Editor’s Note: The following selection is from Natty Mark Samuels’ collection of stories entitled “The Soursop Shrine, Tales of Papa Boula”
I’ll always remember the evening of the grain, partly because it began with Dezarie. There he was, sitting on his stool against the soursop tree, humming and singing Dezarie. He loved to hear her singing, ”roots and culture, roots and culture we want.” He said that within those words, she said it all. It became the mantra of that evening and thereafter, heard here and there in and around the Soursop Shrine. Although he wasn’t Rasta, as a sentinel of heritage, he appreciated their homage to Africa.
It was lovely to sit there, while he spoke of legacy. What Mama Leone began on St.Croix, Dezarie is continuing. Women telling the stories of our lives. Whether cariso or reggae, there’ll always be the drum. We know the story must be told; for those who come after; group catharsis; diary of resistance; celebration of survival.
Then someone hummed the melody of Gracious Mama Africa; and so began the content of grain, as we visited South Sudan. He spoke of the Dinka, the tall slender ones who traverse the savannah, chanting for their cattle. Talking of them, he told us of Abuk, who he called Grandma Abuk. She’s the primordial woman of their belief, associated with women, children and gardens. He thought of her as a deity of wisdom also.
You see, during original days, God gave her and Garang — ancestral man — a grain of millet a day. Garang ate his each day. But Abuk saved hers, making the first paste: original portion of millet porridge. On alternate days, she’d save a grain and plant it, becoming the first cultivator amongst the Dinka.
Her wisdom generated a conversation, talking of heroines. Names mentioned included Harriet Tubman, Wangari Maathai, Maya Angelou, Albertina Sisulu, Michelle Obama, Rosa Parks and Yaa Asantewaa.
If Abuk is the original woman of the Dinka, then as far as the Virgin Islands go, Dezarie is the First Lady of Roots.
While someone found the words to Gracious Mama Africa on their phone and voiced them, Papa Boula played a rhythm on his drum, playing for the one he thought of as one of the sweetest of songbirds: ”my roots oriole.”
— Due to the dearth of provision in Oxford, England, in 2009, Natty Mark Samuels set up African School, offering African Studies to the general public. Teaching has taken place in a wide range of settings; schools, community projects, museums, colleges, youth clubs, universities, libraries, carnivals and botanical gardens. It has a specialism in African and Caribbean folklore. He is the founder of Rootical Folklore and Birago Day: African and Caribbean Folklore Day. He wrote the Encyclopedia of Rootical Folklore and The Birago Diop Trilogy.
Samuels is also raising funds to attend the Caribbean Studies Association Conference scheduled for St. Martin on June 1-7, where he has been invited to deliver The Jackfruit Monologue. Learn more here.
