The Haitian Trilogy: Plays: Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours, and The Haytian Earth (20 page)

Dark as a portent at this turn of the year, the birth

Of a new century. What comes at the end of it, my friends?

CHRISTOPHE

This is a new age, born like us, in blood …

TOUSSAINT

                                                         Yes, yes, but I hate excess.

(
He washes his hands.
)

DESSALINES
(
Roars with laughter.
)

Ho, ha! He kills ten thousand or more defenceless citizens

Who did him no harm but that their colour was wrong

And shrugs his shoulders and says he hates excess. Oh, oh

I love, I kiss this hypocrite!

TOUSSAINT
(
Angrily
)

                                            I am not a hypocrite, Jean Jacques,

I hate this now it is all finished. I remember

The body of the first mulatto I ever saw. The son

Of a stupid planter called Calixte. Multiply that.

I come from an exhausting expedition and I find

My two best generals getting drunk like sergeants.

Go, collect your forces, I want to think a little.

(
Exit
CHRISTOPHE, DESSALINES
.)

Oh God, that I should find the centre of this whirlwind,

Those leaves of yellow bodies whirled in wind.

(
Enter
TWO SOLDIERS, CALIXTE-BREDA
in rags between them.
)

SOLDIER

We found this one hiding in the ruins, General.

What shall we do with him?

TOUSSAINT

                                            I do not know the man … who …

Calixte? Is it Monsieur Calixte?

CALIXTE-BREDA
(
Shaking free from the
SOLDIERS
.)

                                         And it is General Toussaint, is it not?

The conqueror of Haiti … I want to talk with you,

Unless the general must go back to his butchering.

TOUSSAINT

You soldiers, stand in easy distance from this tent.

What are you doing in Les Cayes? You live in the north?

(
The
SOLDIERS
withdraw.
)

CALIXTE-BREDA

There is no north. They have burnt the good land.

You should know that, it is you who guide this war.

TOUSSAINT
(
Holding out the bottle.
)

Here, have a drink of rum. I do not know what savour,

You may remember how one improved its vintage

With an occasional slave tossed in the vats?

CALIXTE-BREDA
(
Hanging his head.
)

I was never cruel. It was the times, the thought.

TOUSSAINT

I am not cruel either. It is also in my case the times,

The compulsion of opinion. I did not begin it.

CALIXTE-BREDA
(
Angrily
)

You call this compulsion, this slaughtering of children,

This dedicated erasure of any complexion?

I have walked through the smoking fields, through the burnt land

That we all loved, destroyed, that was once green,

Racked by a rabble, turned savage as wild pigs.

TOUSSAINT
(
Shouting.
)

They are my soldiers, not pigs, not animals.

CALIXTE-BREDA

I stepped across hacked citizens in these streets,

Blind in a stream of tears, I moved through fire,

Oh God in heaven, Toussaint, hell is not worse.

TOUSSAINT

War is not a drawing-room minuet.

CALIXTE-BREDA

Do not call this war, you hypocritical liar!

Since the day Anton died, and you abandoned him

On the white columned steps of Mal Maison,

I have pursued your great career with diligence.

I heard of how you joined the marauding armies,

Who burnt our lands and shambled the green north;

Your rise in the field of battle; how you wrecked Maitland

And drove the English down to the sea. Until today,

You are blood drunk, since that first boy you murdered.

TOUSSAINT

                                                                              Murdered? Boy?

CALIXTE-BREDA

My son, my son Anton, that was so far

You have forgotten it. You have seen so many dead,

Now that war makes your butchery legitimate.

(
He draws his pistol.
)

TOUSSAINT

Put down the pistol, Monsieur Calixte. Your son? What son?

He was your nephew then. Look, man, have you forgotten,

Is it because you’re ruined you have turned pious?

CALIXTE-BREDA

O God, give me the strength to shoot this monster.

TOUSSAINT

And do not speak to me of God, monsieur; right now

I cannot think of God. Where was God in those years

When we were whipped and forced to eat our excrement,

Were peeled alive, pestered with carnivorous ants.

Where was God? All of a sudden from your nephew’s body

You have grown a delicate orchid called a conscience.

And blame the times. I have learnt to pick up a child

Limp on my sword’s edge as you would lift an insect;

I have to learn this. I love this land as well as you,

But when we tried this, when we tried to love you,

Where, O chaos, where was your heart?

CALIXTE-BREDA
(
Weeping.
)

Toussaint, what, what is all this?

What is happening to the world, to Haiti?

(
A bugle sounds in the distance.
)

TOUSSAINT

Oh God, I do not know, Monsieur Calixte. I do not know.

I am pushed forward, lifted on the crest of the wave,

Then I am abandoned among the wreckage, while

The mass of guilty men say, Oh, Toussaint, he is gentle, good.

Leave him to clean it. Listen, the bugle blows the march.

We are striking out …

(
Enter
DESSALINES, CHRISTOPHE
.)

DESSALINES

Who is this filthy white? A spy?

(
He seizes his pistol.
)

TOUSSAINT

I was his coachman once. Give me the pistol, General Dessalines.

CHRISTOPHE

His coachman? Is he offering your old employment back?

I will search him for letters. Jacques, keep the pistol.

TOUSSAINT

You see how my generals trust me, monsieur.

(
The bugle again.
)

DESSALINES

There are no gentlemen in Haiti now.

CHRISTOPHE

He has no letters. Come, it is time to march.

CALIXTE-BREDA

You have become three mad dogs all of you.

So these are the great generals. Is this Dessalines?

DESSALINES
(
Gripping
CALIXTE-BREDA
.)

Yes, white man, this is Dessalines, the general

Who ripped the white heart from the flag of France.

Tell them you saw him when you get down to hell.

Come, General, we are giving this one too much privilege.

TOUSSAINT

I still command here, Dessalines. Release him!

SERGEANT
(
Enters.
)

The armies are assembled and ready to march.

CHRISTOPHE

Sergeant, wait!

DESSALINES

Well, is this a parliament now?

CALIXTE-BREDA

Look, you, both of you; I will not be pushed, I will not!

DESSALINES

He hates excess. I remember.

CALIXTE-BREDA

                                                      Did you kill my son? Answer me that.

(
Pause.
)

TOUSSAINT

Take him away, Sergeant.

SERGEANT

                                              And …

DESSALINES

                          And shoot him, hang him, anything, you fool!

We have an army waiting for this ruin.

SERGEANT

                                                                     My general?

TOUSSAINT

Shoot him. Monsieur Calixte, it is the times.

CALIXTE-BREDA

General, blame man and not the times, not God …

(
Exit
SERGEANT
with
CALIXTE-BREDA
.)

DESSALINES

                                           Eh, all this argument for a white …

CHRISTOPHE

Jacques, in the name of God! Enough!

(
TOUSSAINT
is weeping, shoulders shaking. A long pause.
)

Peace will be full of sour memories.

(
The sound of gunfire.
)

DESSALINES

Eh, qui ça, memories.
Life is very long.

(
Pause.
TOUSSAINT
exits.
)

You see? He is crumbling. We sell him to Leclerc.

Why do you study me so carefully, my good friend?

I see that parrot on your shoulder, like a crow.

CHRISTOPHE

You are growing sick in your own mind, Jean Jacques.

Once we have sold him to Leclerc, peace is assured.

And we will share our power to restore the peace.

Now, come, it looks suspicious to be here alone.

(
He exits.
)

DESSALINES

The tent is struck now. Yet if all were known,

The parrot Jacko screams in Jacques’s black ear,

Trust men as far as I can throw this stone.

(
He exits, trailing the bottle. Bugle, marching, shouts, drums. Blackout.
)

Scene 13

Jamaica, 1830. Martial drums change to merry Jamaican mento. A white
PLANTER
chucks his “housekeeper,”
YETTE
,
out of his great house, throwing her possessions after her.

PLANTER
(
Hurling baggage.
)

I don’t want to see any more of you on this estate, unless you learn to keep your thieving hands off my gold and silver!

YETTE
(
Picking up baggage.
)

All Jamaica know ’bout you, you good-for-nothing rascal! You and your self-righteousness. I going tell them about you, mister! They should call you Calico, you off-colour planter, you!

PLANTER

Now go on down the road and into Kingston, where you belong. Before I set the dogs on you. And here your things! I should never have encouraged you; away, go on.

YETTE

One day the sugar market going collapse, and don’t come weeping on my shoulder then. I’m not any ordinary slave, yuh. I got good blood. You can’t ruin Yette. Don’t mind I have coloured blood in me, at least I respectable. My father never come here as no convict.

PLANTER

You better get out.

(
He exits.
YETTE
gathers up her bundles, grumbling.
)

WOMAN
(
Passing. The first of several who have entered for the next scene.
)

Wey wrong, mi love?

YETTE

You jes’ clear out of me way, hear?

(
She exits.
)

Scene 14

Jamaica, 1833. Secret meeting of a Christian mission. Two slaves,
ELIJAH
and
AARON
,
hold up a banner marked:
TO DWELL TOGETHER IN UNITY: SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN JAMAICA AND THE INDIES. SLAVES
gathering.
DEACON SALE
enters.

ELIJAH

The coast is clear, brothers and sisters.

Come, Brother Aaron, give me a hand with this banner.

The meeting go start just now.

AARON
(
Helping with the banner.
)

You ain’t hear ’bout Brother Pompey, Brother Elijah?

De soldiers chasing him for scattering pamphlets

’Bout emancipation and riots, but don’t let Deacon know.

ELIJAH

You mean Pompey the shoemaker? Ain’t he was a pacific man?

AARON

Well, him rougher than Atlantic now. Pass out the hymn books?

ELIJAH

What’s the damn use passing hymn books

And oonoo cyant read?

AARON

Why you don’ hush you’ mouth?

ALL

Good evening, Deacon.

DEACON SALE

Any sight or sound of Brother Pompey, Brother Aaron?

He has never been absent from a secret meeting before.

AARON
(
Exultantly
)

Him spreading righteousness right and left, Deacon.

Like white doves on this countryside, him scattering pamphlets.

ELIJAH

We best hurry the meeting, Deacon. Aaron, hush!

You know is against the law. I going watch for soldiers.

DEACON SALE

Thank you, Brother Elijah.

(
He climbs up the steps.
)

Brothers and sisters assembled in Christ, I will read you the text of this banner. Repeat it after me, and try and remember it, as if it were embroidered forever on your hearts. To dwell …

SLAVES
(
Together
)