Cargo Hold of Stars is an ode to the forgotten voyage of a forgotten
people. Khal Torabully gives voice to the millions of indentured men and
women, mostly from India and China, who were brought to Mauritius
between 1849 and 1923. Many were transported overseas to other European
colonies. Kept in close quarters in the ship's cargo hold, many died.
Most never returned home.
With Cargo Hold of Stars, Torabully introduces the concept of
'Coolitude' in a way that echoes Aimé Césaire's term 'Negritude, '
imbuing the term with dignity and pride, as well as a strong and
resilient cultural identity and language. Stating that ordinary language
was not equipped to bring to life the diverse voices of indenture,
Torabully has developed a 'poetics of Coolitude' a new French, peppered
with Mauritian Creole, wordplay, and neologisms--and always musical. The
humor in these linguistic acrobatics serves to underscore the violence
in which his poems are steeped.
Deftly translated from the French by Nancy Naomi Carlson, Cargo Hold of
Stars is the song of an uprooting, of the destruction and the
reconstruction of the indentured laborer's identity. But it also
celebrates setting down roots, as it conjures an ideal homeland of
fraternity and reconciliation in which bodies, memories, stories, and
languages mingle--a compelling odyssey that ultimately defines the
essence of humankind.
