By Johnny Coomansingh
When I reflect on my primary school days, I cannot help but reminisce about some of the stories I heard and learnt with their several meanings. Some of these jumbie (ghost) stories were told as though they actually happened. Neighbah-Shune, a quasi-Obeah woman who once lived on Oropouche Road in Sangre Grande was a master storyteller.
We little ones were held in her grip, especially at nights when she told her scary jumbie stories. She made her stories sound so real and frightful. We’d be sitting in the dark on the back step of her house while we listened to her fearful tales. She was the only one to have had a flashlight. Sometimes we wanted to visit the restroom but were too scared to make a move. We imagined that the jumbies were everywhere and we held back our need to pee.
Neighbah-Shune concocted most of her stories. One of the stories she related to us was the account about what she and Shankuah her boyfriend encountered on the Valencia Stretch. The Valencia Stretch is the seven-mile strip of the Eastern Main Road (EMR) from the village of Valencia to the town of Sangre Grande, Trinidad.
In those days during the 1940s, the road was flanked on both sides by thick forest. Heading in an easterly direction, the forest on the right is the Aripo Savannah, a government reserve set aside for scientific research. In that forest can be found the insectivorous Sundew known as the Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea muscipula) and many more species endemic to Trinidad.
That being said, very late one night about 2:00 am, Neighbah-Shune and her lover Shankuah were returning home in his little rickety Bedford truck. Many are the stories told about the “Stretch,” but this one was really scary. She said that suddenly there was a very strong and violent breeze around the area known as ‘Hangman Corner.’ The trees seemed ‘frightened’ and bowed to the ground as though something huge was coming through.
Shankuah struggled to keep the truck under control but the vehicle crazily swerved from side to side. Thank heavens there were no other drivers on the road at that hour. Just up ahead a being about 16 feet tall emerged from the forest and stood in the middle of the road. Neighbah-Shune informed us that this ghostly creature was known as the Phantom of the Forest. Shankuah pressed harder on the accelerator and in a flash passed through the legs of the phantom. According to my Ghanaian graduate students, this being is known as Sasabonsam in Ghana.
In Akan folklore from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, and even 18th-century Jamaica among enslaved Akan people, the Sasabonsam is a vampire-like, monstrous creature, often depicted as a hairy, red-skinned being with bat-like wings, long legs, and iron teeth. The creature is believed to dwell in trees and prey on unsuspecting travellers, enforcing rules of the forest. Neighbah-Shune said that they were lucky to get away that night.
Neighbah-Shune lived relatively close to a bridge on Oropouche Road. At nights, there was always a stream of hot air around the bridge. Next to the bridge was an old house where a quiet, old woman lived. The house was partly hidden by a massive mango tree. We could not see everything that was happening near to the house, but at times there would be a huge fire burning in the yard.
Exacerbating the ‘horror’ of the hot air around the bridge, she kept reminding us that the old woman who lived in the house near to the bridge could be a soucouyant, a shape-shifting Caribbean folklore character who appears as a reclusive old woman by day. By night, she strips off her wrinkled skin and puts it in a wooden mortar.
In her true form as a fireball, she flies across the dark sky in search of a victim from whom she will suck blood. The only way that you could get rid of a soucouyant was to sprinkle salt near to your front door. The soucouyant cannot get past the door unless all the salt grains are counted. If sunrise catches her counting the salt she would self-incinerate and vanish forever. Neighbah-Shune swore that this alleged soucouyant sucked her several times as evidenced by the blue-black marks she sustained all over her body because of the sucking activity.
All of this talk was, in some way, frightening to us especially when we had to cross that bridge at nights on our way home. Sometimes someone in the group would shout “…soucouyant behind yuh” or “look ah douen in di bush,” and what ensued was a mad rush to cross the bridge at a hundred miles per hour; yes, faster than the Olympic 100-meter, gold medalist Uswain Bolt. Breathlessly we would reach the other side and would start laughing at our stupidity. Indeed I sensed the hot air coming from the bridge, only to find out years later that the bacterial activity under the bridge gave rise to some hot air in that particular vicinity.
As I grew, I listened to a variety of jumbie stories that involved some aspect of Oropouche Road. Neighbah-Shune also told quite a few other stories including the fictional folkloric characters that took root on the Trinidadian landscape. It is possible that enslaved Africans brought many of these stories to Trinidad and the Caribbean in general. Moreover, several of these stories with their French labels, for example: Papa Bois, Douen, Loup Garou (Ligahu), La Diablesse (Lajabless), Gumbogleezay, Mama Dlo (Mama L’eau), and the fearsome Soucouyant probably arrived with their African names, but on contact with the French planters in Trinidad, the enslaved Africans adopted new tags and descriptions.
Papa Bois is also known as Maître bois (master of the woods) or Daddy Bouchon. He is said to be married to Mama Dlo (Mama D’leau—Mother of the Waters). Considered to be the ‘Father of the forest,’ Papa Bois protects the animals in the forest. Legend has it that Papa Bois would allow hunters to capture exactly 100 animals in the forest for food. If the hunter was greedy and killed more animals, Papa Bois would capture the hunter and hold him in the forest for the rest of his life where no one could find him; worst yet if that hunter should tread or mash ‘lost vine,’ the name of this vine speaks for itself. Sadly no one would ever see him again.
The Douen is said to be an embodiment of a baby who died before being baptized. Douens tend to hang around homes where little children live and would make a whooping sound to lure them into the forest. The Douen’s feet are back to front. The heel is in the front so it becomes difficult to tell the direction a Douen has taken. According to the stories I heard, it is known that if a Douen captures a child, this child will be lost forever. The story about a man hearing a baby crying under a Silk Cotton Tree, a tree that is ‘feared’ in Trinidad, has been making the rounds. It could be Douens that are trying to snare some child or stranger. Who knows?
Mama Dlo, a big, long snake with the head of a woman, is considered to be the protector of the rivers. She would severely punish people who disturb the flow, pollute, and disrespect the rivers of the land. In Ghana, Mama Dlo is known as Maame Water or Mami Wata. Mami Wata is most often portrayed as a mermaid, though she has other forms. Mami Wata heals the sick and brings good luck to her followers. She also has a temper and will drown people who don’t obey her and could cause confusion, sickness and visions in those she calls to serve her as mediums. In her article titled: The African Spiritual Tradition of Mami Wata, Lisa Williams informed:
“The Mami Wata tradition survived the centuries-long Transatlantic slave system and, entwined with elements of Indigenous Caribbean worship, continued to express itself in a variety of ways across the Americas. That children were snatched from their mothers in their home communities in Africa or later in the Americas, makes Mami Water’s role as protector of mothers and children especially poignant. Her worship created a sense of strength and unity to fight against enslavement and retained respect for women as healers and leaders.”
The La Diablesse on the other hand is a very dangerous woman who has a human foot and one cow hoof. She is very pretty and whispers to her suitors’ many alluring words in a siren-like manner. Caught in her trap, she lures them away and kills her captives. Some people say that she disappears when they light up a cigarette. It is believed that she dislikes tobacco smoke. Such were the stories, myths, and legends I learnt from Neighbah-Shune including a true story with a couple of owls.
On the right side of Neighbah-Shune’s house, just outside the bedroom where she slept, stood two tall and thin avocado trees. During the bearing season, the two trees became heavily laden with fruit, but there was one problem. Apparently, the owls loved the position of these trees and found a home in their boughs.
Every night the owls would begin their eerie hooting just outside her bedroom. As everyone knew, she was quite superstitious. Neighbah-Shune believed that these owls were bearers of bad tidings. In some cultures, owls are seen as harbingers of death or bad luck, while in others, they are associated with wisdom or the spirit world, but there’s no universal agreement on their symbolism. To her it was an omen that someone would be facing the ‘grim reaper’ very soon. In fact, it is well known that many Trinidadians prefer not to have owls around their premises because they feel that owls carry death on their wings. Neighbah-Shune also ‘cussed’ vehemently when the ‘Swete’ or the death bird would scream as it flew over her house at night.
She had to somehow get rid of these pesky owls. One night in anger she reached for a full posy (night pot) of stale pee from under her bed. Sometimes she kept stale urine under her bed to ward off the bothersome soucouyant. Quietly she opened the window, and in seconds, the owls acquired a good bath of stale piss while she yelled repeatedly, as though crazed, “…take dat in allyuh mudder so-and-so!” (“so-and-so” the euphemism for four-letter curse words). She probably woke up the neighborhood. The hapless owls never returned.
In terms of culture, our folkloric traditions in Trinidad and Tobago and probably in other parts of the Caribbean region are almost the same, with a few twists here and there. We are however taught to be wary of malevolent ‘spirits’ and be ever mindful of the spaces and places we occupy as part of our upbringing.
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