Afua Cooper, Jamaica/Canada
Por: Afua Cooper
Ra Ra*
(Poem written in honour of the carnival in Fort-de-France, Martinique, and to the genius of the Haitian people who created Ra Ra culture)
What, what is this I hear!
a thousand drums playing
Ratatat, ratatat ratatatatat!!!!!
and Max Roach conducting!
Ratatam, ratatam, ratatam!
trap drums
djembes
and congas
and the voices of a hundred archangels
chanting into the wind
Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra
the drums scream the name of
Dahomey
but this is Fort-de-France
Dahomey is on the other side of the ocean!
What is this I hear!
Ra Ra drums awakening the city
a dog howls
I look through the window
he dives into the sea
and disappears while swimming
to the other side of the harbour
a cock, its circadian clock re-calibrated,
crows at 15 minutes to midday
Ra Ra rhythms have remade the world
But this is not Haiti
how come these Ra Ra people are marching
all over Foyal?
sending vibrations into the earth, the air, and the sky?
answering secret rhythms with sacred rhythms
I am sure they are not mortal beings
but a celestial horde
on the march with Babatunde Olatunji
The sound of trap drums
saah saah yeahing up to the hills
to Didier
Morne Tartenson
Trenelle
even up to the Balata Road
way past Tivoli
to the volcano named Mont Pelee
and from the peak of the hill
the drummers and trumpeters
look down onto the harbour
look way past the horizon
and beat their thoughts onto the air
sending back the colonizer and Indian killer
d’Esnambuc
to the deepest dungeon of France
re-crowning Chatoyer
beating the martial rhythms for triumphant
Kalingo warriors
reversing the traite negrier
stitching whole again Africa
And in the distance
from the direction of Lamentin
I hear the pounding of hooves
Dum dum dum doom doom doom doom
the earth trembles in unexpected bliss
I see clouds of brown dust spiraling into the sky
I feel the hot breath of panting steeds
Rushing toward the city
somewhere, there is a clash of cymbals
a gate opens
mounted men holding a landscape
of asafo flags rush through
sparks of fire rise from the horses’ hooves
what is this?
the cavalry
led by the fugitive named Mathieu Leviellé?
From the savannah the drummers advance
beating on a thousand drums
blowing on horns and trumpets
bamboo sticks
maracas
Shaka shaka shak
not made by human hands
African captives chained
at the bottom of slave ship
drowned in shipwreck at Anse Cafard
and from the volcano at Mont Pelee
I hear dem weeping, wailing
and gnashing their teeth
a fury of chains clanking
as the ship crashed on the rocks and sank
to the bottom of the sea
sombre ghosts stand on the beach
look across the ocean—take us back to Benin!
now, they walk across the landscape at Diamond Rock
beating their chests and chanting a salt-water dirge
Ra Ra from Dahomey
Ra Ra from Haiti
Ra Ra in Fort de France
Ra Ra blowing onto the Caribbean Sea
toward St. Lucie
and La Dominique
way up to les Iles des Vierges
and down to the tip of Venezuela
creating the archipelago of RIDDIMS
And then a boy
14 years old
pierces the air
with the fury from his trumpet
and suddenly the cacique Bohechio stirs from his sleep
rubs his eyes
grasp his conch shell
and blows a message to Hatuey
to l’Overture, Dessalines, Christophe, Cecile Fatima
and Huracan blows his breath over the sea, hurricane a come! Unu bettah run, hurricane a come!
meanwhile, Queen Anacaona,
Empress of Hispaniola
stands on the tallest point of Ayiti
and begins to whirlwind a final dance
for independence
Ra Ra!
Ra Ra!
Ra Ra!
Ra Ra!
*Ra Ra is a Haitian form of music, dance culture, painting, religious rituals performance, and flag creation rooted in the Voudou traditions of the Republic of Benin
formerly known as Dahomey.
Ra Ra Glossary
Foyal is the shortened term for Fort Royal, the old name of Fort-de-France.
Babatunde Olatunji is the legendary Nigerian drummer who birthed ‘world music,’ in the 20th century.
d’Esnambuc is the 17th century French explorer and colonizer who waged a devastating colonial war on the indigenous Kalingo (Caribs) of Martinique and neighbouring islands.
Chatoyer was the Kalingo chief of St. Vincent who fought the French and British colonizers.
Asafo flags are beautifully crafted visual representations of warrior organizations from West Africa. This particular craft of flag making was brought by enslaved Africans to the Caribbean and South America.
Mathieu Leveille was one of Canada’s hangmen. Born a slave in Martinique, he eventually escaped from slavery. He was later captured and sold to the colonial government of New France (Canada) where he was installed as the royal executioner and torturer.
Bohechio was a Taino chief on the island of Hispaniola. He fought a colonial war against the Spaniards. Hatuey was the Taino chief of Haiti who fought the Spanish invaders. He fled to Cuba where he was captured and hanged. He is today a national hero in both Cuba and Haiti.
L’Overture, Dessalines, Christophe, and Fatima are heroes of the Haiti Revolution against France. The Revolution liberated that country from slavery and French colonialism.
Anacaona was the Taino empress of the island of Hispaniola at the time of the arrival of Christopher Columbus. She led her people against the Spanish invaders. The Taino lost the war and Columbus hanged Anacaona.
Ayiti is creole for Haiti. The latter is the Taino name for the island which means ‘land of high mountains.’
Chernobyl 1986
No winner in a nuclear war
no winner in a nuclear war
whether you come from near
or you come from far
there’s no winner in a nuclear war
I am hungry
so unhappy
starving and going mad
no clothes on my back
no food to give my child
yet every day, they just stockpile
stockpile
stockpile
No winner in a nuclear war
no winner in a nuclear war
whether you come from near
or you come from far
there’s no winner in a nuclear war
Chernobyl
I said it did kill
a whole heap of people
and made some disable
Chernobyl
I said it did kill
a whole heap of people
and made some disable
In the Ukraine
nuclear terror did reign
in the Ukraine nuclear terror did reign
I hope this never, never, happen again
Lord have mercy!
There’s no winner in a nuclear war
no winner in a nuclear war
whether you come from near
or you come from far
there’s no winner in a nuclear war!
A World Greener Than Eden
My father planted a provision ground
with yams of all sorts
yellow
white
negro
Afu
Lucea
even yampee
and sweet potatoes
with red skin
golden skin
white skin
and pumpkins
squash
dasheen
baddus
coco
cassava
cucumber
and other root and vine crops
Congo peas
okras
plantains
and bananas
He planted breadfruit
and ackee trees
and like the agronomist he was
crafted a tree
that bore June plum,
avocado, and jackfruit at the same time
For the short term
dad planted a callaloo patch
with bakchoy
spinach
bell peppers
bird peppers
scotch bonnet
carrots
garlic
onions
scallions
My father always praised the soil
Decades before,
my grandfather planted citrus groves
with sweet orange
Seville orange
tangerine
lime
the startling lemon
and grapefruit trees that,
every season,
bore so much
that neighbours
friends, and passersby
invited themselves into our yard to partake
Grandfather also planted coconut trees
made his own oil and milk from the coconut flesh
grew sugarcane
had his own mill that pressed
the juice from the cane
made wet sugar
and molasses
tended a cocoa walk
from which he prepared chocolate
to make hot cocoa drink
which he sweetened with the wet sugar
and flavoured with coconut milk,
nutmeg, and cinnamon powder for us
Grandfather also planted corn
These men built a well,
with a spout pointing
in each of the four directions,
that carried water
to irrigate
the crops they planted.
Bird of Paradise
At dawn my mother stands on the hill
behind our house
and invokes the sun to rise
then she goes to the outdoor kitchen
and prepares tortillas and cocotea for our breakfast
My mother sells fruits and flowers in the market
stuff she grows with her own hands
she does not solicit customers
they come to her of their own volition
and at the end of each day
her items are all sold out
Now at age 42 my mother decides to stop having children
but not because her blood has ceased
"I have peopled the world with the numerous men
and women that my body has birthed," she says
"now it's time for me to birth other things"
At times my mother's back and feet grow tired
so I anoint them with coconut oil
her feet is a detailed map
her back is the star apple tree outside our front door
My mother has never travelled abroad
but she knows tales of everyland
she says the flowers in her gardens
especially the ginger lily, orchids,
and the bird of paradise, bring her such tidings
My mother is short in stature
all her children tower above her
some do not even want to recognise
or acknowledge her as they pass by in the marketplace
they are ashamed of this fruit and flower woman
this woman who fed them milk and tortillas
that made them so strong
sometimes they mock her
"she looks like something out of a Rivera mural," they jest
but my mother does not hear
her ears are beyond their words.
In the evening when she grows weary
my mother sings lullabies to the sun to entice it to sleep
so the dark can come and we all be rejuvenated
"It's in the darkness that we grow strong," she tells us
How wise she is
this woman with a life that no one can capture
how essential she is
this woman who makes gardens flower
and who feed us milk and tortillas
I watch her as she descends the hill to the marketplace
her skirt at her knee
her black hair flecked with grey.
Dr. Afua Cooper, Ph.D. was born at 8 November 1957, she is a Jamaican-born Canadian historian. As a historian, "she has taught Caribbean cultural studies, history, women's studies and Black studies at Ryerson and York universities, at the University of Toronto and at Dalhousie University." She is also an author and dub poet who, as of 2018, has published five volumes of poetry.
Killam Research Chair:Black History and African Diaspora Studies; Visiting Scholar: Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University; Principal Investigator: A Black People's History of Canada; Cross-appointed to: Depts. of History, and Sociology and Social Anthropology, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Gender and Women's Studies Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
Dalhousie President's Award for the Advancement of Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness, 2021; Canada's Representative UNESCO: The International Scientific Committee for the Slave Route Project; Portia White Prize Winner, 2020; Poet Laureate Emerita: Halifax Regional Municipality; Co-ordinator: Black and African Diaspora Studies Minor, Dalhousie; Founder, and Past President: Black Canadian Studies Association; Chair: Lord Dalhousie Scholarly Panel on Slavery and Race; Lead Author: Report on Lord Dalhousie's History on Slavery and Race (2019). Founder: Dalhousie Black Faculty and Staff Caucus
