By William “Duke” Smither “When the government violates the people’s rights then insurrection is, for the people and for every section of the people, the most sacred of their rights and the most indispensable of their duties.” – Circa 1790: Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War and […]
Welcome to "Talking Drum Dialogues" (formerly, "Backstreet D'jeli's Blog") and current website for William "Duke" Smither, Author of "Backroads to 'Bethlehem'..."
"Backroads to 'Bethlehem': Odysseys of the Maroon Warrior, In the Shadows of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade" is available on-line at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com. BOOK DETAILS: Softcover/ Novel | 6 x 9 in | 450 pages | ISBN 9781458221612 E-Book | 450 pages | ISBN 9781458221605 (Publisher: Abbott Press, 2018). It's a 17th Century narrative about the waning days of a militaristic, fugitive slave village in Brazil and the spiraling Maroon Wars, in Jamaica. A "free preview" of the book is also available via this site's "Navigation" section (click MENU icon, upper left). This site's blog postings remain available below. Thank you for visiting!
by William “Duke” Smither “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana (from “Reason in Common Sense,” Vol. 1 of The Life of Reason, 1905; also, inscribed, in Polish translation, on a plaque at the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in WWII occupied Poland.) […]
By William “Duke” Smither (Backstreet Djeli Blog Reprint from Memorial Day 2014) “I am the Unknown Soldier And maybe I died in vain, But if I were alive and my country called, I’d do it all over again.” (From “The Unknown Soldier,” by Billy Rose) The first thing one notices when visiting the […]
by William “Duke” Smither “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream that enough is enough…” Nine-Year-Old Yolanda Renee King (Eldest granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. during “March of Our Lives” […]
by William “Duke” Smither ***Note: Preview text below concerns troops preparing for a “Holy War,” as observed by “Phasael,” a Maroon Spy (passage from novel, “BACKROADS TO ‘BETHLEHEM’: Odysseys of the Maroon Warrior, in the Shadows of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade”). Chapter Four (Porto Calvo Rendezvous): January 6, 1694… […]
By William “Duke” Smither “Where I come from we say that rhythm is the soul of life, because the whole universe revolves around rhythm, and when we get out of rhythm, that’s when we get into trouble.” — Babatunde Olatunji (Nigerian Djembefola, 1927-2003, Grammy award-winning, master-drummer, percussionist) Talking Drums African musicians say that […]
works “Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.” Richard Wright (1908-1960; Mississippi-born Writer, Novelist, Poet) The journey in writing “Backroads to ‘Bethlehem’: Odysseys of the Maroon Warrior” has been so much longer than the writing process itself– perhaps, as far back […]
