When We Were Birds
For several months, I kept circling around the same book in my local bookshop. In addition to the beautiful cover, some of the keywords on the back cover of Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel piqued my interest: Trinidad, Rastafari, cemetery, gravedigger, magical love story, family legend.
The story of “When We Were Birds” is set in the fictional town of Port Angeles in Trinidad, and readers switch back and forth between the perspectives of the two main characters, Yejide and Darwin. Darwin never knew his biological father. He believes he will find him in Port Angeles and, therefore, takes a job there as a gravedigger at the Fidelis cemetery, even though, Rastafarian shouldn’t be near the dead. Strange things happen at this cemetery that Darwin cannot explain. Yejide grows up in a village not far from Port Angeles. The women in her family have a special role: they care for the dead and watch over the border between the two worlds. After the death of her distanced mother, Yejide is supposed to take on this task, but everything in her rebels against it.
The novel’s central theme is loss, and as its readers we accompany the characters as they deal with it. The story raises interesting questions: How does individual fate influence relationships with one’s own children? What are the consequences of an absent parent?
I really enjoyed reading Banwo’s debut novel. I was curious to find out how the stories of the two protagonists would intertwine and found the insights into Rastafarian culture particularly enriching.
“When We Were Birds” was published in 2022 by Penguin Books and Michaela Grabinger’s German translation followed a year later with Diogenes. The book was translated from Trinidadian Creole English, but unfortunately there are no markers for this dialect in the translation. I am aware that it is difficult to translate Creole dialects into other languages, as a dialect basically has to be invented. However, I have read translations that have found creative and intriguing solutions to this problem. I would therefore recommend that readers interested in language read the English original, if possible.