen to Hayes’ deep, mellow voice singing about the exploits of John Shaft. For some reason I came to like Hayes' attempt at disco in the over eight minute long Groove-a-thon better than his Shaft’s theme.

Isaac Hayes hit highs and lows in his career, even declaring bankruptcy. Still he hung around and never allowed himself to be completely shut out of the entertainment industry. I always rather liked him. When he arrived on the scene, he and Yul Brynner were the only glamorously unique bald men I and the rest of the public knew of at the time. I admired both of them for their confidence, daring, charisma, and sexiness as bald men.

The following is The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performing their own rendition of Isaac Hayes’ best known work, Shaft. Please take a look. They are surprisingly good.

Rest in Peace the coolest of the cool and the smoothest of the smooth.

Reviving Artistic Romance and Excellence

I have long felt that art should be beautiful even before I read the mission statement of Art Renewal International. When I found the statement and the site months ago, I was very excited that there are there still more than ten people out there who long for romance and beauty in art.

As a child my favorite volumes of our Britannica, Britannica Junior, and Collier’s Encyclopedias were the ones containing art. I was fascinated at a young age with the offerings of these volumes which had works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Jacques-Louis David, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Thomas Gainsborough, and others. I dreamed of painting like them. I pondered how could these artists paint such realistic figures that centuries later would give us an eye into aspects of their times. Were these artists super humanly gifted? Or was it that their techniques had been scorned and abandoned the closer that our era neared? My latter question has turned out to be true. I appreciate and love abstract and some modern art, but it was not until I took art history and minored in art that I stopped thinking that Picassos were ugly and something a child in elementary school could easily do. Let’s face it about modern art as a whole. Much of it lacks the aesthetic qualities of the greats.

Art indeed began to erode in quality and technique beginning with the Avant-garde Movement which started in the 1850s. From there it continued to go down hill. Two world wars added to the ugliness, meaninglessness, and cynicism of too much of today's art work. Photography became king, and no one seemed to be really interested in recapturing the essence of what art had been for centuries.

Modern society and our current postmodern world has been heinous in it’s excesses and violence. We have been left often with what is trivial and forgettable. Our present age will be remembered more than likely as decadent, shallow, mean, and bloodthirsty. These aspects are often seen in our art. I believe that one of the signs of when a society and culture is degenerating, a poorness of quality shows up in the works of its artists. Compare these sculptures of Augustus Caesar and the emperor Constantine.
Constantine’s Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire with two major changes, in language and religion (Greek and Christianity). Chances are you know a little about the Roman Empire and its decay leading Constantine to move his capital east to the site of a town called Byzantium, later Constantinople, and now Istanbul, Turkey. After a series of corrupt, inapt, and brutal emperors, Rome was hemorrhaging. There was chaos on all sides. In this chaos art began to lose its’ flavor just like it has in modern times. Now isn’t the statue of Augustus from a few centuries before more beautiful and realistic than the one of Constantine?

I am a traditionalist about my art. I just like it better if it is both beautiful and makes a statement. But to each his or her own.

Art Renewal International is trying to move art back to the old ways and ideals with both a traditional and modern touch. The center has developed the largest online art museum. Its’ programs teach a new generation of artists techniques that have long been used in western art. Art Renewal International is doing all it can to rediscover and educate about all of the methods the masters used to elevate art as a medium.

Art can represent some of humanity’s highest possibilities in the realm of creativity and thought. Things claiming to be art can represent humanity's basest instincts.

These are some of the entries of artists who entered the fourth annual International ARC Salon Competition. These and the rest can be viewed here. Please look and enjoy eight pages of wonders. Each work can be clicked on to enlarge.
I am very excited about what Art Renewal International is doing. I may never have learned how to paint like the old masters when I was an art minor, but now that there are opportunities for people to learn how to is an electrifying prospect.

I’ve Been Awarded an “E”

It has been a hectic week. Hopefully, I will be able to write one of my ample posts before the week is over, but if I do not, I shall return hopefully early next week with a good offering.

19th century/Basje over at The Victorian Era has awarded me with an Excellent Blog Award. Her's has been a long time favorite of mine and among my blog links. By all means check it out since it is a real treat for history buffs. I’ve never told her before, but I also love her blog’s template.

Basje’s award really came in the nick of time. Though we’ve been in a social whirlwind this week with my dad’s 50th high school reunion (he graduated from high school in 1958) I am also dealing with a couple of dragons in the family. I have done all I can with these two dragons and their issues, and I am powerless. Years ago there was a book called Toxic People and here is a wonderful article I just found called Dealing with Toxic People.

I was pretty sad, distressed, and worn out until I saw Basje’s mentioning of my blog. I never expected it. I was tagged last week, and now this week I am awarded an “E!” Wonders never cease, and that’s just fine with me:)

The following are blogs I want to give the “E” award to:

Faith and Art

A Side of Cartoons Please

CrossRoads

Curious Expeditions

Emma Alvarez Site

Hiperia3D News

Light-skinned-ed Girl

Plateau of Iran

TalulaZoeApple

Kitchen Retro

A Gift from Me to Susan Hampshire Fans

I certainly had no plans to post tonight. Right now I have my usual late summer stomach virus. But this evening a lady named Anne commented on a post I wrote in April about My Favorite Actress: Susan Hampshire . When I look at my reader stats, I’ve noticed that a number of people go back to that post. For those who are also her fans and would like to receive an autographed photo of Susan Hampshire like I did, here is her fan mail address:

Susan Hampshire

United Agents Ltd.

130 Shaftesbury Avenue

London, W1D 5EU

UK

Until later this week, good night:)

WOO! WHOO! I’ve Been Tagged!

Finally someone has taken pity on this poor woman and tagged her! :) I have noticed in the recent past other bloggers being tagged, but no one had bothered to tag me until this week when my friend Sharon at Reservoir who lives in Nigeria did so on the 29th. Her blog is Christian based, but has encouraging messages for even non-Christians. Now I feel that I have been truly initiated into the sorority and fraternity of bloggers since I've been finally tagged. Hehehe. These are the rules of being tagged:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Now to six random things about Sincerae:

*I am afraid of spiders and cockroaches.

*When I was little I was afraid of anything that flew including butterflies. Now I am not afraid of butterflies, plus I truly miss not seeing them fluttering around out in nature like they used to back in the olden days when I was a child.

*I adore Crocs (that’s a photo of some below). I don’t actually own a genuine pair, but I do have a pair of shoes in the same family of cute, ugly footwear called Kimonos, which are pink and are in the same price range as Crocs. My mom has renamed them "duck shoes."*I have started writing two books that I have not finished. The first I started as a graduate student, and it was going to be a novel about pirates. I don’t know this manuscript’s whereabouts today. The second book is my autobiography. I still have the manuscript, but I started it over 15 years ago. I did not know as much about life as I do now, and I really had not experienced it to such a degree as to warrant by penning my own bio. Once I am disciplined, I plan to rewrite what I have and gloriously add some really good material.

*I love horses. I used to daydream and draw them all the time when I was in late elementary school on through the sixth grade. I have never learned how to ride a horse, however. I think the world would not have half the environmental and political problems it does now if we reverted back to horses. Also horses are highly romantic creatures because all of the great heroes of old rode them or were pulled by them in chariots.

*I would love to learn to do some sort of craft like knitting or rug making. Earlier this week my friend Nasrin who is from Iran had us over to her house for dinner. After we ate she brought out some small rugs that her father had made. His work was so well done that when we turned the rugs over the back loved like a needlepoint. There were no flaws on them front or back. In America, so many handicrafts are dying out. My grandmother, who died in 2005 at 93, did various crafts including crochet and caning chairs. We still have some of her work too. Being able to create something with the hands is so much more special than purchasing everything.

Here are the bloggers I am tagging:

Scandalous Women

The Victorian Era

Emma Alvarez Site

Internation Musing

Talk Turkey

Cos We African Women are Doin and Doin’ It Well

Go to it guys! :)

Byzantine Princess and Scholar Extraordinaire: Anna Comnena

A few years ago I bought a young adult novel called Anna of Byzantium which was written by Tracey Barrett. Its’ cover art is above. When I was a graduate student I took a class called The Young Adult Novel. Due to that course I learned how interesting, entertaining, and informative some books for teenagers can be.

Anna of Byzantium was quite interesting and was set in a time period and culture which is not often focused on in both books for young or full-fledged adults. The novel is the story of the Byzantine princess, scholar, and historian Anna Comnena. Since the history books and classes often ignore the achievements of scholarly females from centuries back, this post is about Anna Comnena.

Anna Comnena was born in 1083. She was the daughter of Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus and his wife Irene Ducaena.
She was the eldest of nine children. Anna Comnena is one of the world’s first female historians being famous for her account the Alexiad which is the story of her father’s reign and the First Crusade, all from a Byzantine perspective. Anna’s father Alexius I had been a field commander. He did not have a solid claim to the throne of Byzantium, but he took it anyway after a period of unrest in the empire. He founded the Comneni dynasty at the age of only 24.

Anna’s grandmother Anna Dalassena was a remarkable woman for her day. She was so astute in politics that she acted as regent when her son Alexius was away on military campaigns. Her granddaughter wrote in the Alexiad that as Anna Dalassena drove her own chariot through the streets of Constantinople, her son Alexius I would run along side of it. Anna’s education was almost entirely put in the hands of her grandmother who disliked her daughter-in-law’s ideas about how to raise her granddaughter. Like her grandmother Anna Comnena grew up to be a highly ambitious and strong-willed woman.

Anna Comnena was given the best education that any male or female could hope for at the time. She studied mathematics, science, philosophy, and history. Some sources say that she was not allowed to study Greek mythology because her parents believed the antics of the gods and mortals in these stories were too unchaste for a young woman of good family. Other sources claim they did allow her to study Greek myth. While others claim she became a student of mythology through clandestine studies with a palace eunuch.

The lives of Byzantine women of the upper crust were highly restricted. They resided in secluded quarters in palaces, mansions, or villas. These quarters were called gyneceum which were much like the harem in later Ottoman Turkish times. Also like in the Ottoman period, Byzantine women could not go out in public unless they were veiled. It was quite extraordinary for the time that Anna and her grandmother were given freedom to do more than just be an invisible female.

As a baby Anna was betrothed to a boy who was nine years her senior. His name was Constantine Doukas. Constantine was the son of another Byzantine emperor. He had a far better claim to the throne than Anna’s father did, so therefore since Alexius did not have a son to succeed him at the time, he had Constantine proclaimed co-emperor. Nearly four years later a son was born to Alexius and his wife Irene. Constantine relinquished his claim to the throne and shortly afterwards he died due to poor health. He had continued to be on good terms with the emperor, but in the world of Byzantine politics one has to wonder if he might have been poisoned. History does not say so. This is only my own theory.

At age 14 Anna Comnena married an aristocrat, scholar, general, and statesman named Nicephorus Bryennius who was twenty-one years her senior. He had the title of Caesar which is similar to being a prince of the blood. Nicephorus was the son of a Byzantine governor. Either his father or grandfather had revolted against a previous emperor, Michael VII, and had been defeated by the future emperor, Anna’s father. Despite his rebellious relative, Nicephorus was able to find favor with Alexius because he had some of the best internal and external accoutrements. He was extremely handsome, intelligent, and charismatic. After the death of Constantine Doukas, Alexius decided it was time to marry off his learned daughter Anna. Who better than his favorite, Nicephorus? Anna’s union with Nicephorus lasted for 40 years. Anna says that the marriage was purely political and that there was never any love between her and Nicephorus, but despite their apparent neutral feelings for each other, Anna had four children with her husband.

The birth of Anna’s brother John when she was nearly four years old was a huge blow for her. For as long as she could remember, Anna had dreamed of ruling the Byzantine Empire. Now with a male heir to the throne, she chances of being a ruler were almost nonexistent. This did not stop Anna, however, from holding on to her dream. She and Nicephorus plotted several times with her mother Irene to overthrow John. Their first conspiracy to strip John of his claim to the throne was in the final period of Emperor Alexius’ life. Alexius was near death, and somehow the plot fell through.

Alexius eventually died, and Anna’s brother was crowned John II Comnenus. This was the year 1118. That same year Anna, Nicephorus, and the Empress Mother Irene launched another plot to seize the crown of Byzantium. If their plot succeeded, Nicephorus would be emperor and Anna would be his co-ruler. Being the tough cookie she was Anna probably planned to be the real power behind the throne. However, Nicephorus got scared at the last minute and refused to go along with Anna and her mother. His conscience just would not permit him to depose God’s anointed emperor. Anna was furious! In a rage she told her husband that "nature had mistaken their sexes, for he ought to have been the woman.” The plot was discovered and Anna’s property was confiscated, and she was stripped of her titles. Anna and her mother were exiled to a convent that Irene had founded. A sister of Anna’s also voluntarily went into exile with them, while Nicephorus was allowed to remain at court and be an advisor to Emperor John.

Nicephorus’ decision to not see the plot through to overthrow John was undoubtedly a bitter pill for Anna to swallow. Plus that Nicephorus’ part in the conspiracy was overlooked and that he was allowed to remain at court as one of her brother’s closest advisors was enough to make a lot of people give up completely. It did not stop Anna though. In her convent, she decided to continue her studies in history and philosophy. She even held intellectual gatherings with philosophical debates. The metropolitan bishop of Ephesus hailed Anna as someone who had attained "the highest summit of wisdom, both secular and divine."

Anna had written a few poems during her marriage before her exile, but when she was 50 she decided to expand on a work her husband had begun on the reign of her father. It was an essay called “Material for History.” Nicephorus had died before he completed the essay, so Anna decided to continue with it. The essay became the foundation of the fifteen volume Alexiad which is the foremost political and military account of the Byzantine period of the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The Alexiad not only focuses on the splendor of Byzantium, it also tells the story of the First Crusade. Anna’s father had petitioned the pope for help against the Seljuk Turks. The pope sent more than just mercenaries to help out Alexius’s armies. Instead he sent whole armies which were the First Crusade. In the Alexiad, Anna does not hold back her scorn for these invaders. She sees the crusaders as just as bad and barbaric as the Turks. The crusaders in turn saw the Byzantines as effeminate and decadent, but they were dazzled by the many luxuries of the empire and dreamed of taking them as loot.

The Alexiad is not a perfect masterpiece. Some of Anna’s language is too stilted. She tried to model her account language after that of some of the ancient Greek historians. The portraits she paints of her father and mother shows them without any shortcomings. Overall, though many of Anna’s sources are accurate, some of the Alexiad comes off as Byzantine propaganda. Nevertheless, the Alexiad is the finest historical work to come out of the Byzantine Empire at the time. It can be read here.

The exact year of Anna Comnena’s death is uncertain, but it is believed that she died in 1153. Anna Comnena: princess and scholar extraordinaire.

Here is a poem about Anna Comnena by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy.

Anna Comnena

In the prologue to her Alexiad,

Anna Comnena laments her widowhood.

Her soul is dizzy. "And with rivers

of tears," she tells us "I wet

my eyes... Alas for the waves" in her life,

"alas for the revolts." Pain burns her

"to the the bones and the marrow and the cleaving of the soul."

But it seems the truth is, that this ambitious woman

knew only one great sorrow;

she only had one deep longing

(though she does not admit it) this haughty Greek woman,

that she was never able, despite all her dexterity,

to acquire the Kingship; but it was taken

almost out of her hands by the insolent John.