| Kaz | Enfo | Ayiti | Litérati | KAPES | Kont | Fowòm | Lyannaj | Pwèm | Plan |
| Accueil | Actualité | Haïti | Bibliographie | CAPES | Contes | Forum | Liens | Poèmes | Sommaire |
|
Anne McConnell |
The characters come across as grounded and focussed in their quest to realise their dreams against the odds. However there is an acceptance and recognition of human frailty throughout the text yet interwoven with the hardship is a love and celebration of life. Through their letters we discover a world of sacrifice and determination, of hard work and privation in order to attain the goals worth having in life,
This silver thread of optimism and perseverance is testament to that unique Haitian quality of defying the ‘un’ defiable. Life is lived out with missionary zeal and monk like asceticism in Ife’s determination to master his circumstances. Yet throughout Soul is his life, his very ‘soul’ and his reason for living. Without her he is lost. He never loses an opportunity to tell her so and continues to be surprised by her courage and tenacity. The writing displays a rare sensitivity and understanding of the feminine and of its strengths and qualities within a patriarchal reality. However Ife comes across as the more dominant of the two characters and essentially drives the correspondence. He is at one and the same time lover, mentor and husband.
The choice of genre allows the characters to comment on and pronounce opinions on philosophical matters as well as the everyday reality of life for those in exile from their motherland. It is this intermarriage of the mundane and those things that strike at the essence of life that gives the writing its richness and deeply spiritual quality. It is a song to victorious living where hope is the last thing to die. The quality of the writing is exceptional and gives voice to hitherto unvoiced sentiments of the Haitian diaspora’s reality through the mother tongue manipulated with the creativity and skill of a potter with his clay. It is rich in proverb and idiomatic expression and pushes Haitian Creole to its upper reaches in the poetic prose it achieves. Lèt Ife ak Soul is a challenging read and one which does not leave the reader unmoved by its subject matter as an ode to living life in all its fullness in the face of injustice and oppression. I write this from London, UK on the eve of the unveiling of a sculpture named ‘Freedom!’ specially commissioned by international aid charity, Christian Aid, and the International Slavery Museum, to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK. It will be unveiled on 26th February 2007 in Liverpool’s Merseyside Maritime Museum, and then will tour the country, taking in London and Bristol, before returning to Liverpool where it will remain on permanent display in the new International Slavery Museum, which opens on 23 August. Haitian artists were commissioned for this work in recognition of the fact that the country had the only successful slave revolt that inspired social justice movements around the world and gave the Abolitionist movement in the UK a major boost. Lèt Ife ak Soul is part of the ongoing struggle of an oppressed people to be heard and does so with unequivocal boldness and courage in the language of the people, Haitian Creole. Kaptenn Koukourouj chapo ba! Anne McConnell |
