Diary of Souls

September 1999 Table of Contents

DIARY OF SOULS

The Track Road Theatre delivered an emotionally powerful account of Ian Strachan's play Diary of Souls at Central Abaco Primary School on 24th July. The play is based on an incident on Independence Day 1990 when a Haitian sloop being towed by the Defence Force vessel Yellow Elder capsized and 39 Haitians were drowned. The dead were buried in a common grave on Bitter Guana Cay, Exuma. None of the 69 Haitian survivors testified at the coroner's inquest that followed.

The play switched frequently between the beach on Bitter Guana Cay where three Haitians are stranded as undead between unfeeling life and death, and a psychiatrist's office where a Bahamas Defence Force marine is being treated for psychological trauma following the distressing events. The action led forward inexorably to mutual spiritual forgiveness.

In the process, however, the plight of Haitians as victims of their country's history is delineated, along with the general Bahamian attitude towards Haitians that unwittingly leads to insult and tragedy. Author Strachan lets his characters investigate the heart of the matter, the source of perpetual Haitian distress. Did it extend back to the uprising that led to independence when so many white people were killed gratuitously? Was it the series of despots following Toussaint l'Ouverture that impoverished the beautiful country? Was it the brutality of Papa Doc Duvalier and his tons tons macout that cowed the spirit of a nation? Why do Bahamians shun and despise Haitians, treating them like dirt? These and many more questions arose during the play.

The three stranded Haitian souls - Ti Twàn (Arthur Maycock), Pòl (Ian Strachan) and Silvi (Nickeva Eve) - represent youth, brooding maturity and womanhood. All three were excellent but it Silvi who had the most cathartic scene as she reveals her previous incarnations, never living beyond childhood or ever giving birth. Those were real tears she shed.

The role of Ishmael, the BDF marine, was played by Deon Simms with stunning conviction. When the nightmares came upon him you felt like calling for medical help. His cynicism and counterpoint vulnerability perhaps portray the ambivalence towards Haitians that most Bahamians feel. Clarice Bridgewater as the psychiatrist d the one role that did not demand a wide range of emotions, but she segued easily from psychiatrist to coroner.

Perhaps the most telling scene of the drama was when the Haitians play-acted a Bahamian husband and wife dealing with their Haitian gardener. It should have made all Bahamians uncomfortable, as it was designed to do.

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