Kannjawou

Kannjawou: A Novel of Haiti by Lyonel Trouillot Kannjawou, the title of this novel by acclaimed Haitian author Lyonel Trouillot, is the Haitian Creole expression meaning a big party. In this energetic literary celebration of Haiti and its capital city Port-Au-Prince in the early 2000s, Trouillot embodies the nation’s indomitable spirit in the voice of his narrator, an anonymous,world-weary,twenty-something male student, who in a keenly observed voice depicts a country entering a new era after years of dictatorship, oppression, corruption, and the chaos wrought by the most recent foreign arrivals: the international peace-keeping forces sent to restore order after the departure of the U.S. Marines, known as “the Big Boots.” In a series of entries from his journal over a span of several months, our young protagonist introduces us to his world within a world--a community center in Port-au-Prince on the corner of Burial Street, that leads to the vast cemetery, and across the street from the touristic bar, Kannjawou. Here we meet a motley group of friends, lovers, revolutionaries, compatriots, dreamers, schemers, and mentors, all under the watchful eye and wise counsel of Man Jeanne, the proprietress of this center, that is alternately a welcome roost for the night, a gathering place where a warm meal and fellowship await, and a refuge from the poverty, squalor and overall disintegration of the city around him. He introoduces to his core of friends, the “gang of five,”among whom are two beautiful young women who tend bar at Kannjawou and the men--young, old, local and foreign--who pursue them, and upon one, Sophonie, he hopelessly dotes; the wise older veterans scarred by the torture and oppression of the regimes in earlier decades; the nonchalant tourists and foreign officials who populate the bar; and the gentle mentor, rival in love, and father figure to the group, known lovingly to all as “the little professor.” But, just as this is a coming-of-age tale for our “chronicler of lost footsteps,” as Mam Jeanne has dubbed the narrator, so too is it a story of a country in the throes of change. And so too must change and along with it, tragedy, visit the characters of this novel. In KANNJAWOU Trouillot has penned a love song and a swan song to that era of dispersion for Haiti’s people, many of whom were and still are compelled to leave their beloved country in search of a new life--an immigrant nation far removed from its cherished home, yet with its people always carrying with them the “kannjawou” spirit.