I thought you would enjoy this peak into my slow, but steady progress for the sequel to Badin and Secret of the Saami.
The screenplay is dragging on. I keep making changes and can never seem to be satisfied. This is truly the most profound, emotional and deeply spiritual project I have engaged in. Sometimes I wonder if I bit off more than I can chew.
My full-time job and union steward duties make working on this project very difficult. Yet when I do work on it—and don't fall asleep—it is very cathartic. The stuff I am dealing with in the real world is very depressing.
The good news is that I am writing the last scenes for the final Act. I am very anxious to get the screenplay to advisers. Dealing with speculative aspects of ancient Indigenous culture (proto- and conventional Saami) is not something I take lightly.
As I am getting closer to the need for switching from writer to illustrator mode, I am sketching more concepts. This latest shows an important character named Mohkku and another view of Lynx-Finder. For the first time I am experimenting with typography.
So I created letters for names of the characters. Each letter is inspired by glyphs that are found on a number of South Saami, Torne Saami and Lule Saami drums.
Eric Basir’s exciting comic book series based in the 18th
century Kingdom of Sweden in Northern Europe tells a story about a brave
12-year old boy who is trying to fit in to a new life far away from
home. Badin and the Secret of the Saami (2017) is based on the
true story of Couschi or Gustav Badin (1747-1822), an African in the
court of Queen Lovisa Ulrica (1720-1782).
What a lot of people do not realize is that Couschi was not a
regular servant to be looked down on and treated badly by the people he
lived with in Sweden. He was taken in by the queen and she treated him
like her own son, no different from the children who were born to her.
She also wanted her friends, family, and all of Sweden to treat Couschi
as a Swedish prince.
Painting of Adolph Ludvig Gustaf Fredric Albert Couschi, known as Badin Date: 1775 (Source: National Museum of Sweden)
Badin’s full name was Adolf Ludvig Gustav Fredrik Albert
Badin. That is a very long name! But the name that he was called by
before he was living in Sweden was Couschi. Badin’s place of birth is
Saint Croix, an Caribbean island between North and South America,
claimed by the Kingdom of Denmark. He may have been born in Africa as
Basir’s seems to believe. In the beginning of Basir’s story, Couschi
talks about how he got to Sweden. At first, he was living with his own
his mom and dad and the rest of his family. In those days, people from
the lands of Europe took ships to the land of Africa and stole people
away so they could use them to do what they wanted them to do. One day, a
group of evil men came to his land from Europe, ruined his home, and
took him away to Sweden. One of these men, who was from the Kingdom of
Denmark, thought it was a good idea to give Couschi to the Queen of
Sweden as a gift. This is how he ended up in Sweden.
Basir shows Couschi in his book as a big reader who owned
lots and lots of books. The real Couschi kept a library with hundreds of
books which were sold after he died. The real Queen Ulrica was also a
lover of books. She read plenty in her free time. She read books about
science, philosophy, art, and culture. These are topics that really make
you think. This made her very smart. She wanted her adopted son Couschi
to grow up as a smart boy, too. In the story, Queen Ulrica taught
Couschi his first word in Swedish: “bok.” This means “book” in English.
As she saw how well and how quickly Couschi was learning, Queen Ulrica
decided to call him by a new name, Badin, which was her way of saying
that he was a “clever” boy. He was reading about religion, science, and
other things that boys his age could not understand. Over time, Couschi
became someone who she could trust with her biggest plans and secrets.
She also trusted him to take care of her palaces and even help her with
things that queens were supposed to do for the people.
Basir shows that Couschi grows close to Queen Ulrica’s
children Gustav (age 16) and Sofia (age 9). Gustav later became a king.
Although they look very different from himself, Couschi sees them as his
brother and sister. They often play together around the palace and
sometimes, they sneak outside to explore.
Unlike the life of the real Couschi, Basir’s Couschi learns
about a plan by the mad miner Herr Torsten and his helpers to take over
all of the mines on Saami lands in Sweden. He then tries to stop Torsten
and wins in the end. Torsten was not a real person who lived in the
time of young Couschi around 250 years ago. But the funny conversations
and interactions between this character and Couschi in Basir’s story
helps us to imagine how Couschi would have chosen to deal with the same
kinds of people and problems during his life.
Lessons
There are many good things to learn from this story.
We learn how we need to be kind to others, even if they are
not part of our family, just as Queen Ulrica opened her home and made
Couschi comfortable. She did this even though there were people around
her who did not feel good about people who came from Africa and did not
want to have anything to do with them. The poor people in Sweden and the
Saami people who lived there for thousands of years were not treated
very well, either. But Couschi and his friends decided they were going
to show love to them just as they were loved by the queen.
We learn to be loyal to the people we love, just as Couschi followed what Queen Ulrica asked him to do before she died.
We also learn to care for the environment. The more
technology people have – their cars, their computers, and their phones –
is the more they forget about the animals, plants, and other things in
nature. The waters gets dirty and the skies get messy. But this also
makes life bad for us as people too. We have less clean water to drink
and less clean air to breathe. We get sick and then we can’t enjoy all
of the things we love to do with our friends and family anymore.
Sometimes, the things we do to the planet because we want to have
everything easy make bigger problems for us like the sinkholes,
earthquakes, and landslides that made the Northern Saami people sad and
their leader Gaaktu angry when they lost many of their people. Those
problems were caused by people who wanted to take what belonged to the
Saami without asking the Saami for permission and without helping the
Saami to make their own lives better. This is called being greedy. It is
something that happens all the time in the real world. Big kids do it
to small kids. Rich nations do it to poor nations. They also lie about
what they are doing so they do not get in trouble for it.
One last lesson is to do your best at whatever you do and
never give up. Couschi was not able to save Gaaktu, but he did save
Sweden from being ruled by a person who did not care about anyone or
anything but himself. This is what we call a selfish person.
We have to be very careful about how we live so that we can live long and happy lives.
Extras
Badin and the Secret of the Saami (2017) has words
in the Saami and Swedish languages. But you don’t have to know these
languages or learn French, German, and Latin like Couschi did to
understand the book. One of the best things about Basir’s book is that
it has a glossary in the back in case there are words that a young
reader still does not know very well. A glossary is a part of the book
that tells you the meaning of big words from inside the story, just like
a dictionary.
There is also a character list, a short story about the real Couschi, and a page from his actual diary.
Last Thoughts
All in all, Badin and the Secret of the Saami (2017) is sure
to awaken your curiosity about African history in Europe and around the
world. As you follow the comical Couschi on his adventures, you will
share his struggles and his joys. You will find that his family is your
family; his friends are your friends, too.
If you want to purchase a printed or online copy of Badin and the Secret of the Saami (2017), you can get it from the publisher here.
Have you read Basir’s book yet? Did you enjoy learning about
Couschi’s adventures? Tell us what you think about the book in the
comments below!
Here are some webpages to visit to learn more about Basir’s writings and art:
