Tim Tim? Bwa Sech! Keskiya a Kiskeya?: The Xó of Àgasú

By Dr. Jacques-Raphaël Georges

Tim tim? Bwa sech! Sprang out of a deep nostalgia for the Haiti of yesteryears. Whether raised in a well-to-do or in a poor family, in Port-au-Prince or in the countryside, few Haitians growing up in the 19301970s could honestly claim to have never partaken directly or indirectly in nocturnal story-telling sessions. Where have the yesteryears now gone?

With Keskiya a kiskeya?, on the one hand, I intend to revive and enrich the aforementioned cultural heritage. On the other, I wish to bring back into the Haitian consciousness the lives and evolution of the two main folk heroes, Bouki and Malis, who peopled our young imagination.

These folktales are often used as pretexts to unveil our shortcomings and to display the ills that continue to plague our society. The malediction of our history and the damnation of our geography transpire throughout the tales.

In a way, these embody my Zolaan Jaccuse!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543476552

Dr. Jacques-Raphaël Georges

Born in Port-au-Prince, Jacques-Raphaël Georges owes his primary and secondary education to the State of Haiti. Firstly, he was a pupil at L’Ecole Nationale des Casernes Dessalines, a school opened to the offsprings of the members of the Haitian armed forces. Georges began his teaching career at Centre d’Etudes d’Haïti, -where he was also a student-, as a Greek and Latin instructor while he studied at the Faculty of Ethnology before emigrating into the United States. He served in the US Navy. Honorably discharged, he attended Rhode Island College, where he obtained a B.A., a master’s in French pedagogy, and and a certificate in African and African-American studies. Thereafter, Georges crowned his accomplishments with a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. Doctor Georges presently teaches French and Francophone cultures at the University of New Hampshire, at Manchester. A defender of black cultures, Dr. Georges travels extensively throughout Africa, and Latin America, giving conferences on the topic.

Book preview

TIM TIM?

BWA SÈCH!

KESKIYA À KISKEYA?

The Xò of Àgasú

Dr. Jacques-Raphaël Georges

Collections Jacaranda-Quisquéya

Copyright © 2018 by Dr. Jacques-Raphaël Georges.   760891

Library of Congress Control Number:   2018900150

ISBN:   Softcover   978-1-5434-7656-9

   Hardcover   978-1-5434-7657-6

   EBook      978-1-5434-7655-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 02/08/2018

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

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Contents

Foreword (written in March 2017)

HISTORICAL FICTIONS FROM KISKEYA

THE THIEVING EAGLE THAT STOLE KISKEYA’S BIRTHDAY CAKE

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

A HUNDRED AND ONE RIVERS

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

VWAZEN MOYIZ

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

Birago Diop, Senegalese narrator and writer.

PART ONE

PART TWO KUBANA’S FACTOR

PART THREE FLORIDITA’S QUEST

PART FOUR

PART FIVE FLORIDITA’S LITTLE WHITE LIE AND HER ROYAL RECEPTION IN KISKEYA

PART SIX FLORIDITA, HER SENATOR IN KISKEYA

PART SEVEN KISKEYA, A LAND OF SHOCKING CONTRASTS

PART EIGHT KISKEYANS AND THE OSTRICH COMPLEX

KONPE BOUKI AND THE OSTRICH COMPLEX

PART NINE MASTER BOOKKEY AND MET JERRY SCATOPHAGON EL HADJ de MEURTSOT

G A Letter-Postface from Beyond the Graves

PUBLISHED WORKS

- Poésie noire en vers blancs

- Cacoïsme littéraire: la fonction du personnage américain dans le roman haïtien à partir de 1915

- The Betrayal: Haiti in the shadow of the United States of America’s Foreign Policy Debacle in the Last Decades

À paraître:

- Treize poèmes pour le Maroc

- Tim Tim? Bwa sèch! Keskiya à Kiskeya? Vol. II

FOREWORD (WRITTEN IN MARCH 2017)

Author Jacques-Raphaël Georges’s folktales very much sound like allegories of Haiti’s modern days and how History and Geography still impact the island.

Meanwhile, I was still tied in the corner like the Indian Queen, Anacaona, with all kinds of ropes Made in USA and Made in France and with the rough black cloth over my eye.

The stories are beautifully written—or rather told—in a simple and accessible language. Young boys and girls are the target audience as if the storyteller deliberately gave up on grown-ups to invest in the future. Yet a grown-up or adult can also feel engaged in the stories, as the author doesn’t censor neither his tragic sense of humor nor the dramatic (or even tragic) content of his stories. Haitian people are often portrayed as voiceless or non-participants in the decision-making process about both their lives and the fate of their homeland. The story about the Celebration Table is a reminder of that. The Eagle, the Birthday Cake thief, is metaphorical and puts the reader/listener in the position of a moral judge. The Eagle’s selfish and greedy act symbolizes betrayal and exploitation. More importantly, it poses the question of political legitimacy. Interestingly, the disappearance of the Birthday Cake leads to the path of exile. Should these boats and their sailors (including Uncle Bouki) be perceived as traitors? Are they unpatriotic Kiskeyans like the Eagle thief? Are they just fleeing for their own survival? Do they symbolize the voice of the voiceless whose mission is to bring back what has been stolen from their homeland? In any case, the storyteller uses the sailors and Kompé Bouki as pretexts to scrutinize local corruption (in Kiskeya) and migration/exile to the core of their absurdities.

Uncle Bouki has no respect for grammar. He stabs it as he wishes. Uncle Bouki makes up words, verbs as he farts. Shamelessly. Again, who knows. Someday he may be awarded with a Noble Prize for being a creator of neologisms hors pair.

The level of creativity is quite palpable in the stories. Author Jacques-Raphaël Georges incorporates Creole words and expressions, coins names (e.g., Port-au-Porc, Floridita, Senator Doigtlong, Mèt Meurtsot), deliberately alters French (e.g., kont for conte, Keskiya for Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?), and uses images (e.g., the sun, the moon) and local loas or spirits (e.g., Ogoun or Ogun, Agweta Woyo, Adjassou, etc.) to capture Haitian imaginaire. Creole, French, English, even Wolof (Tene, doom, nit ku gnoul, jigeen Bu gnoul, dyali, sope) and Fon (Xó, Àgasú, Dômitintî) are interweaved and well-integrated into the stories.

On my back is a heavy load of similar stories. Once I get back home on the Gorée Island, where my Ancestors have their final resting place, I will sort them out and share them with you. From under the big baobab tree, in Tene-Toubab sereer, I am saying good bye to you for now.

The storyteller often alludes to Africa, reminding his audience of the motherland’s shadowy presence in Kiskeya in multiple forms. The stories are imbued with resounding names or places in Africa loaded with historical and cultural meaning (i.e., Griot, Bouki, Dahomey, Gorée, Tene-Toubab). If Origin is associated with a lost paradise or a haunting memory, it’s widely celebrated and transcends time and space.

Author Jacques-Raphaël Georges clearly questions or challenges today’s meanings and outcomes of the Haitian Revolution. Each of his stories informs his audience, both listeners and readers, about the storyteller’s own complex linguistic and cultural identity as well as that of his muse (his beloved Kiskeya) with a great sense of humor.

Dr. Cheikh M. Ndiaye, Associate Professor

French and Francophone Studies

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

Union College

807 Union Street

Schenectady, NY 12308

HISTORICAL FICTIONS FROM KISKEYA

Once upon a lifetime, right between the Caribbean sea and the North Atlantic ocean, not too very far and yet not too very near the shores of the most powerful land on earth, emerged a small piece of land. Being bordered all the way around by sky-blue waters, they call it an island. The reason why it is called a Caribbean island is altogether another story.

While the history of both of these nations opposed one to the other, their inhabitants harbor a visceral love for one another. That was evidenced by the reason why some, fleeing their homeland in search of a better life, always sought refuge in the bosom of their richer neighbors on the one hand and, on the other, some leaving their comfortable life to lend a helping hand to their most destitute vwazens. So, children, before I plunge with you in the troubled waters of the stories that you are about to read, I wish to inform you that these aren’t my words. There are those of my main Ancestor, Àgasú. Some people may tell you that he is a mythical figure. For my part, I will tell you that he is alive and well. I had the rare fortune to meet him in person during my frequent peregrinations to Dahomey. Despite his thousand and thousand years of existence, the hands of Time have never altered his appearance. He is not to be confused with one of his myriads of sons, namely, the fearsome Agaou.

The stories you are about to read aren’t fruits of my wild mortal imagination. They were dictated to me by Àgasú himself. In a way, you can say that I am simply Àgasú’s horse.

THE THIEVING EAGLE THAT STOLE KISKEYA’S BIRTHDAY CAKE

Dr. Jacques Raphaël Georges

Book I

PART ONE

Once upon a time, in Kiskeya, a big little land that was so very far away yet so very near to the shores of America, a Birthday Celebration was being planned. People from around the big wide world were waiting to partake in the Celebration that would surely happen one way or another.

Ocean cruises, parades, dances, and all kinds of extravaganzas were being prepared. Some people were simply expecting to have a good time. Others were simply looking forward to making a lot of money. Thus, they were happy too.

Birthday Celebration Day arrived in the land that was so very far away yet so very near to the shores of America. It was a moment that was much awaited. The Celebration had been planned with care and talked about so fondly that you would have the impression that the big wide world was going to share a Happy Birthday with the people in this famous long, big, little land, but something else happened. Because I was there, let me serve you an appetizer. Then as you are salivating, I will allow you to savor the heavenly main dish scoop