French Guiana: Nothing like France, nowhere near France, still part of France
Not so long ago there was a British, a Dutch, a French, a Spanish, and a Portuguese Guiana, but colonies tend to collapse and so only French Guiana remains. It is the second largest region of France, the Outermost Region of the European Union and it hosts the EU’s largest national park — it is still 98.9% covered in forests. Despite these crazy statistics, its biggest claim to global fame is Devil’s Island, the penal colony immortalised in the book and film Papillion the true(ish) story of Henri Charrière who was wrongly convicted of murder and sent there as a punishment. It mainly tells the story of his escape, his ability to live through solitary confinement and his further escapes. The book was first filmed in 1973 with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, so I have no idea why I plumped to watch the 2017 remake which gets a desultory 55% on Rotten Tomatoes. You’ll be pleased to hear that Devil’s Island has now been closed as no-one still thinks it’s OK to send people half way round the world, except perhaps the British Conservative Government who are spending millions to push through a scheme to fly Asylum Seekers to Rwanda. I guess some people are unable to learn from history…
This week’s book the Jungle and the Damned also starts on Devil’s Island where the author Hassoldt Davis is looking for a prisoner to work for him as a chef on his journey into the jungle with his new wife, for their honeymoon! They are writing a report and producing a film about France’s oldest colony, and their plan is to pole down the river and meet with the Tribes. It is tale of its time, but in many ways Hassoldt is a relatively modern thinker. My favourite parts were his interactions with the Boni — named after the 17th Century freedom fighter Bokilifu Boni — whose ancestors escaped slavery, set up their own villages and then went on raiding missions to free other slaves to join them. Davis describes their Matriarchal villages as, clean, organised and fair. A far cry from the patriarchal villages he comes across later where one Chief has one wife, but 20 male lovers. It ends with his stay in a Roucouyennes village which they tell him is “famous for its low incidents of homosexuality.” There he watches a ritual where men tie wasps into a mat and then show their bravery by allowing themselves to be stung for hours at a time. Give me matriarchy any time!
And give me French Guianan food any time too! This week’s meal was vegan Colombo Chicken, Chayote Potato cakes and Avocado and Papaya Salad. All three were individually delicious but perfection when combined! I would really recommend making them if you have a lot of time on your hands, an amazing Caribbean food shop selling chayote and the money to buy a papaya! This was not one of those dishes that the children refused to try, it was one of those where we fought over who got to have the leftovers.
I’m sorry to say though that I failed to buy a special rum and so consoled myself by downing a few shots of the remaining Grenadan rum from a couple of weeks ago and using it to make a simple Ti Punch. I wanted to make the cocktail French Guiana but I didn’t have the ingredients and it seemed to be best for all concerned if I took a break from buying spirits for a week!
If ever you decide to armchair travel the world and fine yourself with a dearth of music, may I suggest visiting the website of the good people at Folkways recordings as they have dedicated themselves to collecting global traditional and Indigenous music before it gets washed away by a TikTok algorithm. This week they taught me about Maroon music which is played mainly on drums. You can experience it for yourself on this album music from Aluku. It has many similarities to the traditional African music I have discovered on my journeys and this is no surprise as Aluku is another name for the Boni People… the other album I recommend is from the Indigenous Haut-Oyapock so it is probably best listened to whilst being stung by a wasp mat!
OK, that is it for this week, strangely I am now off to Guadeloupe, another French department far from Paris!
