Compère Général Soleil, roman.

Compère Général Soleil, roman.

Haiti -- Politics and government -- 20th century
Haiti -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
Revolutionaries -- Haiti -- 20th century
Littérature haïtienne (française)
Haitian literature

This novel centers on characters who are representatives of the arduous life of the Haitian peasantry and working class. The story takes place against a backdrop of abusive Haitian government officials under the presidency of Sténio Vincent (1930–1941), the American occupation signified by the ongoing presence of the Marines (1915–1934), an apathetic bourgeois class, and the migration to the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic where the structure of oppression is replicated under the Trujillo government and manifested through the Parsley [or “perejil” and “pelehil”] Massacre in 1937 with the complicity of the Haitian government.
The text is enlivened with the rich textures of nature manifesting her own agency to the point of personification, street scenes, the colorful speech and complex depictions of individuals who become aware of and resist the structures that oppress them, both in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as they strive toward the highest ideals of personhood.
Tout à coup, il eut un pétillement devant les yeux, une effloraison de comètes blondes, aux grandes eaux rayonnantes, qui inondaient le ciel.
“Claire, cria-t-il, est-ce le soleil? C’est le vieux Compère Soleil qui vient me voir! Il a toujours été avec moi ...
Je te vois encore, Claire, dit-il, doucement. Je me sens bien, il y a comme une douceur dans tout mon corps, je me sens léger, je me sens comme si je flottais dans l’air … C’est le soleil! Le jour ne devait-il pas venir? ...
Le soleil ne m’a jamais manqué … Quand je devins boeuf-à-la-chaine [Appellation de l’employé aux bagages des autocars], il me brûlait les yeux tout au long des routes, sur le toit du camion où j’étais assis. Quand je fus corroyeur à la tannerie, c’est lui qui m’aidait à supporter l’odeur des peaux vives; lorsque je tournais la roue à la tournerie de bois, près de la cathédrale protestante, ensuite souffleur de forge à la fonderie, puis aide-ferblantier, et tant d’autres choses encore, dans toute ma vie il a été là … Général Soleil est un grand nègre, c’est l’ami des pauvres nègres, le papa, il ne montre qu’un seul oeil jaune aux chrétiens vivants, mail il lutte pour nous à chaque instant, et nous indique la route.”
— Pages 340–341
Suddenly, there was a sparkle in front of his eyes, an explosion of yellow comets and rays of liquid inundating the sky.
“Claire,” he yelled, “is that the sun? Is it my old Brother Sun who has come to see me? He has always been with me ... ”
“… I still see you, Claire, he said softly. ‘I feel fine.’ A good feeling seems to be spreading through my body. I feel light, as if I were floating in the air. It’s the sun. Daybreak finally had to come, didn’t it!”
“ … The sun has never failed me. When I became a bèfchenn [baggage handler on a truck], he burned my eyes as I sat on the roof of the kamyon [truck or pickup used for public transportation, sometimes with benches installed] all along the road. When I became a currier at the tannery, he was the one who helped me to stand the smell of raw hides. When I turned the wheel at the woodworking shop and worked the bellows for the forge at the foundry, and then a tinsmith, and so many other trades, he was always there … General Sun is a great man—he has always been the friend of poor black men, the guiding spirit who shows only one yellow eye to the living, but he fights for us at each turn and always shows us the way.”
— Pages 340–341

Paris : Gallimard

1955

350 pages 21 cm

French

Alexis, J. S., & Alexis, J. S. (1955). Compère Général Soleil, roman. Gallimard.