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  • 1941–1954: WWII and Postwar Desegregation x
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Article

Donkor, Nana Kofi  

Kwasi Konadu

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
08 December 2011
Published online:
30 September 2012

Ghanaian indigenous healer and blacksmith, was born in 1913, three years after an outbreak of yellow fever in the Gold Coast colony (present-day Ghana), to Yaw Badu of Nkoranza and Akosua Toa, into a Bono (Akan) family in Takyiman. Nana Donkor’s early years and socialization in a family of well-respected healers and blacksmiths were significant to his eventual vocation, for he engaged matters of spirituality and healing from a very early age, and his family nurtured and supported those interests.

Kofi Donkor’s path as a prominent healer was suggested by the very circumstances of his birth. After Kofi Donkor’s two elder sisters were born, the next five children died shortly after birth. This troubled Yaw Badu and Akosua Toa greatly, and so they consulted an obosom (pl. abosom a spiritual agent often viewed as a child of the Akan Creator Both parents made several ritual sacrifices and as ...

Article

Liautaud, Georges  

Randall Morris

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
01 June 2016
Published online:
31 May 2017

was born in Croix-de-Bouquets, Haiti. For most of his life, Liautaud plied his craft to both spiritual and secular ends, catering to a clientele in the town of his birth and its surroundings. As a blacksmith he made spiritual paraphernalia for Vodou ceremonies, such as zen (the iron or clay ritual bowls used in an initiation ceremony). He also forged iron crosses for the graves of Vodou adherents in local cemeteries.

Liautaud completed public school in Port-au-Prince at the Brothers of St. Joseph High School. His first job out of school was for HASCO, the Haitian-American Sugar Company, which would be significant in terms of learning to manipulate the material that would become the focus of his career. There, he repaired the iron rails of trains that transported sugar, molasses, and supplies across Haiti.

In 1947 back home in Croix de Bouquet Liautaud opened a forge behind his house ...

Article

Simmons, Philip  

Greg Freeman

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

master blacksmith, was born in Wando on South Carolina's Daniel Island, the eldest of six children. Little is known about his parents, whose relationship ended when he was young. His mother, Rose Simmons, unable to solely support her family, relocated to nearby Charleston, where she was employed as a domestic worker. The Simmons children were reared by their maternal grandparents, William and Sarah Simmons. At age eight the future artisan departed for Charleston by ferry, leaving behind his birthplace, an agricultural and fishing community comprised mostly of Afro-Caribbean descendants.

In downtown Charleston Simmons who proudly identified himself as a Geechee Sea Islander resided with his mother Working odd jobs to earn additional family income Simmons also spent a number of summers back on Daniel Island where he performed familiar tasks like farming and fishing Just as his grandparents and great grandparents who were former slaves had profoundly influenced ...