The Magic of Mourning: Ayanna Banwo’s Ode to Trinidadian Culture
“You have not forgotten how to fly. For what is more woman than holding death and life, sky and earth in your body same time, to fly while earthbound?”
Last year I read a novel that took me to an island inside the depths of the Caribbean. Inside this magical homage to Trinidad, I discovered my first insights into Rastafarian belief, a newfound respect for the dead, and proof that generational blessings/curses can follow the bloodline beyond what the living can trace. Told through the language of the island, Patois, which is more so their version of Pidgin English intertwined with different colonizer languages.
It opens with Grandma Catherine sharing one of her favorite stories to her granddaughter, Yejide; explaining that “there was a time before time”. A time when the land was lush and green and the animals and other creatures lived in harmony without boarders or gates. All of this was utopia until…
“That warrior bring more warriors and with the warriors come builders and with the builders come farmers and with the farmers come priest”
To young Yejide, for now it is only a story.
Then we have Darwin, a young Rasta boy, who never fit in and had a head filled with as many questions as dreadlocks that his mother couldn’t answer. When he becomes grown he decides to embark on his own; in doing so he has to put behind the life he knows to accept a job in the city of Port Angeles. His mother’s response is:
“Is only dead in the city Emmanuel. Rasta don’t deal with the dead.”
What does that even mean?
I thought this quote of the book was just fiction added by the author, NO, it’s from the Old Testament in the Holy Bible! Can you say mind blown?
“…All the time that he separates himself from the Lord he shall not go near a dead body, he shall not make himself unclean…” (Numbers 6:6-7 AMP)
Darwin has to shovel (pun intended) his own path. Finding answers to his questions along the way.
Just when Yejide & Darwin have come to terms with what life has in store for them, they find one another. Not in the physical, but in spirit. Proving that we are destined to meet people on our journey in life and no man on earth can stop it.
Quotes 💭
“Sky like this make him to feel a way — easier to feel hopeful when the sky was clear”
“Bad enough to fall in love with anybody at all, but to love a woman who heart split in two, the other part residing in the body of a dead woman.”
“Grave is home, grave is lineage”
“When the last feather has gone, and your woman body has grown full, remember that you remain a bird inside.”
Author Spotlight 💡
Ayana Lloyd Banwo is a Trinidadian writer who grew up listening to the elders tell stories. In one interview she stated that her grandfather only gave books for Christmas, which continued the spark of storytelling long after the storytellers had passed on. It was not until she had back to back deaths in her family that she decided to take her writing more seriously. Thankfully, she never gave up on this dream and her gifted hands blessed us with a novel that will have long-lasting affects on our hearts.
Additional Caribbean Recs:
This is one of my favorite books. Its romantic sensuality took me by surprise. If you’re interested in another Caribbean novel with spirituality woven through its lush descriptions, I recommend The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey!