Red Jacket (36 page)
Authors: Pamela; Mordecai
First of all, I am grateful to the taxpayers of Ontario, who, through the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, allowed me to eat and have a home while I wrote this book. My considerable thanks too, to Margaret Hart for her commitment to placing this novel, long after I had moved on to other projects.
It is not possible to say what I owe to my husband, Martin Mordecai, who readily and without complaint reviewed the book in its many versions; to our son, Daniel Mordecai who offered helpful comments, and to our daughter Rachel Mordecai who more than once lent it her keen critical eye. The book is much improved by your interventions, and I count myself very blessed in you.
My thanks must also go to our once-upon-a-time online writing group, especially Nalo Hopkinson, who instigated it, and including Hiromi Goto, Larissa Lai, Martin Mordecai, Jennifer Stevenson, and David Findlay. The group provided an impetus to get the writing out, and it introduced us to fine writers and fine people. In that regard, my thanks go especially to Jennifer Stevenson without whose generous support, comments, readings and re-readings, the book would not have come to completion. That it exists is very much her doing. Special thanks also to James Fitzgerald Ford, who allowed me to credit my heroine with an academic paper that put forward principles cribbed from an article of his, and who gave me the benefit of his experience in more than one of the locations in the book. For saving me from embarrassment, I thank Barbara Shepherd, who set me right on the Thirty Day Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and Dr. Michael Hawkes who gave me the benefit of his experience as a physician and as one who knows the region.
For their various contributions, by reading part or all of the book, by supplying, in some cases, encouragement, and in others, practical help, I am indebted to Edward Baugh, Ian Bolton, Marlene Bourdon-King, Kamau Brathwaite, Andrea Conroy-Cresser, Carol Duncan, Molly Tobin Espey, Esther Figueroa, Shivaun Hearne, Keith Lowe, Stephanie McKenzie, Stephanie Martin, Rethabile Masilo, Marie-José Nzengou-Tayo, Timothy Reiss, Elaine Savory, Derek Walcott, M. G. Vasanji, Betty Wilson, and Priscilla Zamora. I crave the indulgence of anyone I may have forgotten, for many people helped with this book over a long time.
Finally, to Diane Young at TAP Books, who saw the virtues of the book, took it on board, and shepherded it to completion, and to the ever-helpful staff at Dundurn Press, my sincerest thanks!
Ar = Arabic; | DT = Dread Talk; |
ECE = Eastern Caribbean English; | G = Ga; |
It = Italian; | JC = Jamaican Creole; |
JE = Jamaican English; | MT = Mabuli Talk ; |
TC = Trinidad Creole; | Tk = Turkish |
abeng (JC) | = bull's horn used by Maroons as a signaling device or as a musical instrument |
backra massa (JC) | = originally used of a white person, especially one who owned or exercised authority on a plantation; now a person, white or not, in a position of authority; metonymically, those who wield power; oppressive authority |
bakin gumbi | = |
bangarang (JC) | = echoic word meaning (and representing the sound of dragging) assorted paraphernalia |
bissap | = |
bissape | = red drink made from calyxes of the sorrel/bissap plant |
bourgou grass | = grass native to Africa |
boyeki | = African percussion instrument; güiro in Latin America; reco-reco in Brazil; scrapers in the Caribbean |
braps (JC) | = echoic word that represents the sound of a sudden fall, collapse, or development |
brought-upcy (JE) | = quality of having been well raised |
bruck (JC) | = break |
m'bubu | = flowing wide-sleeved robe; kaftan |
capo (It) | = chief of a branch of the mafia |
capo di tutti capi (It) | = chief of all chiefs (literally); the term designates the head of the most powerful Mafia family |
Cetacea | = scientific order that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises |
cho (JC) | = exclamation of annoyance, impatience, irritation, disgust |
cocoa tea (JE) | = chocolate (drink) |
coolie | = an East Indian person, according to the |
cotta (JC) | = coil of cloth used to cushion a basket resting on the head |
crosses (cross) (JE) | = difficulty, hardship, burden |
djembe | = African percussion drum |
don (JC) | = a crime boss, originally and still especially in the Mafia; crime boss engaged in the ganja trade |
dungle (JC) | = garbage dump, dung hill, rubbish heap |
duppy (JC) | = ghost |
escoveitched (JC) | = from the Spanish “escabeche” meaning pickled, a method of cooking (mostly fish) with vinegar, peppercorns, onions and scotch bonnet or chili peppers; perhaps also related to ceviche, a Peruvian seafood dish |
facety (facey) (JC) | = brazen, forward, impudent |
favour (JC) | = resemble, look like |
gallery forest | = forests that form along the corridors of rivers or wetlands and extend into other otherwise sparsely treed areas |
giaour (Tk) | = modern Turkish word for infidel, unbeliever; an offensive ethnic slur used by Muslims in Turkey, the Balkans to describe all (especially nearby Christians) who are not Muslim |
gizzada (JC) | = Jamaican or Portuguese pastry made of grated coconut baked in a pastry shell. It is also called “pinch-me-round” in English from the rippled edge of the pastry and guizada in Portuguese. |
Gourounsi | = ethnic groups inhabiting north Ghana and southern Burkina Faso |
grater cake (JC) | = a Jamaican sweetmeat made of grated coconut cooked in a paste of dark or white sugar |
homo ludens | = Latin for games-playing man |
imam | = Islamic scholar, community leader, worship leader |
Ital (JC) | = derived from English vital, with the v removed so the initial I can affirm oneness with the essential i-force of nature; (Rastafarian) food, which is salt free and largely vegetarian |
jacket (JC) | = outside child, born of intercourse between a married parent and some person other than his/her spouse, but accepted as part of the household |
Jah (JC) | = Rastafarian name for God |
Jonkonnu (JC) | = Christmas festival of African and European origin, in which masqueraders in traditional costumes (e.g., the Devil, Wild Indian, Belly Woman, Actor Boy, Pitchy-Patchy) parade in the streets dancing to fife and drum music, collecting money for their prowess in dance and mime |
jook (JC) | = to stick, poke, pierce |
juju (Fr) | = originally used for traditional religions in West Africa; now used for the supposed magical power of those religions or for objects used in witchcraft |
karst | = landscape formed from dissolution of limestone, characterized by conical hills, sinkholes, underground rivers, and cave systems |
kas-kas (JC) | = echoic word meaning quarrel, contention |
Kel Tamasheq | = (recent self-designation of the Tuareg) speakers of Tamasheq, the Turareg language |
kikumvi | = tom-tom; used in the musical accompaniment to the Missa Luba |
kiloli (MT) | = garment, worn by men and women |
kinkeliba | = |
traditional bush tea (nicknamed “Lipton Tea” due to its popularity) used for weight loss, as a diuretic, an antibiotic, to improve digestion, and to relieve minor pain. | |
kiss-teeth (JC) | = contemptuous or dismissive sound made by sucking air through closed teeth |
korchi | = loud factory whistle used to indicate start and end of the workday |
kotch (JC) | = take a temporary seat, mostly in a place not intended for sitting |
kouri | = dry water course |
kwashiorkor (G) | = acute form of childhood malnutrition |
kyondo | = a type of slit (log) drum common in the Congo, especially the southern part; used in the Missa Luba |
lectio divina | = divine reading |
lick (JC) | = knock, hit |
macca (JC) | = prickles, thorns |
marabout (Ar) | = Muslim religious scholar, scholar of the Koran, teacher, and leader in West Africa |
Maroons | = slaves who freed themselves by running away or guerilla-style warfare and established self-sustaining communities in isolated places in the mountains or forests |
mas (EC) | = see play mas |
mbuni (MT) | = species of rodent |
millet | = small seeded, ancient grass yielding grain of many variations, for human and animal consumption |
mouth-a-massy (JC) | = talkative, given to gossip |
néré trees | = |
njamra (MT) | = large dark-shelled river prawns |
nose nought (JC) | = mucus out of the nose, possibly a corruption of “nose snott” |
nyam (JC) | = eat |
Obeah (JC) | = African derived belief system and practice, similar to Voodoo and SanterÃa, that uses supernatural forces to achieve or defend against evil intentions; any evil spell cast by a practitioner of the art |
Old Higue | = creature in Guyanese folklore, an old witch by day, a blood-sucking vampire at night. Able to shed her skin, she travels in a ball of fire and feasts on the blood of infants. |
Oti (MT) | = umbrella association of religious leaders of all belief systems, imams, shamans, priests, and marabouts |
own-way (JC) | = self-willed, stubborn |
palampam (JC) | = echoic word meaning noise and confusion |
pasero (JC) | = friend, possibly from Spanish pasajero (fellow passenger) |
pawpaw (JC) | = papaya |
picong (ECE) | = from Spanish picón, which means mocking; originally, a verbal contest between two Calypsonians in which wit determines the winner; teasing or sarcastic repartee; friendly teasing and heckling |
pikni (JC) | = child |
pimento dram (JE) | = pimento liqueur; herbal liqueur with a rum base that tastes of allspice |
placée woman | = woman of colour (African, Native American, or mixed-race) in eighteenth-century Louisiana, who became a sort of common-law wife in a recognized extralegal system in which white French and Spanish and, in time, Creole men entered into the equivalent of common-law marriages. Placée women were not legally recognized as wives, but were supported by their partners and had families for them. |
play mas (ECE) | = take part in the masquerade, the procession of dance, music, and costumed bands that celebrates Carnival in some cities (e.g., Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, Port of Spain) on the days prior to Ash Wednesday when Lent begins |
praedial larceny | = theft of growing crops |
pyah-pyah (JC) | = insignificant, worthless |
rass cloth (JC) | = (employed only as an obscene expletive) a used sanitary napkin |
Rasta (DT) | = short form of Rastafari or Rastafarian |
redibo (JC) | = (red Ibo) person of colour with red skin, red hair, grey eyes, and often freckles |
saga boy (TC) | = a man who likes to dress well and chase women, a fop, a playboy |
sajda | = Muslim prostration, the bent-over, head-to-the-earth posture for prayer |
sand puppy | = burrowing rodent, similar to the East African naked mole rat |
sappi (MT) | = beer made from bissap |
scotch bonnet | = |
shaman | = spiritual leader; medium between physical and spiritual worlds |
sistren (DT) | = sisters (in Dread Talk, the language of Rastafari) |
The Skinny (MT) | = slang for AIDS |
sorghum | = genus of several species of grass, one of which is a grain |
steups (JC) | = see kiss-teeth |
suck-teeth (JC) | = see kiss-teeth |
sulcata | = |
susu (JC) | = gossip, rumour |
susuing (JC) | = whispering gossip, spreading rumour quietly |
Tuareg | = a Berber people, with a traditionally nomadic pastoral lifestyle |
xalam | = name for a stringed musical instrument from West Africa |
yabba (JC) | = earthenware bowl, glazed on the inside, used for cooking and baking preparation |