Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine February 2017

BOOK REVIEW BY J. WYNNER
A VEXATIOUS
MASQUERADE
Moses Migrating, by Samuel Selvon. © Lynne Rienner, Colorado, USA, 1992. 179
pages. ISBN 978 0 89410 715 3
Moses Aloetta is back in Trinidad, on a trip after being in Merry Old England for
25 years. But none of the merriness rubbed off on Moses while there: he’s as surly
as can be. In Port of Spain he stays at the elite “upside down” Trinidad Hilton hotel,
where guests enter the reception area at the top level and descend to their rooms
— a top-to-bottom theme that
is kept up throughout the
novel.
Moses waves the Union
Jack as though he is a born
Englishman. He, however, is
certainly a born-again one in
this first-person account of
Moses Migrating, the final
novel of the Moses trilogy by
Trinidadian author Samuel
Selvon. Selvon states in the
preface, “The humour and
entertainment that Moses
provides sometimes tends to
overwhelm the serious side of
his nature. It is a knack that
all Black people acquire to
survive. In my own years in
London, any hardcore material
I wrote about Blacks had
to have ha-ha. So laugh your
guts out. But remember there
is more in the mortar than
the pestle.”
However, it is doubtful that
anyone would laugh his guts
out here. Although it is
Carnival time and Moses
masquerades in costume for
the Carnival, it’s only for the
occasion; the costume is
only a temporary escape — it
does not hide his real self
and he remains true to his
character throughout the
novel. Main characters don’t
often get drearier than Moses
Aloetta, Esq.
Moses, who lives in the basement of his Shepherd’s Bush home, is accompanied
on his trip by his penthouse tenants, an English couple: Bob, who wants to take
the opportunity while in Trinidad to research his ancestors, and his wife, Jeannie,
against whom Selvon turns his pen, writing her character with irrepressible
misogyny. While Bob and Jeannie travel first class, Moses has a third class berth,
thus maintaining their upstairs-downstairs habitat arrangement, another of the
book’s themes.
It was Jeannie who provided the brainwave for Moses’ Carnival masquerade. “She
hand me a coin… It was a old penny… It had King George the Fifth head on one side,
and on the other Britannia sitting down in her helmet and gown, balancing a ornamented
shield with one hand and holding one of them with three prongs in it, like
what masqueraders playing Devil does use at Carnival time.”
At the beginning of the book, Selvon says, “The idea of depicting [in Carnival costume]
Britannia on the face of a coin originated with the late Mr. Wilfred Strasser,
who played the part in the 1948 Carnival celebrations in Trinidad. I have used the
idea for my own purposes in this work of fiction.”
Prior to the voyage to Trinidad, second thoughts about returning to his homeland
assail Moses. He worries about not leaving his mark on Britain. He can’t seem to
make up his mind whether he wants to return to his native land for good or just for
a vacation. He worries about whether he should sell his house or not. Finally, he
reluctantly decides to leave his friend Galahad — no easy customer — to take care
of his home. Galahad drives Moses and his travelling companions to the docks in
Plymouth, where Moses “even pretended to be sick”. He pushes his fingers down his
throat and “brought up some bile in Galahad’s lap. ‘I think I got an appendix.’” Moses
is a real pain, who wants those around him to share in his miserable moods. “You
can’t appreciate my depression and gloom,” he tells Galahad.
During the voyage the upstairs-downstairs scene is played out once more between
Jeannie and Bob, and Moses, with the best time on the trip for Moses being the time
spent at the bar.
In Trinidad, Moses soon discovers that the place is not the same as when he left.
He also discovers his Tantie Flora — to whom he had not written while he was in
England — vending fruit around the savannah across the road from the Trinidad
Hilton. He goes to see her at her vending stall, and promises to visit her at her home
in John John.
When Moses meets Doris at the home of Tantie Flora — who took in Doris and
brought her up, just as she did Moses — he falls madly in love with her. When he
decides on his Carnival masquerade, he ropes in Tantie and Doris to help make
the costume. The more Moses sees of Doris, the more he wants to get married,
buy a piece of land to farm, rear animals, and settle down, but after deflowering
her on Jouvert morning his love for Doris and hopes of buying land and settling
down vanish.
“We touch down at Heathrow about six o’clock in the morning, and there was a
cold breeze blowing, and a flake of snow brush my cheek lightly on the exact spot
where Doris slap me.”
Moses Aloetta is not the most appealing protagonist you’ll come across. In fact, he’s
unlikable and annoying, as are a few of the other characters. But Selvon’s prose is
up there with the best of writers, and more power to the author and his vexatious
characters that they can so irk readers!
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FEBRUARY 2017 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 33