Papa Bois [Song]

Uploaded by Edward Spencer
PAPA BOIS
By Gene Lawrence

Is International Women's Year
Yet still women scrunting here and there
Papa Bois, he ent sharing like yesteryear.
The cause is unknown but I tell you
Women create their own callaloo
Papa Bois, like he looking for something new.

They looking for him in the morning
They looking for him in the evening
Papa Bois, when they find him, he head hanging
They looking for him in the city
They looking again in the country
Papa Bois now have a wand, he playing fairy.

They looking for him in the city
They looking again in the country
Papa Bois now have a wand and playing fairy.

Now hear what really cause the whole thing
Man and woman now looking like twin
Papa Bois make a mistake, you can't blame him
And so he went left instead of right
He did them women that just for spite
Papa Bois gone and leave them Ms. to fight.

They looking for him in the morning
They looking for him in the evening
Papa Bois, when they find him, he head hanging
They looking for him in the city
They looking again in the country
Papa Bois now have a wand and playing fairy.

We looking for him in the morning, in the evening
We looking for him in the city, the country
We looking for him in the morning, in the evening
We looking for him in the city...

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance! ..............................................................................................................................

A Note From The Gull

Papa Bois' cishet world has been turned upside down. He is having to check his male privilege and element. Baffled, resentful and maybe a bit stunned by his no longer being able to distinguish between male and female, he has withdrawn from women and is withholding his favours. He dejectedly mourns the loss of a time when wood was king.

For those who are not familiar with Caribbean folklore, Papa Bois is described thus by Wikipedia:

"Papa Bois (otherwise known as "Maître Bois," meaning master of the woods or "Daddy Bouchon" meaning hairy man), a French patois word for "father wood" or "father of the forest" is a popular fictional folklore character of St.Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. Often called the "keeper of the forest", he is thought of as the protector of the forests and their flora and fauna.
He is married to the Mama Dlo also known as Mama D'Leau.
His appearance is thought to be that of a short, old man of African descent with cloven hooves (or at least his left leg ends in a large hoof) and a beard of leaves, who, despite his age sports strong muscles and can run faster than a deer. His body is completely covered with hair like that of a donkey and small horns sprout from his forehead. He is also known to carry a hollowed-out bull's horn, which he uses to warn animals of hunters' approach. He is also known to have the power of metamorphosis and is commonly thought to transform himself into a deer, luring hunters deep into the forest and getting them lost. Much like his female counterpart, Mama Dlo.
It is believed that if one meets Papa Bois, one must be polite and refrain from staring at his hooves, and say a polite greeting to him. For example, "Bon jour, vieux Papa" meaning, "Good day, old father." Papa Bois is also found in Grenadian folklore. He is usually represented as a huge Manicou (Opossum). Hunters of the forest are always afraid of him because of his appearing and disappearing trick." SOURCE

Unlike Papa Bois, most of us don't have a forest into which we can retreat and hide. We are daily witnessing higher tides and unpredictable and often monumental shifts in the sands. There is no respite. Like Keat's naughty boy some of us have been left standing in our shoes to gape and wonder at the impulse to homogenise, to standardise, to equalise, to level, to reduce, to replicate, to indoctrinate. 

Fundamentally, I don't think that there is anything new under the sun so I can only continue to ask myself the question that is never irrelevant or outmoded, "Why is this issue ascendant now and which master is being served by its promulgation?" Imperialism is the only constant or as Trinbagonians would say, "Advantage cyah done."

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare