Novel
Dézafi
Frankétienne · 1975
Synopsis
In Bouanèf, a village in rural Haiti, the oungan Sintil runs a plantation where zombies work, deprived of speech and thought; his daughter Siltana and a henchman, Zofè, help him guard them, and he keeps telling her that they must never be given salt. When a new zombie, Klodonis, arrives, Siltana falls in love with him. Around this thread, the novel follows other villagers whom fear of Sintil keeps in check, and returns again and again to the cockfights that give it its title.
Context
The book appeared in 1975 in Port-au-Prince, from Fardin. Dézafi means “cockfight”; the text, built as a spiral, mixes three kinds of characters, and the narrative proper is a minor part of it. It has been read as an allegory of the Duvalier regime, and the University of Virginia Press sees in it a reflection on a country haunted by slavery. The author produced a French version in 1979, Les Affres d'un défi, and Asselin Charles translated it into English in 2018; this translation received an honourable mention for the Lois Roth Prize.
Who it is for
A novel in Haitian Creole, with a fragmented structure, which can be read in the author's French version or in English.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first novel written and published in Haitian Creole; its English translation was distinguished in 2019.