Jungle books.

Thurs. 16.5.24.

I've been reading an old-oLLLd, ancient-old journal by an Englishman trekking into the jungle of Guyana (British Guiana back then). He had a troop of men-servants fetching his belongings.

This got me thinking about bags, the things we carry, how designs have changed. And what we would need if we went into the jungle. (You would definitely need mosquito repellant.)

Would you travel with books if you went into a wild place? What books would they be? I'd walk with comic books. They're easy to read. And they can kill mozzies. The blood from the mozzies on the pages would especially go well if the comics are action-heroes slaying the baddies. Heh.

Okay, back to rainforest…and books…based on my lovely native land.

One that I started reading during the pandemic was The Coming of Amalivaca by Jan Carew, which is the retelling of the ancient Amerindian legend of Amalivaca. Jan Carew’s writing is a blend of English and Creolese and…ohhhhh mah Lord!!! If you could imagine music playing on a page, in your mind, this is IT.

It tells the story of Wind who had grown lonely and was making mischief everywhere. Eventually, he met Rainbow and they had a child, Amalivaca, who, according to legend, would bring back peace and harmony to the world.

Unfortunately for me, the book I’d been reading was a collection of West Indian stories, and the Amalivaca story was an excerpt. I need to get the complete book one day.

Another rainforest story I enjoyed, though it broke my heart, was Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson. It tells about a young man who ends up living in the British Guiana jungle. He befriends a beautiful girl living in the heart of the forest, who doesn’t eat meat, and speaks a bird-like language. The story plunges into dark places and, eventually, into tragedy. Hudson’s love for nature flows throughout the book, and his message is one we ought to consider: living in peace with nature.

Moving from mansion to palace…here’s a book I’ve struggled to read over time - Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris. I can’t seem to get far into it. The language is dense, dream-life, and the tale is a frightening one of oppression: a group of men, headed by a man called Donne, are pushing into the jungle. Donne, an extremely cruel colonialist, is hunting down Mariela, a woman who has run away from him. I’ve promised myself that I will finish this book one day.

It’s interesting how the jungle is almost always used to illustrate dark themes, isn’t it? My Bones And My Flute by Edgar Mittelholzeri is definitely one of those, and it’s on my to-be-read list.

This book takes you deep down river. It tells of a manuscript written by a vengeful Dutchman whose family has been slaughtered in a rebellion of enslaved people. The Dutchman has put a dreadful curse on anyone who reads his manuscript…the reader will hear his flute and will see frightening spirits. The curse can only be broken when the Dutchman’s bones and flute are found and buried together.

I began this list of jungle books with Jan Carew, let’s go back to his writing. There’s his very famous book, Black Midas, which is also on my to-be-read list. I’m deeply intrigued. From what I’ve heard and read about it, Black Midas is a tale about Aron who becomes a wealthy miner but loses it all. I enjoy Peepal Tree Press’ description of the story which takes place in a “wild, untamed world of drinkers, get-rich-quick and lose-it-quick prospectors and the whores who haunt the diamond fields.”

Aron develops a relationship with a woman, Belle, “but his attempt to use his wealth to buy into the middle-class and take Belle with him fails disastrously. Cheated of his fortune, he returns to the interior, mining with a reckless madness that ends in his maiming.”

Looking at these books, I feel they’re all cautionary tales. Power, arrogance, wealth, colonialism, conquest, they drive us on, but what happens in the end? These books remind me too of our need to respect nature, to live in harmony with her, rather than trying to squeeze her to fit into our sordid human-ways. It’s as simple, as pure as that, but as someone once told me, when the solution is easy, we seem incapable of doing what’s right.

Do not despair though. There is hope. Look at wind. In his arrogance, he made mischief, but he atoned for his wrongs by creating Amalivaca who, with his pure self, will bring back peace and harmony.

Long live the jungles, their legends and lores, their modern stories, teaching us, reminding us of truths when we forget.

P.S. If you wish to read more, check this out:

Indigenous narrative and its contribution to national literature.