“In this bright future you can’t forget your past.”
Bob Marley “No, Woman, No cry.”
The importance of our history is one of the reasons CaribbeanReads loves folklore-based literature and encourages readers of all ages to engage with this fun element of Caribbean history. Of course, folklore isn’t true, right? But it represents the tradition of oral story-telling and provides a lot of information about life and culture in the times in which these stories evolved. Many of the characters have their roots in our African ancestry and so they provide something of a link to a lost past.
We have put together a growing list of information about some of the characters of Caribbean folklore, primarily those that make appearances in our books.
Here are just some of the ones we have done so far:
Papa Bois (appears in The Protectors’ Pledge and The Talking Mango Tree).
Mama d’Leau (appears in The Protectors’ Pledge and forthcoming The Whisperer’s Warning).
Soucouyant (stars in Greyborn Rising and appears in forthcoming The Whisperer’s Warning).
Douens (appear in forthcoming The Whisperer’s Warning).
Greyborn Rising features a number of other characters of folkloric nightmares, and will be added here over time.