The Slaves Who Flew

Story

This is a coming-of-age, rites of passage story told in Suriname. It is a historical story, telling of how people were captured, transported and SOLD. Unless the were able to escape and with Maroon communities, they ended up living and working as enslaved people. The enslaved people arrive in the Caribbean believing that they can fly away home, back to the African continent if they don't eat salt, but the little children have to eat what is left behind in plantation houses - food with salt. Because they don't want to be left behind in this new land they sneak salt into the parents food so they can all stay and be together. The night comes for them to fly home. Drums are heard across the land. Enslaved peoples dress in their finest cloths, ‘panji', gather at the top of Maobo Hill and the bravest and strongest are chosen to fly home first. They jump. Some say the spirit soul lives on always and they flew home, but human bodies can't fly and were found at the bottom of the hill. Today in Suriname people cook with very little salt and none at festivals. This story is told at coming of age celebrations when young people fly into their destiny without wings, remembering their ancestors and those who have gone before.

Why we chose it

This is a powerful historical story. It was chosen by storyteller Amantha Edmead who uses it as a way to look at enslavement. She particularly loves the historical element and the way that past and present are linked in the way it is used in festivals today.

Where it came from

Suriname, formerly known as Dutch Guiana, was a plantation colony of the Netherlands which became independent in 1975. Enslaved people of African origin were forced to labour on Dutch sugar plantations. Variations on the motif of slaves who can fly occur across the African Diaspora, in African American folklore, Cuba, Jamaica, Guyana, and Suriname. The legend of flying away from the plantations and back to Africa provided a symbolic and spiritual escape for those trapped in enslavement. Some have also argued that flight is a metaphor for the literal fleeing of escaped slaves.

Where it went next

The story of flying slaves has been passed down and evolved and has been utilised by many writers. These include Virginia Hamilton’s children’s book The People Could Fly (1985), in which the title story describes enslaved Africans remembering their ability to fly. In reclaiming their heritage, they escape their imprisonment. The myth was also used by Toni Morrison in Song of Solomon (1977). Morrison believed that ‘The one thing you say about a myth is that there’s some truth in there, no matter how bizarre they seem.’