The Cost of Sugar(51)
“No, no!” With her hand over her mouth, Elza started backwards. “That can’t possibly be true?” With a scream she stormed into the dining room and shouted, “Papa, it can’t be true, say it’s not true, that Sarith has done this, that she had Ashana beaten?”
“Yes, my child, yes.” Pa Levi shook his head and said to Rutger, who was looking in amazement from his wife to her father, “Sarith had Ashana tied up and whipped, and she died from her injuries.”
Elza now sobbed out loud, her head in her arms on the table, weeping uncontrollably.
“How could Sarith do such a thing?” said Rutger, softly. But Elza raised her head and screamed, “She had her beaten to death.”
And as she looked at him so completely wretchedly, he understood that others might ask the whys and wherefores, but they both knew why Sarith had done this. Elza just wept and wept as the realization grew that Ashana was dead: the person from whom she had had the most love in all her life. The person who had cared for her, who had cherished her, for whom nothing was too much. This Ashana had died, not surrounded by love and affection, but rather as she had been all her life, a slave. She could forgive Sarith many things, but this, no, for this she could never forgive Sarith.
100 “Yia misi Sarith, yu moi ba.”
101 “Afanaisa, tyari a yongu masra kon dya, a musu kenki en pisiduku.”
102 In Creole folklore the belief is held that arguments between parents and/or relatives can influence a child’s health.
103 “Misi Elza, luku dya: Efu yu no wani yu pikin kisi fyo-fyo, nomeki na uma fasi en.”
104 “Pe masra Gideon de?”
105 “Misi Sarith teki en tyari go na mofodoro.”
106 “Tyari en go na sodro.”
107 “Misi Sarith seni aksi efu masra Rutger kan kon yere wan sani.”
108 “Mini-mini taigi misi Sarith mek’ a kon dyaso.”
109 “Hai hai, kisi en moi. Misi Elza kisi na sakasaka.”
110 “Agu, taki, tyakun tyakun, fu yu na fu yu.” These last words (tyakun …) are in fact a saying: “That is the nature of the beast.”
111 “San wan taki dati?”
112 “Mi breti dati misi Elza kisi en srefi, yagi na kruktutere na en hoso, tyakun tyakun fu en na fu en.”
113 “Du ogri noiti no bun.”
114 “Boi kari a basya kon, esi esi.”
115 “Basya tai a uma disi n’a bon, dan yu fon en.”
116 “Fon en, basya, du san mi taki, noso mi o meki wan tu basi nengre fon yu.”
117 “Ke poti, misi, mi e begi yu, no fon Ashana; ke, no meki Ashana kisi fonfón.”
118 “Mi no man moro, we misi fon mi dan.”
119 “Lusu en.”
120 “Masra no sabi no san pasa nanga Ashana?”
121 “No, san pasa dan?”
122 “Misi Sarith meki a kisi pansboko, a basya tai en na wan bon, dan a fon en, a basya no ben wani, ma misi Sarith fon en tu.”
123 “Pe Ashana de now?”
124 “A de na a dresimama.”
125 “Masra, yu kon no, ke masra.”
126 “Ashana, ke Ashana, san hede a fon yu, san yu du dan?”
127 “Libi en masra, a pasa kaba. Watra, mi wani watra.”
128 “Du ala san gi en, meki a kon betre.”
129 “Iya masra, m’e du san mi kan.”
130 “Masra si Ashana?”
131 “Masra yu musi gi misi Elza wan, nanga Maisa wan. Taigi misi Elza a musu sorgu en pikin nanga en masra bun.”
132 “A moni disi yu musi gi Maisa.”
133 “Masra musu taigi misi Elza nanga masra David nanga Maisa adyosi yere.”
134 “No no Ashana, y’e kon betre.”
135 “No sari masra, m’e go na hoso, mi hoso na sabi katibo, no sari.”
136 “Na didibri, na frufruktu, a saka-saka, ma watki a o kisi en strafu.”
137 “Tan, misi, yu no sabi no, na misi Sarith kiri Ashana, a meki a basya tai Ashana na wan bon, fon en te a flaw, na takru asema dati.”
CHAPTER VIII
RUTGER
It was happening more frequently that people in the town were shocked by the news that yet another plantation had been raided. It appeared that the escapees were becoming increasingly bolder. Rutger wondered whether one could still talk of escapees. In his view they were well-organized groups.
On every occasion you heard that the group was led by a certain Boni, and in the town people were already using the term Boni-negroes.
There were already more than eight hundred military personnel in the country, sent by the Society138 in the Netherlands at the repeated request of the colonial government. In addition there were at least three hundred men of the colonial troops. But even so, this relatively large army had not succeeded in defeating the Boni-negroes. Now and then a group of militia managed to capture a few. These would then be taken into captivity and brought to the town with appropriate pomp and circumstance. But after that it seemed that the Maroons were attacking with still more violence and getting closer. The colonists were getting increasingly scared. The devils would soon be in the town itself! Most of the plantation owners were also angry and indignant. Each year a hefty sum had to be paid into the escapee fund, and in recent years this sum was increasing regularly. So much money for nothing, since all those soldiers who were costing so much money were obviously able to do nothing against the bunch of wild savages there in the bush.