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Amazon in the writing of Cyril Dabydeen
Miguel Nenevé
Universidade Federal de Rondônia
We discussed
how Caribbean
Writers only look north,
And how maybe I’m a unique
Among them (I want to believe)
Because of my interest
In all of
South America ( Dabydeen, “Amazonia”)
Cyril Dabydeen is an acclaimed Canadian poet and fiction writer. Although living in
Canada for more than thirty years, Dabydeen keeps writing about his origin in the Republic
of Guyana, the Amazon region. Unlike most of the writers of Guyana, Dabydeen does not
explore much the Caribbean context, but the South-American myths and landscapes, as for
example, one finds in his book Born in Amazonia. Amazonian voices mix with other voices
in order to be heard in his poetry. In this presentation I would like to discuss the mixture of
Canadian, Guyanese and South-American beliefs in Dabydeen's poetry, especially in Born
in Amazonia. It seems that most of his origins are imaginary and invented origins, one
needs to have in order to survive in country which is not his. Brazil seems to be present as
the important neighbour which like any South-American country suffers from colonization.
If Latin America and the Amazon are presented as ruins, or as a decadent region, one can
say it is a noble decadence, something which one likes to remember, of which one is proud
of belonging to.
2
In his book of poetry Born in Amazonia the author explores his worldview based
on his South-American experience. At the first sight, the book, with its colored cover
showing a picture of a supposed indigenous girl seems to be a work of travel writing
written by someone who wants to the show the exotic image of the Amazon to the world.
In fact the first time I saw the book in a shelf in Ottawa, and, as I was coming from
Rondonia, I asked myself: “Who is this guy who assumes he can write about the Amazon?
This could be just one more of those writers who writes about the Amazon just to denounce
the “burning of the forest” or to warn about the destruction of the “World’s lungs” “the
Green Hell” or to announce “the end of the Paradise.” However, coming closer to the work,
by reading some of the poems, I could realize that the poet is somewhat deconstructing the
traditional discourse on the Amazon. He reveals his connection to this region where his
world of imagination began. In this aspect, the poet satirizes the stereotyped vision about
the region. Moreover, the poetical text suggests a travel to the past in order to mold the
present and to build a better and more beautiful future to the Amazon and its people. In this
aspect, Born in Amazônia offers also a political reading once it subverts the media
discourse and invokes the possibility of several visions of everything that was written about
this region of the planet. For those of us who live in the Amazon, this work is an invitation
to the reading and re-reading and a reflection about the myths, values and culture to be
recovered. The Yanomamy Indians so much shown in the international Media appears here
as with no perspective, other than just look to the sky in search for some help or at least
search for an understanding of what is going on. The Indigenous group seems to be
embodying the displaced environment of the Amazon people, of Brazil and its frontiers in
Roraima and its memories, remembering a voice which is not heard, the Yanomamis’s
voice.
Yanomamis:
The Yanomami Indian, too
never really down under,
never in erstwhile disdain
Of the forest he has known all his life;
Eyes riveted to an ancient sky
3
as Brazil continues to shape destiny (35)
Brazil shapes the destiny, a destiny which was shaped long ago when the colonizers
arrived and determined what kind of life the Indians would have.
Born in Amazonia presents the poet’s worldview always grounded in his SouthAmerican
origin and experience. The legend of the jaguar is associated with its “continuing
myth-making in South America.”
Rosettes of broken rings, black. Golden fur
Surrounding. The spotted pelt pales
Jaguar scratches more of a beast as it waits
For the female to come along. Further growls,
Mate-calls. The forest burnishes, the lair grows
Suddenly hot.
The animal jaguar is considered to be king of the South American rainforest, appears and
reappears in the poems as if leaping from one page to another. The animal, Panthera onça is
the largest and most powerful cat in the Americas, has its name derived from the Indian
word "yaguar" meaning "he who kills at one leap." The Jaaguar poems mixes legends of
South-American and Guyanese beliefs and experiences with the Canadian imagination. In
the Amazon we live mystery and fantasy - gods, anthropomorphized animals and birds,
chimera, phantasmagorical creatures - that posits out of the imagination some sort of
explanation for the mystery. Humans and their fellow creatures live in a world of
expectations, loss, nostalgia. The jaguar is sometimes a competitor to the men – something
which reminds of the Borges’ story “La Escritura del Dios” when man is in a prison facing
a jaguar
The poet seems to keep reminding the reader that his small world is a part of a
larger ones where the beliefs and myths meet. The large forested region of the Amazon.....
