Toussaint L'Ouverture
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About this ebook
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE is a play dramatizing the heroic and tragic story of Toussaint L'Ouverture the liberator of Haiti who led the African slaves in Haiti's liberation struggle and heroically defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and France and won the right to liberty and freedom. The play later dramatizes how, in the end, by treachery and guile, Haiti's Liberation Hero was betrayed by his trusted followers to Napoleon and was sent condemned to a lonely death in Fort de Joux in the cold Jura Mountains of eastern France.
Odiedo Stephen
As a poet, playwright, essayist and novelist my writing dramatizes individuals confronting the fearsome might of the almighty African state in 3rd Millennium Africa. This is the fearful drama of lives violently torn apart on the urban African landscape – lives caught at the crossroads of modern Africa. I write on the tragic drama of lives cast adrift by the death of an anchoring ancient tradition killed by the triumphant march of the fearsome African state. AFRAHA https://books2read.com/u/mdWjZl is the drama of lives dominated by the tragic irony that the almighty African state, the new secular god welcomed with so much hope and fanfare at independence in the last millennium, is now this fearsome monster devouring all: the “enemies of the state.” As the ironic “withering of the state” gathers pace, uprooted Africans are rushing back into the past to resurrect a monstrous version of a long rejected tradition – shattering lives outcast from tradition and targeted as “enemies” by a vengeful remorseless African state unrestrained neither by tradition (discredited) nor by constitutional law (elitist, effete, ineffectual against the state). My play TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE https://books2read.com/u/bpjyrX was the 1st Prize Award winner of the DAILY NATION NEWSPAPER 1995 playwriting competition. My plays have been shortlisted on BBC African Performance and BBC International Playwriting Competition. OSIRIS OF THE SLUMS - submitted to the BBC International Playwrights Competition was a finalist for the 1999 BBC International Competition. Since my play TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE https://books2read.com/u/bpjyrX won the 1st Prize Award in the DAILY NATION NEWSPAPER playwriting competition I have continued to write poems, plays and novels thanks to the favour of the Muse herself, IMANNA of Splendour. I thank flame-haired Imanna Goddess for her kindnness.
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Toussaint L'Ouverture - Odiedo Stephen
INTRODUCTION
TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE is the story of Toussaint L’Ouverture the liberator of Haiti who led the African slaves in Haiti’s liberation struggle and heroically defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and France and won the right to liberty and freedom. The play dramatizes how, in the end, by treachery and guile, Haiti’s Liberation Hero was betrayed by his trusted followers to Napoleon and was sent condemned to a lonely death in Fort de Joux in the cold Jura Mountains of eastern France.
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
KOKKI: He is the ancient boatman who ferries the dead on Immamou the dread yet sacred barque that ferries the dead back to Guinee, the abode of the fortunate dead in the afterlife.
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CHRISTOPHE: African leader and General in Haiti’s liberation army
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DESSALINES: Haitian general and leader in the liberation army.
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GALBAUD: The French governor of Haiti at the time of the Liberation War led by Toussaint L’Ouverture
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LECLERC: French General
MOISE: Leading Haitian General in the liberation army; Toussaint’s brother
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NAPOLEON BONAPARTE: First Consul of France.
BOURKMANN: A bandit
PAULINE BONAPARTE: Wife to general Leclerc.
SONTHONAX: French Commissioner in Haiti
TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE
GRINNING DEATH: a bandit.
WHIPLASH: a bandit
AFRICAN CHIEF: an outlaw and a bandit
MONKEYTAIL: a bandit
FRENCH SOLDIERS
SOLDIERS In Haiti’s liberation army
AFRICAN SLAVES
HAITIANS: Peasants and former slaves in Haiti’s liberation army
HAITI: She is an old woman.
SORAYA: a Loa
LA SIRENE Loas, sirens
KRABINAYYA Loas
FRENCH SOLDIERS
AFRICAN SLAVES
MAROONS runaway slaves
INSURGENTS: slaves and former slaves fighting against slavery in Haiti
TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE
ACT 1
ACT 1 SCENE I
IN THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTH HAITI
MAKANDAL, THE INSURGENT SLAVE LEADER AND HIS BAND OF MAROONS AND OUTLAWS
MAKANDAL:
Come, my braves, come!
Listen sons of St. Domingue: this land will soon be free!
I foresee the birth of a new nation on these islands –
I foresee the birth of a new nation – and that nation’s name will be Haiti!
Do you see the vision that I see? Do you see Haiti born out of the terrors of these suffering slaves?
Follow me; I am Makandal, terror of Haiti – for I come carrying a heavy prophecy!
I am Makandal, terror of the plains:
Them that would keep a people slaves forever fear my name
My name is Makandal and I am terror dancing flames on the mountains
I bring you a prophecy my braves:
This isle of sorrows will become an island of liberty!
This land will shed its name of St, Domingue isle of chains
And graveyard of Africa’s children!
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THE MAROONS:
Makandal wrath of God,
Makandal, the scourge of St. Domingue of the slave driver –
François Makandal: Haiti’s prophet!
François Makandal, Haiti’s Saviour. François Makandal, black Messiah,
Makandal Saviour: Makandal Black Jesus
Makandal, Haiti’s Black Messiah
MAKANDAL:
The day is coming when Haiti’s children will not know sorrow
The day draws nigh – when Haiti’s forsaken will know liberty!
I tell you this for I am Makandal who has seen these things:
The time draws nigh when Haiti’s children will sing songs of liberation –
And Haiti will be free!
MARRONS AND INSURGENTS:
His name is Makandal and we know him!
His name we know – for he is the being at the crossroads –
He is the lord of time – of past time and future time and of the present:
Makandal is the lord of this world and the lord of the next:
He is a living loa, is Makandal: half of him rules this realm with far-seeing guile
Half of him rules the next world with strength almighty:
Makandal is the leader of men
Makandal, terror of Haiti, terror of the French
Makandal, fire from the mountains. Makandal, the scourge of Haiti
Makandal wrath of men; Makandal, fire burning fire
Burning, burning, burning fire burning
For great Makandal is the wrath of men
Relentless Makandal is the hound of Haiti – he is Makandal hound of hell
The wrath of men is Mackandal’s fire
Makandal is this great flame roaring through Haiti, devouring all enemies
Makandal – the avenging fury; Makandal – avenging fire
Makandal – revenge aflame! Revenge, revenge Makandal – the fire bringer
The fear of their lives, the friend of their lives
Makandal fiend of hell, Makandal! Hound of their days
The scourge of their lives is Makandal, fire burning fire is he:
Fire burning, burning fire burning, burning
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MAKANDAL:
Follow me men. Follow me to the plains of north Haiti,
Follow me to the rich trophies of the plain
Men, red blood is flowing in the plains
Men, Haiti’s rich harvest of sorrow is your lot
The hoarded wealth that France has stored for you – the diamonds, the gold, the rubies dangling jewels
All the wealth that Haiti has stored for you – is your misery and your slavery.
The glittering jewels draped on their plump, itchy frisky wives – that is your early death
The rich draperies of their stuffed houses; the meat of their many herds;
The grain of their many acres, the harvest of their fat granaries –
All that is your premature old age, and your early grave –
That is why this Haiti is the pearl of the Antilles;
That is why the tears of your sorrows are glittering diamonds