Sthepanides, Sthepanos

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248   Links & Letters 5, 1998 Margins
him still talk to me and say me mus spen
likkle16 time with him. Me say alright.
Him carry me a wan place me cant descri-
be it how it pretty17. A18 pure gravel and
rock and although a18 seaside19 no sand no
di12 deh20. And the rock dem7 have pat-
tern like batik and tie-dye. We sidung21
and talk - mostly him talk and me listen
bout some sad sad things what happen to
him. And sometime we just keep quiet and
consider. Me cant describe to nobody how
it feel likesay22 me know the man from me
born17 and me no know him you know.
The next time we meet, people see how
me an him talk nice and them say some-
thing ina something but not a thing no in
deh more than me and him just move easy
like how Lorna say you have flour and so-
mebody else have water and the two of
unuh23 coulda all make bread together but
a18 more like him have clay and me have
water and we make a nice big yabba pot to-
gether.
Him say me woulda did like him if me
did know him when him did young24.
What you think him mean by that? Him
mean him agree with me that we can just
be friends good friends and thats that.
And me say give thanks for me no want
fi know him bad ways how much woman
him have how him beat him wife and how
him foot big and dirty and maybe him no
want fi know how me careless careless and
nasty so it better we just gwaan25 sidung a
tree root and talk or sidung a seaside and
gaze everytime we meet one another.
Velma Pollard
University of the West Indies
[Editor's note: Most of the typical creole features of this very basilectal text (with a few stan-
dard ‘acrolectal’ features especially before the writer ‘warms up’) are noted below. Not
commented on are the typical verb forms uninflected for tense, person, aspect, and the
typical general pronoun forms (mi, him) for all case functions.
1‘In the morning when I woke up’. 2‘I’. 3 ‘Why is (it) me he shows (it to)’.
4complementiser: ‘that’. 5a foreign ‘abroad’. 6 ‘arrived’. 7dem associative plural
marker. 8 fi optional possessive marker: fi dem ‘his’. 9 ‘for’; can also mean ‘to’. 10‘to’. 11 ‘a
certain foreign country’. 12de (also di): locative ‘be’ so, ‘where his home was’. 13fi mek ‘to
let’. 14 sen come tell him ‘send (a message) here to tell him’. 15 say me a come ‘that I was
coming’ (a is progressive aspect marker). 16‘little’. 17how it pretty ‘how pretty it was’: no
copula. 18here a has yet another function, that of copula ‘be’: ‘(it) was’. 19‘beach’. 20deh
‘there’: ‘no sand was there/(there) was no sand there’. 21 sidung ‘sat down’. 22 likesay ‘as
though’. 23unuh plural ‘you’ (of West African origin). 24did is the completive aspecct
marker for verbs in the three cases (in the last one there is no copula with adjectives).
25gwaan ‘go’.]
Guyana
Indentured laborers from India (also known as bound coolies) were taken to
British Guiana from 1838 to 1917 to work on sugar plantations. Those from
the Tamil region, known as Madrasi coolies, took with them their worship of
the Hindu Mother Goddess in her regional form of Mariamma. This is refe-
rred to as Madrasi religion and is most commonly known as Kalimai Puja
(«Mother Kali worship»), perhaps because of contact with north Indians in
Guyana as well as through association between Mari and Kali in Tamil Nadu
249   Links & Letters 5, 1998 Margins
before emigration. The worship is caracterized by ecstatic states of conscious-
ness and healing practices. Uncle Jamsie Naidoo, Kali priest and renowned
Guyanese devotee of the goddess, was born in Guyana toward the end of the
indentureship period. In February, 1988, at his home in Albion village, he
related to me the origin of Kali worship in Guyana as told to him by his
father, who participated in the event he describes.
How Kali Puja Came to Guyana (Guyanese creole)*
De people who come from India, dis people
brin de book when dey come from India,
an when dey come in Albion dey come as a
bung. When dey come to bung, dey work
six day per week. One or maybe two month
after, one o de chile sick an no docta cannot
cure em, so when dey dun wuk Sunday,
everyone go to de river bank an dey chan de
name o de Mudda, dey chan de name o de
Mudda, an pray to de Mudda o Ganga:
Oh Divine Mudda o Ganga, we lef In-
dia an come so far an we come in a differen
contry an we have problem, do you please
come an receive our prayer an shower you
blessin an bless we. O Mudda o Ganga co-
me, we have problem.
Den Mudda o Ganga came an one o de
Guru start to read de mantr from de Ma-
riamma Talatu an one o dem get vibra-
tion. Mudda came pon em, an all o dem
bow to em an bow to em.
Oh Divine Mudda, can you tell we
what’s wrong?
You all forget me when you come from
India, you forget me, you don want to do
me puja, so I mek dis chile sick…go to a
clean place where you see plenty cattle set an
mek me temple deh, an pray fo Mudda o
Kali, get a bucket water wid dye, neem an
flower an bathe dis chile, an all de sick will
gon.
So dey do an so dey done and dey say
from day on dey gon do Mudda puja from
da deh deh time. So puja come to dis con-
try.
(Translation) The people who came
from India brought the book with them
when they came. They came to Albion
Estate as “bound coolies.” When they ca-
me to work as bound coolies, they wor-
ked six days a week. One or maybe two
months after [they arrived] one of the
children fell sick and no doctor could cu-
re it [the child]. So when they had finis-
hed working(,) on Sunday they all went
to the river bank and they chanted the
name of the Mother, they chanted the
name of the Mother, and prayed to Mo-
ther Ganges:
Divine Mother Ganges, we left In-
dia and came so far. We came to a diffe-
rent country and we have problems.
Please listen to our prayers and shower
your blessings [on us] and bless us. Oh
Mother Ganges, please come [to us].
We have problems.
Then Mother Ganges came and one
of the gurus began to read the mantra
from the Mariamma Talatu and one of
them became ecstatic. [The] Mother en-
tered his body and everybody bowed do-
wn before her again and again.
Oh Divine Mother, can you tell us
what is wrong?
You all forgot me when you left In-
dia, you’ve forgotten me, you don’t
want to worship me, so I made this
child sick. Now, go to a clean place
where you see plenty of cattle and make
my temple there and pray to Mother
(*) Recorded on video. Original footage in the collection of the Smithsonian Human Studies
Film Archives (Hail Mother Kali Project. Stephanos Stephanides. 1988.).
250   Links & Letters 5, 1998 Margins
Kali. Get a bucket of water with tume-
ric, neem leaves and flowers, bathe the
child [with it], and all the sickness will
go away.
So they did and so it came about [i.e.,
the child was cured]. And they promised
from that day they would worship the
Mother from that time on. That is how
puja came to this country.
Stephanos Stephanides
University of Cyprus
[Editor's note: In this previously unpublished text, we find some typical creole features: lack of
inflected verbs (for person or tense), with the exception of came (twice) and done (and so
dey done); another appearance of dun (spelt differently to distinguish it from done) in when
dey dun wuk acts as a completive aspect marker. Genderless pronoun em refers to the child,
the guru and the godess; we is both subject and object; you is the unmarked possessive.
There is no noun plural, and the copula is deleted, as in one o de chile sick.]
Papua New Guinea
This is a traditional story from the Eastern Highlands explaining the origin
of the name of the girl’s village.The Tok Pisin speaker was a 15-year-old high
school student from Henganofi in the Eastern Highlands Province recorded
at Henganofi in December 1990. Her parents speak the Kafe language, but
she grew up on a government station speaking Tok Pisin as her main lan-
guage.
The Naming of the Village of Kronkonte (Tok Pisin)*
Narapela tumbuna stori em osem: bifo
taim ol lain as ples blong mi wantaim ol
narapela lain long said long mauten ol sa
fait. Ol sa fait na ol - taim ol sa fait olsem
antap long maunten i gatim wanpla meri,
fetpela meri nogut tru. Em no inap long
wokabaut na desa taim tu ol sa - ol angre
na ol sa painim kaikai long kaikai na-
baut. So, ol sampela faifpla man ol kisim
meri ia na ol katim em katim em na ol ku-
kim em. Ol kukim em na kaikaim em nau
ol i kam daun osem. Ol i kam daun osem
nau, ol birua ol ronim ol i kam daun. Ol
i kam daun i kam kamap ogeta long aiwei
rot na em ol lain bilong mi ol lukim na ol
kilim ol displa faifpela lain. Nau, blad blí
ol tanim osem wara na ron i go long bikpla
wara. So nau long ples blong mipla disla
hap we mipla sa wokií gaden na stap lo
em, ol sa kolim Krokronte, bikos mining
blong Krokronte em osem «ol bin kilim ol
man na blat blí ol bin ran osem wara».
Em tasol.
(Translation) Another traditional
story goes like this: long ago my village
clan together with another clan on the si-
de of the mountain, they used to fight.
They would fight and they - (once) when
they fought like up the mountain there
was one woman, a really fat woman. She
couldn’t walk, and at this time they
would —they were hungry and they we-
re looking for food to eat. So, five men
caught the woman here and they cut her
up (lit. they cut her and cut her) and they
cooked her. They cooked her and ate her
(*) See the article by G.Smith for more about Tok Pisin in this volume, p. .


How Kali Puja came to Guyana (Guyana)

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