Rene Depestre's The Festival of the Greasy Pole

You know, watching your battle on the pole, some words of a writer that I love have acquired their full sense for me: ‘Experience is the staff of the blind and what counts, since you’re asking me, is rebellion, and the knowledge that man is the baker of life.’ It’s not a mythical hero who entered me yesterday evening, but the baker Henri Postel.”

            Depestre’s Le mat de cocagne, translated into English by Carrol F. Coates, is a scathing critique of Papa Doc’s noirist regime. Though Depestre begins the novel with a disclaimer, stating that this story is entirely fiction, the characters, setting, and language (Creole expressions and words appear) make it clearly Haiti. Depestre names the capital Port-au-Roi, and turns Fort Dimanche into Fort Samedi, but it is clearly Papa Doc’s Haiti and infamous tonton macoutes who rule. The novel is also quite ingenious and reminiscent of postmodern African-American literature, such as Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed. The novel lacks differentiated chapters or sections, save an epilogue which reveals the narrator to be a Haitian writing in Paris about the novel’s protagonist, Henri Postel, an ex-Senator of mulatto extraction whose family was slayed by Zoocrates Zachary (Francois Duvalier, or Papa Doc). Instead of killing him outright, Zoocrates has Postel turned into a zombie forced to sell groceries in the city of Port-au-Roi. The novel then follows his gradual transformation from zombified slave to the Zachary regime to a powerful, regenerated man who will ascend the greasy pole. The pole, an obvious phallic symbol, also symbolizes Zoocrates Zachary himself, alongside his regime. Our protagonist, a middle-aged, overweight mulatto, in addition to seven other men, compete to climb the greasy pole in the Square of Heroes, which is an enormous spectacle for the masses as well as an opportunity for Zachary’s propagandists to praise the mercy of the government for allowing the disgraced, former senator who had initially opposed Zachary’s electoral coup in 1957 (the real Papa Doc also took power in 1957) to enter the competition.

            A key part of Henri entering the competition instead of fleeing aboard a Canadian cargo ship was to put his destiny in his own hands, which would restore his humanity instead of slaving as a zombie or running away to exile. In addition, his ascent to the summit of the greasy, disgusting pole would serve as an example to waken the electrified, zombified souls of the people, who have accepted Zoocrates Zachary’s brutal, dehumanizing regime. In fact, he wins support from a coalition of young people prepared to use violence to unseat Zachary’s regime founded on a principle of violence, led by Jean-Jacques Brissaracq. If the name Jean-Jacques did not immediately evoke the memory of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, founder of Haitian independence and a believer in violence himself, then the reader is unfamiliar with Haitian history. But the two men collaborate due to a shared goal of liberating the consciousness of the masses, slaves to the

National Office for the Electrification of Souls controlled by the Electrifier of Souls himself, Zoocrates Zachary. Thus, the ideological message of this novel is not the socialist background of Depestre, but empowering the individual. Since a dictator’s power relies on fear, docility and violence to perpetuate its brutal dehumanizing existence, enough individuals must stand up. Henri Postel does just that, standing up, recovering his humanity, and in the process, restoring his manliness both metaphorically and sexually. Moreover, the novel argues against blind faith in the loas of Haitian Vodou, or any sense of fatalism that encourages subservience. Thus, Depestre’s socialist background clearly influenced the novel in that regard, since socialists emphasize the role and potential power of individuals to shape their destiny.

Zoocrates, formerly a doctor, like the historical Papa Doc, relies on violence, exploitation of Haitian Vodou, sorcery, and economic support from the US to fund his reign of terror. His majestic greasy pole symbolizes his Papa Phallus fucking the Sky vagina of freedom (63), which explains why Postel must reach the summit. On another note, the fascinating part of Deprestre’s novel is the presence of what has been referred to as ‘marvelous realism’ or magical realism. Beginning with Cuban author Alejo Carpentier’s Kingdom of this World, marvelous realism sees the world from the perspective of the Afro-Caribbean peoples themselves, meaning their religious, mythological, and cultural lens determine what occurs. Like Jacques-Stephen Alexis, another Haitian writer who came of age and participated in the 1946 student strike that brought down the regime of Elie Lescot, both writers have used this concept of marvelous realism to create a world rooted in the worldview of Haitians. Vodou, with its plethora of loas, the fear of bakas and zobops who abuse their power for evil, and the importance and omnipresence of the loas means that supernatural events are widely believed by the characters of the novel. Although Henri Postel and his friend, Horace Vermont, educated Haitians, doubt the power of Vodou, their own lives are fundamentally changed by it. Indeed, after seeing his family eradicated by Zachary’s soldiers, he is turned into a zombie aware of his condition, which is widely believed by the people of Port-au-Roi as well as Postel’s decaying body. Though initially disdainful and resistant to the help of the loa Papa Loko, who Sor Cisa says is necessary to ensure that Postel’s body can resist the death curse of Baron Samedi on the pole, after she calls Papa Loko through the cheval in the neighborhood, and she becomes mounted by Erzulie, the loa of love, Postel’s body changes entirely. He becomes physically capable of mounting the greasy pole after he can achieve erection, which requires the help of Sor Cisa’s beautiful cousin, Elisa Valery. If he was not a zombie prior to this healing, regenerative vodou ceremony, why could he not get an erection? In addition to Postel and Vermont’s own experiences observing the power of vodou and bokors who use sorcery for evil purposes, Zoocrates Zachary’s regime lives on vodou. Gloomy-Simon-Seven-Days, a zobop in a secret society of sorcerers, serves as Zachary’s witch for inserting Zachary into the pole, which culminates in the insertion of a hernia in the pole (132). Every character accepts these supernatural occurences, calling of the loas who possess their human ‘mounts,’ and the general craziness of life in a nation where the supernatural becomes the norm in the daily experiences of the people.

The pole, constructed from a tree, symbolizes living principle that endlessly regenerates the cosmos, which is a area of residence for the loas. Zachary, however, uses sorcery to defile a natural bridge between the spirits and the natural world, and endeavors to use racial divisions to further his own power. His propagandist journalist turns the Greasy Pole, “for anyone knowing the history of the island, will symbolize from today onward the Force of the Black Man, of the Maroon with his red eyes, black and shining like ebony, polished by three centuries of slavery…” (46). The Maroon, an icon of Black liberation and humanity, is also embued with Vodou symbolism, since the red eyes suggest someone possessed by the loas. Furthermore, the widespread belief among black slaves in the 18^th century concerning the French execution of Macandal, that he turned into an insect rather than be killed by whites, illustrates the centrality of Vodou in the minds of Haitians. Indeed, to Haitians, Papa Loko was the protector of Dessalines during the Haitian Revolution (52). Seeking the help of Papa Loko, the escort chief for Atibon-Legba, loa of the crossroads, is also highly significant because the tree that makes up the pole is a vertical road that connects the human world and spirits (51). Fortunately, both Postel and Vermont realize that “We’ll never make citizens of our peasants with materialist discourse,” affirming the centrality of Vodou in the lives of the people they seek to liberate (51). Thus, the best way to achieve social change, or awaken the consciousness of the black masses to their extreme exploitation and inculcate resistance is through the use of Vodou in positive ways that empower humans. Therefore, Papa Loko and Sor Cisa healing and restoring Postel to humanity allow him, as an individual, to alter his own fate. Thus, one need not choose one or the other in a world of Manichean dualism, but both the spiritual, religious traditions of the Haitian people and recognition of the power of humanity to alter its own fate can be fused, just as the syncretistic religion of Vodou demonstrates.
            Unfortunately for the fictionalized world of Haiti depicted here, Depestre’s protagonist does not succeed in toppling the regime. His life, death, and resurrection changes the consciousness of the people, however, revealing the weaknesses and division within Zachary’s own government. His daughter, Angel, a whore, and his right-hand man, Clovis Barbotog, fight for control, culminating in the deaths of a few prominent officials in the administration. At the novel’s conclusion, the struggle to for mental and physical emancipation continues, but the resistance is stronger, and its spirit lives on through Elisa Valery, the lover of Postel who kissed his feet before his death at the summit of the Greasy Pole (130), which means Postel’s life and death turned him into a mobilizing Christ-figure. The eeriness of the novel comes into play with how well it parallels the actual recent history of Haiti, which faced the longer reign of Baby Doc after Papa Doc’s death in 1971. Baby Doc, a wealthy fool, could not retain power and fear like his father, and was eventually forced to flee to France after the enraged waves of humanity of Haiti rose in revolt. However, even after expelling dictators who wished to keep them trapped like zombies, the struggle for emancipation never ends with the removal of one leader, but remains a perpetual battle to create conditions propitious for human rights. Men and women, like Postel and his lover, Elisa, who remains a symbol of resistance, remain necessary to incite rebellion and shock the people into motion, just as Jean-Bertrand Aristide did for millions of Haitians through Lavalas. Of course, that did not work out so well either, and the battle continues to this day in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

Depestre, an astute writer, succeeds in encapsulating the world of Haitians depicted in this novel, which succeeds in paralleling Haitian history, emphasizing the supernatural and the natural as two sides of the same reality through the novel’s characters, and how movements to injustice must emanate from the local conditions of the oppressed peoples themselves. As an exile that lived in several different countries, the novel is also a powerful tribute to those Haitians who remained in Haiti to resist Duvalier and the excesses of the successive corrupt government and military rule. Depestre also highlights the contradictions and problems of negritude and its capability to be manipulated for political agendas, since Zoocrates Zachary, like Papa Doc, began his career as a ‘black power’ intellectual writing in Les Griot, which resulted in extreme violence against mulattoes, whose opposition to his regime could easily be deemed illegitimate due to the long history of mulatto misrule and exclusion of blacks from the political system. Thus, the character of the mulatto, educated, Haitian willing to sacrifice himself for others is an allegory for racial reconciliation, emphasizing all the peoples of Haiti as one, despite the legacies of slavery and racism. In fact, the extreme negritude of Duvalier, or Zachary in the novel, works against the interests of the black majority, in addition to overlooking the obvious syncretism of Haitian vodou, which symbolizes the syncretism of Haitian society overall. The Syrians, mulattos, black peasants, middle-class urban blacks, and urban proletariat have a mutual interest in survival, since neither one is totally impervious to the extremes of the predatory Haitian state. So this novel could also be read as a critique of negritude philosophy and its vagaries, which overlook the creoleness of the Caribbean.