From Zora Neale Hurston€š1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
This excerpt is from chapter 18, about the 1938 hurricane that whisked through the Palm Beach and South Florida.
So she was home by herself one afternoon when she saw a band of Seminoles passing by. The men walking in front and the laden, stolid women following them like burros. She had seen Indians several times in the Glades, in twos and threes, but this was a large party.
They were headed toward the Palm Beach road and kept moving steadily. About an hour later, another party appeared and went the same way. Then another just before sundown. This time, she asked where they were all going and at last one of the men answered her.
"Going to high ground. Saw-grass bloom. Hurricane coming.€š
Lias announces to his friends that he has decided to leave and invites them to join him. He says: If Ah never see you no mo€š on earth, Ah€š I'll meet you in Africa.
Others hurried east like the Indians and rabbits and snakes and coons. But the majority sat around laughing and waiting for the sun to get friendly again.
Sometime that night the winds came back. Everything in the world had a strong rattle, sharp and short like Stew Beef vibrating the drum head near the edge with his fingers. By morning Gabriel was playing the deep tones in he center of the drum. So when Janie looked out of her door, she saw the drifting mists gathered in the west€š that cloud field of the sky€š to arm themselves with thunders and march forth against the world. Louder and higher and lower and wider the sound and motion spread, mounting, sinking, darking.
It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in is bed. Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble. The folks in the quarters and the people in the big houses further around the shore heard the big lake and wondered. The people felt uncomfortable but safe because there were the seawalls to chain the senseless monster in his bed.
Overcoming colonialism through faith and action.
Leave a comment