The Cost of Sugar

by Cynthia McLeod

  Mini-mini was also pleased to be going to the town. She would be able to see her beloved Hendrik. Hardly had they arrived in the town when she asked Misi Sarith’s permission to send an errand boy to Hendrik. He came to her that evening. Was he pleased to see her? Was she expecting a child, he asked. Already? He’d not really reckoned on that. Yes, he was already saving up, but it was a slow business.

  A few days before the eighth of March Julius came to join his wife in the town. How exuberant and merry she was! She joked with him, laughed a lot. He couldn’t tire of looking at this lovely creation that was now his wife. Ecstatic, he bought her everything she wanted.

  A really huge dinner was given in the palace. Hundreds of guests sat at festively adorned tables, with the Jewish guests separated as always due to their kosher dishes. People lower down the social ladder had also been invited, such as the skippers of merchant vessels and other residents. For them tables had been laid out in a shed that was fifty metres long, built specially for the occasion. There was a superfluity of food and drink, exquisitely served, and that day the feast was rounded off with a marvellous firework display.

  The next day was the day of the grand ball. It was preceded by a reception especially for the ladies, which was held in the house of Governor Nepveu in the Gravenstraat. After this, all the ladies, dressed in their finery, went to the governor’s palace to join their husbands for the ball. It happened that at that moment the warship ‘Castor’ lay in the harbour, and the captain, Hoogwerf, who was naturally among the guests, as were his officers, could not believe his eyes when he saw all this splendour. The seamen had never expected to see such a display in the West Indies, and could only conclude that the people in Suriname were very well off indeed.

  Sarith managed to avoid meeting Rutger and Elza. The first day, this was easy, since the Jews were sitting upstairs. The next day it was rather more difficult.

  At Mrs Nepveu’s she indeed saw Elza in the distance and she also saw a circle of ladies around her, but she ensured that she didn’t come near her. In the palace, however, during a break in the dancing, Julius came to Rutger and Elza with extended hands. He was so pleased to see them. How were they getting on? He turned, and asked in surprise, “Where has Sarith got to? We were together when we came towards you. Oh well, she’ll have been held up somewhere and will be along in a minute.” Julius recounted in detail how sweet Sarith was. He patted Rutger on the shoulder and said that he and Rutger would often be seeing each other, since the two ladies were not only sisters but also inseparable friends. They must travel to Klein Paradijs as soon as possible and be their guests for a week or two.

  Rutger smiled and said that was fine, but in the meantime he and Elza would like to invite Julius and Sarith to a feast in their new house in the Gravenstraat to mark Rutger’s appointment as administrator. The feast would be in ten days’ time. They would still be in town then? Sarith had absolutely no intention of going to a feast at Rutger and Elza’s. The whole family was invited, as were many other friends, but Sarith decided not to tell Julius that she wasn’t going, because he would then want to know why.

  In the afternoon of the twentieth of March, the day before the feast, Sarith suddenly had an oh so unbearable headache. Oh what a headache she had; she could hardly open her eyes. She had to lie in a darkened room and Mini-mini had to lay wet compresses on her forehead. A concerned Julius sat by her bed. Did she want the surgeon to come? But no, Sarith didn’t want that. She just wanted rest on her own. Of course she couldn’t attend the feast: she was far too ill for that. When Julius asked if had better remain with her, she answered that it would be better if he went. In any case, she could not talk and didn’t want any noise, either. Staying alone with Mini-mini was best. Julius therefore excused his wife and told the host and hostess that poor Sarith had such a terrible headache. In bed that evening, Elza said to Rutger, “Have you noticed how Sarith is avoiding us?”

  “Oh, don’t let it worry you. She’ll come round,” said Rutger.

  Elza thought that as far as she was concerned Sarith need never come round. Even so, when she thought of Sarith, she felt a twinge of sorrow, of nostalgia. Every time she realized that she had lost her playmate, the bosom friend of her childhood years, she felt sorry for a relationship that could have been so wonderful but was now ruined beyond repair.

  MINI-MINI

  In the late afternoon of the ninth of March, the day of the major ball in the governor’s palace, Mini-mini sat in the doorway of her room in the grounds of the house in the Saramaccastraat. She was tired. She had had to run around for a whole two hours helping her misi to get dressed, or kneeling to adjust something at the front or at the back. Then the hair-do, first like this, then like that, finishing up as a decorative bouffant couture with something like a jib of precious stones at the top. Finally she had to bend to give the silver buckles on the slippers an extra polish.

  This was not good when you were five months pregnant.

  Now she sat to wait for Hendrik. He was late. When he finally appeared, the eight o’clock gun had fired. He said that he had gone to take a look in the Gravenstraat. In the Oranjestraat, across from Jean Nepveu’s house, a crowd of people had gathered, mostly free coloureds and slaves. Everyone wanted to see the sparkling display of all those ladies in their elaborate clothes and all their trimmings of precious stones, gold and silver. Now, that had been a sight! How rich those whites were! Hendrik added bitterly that all that wealth was gained at the cost of the slaves’ sweat and toil. Naturally Hendrik spent the night with Mini-mini.

  Being with her loved one in these circumstances wasn’t how Mini-mini had seen it in her dreams. She slept in a small room that she shared with three other young slave-girls who were the children’s nannies in the house. Fortunately, you couldn’t see anything in the dark, but from all the shuffling and bumping on the floor, it was obvious to them what was going on, and they kept making derisory remarks to Mini-mini, who they had always regarded as a quiet, retiring type. If you were a slave, something like privacy just didn’t exist. And everything had to happen in such secrecy because he was a free man. None of the whites in the house except for her misi knew that Hendrik was spending the night there. Mini-mini lay on the mat. She could not sleep, feeling the child moving within her. Hendrik was asleep next to her.

  Mini-mini dreamed of her future as a free woman with Hendrik. How she loved him, and he her. And now they would soon have a child. It would be a long time before he had saved up enough, but she would be patient and would save up, too. She was so thankful that not a single masra had had her before Hendrik. Didn’t that always happen with pretty slave-girls? And she was pretty; she knew that. From her earliest years she had always heard people saying so. She understood that ‘beautiful’ was used mainly when someone had white blood, and after all she had a white father. Her mother had told her that both Masra Jacob A’haron and his eighteen-year-old son had been sleeping with her at that time. One of the two was her father, but it didn’t make any difference to Mini-mini: she was simply a slave-girl. What did being beautiful matter if you were a slave, anyway? And it was certainly not only her light skin that caused people to remark on her beauty; she had a good figure, small round breasts, finely cut features, pure white teeth and large dark-brown eyes. Her hair was black, with curls, and hung to half way down her back. She usually had it in a plait. How often had men, white and coloured, gazed at her hungrily. But fortunately, due to the fact that she was Misi Sarith’s property, not a single man had ever been able to take advantage of her. At least for that she was thankful to the misi. This could have changed, of course, now that the misi had a masra, but he was a good and fair person. He loved his wife so much that he would certainly not interfere with a slave-girl. And luckily she now had her Hendrik.

  Mini-mini heard the carriage ride into the grounds and realized that the family was returning home. She got up quickly, fastened a shawl around herself and hastened to the house, where her misi and masra were just going
upstairs.

  Misi Sarith was so happy. She told Mini-mini that she was dead tired. She had danced so much. It had been wonderful, everything so beautiful, and everyone had found her so beautiful and she had had so many compliments about her ingenious hair-do. Mini-mini had done that so beautifully. She would reward her for that in the morning. Masra Julius looked smilingly at his wife, who was so content and happy, felt in his pocket and gave Mini-mini a coin, saying, “Here Mini-mini, your reward, because the misi might well forget it in the morning.”149

  When Mini-mini returned to her room in the grounds Hendrik wasn’t there. Perhaps he had gone to the loo in the grounds? But when he still had not returned a while later, she went looking for him.

  “Are you looking for your boyfriend?” asked Nestor, the slave who functioned as coachman and was busy unshackling the carriage. “He left.”150

  Mini-mini went inside again. Why had Hendrik gone? Just like that, in the middle of the night? Oh, well, perhaps he was afraid of oversleeping the next morning. She would ask him tomorrow.

  But Hendrik did not come the next evening, or the evening after. Mini-mini sent an errand boy to his home with the message that he must come to her quickly. The boy said that he had delivered the message to Hendrik’s mother, but still Hendrik did not come. The following Sunday Mini-mini decided to go to the house herself. She knew that his mother was usually away on Sundays. When she arrived at the house she found everything shut. There was no-one at home.

  A neighbour who was sitting at an open window and had seen her walking around the house asked amicably, “Who are you looking for?”151

  “Hendrik,” replied Mini-mini.

  “Oh, he has just left with his woman,”152 came the answer.

  “With his woman? Perhaps misi means his mother?”153

  “No, not his mother, but Hendrik now has a woman, Misi Meta, a nice mulatto girl. They went that way.”154

  Mini-mini felt as if she had just received a punch to the face. Did Hendrik have a partner? Since when? She was his woman. She walked slowly away from the house and in a trance walked back to the Saramaccastraat, tear after tear rolling down her cheeks. The whole day she just sat with her head in her hands, just staring ahead, in such a way that even Misi Sarith asked her, “What’s the matter, Mini-mini, are you ill? Go and sleep for a while.”155

  Mini-mini decided she just had to speak to Hendrik, and the next day she waited for him in the Steenbakkersgracht, where he worked at the cabinet maker’s. When he came out to go home, she was suddenly there in front of him. “Mini-mini,” he exclaimed, alarmed. Her voice soft, Mini-mini asked what truth there was in what the neighbour had told her, and why he was no longer coming to her.

  Hendrik gave a sigh. Yes, it was true. He loved her, but she was a slave-girl. When would he ever get enough money together to buy her freedom? It would take years, and what would he do all those years? She on the plantation, now and then in the town for a week, and he alone here. He omitted to tell her how much his mother had been objecting and had told him how stupid she found him to have fallen in love with a slave-girl. Even if she was beautiful and a mulatto, she was still only a slave-girl, and he with his light skin and almost smooth hair could certainly attract so many other beautiful girls. It was his mother who engineered his meeting Meta. It wasn’t long before she had come to live with them.

  With downcast eyes Mini-mini heard what Hendrik had to say to her. She knew full well that any other woman would not have accepted this. She would have screamed, fought, gone to that Meta and slapped and hit her. But she, Mini-mini, could not do that. She was so timid and soft by nature and had never been able to cope with violence. She just turned and went away. So that was that. Exit Hendrik! Exit freedom! Everything had been just a dream. On her mat that night she wept. Yes, everything had been a dream. Except for the child. That was no dream; that was reality! She placed her hand on her stomach and felt the child moving. She resolved that, whatever it might take, she would ensure that that child would not be a slave. He or she would be born a slave, that was inevitable, but she would save every cent, and when the child was grown up she would buy his freedom to spare him all the humiliation and misery of slavery. For that is why Hendrik had rejected her. Because she was a slave-girl. Mini-mini thought back to what Hendrik had told her and to what the misi had said about the ball at the governor’s, where all the whites had glistered with their gold and jewels, where the tables had groaned under all the food and drink. All the fantastic mansions in the town, carriages, expensive furnishings: everything obtained through slavery.

  Slaves: people who were the property of a group of whites and who had to work and toil for them in order to produce these oh so necessary commodities. And Mini-mini asked herself whether these whites realized what they were drinking when they lifted that cup to their lips. Whether they ever for a second realized how costly this all was – what a price was paid for the coffee and for the sugar!

  Julius had wanted to return to Klein Paradijs after the party, but Sarith did not want to. They couldn’t possibly leave yet. On 16 March the new governor had been honoured at public worship in the synagogue in the Heerenstraat. This happening was specially in honour of Governor Nepveu, who was kindly disposed towards the Jews, in contrast to so many other whites who regarded Jews as second-rate citizens. The whites who had more recently arrived in Suriname appeared not to realize that it was precisely the Jews who had been the driving force behind the blossoming of this colony. They were the first substantial group to come here. They had settled here, mostly in the upper reaches of the rivers. They had started plantations, and with the money earned had paid huge sums to the government to provide for the colony’s upkeep. Now things were going less well for the Jews. The land at their plantations, often in use for a hundred years or more, was becoming exhausted and infertile, and when they asked for land on the lower reaches of the rivers, where many plantations were being established, they were refused purely and simply because they were Jews. The whole Jewish community hoped that this would all change with the appointment of Jean Nepveu, and they very much wanted to demonstrate that they had every faith in him. The service in the synagogue was taking place in this context. Everything was beautifully decorated, including the complete entrance right down to the street. The whole coloured population stood once again to gape at this display of opulence. Carriages drove to and fro; pedestrians arrived, attended by slaves, all in their finest clothes.

  Three weeks later, on 4 April, there was a reception at the house of Abraham Cohen, the Jewish teacher and assistant rabbi, in his house on the corner of the Klipstenenstraat and Heerenstraat. Now, Rebecca was after all Sarith’s sister, and of course she and Julius could not possibly leave before the reception. They would really have to attend. Julius gave in to his wife, but then they really had to return. He must definitely be back on his plantation before the heavy rains set in.

  When they returned to Klein Paradijs it was already raining. They arrived at the plantation in a heavy shower after a wet and tiring two-day journey. Mini-mini held the umbrella over Misi Sarith’s head once they had disembarked. Misi Sarith walked so quickly that Mini-mini could hardly keep up with her. The wet clay was very slippery, and there Mini-mini lost her footing. With the umbrella in one hand and a large bag in the other she could not hold on to anything. With a great thump she landed on the ground.

  “Oh Mini-mini,” called Misi Sarith, and hurried on indoors. Mini-mini felt a sharp pain in her side. She tried to get up, but that proved impossible. The masra, who was still at the boat and had seen everything, came to help her stand up. He called Benny, his slave, and together they helped Mini-mini indoors. Once there, Kwasiba hurried to help her daughter.

  That night Mini-mini’s child was born, two months premature. He was already dead when he came into the world. Kwasiba said so softly, “The poor, poor dear!”156 and wanted to take the child away before Mini-mini had seen him.

  But Mini-mini sat up and said, “Let me l
ook, mama.”157

  She gazed at the motionless little boy: a very light-brown skin with thin, black, downy hair across his head. She planted a kiss on his forehead, which was already turning cold, and gave him to her mother. Silently she lay down again. There were no tears. For such intense grief there were no tears any more.

  SARITH

  Sarith was considerably moved by what had happened to Mini-mini. She visited Mini-mini a few times in her room and stroked the girl’s hand, lying there so silent. Poor Mini-mini. How terrible that she had lost her child.

  Sarith had wanted to tell Mini-mini that for the past few weeks now she suspected that she was also pregnant. When she began to suspect this, she thought immediately how good it was that Mini-mini would herself have a child. She would then have a good wet-nurse for her own baby, and her child would have a playmate. If they were of the same sex she could give Mini-mini’s child to hers. All this would now not happen. She didn’t mention her own pregnancy to Mini-mini. Right now this would be too painful for the poor girl, lying silent and grieving on her mat. Mini-mini, however, knew her mistress’ body better than did Sarith herself, and when, a week later, she was up and about again, and was helping her get dressed, she asked gently, “Is misi going to have a baby?”158

  How happy Julius was when his wife told him she was expecting! He was immediately full of concern, however. She must now be very careful and must absolutely not get tired or exert herself. Alarmed, Sarith realized that he might mean by this that she should no longer go to the town. After about two months Sarith could not put up with it any longer. The silence and dullness of Klein Paradijs was driving her crazy. Nothing doing on the neighbouring plantations, either. Mostly older married couples; no feasts, no parties. Furthermore, she was scared, for the raids by the Maroons were getting steadily worse.