COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 30, 2015
West African drummer
Fode Sylla bringing skills to
Cottage Grove
LORANE COUNTRY NEWS
BY LIL THOMPSON
For the Sentinel
L
Drumming classes take place weekly in October
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
F
ode Sylla has been drumming and
dancing the native music of his home
in Guinea, West Africa since he was nine
years old, and according to a Cottage Grove
resident who’s one of his biggest fans, “it
shows.”
BJ Jones has been a fan and devotee of
West African music for years, but Jones said
she couldn’t fi nd many like-minded drum
enthusiasts locally until she happened upon a
group in Eugene. FeFaFe, a troupe of drum-
mers, dancers and acrobats from Guinea,
performs often there, and they have recently
graced the stage at Bohemia Park in Cottage
Grove.
There, Sylla and company showcased not
just the dances and music of their homeland,
but the culture behind them.
“People who are into the dancing and
drumming are often way into the culture be-
hind it,” Jones said.
For his part, Sylla, who boasts a resume
that includes performances with Cirque de
Soleil and with circus troupes in Canada,
said that the music, dance and culture of
West Africa are inextricably intertwined.
9A
“There’s always a reason we play; it al-
ways means something,” he said. “It’s of-
ten for an occasion — we have rhythms
for workers, the strongman tunes, welcome
dances. Teaching is something I can do for
myself and others; it’s sharing my culture
and everything I’ve been learning since I was
nine years old.”
Sylla describes Guinea as a beautiful coun-
try but one that is devoid of opportunities for
young people, and he said he knew early on
that dance and drumming would be his ticket
to something bigger.
“I had to hang onto something, to have an
outlet,” he said, “to have an opportunity to
work at something meaningful outside the
country. I am the hope for my family.”
These days, Sylla lives on a hillside west
of Creswell, where he can drum at all hours.
He also teaches his craft, and he’ll be teach-
ing at the Odd Fellows Hall in Cottage
Grove this month. Classes begin Wednesday,
Oct. 7 and continue for fi ve weeks. A kids’
introductory class starts at 4 p.m. The adult
courtesy photo
drumming class starts at 6 p.m., and the adult
Fode Sylla has been performing for most of
dance class follows at 7:15. The fi ve-week
his life, and he'll share the music and cul-
class costs $50, and pre-registration is re-
quired. Those interested in registering may ture of his homeland here starting Oct. 7.
call 541-505-6399 or 707-498-4999.
orane Grange meets this Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7:30
p.m. The Grangers are excited to have fi nished the
re-roofi ng of the main hall. A special thanks is due to all
who helped.
There was a fair turnout at the Grange spaghetti dinner
and bingo on Saturday evening. Bingo was great, with 15
players enjoying lots of laughter and great prizes. Mark
your calendars for the next dinner and bingo on Oct. 23 at
5:30 p.m.
Crow Middle/High School will hold its open house on
Monday, Oct. 5 from 6-7:30 p.m. Parents will go through
their student’s schedules with seven-minute classes. They
hope many will attend.
Remember to enjoy coffee and muffi ns each Wednesday
morning at the Rebekah Lodge from 7-9 a.m.
Applegate Elementary has begun an after-school program
for its students from 3:25-5 p.m. Space is limited, so those
interested are asked to check with the offi ce at 541-686-
5140.
A free ukulele lesson club is starting up on Oct. 15 at
Crow Middle/High School. Those interested in participat-
ing can talk to Mr. Dixon at pdixon@cal.k12.or.us or Lisa
Livelybrooks at ruralartcenter@gmail.com.
Helpers are WANTED to help artists teach K-6 with half-
day art classes. Contact ruralartcenter@gmail.com or call
Alyssa at 541-556-8151. There are exciting art projects
planned.
Please put Oct. 24 down and plan to attend the Crow
Booster Club fundraiser, the annual Sportsman Auction.
Classes K-12 will participate with projects and the middle/
high school will have themed baskets for auction. Remem-
ber, the Booster Club raises money to help all the students.
O FFBEAT
Continued from page 4A
maybe-lover – there was the testi-
mony of his brutality to his family to
deny even that.
“Friends and neighbors of the Brad-
ley family said that he not only abused
his wife, but that his children, too,
came in for a share of his cruelty,” the
Oregonian reported.
That last remark was delivered in the
Oregonian article that announced, in
July of 1909, that the fugitive murderer
had at last been caught in Idaho and
was on his way back to Portland for tri-
al. It also suggested that Bradley would
try to invoke the Unwritten Law at his
trial, since the man he was accused
of killing had been his wife’s home-
wrecking lover – or so he claimed to
have supposed.
But it scarcely mattered any more.
The story had utterly subverted the
clean morality play that lay behind ev-
ery Unwritten Law honor killing.
As for the fi nal denouement of
Bradley’s case, I haven’t been able to
learn it. It wasn’t in the paper. Toward
the end, it was clear that people were
weary of it and just wanted it all to go
away.
There is one fi nal chapter, though,
in this sordid drama. It was published
in March of 1909 – just over a year
after the murder. It seems Policeman
Gittings’ widow – whose fi rst name is
never mentioned – had plunged once
more into desperate poverty.
“They have had nothing to eat but
cornmeal and water for some time,”
the Oregonian’s reporter noted. “At the
time of Gittings’ death, the police of
Portland made a fund out of which was
purchased a home, and private citizens
and philanthropic people furnished the
house, purchased a cow and chickens
and sent provisions and wood. … The
cow has since died, the children are too
young to assist and the mother cannot
leave them to secure employment.”
Many a jaundiced eye was probably
cocked at this assertion, since most
Portlanders knew the oldest Gittings
boy was now 10 – plenty old enough
for babysitting duties. Also, not men-
tioned was the fact that the Police Of-
fi cers’ Social and Aid Society had been
sending her monthly support payments
of $11 each month – not a lot, but plen-
ty enough to buy food other than corn-
meal mush.
The community rallied around once
again to relieve the need and succor the
children, who were clearly getting the
brunt of their mother’s lack of overall
competence.
Then the helpful community mem-
bers did something that likely wasn’t
what Mrs. Gittings had in mind:
“As a result of investigations made
into conditions existing in the family of
J.W. Gittings … steps have been taken
to place the children in the Children’s
Home, and to send the mother either to
the Home for Feeble-Minded Persons
or to the County Poorhouse,” the paper
announced.
And so the whole affair ended, with
a clear demonstration of a credible mo-
This tear-jerker cartoon by
Oregonian cartoonist Harry
Murphy motivated a fl ood of
Portland residents to contribute
to the relief of Offi cer Gittings’
widow and orphan children.
neglecting his family.
But there did seem to be one clear
take-away from the whole sordid mess:
Life was just not simple enough for
The Unwritten Law to be any kind of
true justice.
It was a lesson that seems to have
taken hold in Portland, for even as the
honor killings continued elsewhere in
the country, Oregon, after this, saw
very few of them.
There were a couple more, though.
One of these raged in Linn County at
roughly the same time as the Gittings
affair. The other, which also played out
in Portland, seemed mostly to drive
home the hard lessons of the Gittings
debacle. We’ll talk about that one next
week.
(Sources: Portland Morning Orego-
nian: 19-23 Dec 1907, 19 Jan 1908,
06 Feb 1909, 13 Mar 1909, 02-03 Mar
1909, and 11 Jul 1909.)
tive for Policeman Gittings’ actions in
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