KwaNTum:
Soundtrack: Grace Jones — “This Is”
An algorithm is a set of processes or procedures or instructions or rules in order to answer a question or solve a problem or make a series of calculations. If I search a word in a search engine, the algorithm will go through this process in order to give me a series of results. I am in the same process
Can I ax you a question?
What is KwaNTum?
Did you mean Quantum?
Soundtrack: Spice, Demarco, Meeka - Jiggle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI4BfWScvpk “yeah you who me?”
The root of the word Quantum comes from Latin and was created by Max Planck, a physicist in 1900, based on the notion of a "minimum amount of a quantity which can exist.” The stem of Quantum is from Kwo, which is the root for relative and interrogative words like who, what, where, when, how, and why. ( 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum , 2) https://www.etymonline.com/word/quantity?ref=etymonline_crossreference )
Like who came to us with this sound?
(K)What does it mean?
(K)Where is it from?
(K)When did we start vocalizing it?
How(K) did we pronounce it?
(K)Why do we use it to represent a question?
Kwo
Kwi
Kwe
Kwu
Kwy
Kwa
Soundtrack: Ambleique, Sly and Robbie — “Quando Quando”
How much information do I have to give to exist?
Quantum has several definitions:
(law) The total amount of something; quantity.
(law) The amount of compensation awarded to a successful party in a lawsuit.
(law) The length or magnitude of the sentence handed down to someone who has been found guilty of a crime.
The amount or quantity observably present, or available. [from 18th c.]
(physics) The smallest possible, and therefore indivisible, unit of a given quantity or quantifiable phenomenon. [from 20th c.]
(computing) The amount of time allocated for a thread, the smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently, to perform its work in a multithreaded environment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_ (computing)
(computing, uncountable) Short for quantum computing.
(medicine) The minimum dose of a pathogen required to cause an infection.
(mathematics) A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.
As an adjective, a significant change
(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quantum)
Soundtrack: Mali Obomsawin — Blood Quantum ((Nəwewəčəskawikαpáwihtawα) (I stand to face and challenge him)
Quantum can also refer to Blood Quantum Laws, which was laws made by the United States government to determine how much Native American ancestry made someone Native American. To reduce entire cultures and heritages down to numbers, fractions and proofs.
How much is needed to make a change?
What do I mean by KwaNTum?
What is a theory of relation?
In the previous broadcast, (E)Dub, one other woman pioneer in Dub-inspired music I did not explicitly mention was Grace Jones. Grace Jones represents a quandary for many people; her body and music represent a perplexity in space and time, wandering away from the norms and known answers; she is constantly turning into something else, a question querying or queering the space around her. While Grace was seen as too masculine, her brother Chris was seen as too feminine. Both siblings queering gender. Who is she? Who is he? Who is they? What are you? (https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/10/grace-jones-memoir-reveals-thoughts-on-gender-expression-and-sexuality.html )
From Barry Walters’ “As Much As I Can, As Black As I Am: The Queer History of Grace Jones:” “In ’79, Ebony got her je ne sais quoi exactly right: “Grace Jones is a question mark followed by an exclamation point.” (https://pitchfork.com/features/from-the-pitchfork-review/9708-as-much-as-i-can-as-black-as-i-am-the-queer-history-of-grace-jones/ )
I have many different, I have many different moods. Like everyone else, I’m very much human.” — Grace Jones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuW4TcZWeLI )
Like weather, the ran ran ran ran RAM/domness of a question can disrupt a space or what we know of a material reality. The word tempest was also used as a word for weather, originally meaning time (https://www.etymonline.com/word/weather) The atmosphere can change who what where when how why you are. (K)W/audio/err turning turning turning
Oya — the powerful Yoruba goddess of storms, winds, the dead/cemeteries and change, depicted with a machete, flywhip or fan. Her name means O ya — she tore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%BB%8Cya). Her colors are purple, dark red and even the rainbow. Oya in other languages can mean an exclamation of oh, good heavens!, parent, to pick up or lift, a place of rest or refuge, force or strength ( 1)https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oya 2) https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/oya 3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oya_(name)#:~:text=Oya%20is%20a%20common%20feminine,%2For%20%22lagestromia%20indica%22.&text=%C5%8Cya%2C%20also%20spelled%20Ohya%20or%20Oya%2C%20is%20a%20Japanese%20surname), to be there, to scoop out or carve, a lace fabric, a big house, a big arrow, or a big valley.
Let’s break it down:
Look back to Kwo, the root of Quantum:
Kwo as a root has produced words like cue— a stage direction; quasi —meaning to be kind of like something or think of something as if it is that thing; either or neither; a quote — as in to mark up a book with marginal references or to give a reference; a quibble — a playing with words because you can’t ever really get to one meaning of a word; and ubiquity — an omnipresence, to be all where’s that are possible.
The beginning of KwaNTum
Soundtrack: Ewe Music of Ghana collection — “Yewe Cult Dance” (https://www.pas.org/docs/default-source/thesisdissertations/22-bds-chapter-21-yeve.pdf?sfvrsn=0 )
Kwa is a word that was used to represent one of the alleged language systems in West Africa, one of which is Akan. Allegedly, it comes from a word meaning human in various languages in this system, like in Gbe, Gang or Tano language. The theory was created by Gottlob Krause, a German Africanist and linguist and anti-colonialist, in 1885, and there is questions around how accurate this theory is. However, because of Krause’s political beliefs, his reputation was undermined in Germany.
( 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwa_languages 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gbe_languages )
How much does it take for you to be believed to exist?
Whether it is true or not, how do you say human in various languages? What happens when we break language down to find ourselves? Where does Kwa/Kua come from?
(K)human?
In Swahili, for example, Kua allegedly means to be or can act as a prepositional word. It can be a verb meaning to grow. In Kikuyu, to break apart (in one of the Akan dialects, akwaa also means parts; I couldn’t find any relation to meaning human, at least not directly). Considering that Kwa is supposed to be a Niger-Congo language system, is the connection, the Kongo? Is the word a migratory living word?
What does it mean to be Dub/(K)human? (https://www.etymonline.com/word/*dhghem- )
Are you able to count how much sand exists on the earth? (G)huma…
Now that we have looked at the root, let’s look at the echo:
There is no explanation for the end of the word KwaNTum other than that it must mean many, much or big, the magnitude of something. To be a thing, an entity. To be a whole entity, means in some ways that you are uncountable.
Soundtrack: A'mosi Just A Label — “Muntu”
What is a theory of relation?
NT/Um Mu/TN Mu/NT M/NTu
In quantum space, there are no directions, all things exist at once. Much like an anagram. Sound can be anagrammatic in time and space. No reading forward or backward or in one direction. It exists in a multi-dimensional space.
Bantu
Ba/NTu
What is Ba/NTu?
The meaning of (A)Ba/NTu, allegedly means mankind, a plural form of Mu/Ntu, which means a person. The terms was allegedly reconstructed by 19th-century linguist Wilhelm Bleek.
Some claim that the ending may have a cognate with Bitare (a language found in the Kongo, Southern and Eastern Africa countries, Nigeria and Cameroon) term Nti, meaning human or tree or stick.( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Bantu/b%C3%A0nt%CA%8A%CC%80 )
Nta
Nte
Nti
Nto
Ntu
Nty
Why would a tree or a stick mean I am human?
Is being human like a tree or a stick?
Or is it my ability to use a tree or a stick? To change it into something else?
(K)WaNTum?
Can you count all the seeds, roots, branches, flowers, fruit, trees that have ever existed?
Soundtrack: Nduduzo Makhathini - “Ntu”
NTU, according Mfuniselwa J. Bhengu, a believer in ubuntu, a Bantu term for humanity or belief in a universal bond (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy), is a cosmic creative life force. Let’s read from NTU (pg 1-2):( https://www.academia.edu/27142184/NTU_A_COSMIC_CREATIVE_LIFE_FORCE )
KiNTu — a thing
HaNTu — time and space, events, happenings
KuNTu — a mode, fashioning, styling, or sensation of being
KwaNTum?
How much is needed for me to be (k)human?
Soundtrack: Miriam Makeba — “Ha Po Zamani”
Let’s read about the Bantu concept of space and time from Ediho Lokanga:
“Africans claim that there is an entity called consciousness that is not influenced by space and time and exists in living and non-living beings and in a space less and timeless dimension.”
“A summary of the definitions of space and time that were discussed by some African scholars [19] is presented below:
What is space?
§ “Space is the original void that has always existed, in which we find the planets, the earth, etc.”
§ “Space is the void, the vacuum, which is occupied by different objects, such as air, people, and plants.”
§ “Space is separated by different objects or points in space; it is the original void. And it cannot be dissociated from time.”
§ “The universe was created from the original void, in which movement is imprinted.”
§ “Space is emptiness, and time is invisible. We fill the space with objects.”
§ “Man cannot exist outside space-time. He evolves over time and in a given space.”
What is time?
§ “Time is that initial data, original that always runs and will never stop.”
§ “Time is the invisible existence.”
§ “Time is that space in which several movements are inscribed.”
§ “The time is the same for everyone; people use it in different ways.”
§ “The time is divided into morning, evening and the next day.”
§ “We cannot dominate time. Man grows up, gets old, cannot control time, but his existence depends on space.”
Soundtrack: Miriam Makeba — “West Wind”
“Furthermore, Osita Gregory Nnajiofor [20] defines time as “an observed phenomenon, by means of which human beings sense and record changes in the environment and the universe.” (2016, p. 254).He argues that the absence of any activities or phenomenon does not affect the reality of time. Moreover, changes, actions, processes, or events do not constitute the African awareness of time. In Nnajiofor's words, time is an objective metaphysical reality within which events, processes, and changes occur, different from a Western composition of events.
From the discussed definitions of time, Africans understand that contrary to the Western view, that time is an ephemeral concept that exists only in the observer's mind. Time is a mental construct and is derived from our daily activities, and it is something that is inseparably connected to events, activities, daily chores, and objects, which helps us carry out our duties and make sense of the world around us.”
(https://wireilla.com/physics/ijrap/abstract/10321ijrap01.html)
Have you ever lost your sense of space? Of time? You had no frame of reference to be able to tell it? Lost in a void of space? Floating? What do I need to be (k)human?
When the space changes, when your time zone changes, who are you again? What happens when the past keeps coming back? When the now keeps adding things to the past? When the future just wants to exist as the fullness of itself, as it already is? What? If the future is made of all the things that already existed, is it really the future?”
Counting…counting…counting…
KuNTu — determination or style according to Lokanga
More on Bantu cosmology and the knots and codes that make it up.
From Tying the Knot: African Cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo by Kimbwandènde Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau (https://mukanda-capoeira-angola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/African-Cosmology-of-the-Ba%CC%82ntu-Ko%CC%82ngo.pdf
Hearing is Seeing starting from pg 115-124)
Soundtrack: Nkisi — “Dark Noise” and “Dark Orchestra” and “I” and “howdoessoundknowitsbeingheard” ( 1) https://mixmag.net/feature/nkisi-uiq-7directions-non-worldwide-get-to-know/2 2) https://djmag.com/content/nkisi-genre-defying-artist-fusing-trance-inducing-rhythms-african-cosmology )
Have you been waved? Have you been shaken? What are the vibrations you’re feeling telling you? What other name can I give to a (K)human?
KwaNTum
Counting ….Counting…Counting…MuNtu, BaNtu, KiNtu, HaNTu, KuNtu