|
A family saga from 1492 to the present against a background of the Arawaks, Aztecs, Amerindian tribes, European and multi-racial, present day Bahamians.
Synopsis of ‘Long Memory
“Long Memory” traces the ‘history’ of a multi-racial family from 1492 to the 2000 Millennium. It is set against the backgrounds of Mexico, the Bahamas, America and England.
The novel also chronicles a five hundred year ‘love’ commitment; and intertwined with the main theme are several other romantic affairs.
In addition to ‘telling stories’, ‘Long Memory’ also makes incidental observations on the human condition of contrasting cultures, and gives a ‘twist’ to the classical microcosm/macrocosm equation.
A multitude of characters: Arawak, Aztec, Amerindian, Colonial British, Modern British and Modern Bahamian interact smoothly and sympathetically as their individual histories evolve and interweave.
The concept of ‘Long Memory’ – a ‘personalization of ‘folk memory’ - gives continuity to the novel, and provides the ‘springboard’ for a surprising denouement.
Excerpt
The Tools have always been here:
Before Columbus sailed, joining Old to New,
The Islands waited for their Destiny.
The hands of Carib, Arawak, Taino, Lucaya
Left few marks on the land,
For the Tools were dull,
And their tempering incomplete.
*
Xingu, a far ancestor of Chengu, a future Cacique of Manua on Bagwynatoo, was hunting in a forest of the Western mainland in an area now known as the Mato Grosso (‘great woods’). His tribe needed food, much food, for it was being hard pressed by its enemies, the Caribs; and the group had to move to a new area as soon as possible.
He saw a tapir, snuffling at an anthill, and he quickly loosed an arrow in its general direction.
His hasty aim was poor. The shaft whistled by the animal’s ear, and vanished into the undergrowth. The prey vanished in the opposite direction.
The Arawak went to search for his arrow – such ammunition was in short supply. He found that it had passed through the brush, and was embedded in the doorpost of a hut built in the middle of a large clearing. The glade also contained a corral made of tree trunks that provided containment for three animals, the likes of which Xingu had never seen before.
He retrieved the arrow, notched it in his bow, and prepared to claim one of the animals as his own – meat was meat, and these creatures were easier targets than any tapir.
The shout that came to his ears almost lifted him off his feet.
Arrow went one way; and bow flew another.
The voice seemed to have come out of nowhere, but it had the authority of the here and now:
“Xingu, never touch that which is not your own!”
The animals in the pen made some derisive whistling noises, and a great, dark-grey bird came hurtling out of the sky to stand on one leg, and take up a judicial pose in front of the terrified Indian.
Xingu looked all about him, and even peered into the open door of the hut, but there was no human in sight.
“Look up, you fool!
When you’ve tried the possible, you must consider that which is improbable!”
Xingu looked up into the soles of two very large, dirty feet, which were hovering about a hand span above his head.
The feet were real enough, Xingu’s nose was in close proximity to them, and he could smell their none too pleasant aroma.
Xingu could also see that they were attached to a diminutive, white-haired, white-bearded, white-skinned old man, who was swinging from a rope tied to a high branch of one of the huge trees that towered above his head. The tree seemed tall enough to be one of the supports stopping the sky from falling to the earth.
Although the old man did not move any part of his face, the thunderous voice again sounded in Xingu’s ‘ears’:
“Now, listen carefully for I shall only tell you once what I have to say!”
Xingu immediately went face downwards on the ground, and covered his head with his hands. His mouth opened, and a high-pitched warbling noise issued forth in spastic gouts of terrified sound.
Nevertheless an even more powerful sound, coming, it seemed, from out of the empty air, was able to take command of the Indian’s ‘ears’:
“Alright, if you feel more comfortable like that, stay on the ground; but you will still hear everything I’ve got to say; and for the sake of any god you happen to worship, stop that yammering!
You’ll give the animals stomach aches and me a headache.
I have already looked into your mind, so I know that you’re reasonably intelligent… at least for this time and place.
So, please don’t act like a dumb creature…
Fortunately for you, I’m more than a little tired of my own company, and the brain capacity of my animals is severely limited. In consequence of such circumstances, I’ve decided to choose you to be my ‘friend’, whilst I explore the forest, and when we part I’ll give you some wonderful things to take back to your people, and you’ll be a richer and wiser little native.
I have recently come from a land far to the West. It lies beyond the high mountains that you can’t see from down there, but I can see from up here.
There was a time when my family came from another place, but I will never be able to return to that locality.
Now I work for the people of the Nazca, who live on the shores of a vast western ocean, which stretches far beyond the sunset.
I am collecting plants, roots, shrubs, leaves, fruits and flowers from the high trees of your country. From them I shall make all kinds of potions and medicines to cure the ills of all people.
If we get on well together, I will share some of my knowledge with you; and if we don’t, I’ll throw you to the pumas.
The animals in the corral are llamas, and they carry my baggage. The bird and its mate are my companions, and they make sure that I can always find my way.
I do not know the language of the Arawak, so I am speaking inside your head. You do not understand my words from my language; but when you ‘think’ you will be able to speak inside my head, and I will understand you, as you will understand me.”
Xingu was the son of the Cacique, and after those first ‘words’ from the white-bearded man he did not allow himself to be afraid any more.
He stayed with the stranger for many days; and learned many wonderful things.
The pumas went without a meal; and when the strange partnership was dissolved, the Arawak was given the pair of the large dark-grey birds to take back to his tribe. They were to become his and his people’s totem. Xingu instructed his eldest son and only his eldest son, how to communicate with the birds.
When he went back to his people, he became the Storyteller of the tribe, and no one ever tired of hearing about his ‘special’ walk through the forest eventually he succeeded his father as the Cacique.
The birds were honoured and revered by the whole tribe, especially when their special talents were revealed. They were given the name ‘gaulen’ meaning ‘guardian’.
*
After three more generations, it became time for the tribe to leave the mainland to remove itself from the vicinity and ferocity of the Caribs. Xingu’s son’s son was the Cacique and Storyteller, and he remembered his ancestors’ stories. He carried them and the gaulens with him on the voyage.
The tribe paddled their three large canoes towards the rising sun, and after many days, when water and food supplies were almost gone, the Cacique saw the storm clouds of a hurricane hanging over an island.
The clouds were shaped in the forms of the strange beasts that his great-great-grandfather had met in the Mato Grosso.
The Chief told the Arawaks that this island was to be their new home.
The Arawaks called their main settlement ‘Manua’ (new home), and the Island became known as ‘Bagwynatoo’ (‘Land of the Cloud Creatures’).
*
Over time, other Arawaks, also harassed by the Caribs, came to Cuba, Haiti and the Islands of the Shallow Sea.
The Indians may have called themselves ‘Taino’, ‘Siboney’, or ‘Lucayan’, but they were all members of the Arawak Nation.
|
