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We are delighted to present to our francophone readers this remarkable work of R\u00e9unionnese poet Catherine Boudet, in contemplation of her own ancestor who was both a pirate and a slave trader. We are grateful to Ms Boudet for giving us permission to reproduce her poem below.<\/p>\n
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Jacques, marchand d\u2019esclaves<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Aux confins de mon histoire il y a<\/p>\n cette trace damn\u00e9e qui plonge mes racines dans celles de cette \u00cele<\/p>\n \n Impudique filiation qui me rejette aux plages initiales<\/p>\n celles du commencement celles de la fondation<\/p>\n \n Jacques marchand d\u2019esclaves<\/p>\n n\u00e9 trois cent ans avant moi<\/p>\n tu fus entre Madinina et Am\u00e9rique boucanier \u00e0 tes heures<\/p>\n \n Et moi depuis<\/p>\n je n\u2019ai pas pris plus de couleur<\/p>\n Bourbon t\u2019aura-t-elle assagi<\/p>\n tu finiras dans l\u2019administration coloniale et trois cent ans apr\u00e8s<\/p>\n nous n\u2019en sommes pas encore sortis<\/p>\n \n Jacques tu fus parmi les cinq cent premiers \u00e0 fouler cette terre<\/p>\n et \u00e0 moi qu\u2019est-ce qu\u2019il reste aujourd\u2019hui pour acte de flibuste<\/p>\n sinon l\u2019\u00e9criture contre ratification de nouveaux Codes Noirs<\/p>\n \n Jacques prisonnier des Anglais en mer des Antilles<\/p>\n je sais ce qui hante et reste dans le sang<\/p>\n \n Je sais le go\u00fbt de l\u2019aventure qui pique les narines<\/p>\n Jacques les \u00e2mes que tu as vendues me demanderont-elles d\u2019\u00eatre coupable \u00e0 ta place<\/p>\n \n Jacques trois cent ans de soleil n\u2019ont pas noirci ma peau<\/p>\n elles ont m\u00e9tiss\u00e9 l\u2019\u00e2me et trois cent ans apr\u00e8s<\/p>\n \n J\u2019embrasse cette histoire contre la mer qui revient<\/p>\n je ne rejette rien j\u2019assume<\/p>\n \u00a0(Nos \u00e9parses nos sulfureuses<\/em>, Acoria, Paris-Bertoua, 2010)<\/p>\n \u00a0 \n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some information about Catherine Boudet:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Born in 1968 at Saint-Denis on Reunion Island and resident in Mauritius, journalist and writer Catherine Boudet has published three poetry books: Res\u00eeliences<\/em> (L’Harmattan, 2007), Le Barattage de la mer de lait<\/em> (Ndze, 2009) and Nos \u00e9parses nos sulfureuses<\/em> (Acoria, 2010). Her next poetry book, titled Ha\u00efkons, petits poems \u00e0 emporter<\/em>, influenced by the Japanese haiku <\/em>style, will be published shortly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Catherine\u2019s poetry questions insular identities and she has introduced the concept of \u201cd\u00e9shistoire\u201d to account for the difficulties of tackling the issues of modernity and development in islands where identities are mainly history-orientated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Her journalism focusses on issues of identity and ethnicity, consociational democracy and nation-building.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ————————————————————————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A \u00a0SLAVE TRADER AND PIRATE ANCESTOR Do you know whether you have an ancestor who was a slave trader or a pirate?! Many residents of the Mascarene islands are aware that they have a slave forebear and in societies which depended on servile labour, it is not uncommon to have the blood of both… Continue reading A SLAVE TRADER AND PIRATE ANCESTOR<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23,27],"class_list":["post-937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people-misc","tag-mauritius","tag-people-boudet","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mauritiusmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Boudet.jpg\" "\\"Catherine")
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