An Evening in Guanima: A Treasury of Folktales from The Bahamas

tales.

Introduction

In folk stories, magic drums, ghosts, obedient and disobedient children, heroes, tricksters and birds that assume human form hold sway in a world where poetic justice always brings about a satisfactory ending. This is the patrimony of childhood and the stuff of An Evening in Guanima. This treasury of Bahamian folktales is a tribute, in the form of original short stories based on traditional story motifs and characters, to my birthplace Cat Island, thought to have been called Guanima by the Lucayans, the first Bahamians.

Like so many of the islands of The Bahamas, rural Cat Island is rich in folklore, and was once the centre of a vibrant Bahamian storytelling tradition. My appreciation for the heritage of my people and belief in its uniqueness were formed largely during stays with my grandparents at the teacher’s residence in Port Howe. There, during evening storytelling session, I learned many of the traditional songs, rhymes and tale motifs which form the launch pad for my own imaginings.

Unfortunately, few people talk ol’ story or even remember one nowadays. Like many people-intensive activities, storytelling has fallen prey to modernization. Electronics and other forms of entertainment are anaesthetizing the creativity of our oral storytellers and diverting the need which gave rise to their tradition.

As a result, few fully developed traditional stories are still told. In many cases, vague recollections of central characters, perhaps the basic plot line, or a brief song or incantation are now the only memorials to tales full of incident, metaphor and special sound effects.

Unless storytelling receives a fresh injection of creativity and recaptures its audience, the tradition will be lost to us. The purpose of this volume is to contribute to preserving the most important aspects of the ol’ story—the characters and motifs of the traditional tales. The following brief introduction to the Bahamian ol’ story is intended to assist the reader to gain a basic understanding of the principal aspects of the form and thereby enhance appreciation for the short stories presented here.

Ol’ Story

Origins

Our folktales offer a reflection of the lands from which our ancestors migrated either willingly or by force, and to show the hybridization that so often resulted in the context of New World slavery and colonialism. The major influence is undoubtedly that of Africa, from which continent about 85 percent of Bahamians derive their bloodlines to greater or lesser degree. It is difficult in modern times to match the African tribal names and territory that have survived in our oral tradition with those that may be found in many nations of present day Africa.

Bahamian culture shares a number of similarities with those of the Senegambia—too many to be coincidental. Our main story characters, the trickster Rabby and his foil Bouki, are almost certainly the Bahamian realization of Leuk, the hare and Bouki, the hyena in the stories of the Wolof (cf Birago Diop’s Tales of Amadou Koumba, 1985). Elsie Clews Parsons who conducted research in The Bahamas in the 1920s revealed many cognates of West African tales among the 115 Bahamian ol’ stories she collected.

Yet, stories we have been telling for generations also show some European influence. Jack, a trickster hero, whose foil is B’er Debbil, is thought to be derived from Jack of Beanstalk fame. These stories also show the Bahamian link with the Carolinas, where Jack tales can also be found. Still the interaction between these elements and the unique challenges and opportunities of a new environment produced a syncretism that is uniquely Bahamian

Structure

The typical old story allows the storyteller great latitude as to the story line and dramatization but still tends to exhibit a high degree of stylization, containing elements that remain constant from story to story. The latter include opening and closing formulae and sings.

Opening and Closing Formulae

Tale beginnings and endings often are marked by opening and closing formulae, which appear to be derived from the British heritage. Both serve to locate the tales to which they are attached firmly in the world of faerie, by describing highly implausible and ridiculous situations. A typical opening goes this way:

Once upon a time was a very good time

Monkey chew tobakker an’ spit white lime

The second line can vary according to the wit of the storyteller, and the tendency is to change the creature and whatever comic actions they perform.

Endings can be brief:

Biddy bo ben/My story is en’

This formulae bares an obvious relationship to the Scottish

Be bow bended/My story is ended.

Performers often closed their stories with what is termed ‘verification’ formulae, e.g.:

If you don’t believe my story, go to the valley crew and they’ll tell you better.

They knock me right here to tell this big lie.

It is a part of the comic intent of the storyteller to feign a desire to prove the truth of his or her story, and then immediately destroy the illusion by calling the story a lie.

Sings

These brief musical interludes are a great part of what gives the Bahamian old story its uniqueness. When storytelling was still a current feature in the life of Bahamian communities throughout the archipelago, these little songs were mostly likely innumerable. Not only did the body include traditional material, but also songs that were often generated on the spot, according to the creativity of the storyteller.

The following is an example of a ‘sing’, which punctuates the story of a faithful mother who undertakes a search of years to find her lost daughters:

Sintana, muh Ginny, oh, Sintana

I wonder where muh Ginny gone

I wonder where Sintana

In this world of sorrow.

‘Sings’ may herald the advent of the main character or a development or transformation that has direct bearing on the main conflict and/or the outcome. They are also used to heighten tension and indicate that another stage of the action is to be revealed. In the story of the Gaulin’ Wife, the following song, which introduces the shape-changer, who drives the main action, does all these things:

When de pond, plonga, plonga

Meetee B’er Sea Crab, meetee B’er Gaulin’

Plonga, plonga

This next sing is actually a call and response or dialogue between a ghost dog and one of widowed Annie’s suitors, who is trying to gain entrance to her house:

Suitor:

Miss Annie O, Miss Annie O

Open the door, Miss Annie O

Dog:

Oh, no! Oh, no!

Since my old master died

Nobody dares to come in.

Characters

Peopling the old story are sharply contrasted pairs of characters, the good child and the bad child, and a long line of animals ranging from whales and sharks to birds and goats, who are either stupid or clever. Central to the tradition are the trickster and foil pairs—Rabby and Bouki and Jack and B’er Debbil. Rabby and Jack are as quick witted as Bouki and B’er Debbil are criminally stupid. In the Jack and B’er Debbil tales the latter is made phenomenally powerful by reason of his supernatural abilities, but is always outdistanced by the frailer Jack. As this anomaly appears in the folklore of other formerly enslaved peoples of the African Diaspora in the Americas, it has given rise to the belief that this characterization represented a compensatory mechanism for slaves who were rendered powerless by their bondage.

One of the distinctions of Bahamian old stories may be found in the anthropomorphic characters, also referred to as shapechangers. In Bahamian tradition they are invariably women, and include the hag, the gaulin wife and Pinky Whya. The latter is one of the few characters in Bahamian stories to be consistently given a personal name.

Themes

Cleverness is the key to problem-solving/overcoming adversity, rivals, etc

Goodness will always trump evil in the end

Elders are repositories of wisdom and must be respected

Good manners, good deeds and correct behaviour win out