COMMENTARY: Boyhood days and the Touloulous of French Guiana

As a kid growing up in the Pleasance section of La Plaine, one of my fondest memories were the many trips on foot to the Laronde River accompanying my older sisters to do the family’s laundry. Laundry on the banks of the river was an all-day affair and it gave me and my friends a chance to swim and fish in the river and sea. Our fishing bate was mostly ‘Touloulou’ (very small crabs) which we gathered on the hillside overlooking the Laronde bay and River.

We would surf the big waves with ‘Bwa Flow” which is a dry piece of wood which we picked up along the shore line as surf boards. Sometimes the gigantic, fast and furious waves would ‘negotiate ‘us. Many decades later I still marvel at the fact that none of us suffered broken necks, legs or a serious head injuries and left to die on the rough ocean floor.

I still have nightmares about swimming far away from the shore line until we saw the Catholic Church’s steeple. Those of us who made it could brag and boost in the school yard that we beat the big waves and swam deep and wide in the rough sea.  Where were the mighty Atlantic’s viscous open currents aided by the eastern winds to devour anyone of us?

After we were exhausted we would either fish crayfish and Loche’ some more in the river with our home made fishing guns. Whatever we caught most times we would cook it along with roasted breadfruits, plantains and yams on the shore. We would stick around to help push fishing boats from the impending waves ashore as they came into the unsheltered and rocky Laronde Bay.

My intrigue with French Guiana peaked after reading an article last year about its carnival period which is the longest in the world. It starts in January and ends in March. Also in my astonishment, I stumbled upon the important Toloulou ladies of the festival. Of course at that moment it took be back to the nostalgic, happy and fun filled days in Laronde gathering these small crustaceans (‘Toloulou’) on the hillside with my ‘boyz’.

Also I kept on reading more about this South American  Overseas ‘département’ of France because  my cousin, Jean Pierre Allan  did  his compulsory military service (draft)  there as  a French citizenship in the late1980s there. He was attached to the French Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère), 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment. Jean Pierre’s father, Uncle, Joseph Allan, left La Plaine soon after World War II for Guadeloupe.

So who are the Touloulous of French Guiana?  They are Carnival Queens in Cayenne and in other towns. These are ladies who dress elegantly and flamboyantly in brightly colored outfits from head to toe without an inch of skin showing during the carnival season. They wear a petticoat, a balaclava, a Domino mask and long gloves. In order not to be recognized, women go so far as to put colored lenses, wigs and camouflage their voices.

The typical figure of Touloulou carnival queen is a past depiction and (maybe present) of French Guiana colonial class culture, high society and the privileged landed gentry. Queens represents the elegant, well-heeled and classy bourgeois women of the 18 and 19th centuries in that country. During Carnival they parade in the streets and participate in masked balls so they become unrecognizable.

In the nightclubs, and during the Touloulous balls, the queens choose their male dance partners who are not allowed to say no. The men must dance with any Touloulou who asks them. The men are required to and offer the queens drinks, which they drink through a straw while keeping their masks on to remain anonymous.