Cultural Folklore, part three
Cultural Folklore will always be a significant part of our lives whether we believe or not, whether we subscribe to it or not, whether we depart Guyana for other lands or not and whether it is substantiated or not. One way or the other we are affected because we live in a society where people hold fast to folklore. These elements of belief and non-belief contribute enormously to the fascination of this subject. This fascination from time to time is manifested in intriguing fashion.Our Independence history indicated the coming of a time when our folkloric element would gain ascendancy in our cultural patrimony. The move towards Independence paved the way for the public indulgences in our own folksongs, proverbs, masquerade and pan music. Organisations were formed and publications distributed towards this end.
The theme of Mashramani 2014 was a manifestation of groundwork done during the struggle for political and cultural independence.
Our literature is replete with varying treatments of our cultural folklore. There is one longer short story which attempts the improbable – attempting to portray a huge portion of our folklore in one sweep of the pen. The name of that story is ‘Samaan’ and it was written a long time ago by Doris Harper-Wills.
In the story ‘Samaan’ we would find or rediscover ‘Fowl Mamma,’ a woman who is fat and rounded ‘bearing a burden of fat arms, fat legs, fat mangoes or fat grapefruit’.
We would find or rediscover ‘Old Man Papee’ who is a beggar or sometimes the bogey man shuffling about with ‘a curved back and a curved stick and holding a calabash.’
There is ‘Baku’ the Baccoo who lives in the trunk of the samaan tree counting money all the time. ‘Baku’ is sometimes referred to as the Dutch Baccoo and the Dutch is associated with buried treasures of estate managers/owners.
The other major characters in this story include Ole Higue, and Ole Samaan.
Some minor characters include Moon – ‘scandal-monger’ who intrudes on people’s privacy and takes pride in knowing everyone’s business; the Nugget King, the famed El Dorado; Woman of the River; Spirit of the Fall; Father Mist; Rapid Water; and Ven – a fierce looking warrior and leader of a feared tribe.
Interestingly, this story is about a Guyana Day similar to Republic Day with a moral – people working towards one destiny.
Now to put the pieces together.Harper-Wills is a consummate storyteller who in ‘Samaan’ focused on one object and all else revolve around that object – the tree. Ole Samaan tree was ‘the last tree planted by the first Dutch settlers who came to Demerara.’ It was a stout tree with monstrous branches that offered protection from the elements but most importantly it offered shade and succour to the needy.
One day, long long ago, Ole Samaan and Ole Higue became very close friends and they will exchange stories whenever they meet. Ole Samaan was stationary forever on one spot at D’Urban Park while Ole Higue used to fly off mostly at nights on her blood-thirsty ventures (sucking the blood of newborn humans). However, one of her trips took her into space to another planet and the separation of the two friends was extended and quite palpable. A reunion was anxiously awaited. The time of the reunion was ill-fated.
As Ole Higue was returning in the form of a ball of fire, the country was alive with people preparing to go a great tramp from Berbice, through Demerara, through Essequibo unto the El Dorado who promised the people of Guyana a great fortune if they get to him without fighting or bickering over small things.
As it happened, Ole Higue couldn’t find her skin which was in the hands of the crowd. So Ole Higue who couldn’t put on her skin which was peppered and salted could not return to her human form and communicate with Ole Samaan. Eventually, Ole Higue died and Ole Samaan became lonely. The atmosphere became gloomy and people stayed away except some children who came to torment her for befriending Ole Higue, Ole Man Papee and Baku (who lived in the trunk of the tree.) The children would carve bad words and names on her trunk and they would scrape away at her toes until the pain became unbearable. Ole Samaan decided to burned herself to death. Just as this self-immolation was happening, ‘six strange children’ came to her for rest and shelter; these were good children, speaking kind words about their cultural folklore.
Ole Higue Dead?…we’re sad…
Even though she’s not in fairly tales, She’s the greatest witch we ever had…
We’ve looked in books on all the library shelves Poor us, we have no fairies of our own.
And now the one we’ve found, we killed
This was the first time Ole Samaan ever heard anything kind said about Ole Higue and she was happy there were still thoughtful children in the world, children that needed a tree for shade especially in time of climate changes. So she gave birth to Young Samaan with her dying breath.
Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com
By Petamber Persaud