The Cost of Sugar(50)

Sarith called, “She’s a slave. I won’t be insulted by a slave. Just know that. And if it were to happen again, I’d do the same thing again. Then she’d realize that she’s a nigger woman, a slave, no more and no less!”

Levi went past his wife out of the room. Ashana was a slave. Yes, a slave. Could he ever have explained to someone else what this slave had meant to him throughout his life? How she had loved his children, cared for his wife; how she, despite her own sorrow, had consoled him when his wife died; how she had cared for his children with all the love that was within her, and how she was always there for them, from early morning to deep in the night? He could still see her, sitting there with his son Jonathan in her arms, trying everything to prevent his passing away. How he, Levi, eventually had to take the dead child from her arms.

Downstairs on the rear veranda he looked at the old rocking chair. How many nights had he heard the sound of that chair, because, for instance, Elza could not sleep and lay in Ashana’s lap on that rocking chair. And Ashana just rocking and singing songs. How on earth could he ever explain all that to anyone else? Ashana the slave. Elizabeth’s Ashana. Ashana who was love personified for his children, now lying there in the slave hut with a totally lacerated back. Levi Fernandez had never in years felt so lonely and abandoned. He walked to the waterfront and sat on the bench by the water.

Sydni came to him and asked gently, “Has the masra seen Ashana?”130

Levi gave a slight nod. He remained the whole day sitting there by the water. Now and then Sydni poured him something to drink. Ashana would die. Had he ever let her know how much he valued her? No, of course not: she was just a slave! All slave labour was simply taken for granted. Not working was a misdemeanour. But all that love, that warmth, that consolation, Levi wondered: was that work, too? Was that to be taken for granted?

During the afternoon an errand boy came to tell him that the medicine woman was asking if he could come to Ashana. When he was sitting next to her in the hut, she asked whether he could have the package brought to her that was in an old case in her room. Sydni fetched it. Ashana told the masra to open it. It contained two necklaces, one of red coral, the other of pomegranate pearls. Both necklaces had belonged to his wife, Elizabeth. One she had given Ashana herself and the other he had given her when Elizabeth died. Ashana gave him the necklaces, saying, “Masra, you must give one to Misi Elza and one to Maisa. Tell Misi Elza to look after her child well and her husband, too.”131

“This money you must give to Maisa.”132 She pointed weakly to a little money wrapped in a cloth. She had saved all the money that she had ever received from the masra. “Masra must give my regards to Misi Elza and Masra David and Maisa.”133

“Ashana, oh Ashana.” Levi didn’t know what more he could say. “No, Ashana, you’ll get better.” 134

But Ashana shook her head and said, “Don’t be sad, masra, I’m going home, and in my home there is no slavery; don’t be sad.”135

That was the last time Levi saw Ashana, for she died during the night and he was not there when the slaves took their leave of her with their own traditional ceremonies and rituals. And there was certainly no-one from the Grand House there when a small procession took Ashana to her last resting place. A nameless grave in an opening in the rainforest next to the other graves of hundreds of nameless slaves.





A few days later, Levi Fernandez was at his daughter’s in the Wagenwegstraat. He had come specially to Paramaribo to tell Elza and Maisa that Ashana had died, and he intended to continue on to Suzanna’s Lust on the Para River, to spend a few days there with his son David.

Elza was pleased to see her father, but when she saw his grave expression, she realized that something was wrong.

“Ashana is dead,” said Pa Levi simply.

Elza took hold of his hand and said, “No papa, surely not. How can Ashana have died? She was never ill.” She understood the sorrow this must be causing him and thought immediately of Maisa, too. Maisa would have to be told that her mother had died.

When she went into the kitchen and saw Maisa sitting at the table, weeping, she realized that she already knew. “Oh Maisa, she is dead, eh; oh Maisa my dearest.”

Elza put her arms round Maisa and lay her head on her shoulder. Maisa nodded and cried out suddenly, “That devil, that damned, foul devil. Just wait: she’ll be punished.”136

Shocked, Elza lifted her head and looked at Maisa. Why was Maisa saying this? Why was she talking about Ashana like this?

Maisa, seeing Elza’s amazed expression, cried, “Oh misi, you don’t know, do you? It was Misi Sarith that killed Ashana. She had the basya tie Ashana up and whip her ‘til she passed out, the vampire.”137