a1542: Inquiring on a January 1 festivity: Nekita asks and Corbett begins a reply

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

Dear Corbettland,
I have been wondering  the historical background of 'masufe" . I don't know
if this activity still occurs in Haiti. It was quite common before I left. It
was held on Champ-de-Mars on January First. I believe the French word is "mat
de cocagne." Someone  tries to climb a high slippery pole in order to obtain
a treasure , usually money that is placed at the summit of that pole. Whoever
reaches that pole will be taken to the police and be fingerprinted as the
most obvious thief.
When and why this event started? Does it still occur? Is there any historical
explanation  behind it?
Nekita
==================

Corbettt adds.

I don't know the origin of this festivity, but if any of you don't know
the incredible novel by Rene Despetre, THE FESTIVAL OF THE GREASY POLE
I strongly recommend it to you.

See my review of the book from many years ago:

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/bookreviews/depestre.htm

Some one told me that it is a roman a clef and if one really knows Haitian
politics of the time then all the major characters are know to the reader.

I include the review below:

THE FESTIVAL OF THE GREASY POLE
By Rene Depestre
translation and introduction by Carrol F. Coates
University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1990.
(original French version, 1979)
ISBN 0-8139-1281-4 (hard bound)
O-8139-1282-2 (paper)

A review by Bob Corbett

"CLOSED FOR DEZOMBIFICATION" reads the sign on Henri Postel's small shop
in a working class neighborhood of Port-au-Roi. Postel, a mulatto former
senator and political agitator, has been condemned to a strange death by
the president of the nation -- death by boredom. The president rightly
assumes that Postel will suffer a sort of mental rot, an internal
zombification, running his small general store, Noah's Ark. But Postel, a
courageous moral man, like Camus' Sisyphus, will not give up.

At age 49, overweight, drinking too much, separated from all "movement"
contact, Postel sets the nation on edge when he enters the annual contest
of climbing the greasy pole in the national park. The president
understands Postel's challenge as a threat to his control, and accepts it
gleefully, meeting him head on.

The government of Zoocrates Zachary, ruling from his capital city of
Port-au-Roi is not even the slightest veil of Papa Doc's last years. To
those at all familiar with this period the fictional characters are easily
recognized with such flimsy cover names as: Clovis Barbotog, Angel
Boipiraud, the presidents' married daughter, the local bishop, Monsignor
Wolgonde and even the revolutionary Jean-Jacques Brissaricq. Haiti's
infamous Fort Dimanche (Fort Sunday) loses one day as Fort Samedi.

Postel puts up his morally courageous battle against the forces of
darkness and moves the Haitian people out of the lethargy of their
hopelessness. But, who is this Henri Postel and what is the greasy pole
itself? The University Press of Virginia actually offers us two books in
one. Carroll Coates provides a useful 68 page bio-introduction to
Depestre's life and work.

However, I was surprised that she evaded the question of just how
autobiographical this novel is. Depestre has been a long-time political
activist, having been exiled from Haiti, France, Czechoslovakia, Brazil
and Cuba -- more countries than most people have ever visited! Depestre,
himself, is no help on this issue. His prefatory comment tells us the
novel "...is not a historical chronicle, a roman a clef, or a work of
autobiographical origin." However, this same paragraph goes on to claim:

The events and the characters of the narrative therefore belong to the
realm of pure fiction. Any resemblance to persons, animals, trees, living
or having lived, any similarity, close or distant, to names, situations,
places, systems, cogwheels of steel or fire, or to any other scandal in
real life, can only have the effect, therefore, of coincidence that is
"not only accidental, but downright scandalous."

The joking irony, thus leaves the question as to just how much Henri
Postel is Rene Depestre, as an open question.

Perhaps the greasy pole itself is chosen for its absurdity. Postel must
show the president, the Great Electrifier of Souls, that he cannot defeat
the soul of human resistance. Even if the gesture is not pragmatic or
ultimately effective, Postel must make his statement before death.
Depestre makes an issue of this late in the work. The revolutionary
Jean-Jacques Brissaricq comes to see him. Postel has never been allowed
into the revolutionary inner circle. When Postel asks why, he hears:

Brissaricq gave me the honest reasons. They are afraid of what they call
"Postel's moral individualism."
"One of our most serious reproaches against Postel," he said, "is his
tendency to see things solely in their moral aspect. You can't make an
omelet or a revolution with breaking a few eggs or a few heads."
Depestre comes down firmly on Postel's side and the revolutionaries join
forces with him.

A second theme which runs throughout the novel is the question of
individual power and responsibility verses the influences and power of
Voodoo spirits. In my neat Western philosophical world there is an
either/or choice. The freedom of personal moral responsibility or the
fatalistic determinism of supernatural control. In marvelously sensitive
Haitian fashion Depestre comes down firmly in both camps. Henri Postel is
an existentialist hero. He summons a personal courage unto death and
plunges into action risking his life itself. At the same time, he
unquestioningly accepts his friends' intercession with the Voodoo spirit
Loko on his behalf. His friend says:

"Without Papa Loko," she added, "Henri Postel wouldn't be able to get far
on his pole in the state they've brought him. Do you at least know the
role Loko has played in the history of the island? He himself, in person,
protected Dessalines during all the battles for independence. The leader
of the revolution fell in the ambush at the Pont Rouge because on that
October 17, Papa Loko was not at his side, unfortunately. He had left the
evening before on a secret mission to the Department du Sud, which was
engaged in a conspiracy. The enemies of General Dessalines took advantage
of this to carry out their infamous deed. Thanks to the advice of Thomas
Christ and his sister, Sinta, Simon Bolivar himself, when he was staying
in Jacmel in 1816, solicited the help of Papa Loko, who stuck by him more
closely than his own shadow during all the campaigns. That's why Bolivar
died in his own bed, after having accomplished all he had to do. Loko can
assume at will the shape of a chameleon, of a climbing bird, a lizard, a
butterfly or the shadow of a man, woman, or child. So, you have an idea of
the help that Senator Postel might get from Papa Loko in the trial that
awaits him. This comes at the right time -- I know a good cheval for Loko
in Tete-Boeuf. What's more, he's an admirer of Postel. We can invoke Papa
Loko this very evening!"
THE FESTIVAL OF THE GREASY POLE is a deeply moving novel. I was never able
to predict the ultimate outcome of the race up the pole. I wanted to know
and kept reading page after page. Yet I was constantly worried Depestre
would let me down. He didn't, but you'll have to read the book to discover
the outcome. You'll not get it from me!

The book is written with passion and profound insight into the politics of
Duvalierism, the penetrating influence of Voodoo in everyday affairs and
the eroticism of Haitian life. The book warrants more than a single
reading. It would even make an excellent basis for discussion of Haitian
culture, to say nothing of a fun historical parlor game of recognizing
characters in the thinly veiled "fiction" of Rene Depestre.