KUNGO NIGHTS

by John O. Stewart ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Stewart excavates the history of a small, fictional Trinidadian community in this collection of linked short stories.

The village of Kungo Pass is set in the Moruga Hills of southeast Trinidad. It was founded not long after Emancipation by a group known to history as the Candelas—the descendants of African enslaved people—who have made their livings through such industry as sugar planting and oil extraction. Claud Atwell was born there in 1945; like his brothers, he escapes working in the cane fields by getting an education. His early dabbling in revolutionary activism forces him to flee to the United States for the better part of a decade. When he comes back, he finds work as a journalist: “I write columns for a weekly newspaper out of Port of Spain going on five years now,” he claims, “and as long as I keep my nose clean, I’ll be OK.” When local leaders from the Homeground Restoration Committee decide to prepare a grant proposal to secure funds for preserving the historic community of Kungo Pass, Claud is selected to go out and find stories that make up its history. There turn out to be quite a few, such as the time in 1935 when men gathered to drink at a local shop and spontaneously formed a brigade with the aim of helping to liberate Abyssinia from the Italians. Another story concerns Lutchmin, a young woman who works in the cane fields and dreams of a better life, including possible marriage to her boyfriend Lloydie—at least until a competitive fight changes her view of things. In another story, two old “stickfighter” martial artists reminisce over the way their sport—and their community—has changed around them.

Spanning the 1930s through the ’90s, the stories Claud collects capture the grit and ingenuity of his little corner of Trinidad, a place where violence, pride, and tradition roil beneath the surface of every tale. From the beginning, Claud knowingly identifies himself and his fellow characters as “ethnographic fiction composed of elements garnered among multiple individuals” who belong to “a fictional African-Creole community.” Somehow, though, Stewart’s metafictional introduction doesn’t hinder the book’s verisimilitude. Stewart is a skilled prose stylist, and he expertly describes his setting, its people, and their worldview. Here, for instance, he writes about the numerous African deities who haunt the landscape, despite having been banned by the colonial government: “They appeared in the pond and river, the gnarled branches of old silk cotton trees, in copses, thickets, roadside rocks, and pools of standing water. Their voices could be heard at night whispering, calling, roaring through the trees at times.” The individual stories are finely realized, even if the frame narrative that contains them feels slightly unnecessary; too much time is spent on the origins of the Homeground Restoration Committee and the various politics that bring it about. Even so, the richness of Kungo Pass and its people more than make up for this narrative throat-clearing.

An immersive, wide-ranging tale of a Caribbean society over time.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 9780982806418

Page Count: 240

Publisher: JOSM Media

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2023

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION | SHORT STORIES | GENERAL FICTION