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Juvenal Bucuane   


A Orgia Mágica Do Porco

Não, não foi dos casos em que um suíno é sacrificado e as suas partes baixas são gulosamente cobiçadas como um pitéu dos deuses, daqueles com que só os mais velhos se deliciam, por direito consuetudinárío, para reforço, segundo o senso comum, da sua estaleca no afoitado exercício copular. Foi totalmente diferente dessa vez. Tudo ás avessas.

Aconteceu algures, lá para as terras da Zambézia, onde, para ajudar as várias formas de luta pela subsistência, certas pessoas se socorrem das benesses que o mundo mistificado, com todo o seu préstito além-terreal, faculta a quem nele acredita, penetra e cultiva as suas vivências.

Pois, nesse esconso lugar, onde as forças sobrenaturais têm o seu território bem demarcado, onde fazem e desfazem, subjugando as populações com o seu ceptro mágico, vivia Supião Algum Dia, um pequeno criador de porcos, mas nem por isso pouco afamado no lugar. A sua pocilga, muito invejada e cobiçada por toda a gente das redondezas e por viandantes que por ali seguiam o seu caminho, crescia a olhos vistos, com o aumento veloz e estupefaciente da sua criação, graças aos seus amanhos pacientes e sacrificados, um desempenho nem por todos elogiado, acarretando-lhe, por isso, algumas vezes, fricções verbais com quem, não se contendo, exteriorizava a sua inveja, com palavras que pretendiam insinuar que Supião Algum Dia recorresse a truques obscuros para o sucesso da sua empresa.

Umas tantas dívidas, resultantes de créditos afins ao seu labor, em grande parte, de aquisição de ração para os bichos, do trabalho do veterinário e de outros quejandos, afligiam-no e, volta e meia, inviabilizabam o seu denodo quanto aos cuidados com os porcos e, não raro, com os seus. Poucos sabiam desta vertente da vida do pequeno criador.

Diz-se que aquilo foi coisa de feitiçaria! Conta-se que a panela da magia do lugareja fora descuidada ou pretensiosamente deixada destapada para os seus eflúvios mágicos se escapulirem e pairarem por toda a parte. Eriçavam-se e se arrepiavam os cabelos de quem quer que fosse. Quando assim acontecia, diz-se, era como se o tempo parasse e tudo e todos ficassem petrificados, sob a força possessiva e irresistível dos passa-noites. Estes adejavam sobre o silêncio dos povoados e sobre a inércia dos habitantes, espargindo ao seu bel prazer as suas poções mágicas e o seu misterioso perorar, maldizendo tudo e todos, ameaçando e invadindo sempre a seara alheia, empunhando os seus macabros paramentos da magia. Eram cavaleiros sazonais, sem nunca se terem esfalfado para o usufruto da safra. E, dessa vez, o pote mágico, diz-se, pertencia a alguém que conservava e acarinhava rancores antigos em relação a Supião Algum Dia, o criador de porcos, não se sabendo o poço em que os fora acarretar.

Algum Dia fora correr trilhos e caminhos em azáfama liquidatária de dívidas que não gostava de afagar como animais de estimação, pois, não pouco, intranquilizavam o seu lar, com credores exigentes a rondarem o seu redil ou a irem-lhe bater à porta, cobrando o saldo que tinham a haver. E dessas não poucas vezes, quando não estivesse em casa, encontravam a mulher que pouco ou nada sabia dos negócios do marido e, ignorante e indefesa que ela se mostrava, insinuavam invasão à pocilga, para levarem, de penhor, alguns porcos que julgassem cobrirem a cobrança e que só os devolveriam saldada a dívida, em pecúnia. Mas isso, aparentemente, não passava de simulacros, meras ameaças, posto que, durante a noite, batia-lhes em casa uma terrível insónia, causada por horrorosos pesadelos de inexplicável origem, cujos apóstolos eram entes que não eram do seu mundo, de horripilante aparência, crocitando sobre o seu desesperado medo, o que não quietava os receios do casal de, um dia, um deles ser subtraído do convívio dos terrenos para o das almas penadas, por artes mágicas que, por aquelas paragens eram o costume a que se tinham de acostumar.

Regressando do cumprimento do seu digno dever de dar a César o que é de César, a Deus o que é de Deus, mas sem, contudo, ter logrado satisfazer a totalidade dos seus credores, por temer que a noite se adiantasse a chegar antes que ele chegasse à casa, é surpreendido, ainda a caminho, por uma nuvem plúmbea, vagueando, ameaçadoramente, nos domínios celestiais. Uma aragem fria envolveu-lhe o corpo, não sem o arrepiar, apalpou-o, com inusita insistência, o rosto, eriçando-lhe os cabelos. Era o prenúncio de uma borrasca. Estugou o passo, levando na mente a preocupação de proteger a sua criação suína do temporal que se avizinhava.

Em chegando à casa, não teve mãos a medir, arregaçando as mangas, meteu-se na labuta de cobrir a pocilga com chapas de zinco. Decorria esta benfeitoria, debaixo da chuva que já caía em fortes bátegas, quando um grito estridente, confundido-se com a voz pluviométrica, ecoou, lancinou o negrume e logo de fez mais ainda e alucinatória noite para Algum Dia.

Sacudida pelo esquisito grito, a curiosidade do povoado ignorou a chuva e saiu ao relento, a tempo de ver, à luz de um fortuito e breve relâmpago, um avantajado porto a evadir-se da pocilga, grunhindo, assustadoramente, e a entrar nos labirintos da noite. Uma espontânea solidariedade dos populares acorridos ao local, levou Algum Dia a cuidados médicos.

Ao dealbar da alba, no dia seguinte, a bisarma alucinada, depositária de estranhas forças, regressou, ainda brava, com a mesma intensidade de grunhidos e, sem que ninguém se atrevesse a esbarrar-lhe o caminho, entrou para a pocilga. Ninguém se atrevia a deitar-lhe a mão em cima ou a deixar que lhe fixasse a vista, pois que, tinha sido possuído por um mau-olhado.

Diz-se que um feiticeiro e dos mais terríveis, se incarnara no porco, e, justamente, o mais velho e varrão da vara, para cobrar, de forma drástica e irreversível a dívida que, de antiga, até barba branca já tinha, vazando o escroto de Supião Algum Dia. Talvez porque, na sua boa accção de solvição dos seus compromissos, se tenha esquecido das prioridades e tenha desiludido um credor que ansiosamente o esperava naquele dia. Este, pela evidência deos factos, não crendo num acesso de amnésio do devedor e não suportando o olvido, mandara-lhe o feitiço encomandado no seu próprio porco.

Como se viu, ao invès do costume, não foi o homem (naqueles rituais de fím de festa, em que os madoda, fazendo o balanço, se vão aviando com as vísceras e outras miudezas do animal abatido), a deleitar-se com os testículos do porco, mas este, com a masculinidade do seu dono, na orgia mágica dos feiticeiros da terra.

The Magic Orgy of the Pig

Now, this was not one of those cases in which a pig is killed in sacrifice and its private parts are gluttonously coveted as a divine relish, to be enjoyed only by the elders, as was the custom. This practice sensibly reinforced their hereditary capacity for the enthusiastic exercise of copulation. This time it was completely different. The very opposite.

It happened somewhere – over there in the lands of the Zambezi – where, to bolster their struggle for survival, some people avail themselves of the benefits that the mystic world, with all its unearthly pageantry, grants to those who believe in it—who cultivate its ways.

So, once upon a time in those remote parts, where supernatural forces rule over their territory – theirs to make and undo – submitting the populations to their magic sceptres, there lived Supião Algum Dia, a small breeder of pigs, nevertheless not without some reputation in the place. His pen, very much envied and coveted by all the people of the surroundings and by wanderers who came to pass by, was growing apace, with the speedy and astounding increase of his breeding, thanks to his patient and dedicated farming, a commitment that not by everybody was praised, and carried occasionally verbal friction with those who, lacking restraint, vented their envy, with words that tried to hint that Supião Algum Dia recoursed to dark tricks for the success of his enterprise.

He was hassled by a few debts, resulting from loans he had borrowed over the course of his work, mostly to pay for animal fodder, the work of the vet and so on. As often as not, they wrecked his gallant efforts to care for his pigs and for his own kin. Few people knew about this side of the life of the small breeder.

They say that it was all a result of witchcraft! They say that the magic pan of the village was left uncovered – by neglect or intent – so that its magic effluences could steal away and float everywhere. Anyone’s hair stood on end and bristled. When this happened, it was said, it was as if time had stopped. Everyone stood petrified beneath the possessive and irresistible strength of the evil birds of the night. They fluttered over the silence of the villages and the inertia of their inhabitants, scattering at leisure their magic brews and mysterious orisons, cursing all and sunder, ever threatening and invading alien fields, grasping all their macabre trappings of magic. They were seasonal gentlemen, who never overtired themselves for the usufruct of the harvest. This time, the magic pan was said to belong to someone who kept and cherished old grievances against Supião Algum Dia, the pig-breeder, and none knew the pit into which they were to be carted.

Algum Dia went travelling the ways and tracks of the countryside, in order to quickly liquidate those debts which he did not care to fondle as if they were favourite pets, because his home life was not a little disturbed by demanding creditors who circled around his corral or knocking at his door to receive their dues. And on those not infrequent occasions when he was not home, they would come upon his wife who knew little or nothing of her husband’s business, and, so ignorant and defenceless did she show herself, they suggested breaking into the sty, taking a few pigs as a pledge for the debt. This, apparently, went no further than mere pretences and threats, as, during the night, a terrible insomnia came upon them, caused by horrible nightmares of inexplicable origin, ministered by beings that did not belong to their world, of hair-raising appearance, crowing over their desperate fright. It did not appease the fears of the pair that some day one of them might be subtracted from the dwelling of living men and taken to that of the wretched souls, through magic arts that in those parts were a custom to which one had to become used.

Returning from complying with his worthy duty of rendering unto Caesar the things which were Caesar’s and unto God the things which were of God, but without having managed to entirely satisfy his creditors, fearing that night might come upon him before he got home, he was caught by a leaden cloud that was threateningly roving the celestial domains. A draught of cold air shrouded his body, not without giving him the creeps, and groped his face insistently, making his hair stand on edge. This foretold a gale. He quickened his pace, his mind set on protecting his porcine brood from the oncoming storm.

When he was home, he lost no time: he rolled up his sleeves, set himself to the task of covering the sty with zinc sheets. He was making this improvement, under the bucketing rain, when a shrill howl, blending with the voice of the rain, echoed piercingly in the darkness. It made the night even more of an hallucination for Algum Dia.

The eerie scream aroused the villagers’ curiosity; ignoring the rain, they came out into the night just in time to see, at the illumination of a sudden short lightning, a large hog that had escaped from the sty, grunting formidably, losing itself in the labyrinths of the night. In spontaneous solidarity the good people who had rushed to the place led Algum Dia to medical care.

At the crack of dawn on the following day, the hallucinatory monstrosity, the depositary of strange forces, returned, wild as ever. Grunting with the same intensity it went back into its pen, without anybody daring to stop its progress. No one was so bold as to lay a hand on it, or meet its stare, as the man who possessed it had the evil eye upon him.

They say that some warlock of the most terrible sort had incarnated into the hog, the oldest top-boar of the herd, to claim a debt so old it had now a white beard, in this drastic and irreversible manner: by gouging out the scrotum of Supião Algum Dia. Perhaps because, caught up in his worthy act, he had forgotten his priorities and disappointed a creditor who expected him on that very day. This one, as was clearly shown by the facts themselves, did not believe in a sudden bout of debtor’s amnesia nor take kindly to be forgotten, and therefore sent him a curse in the form of his own pig.

As we have seen, it was not (as in those end-of-festival rituals, when the balancing madoda go on their way with the viscera and other delicacies of the slain animal) the man who relished the testicles of the pig, but the pig who consumed the masculinity of his owner, in the magic orgy of the sorcerors of the land.



Maputo, 1996



Translated by J. Pailler




It is always refreshing to meet a really unassuming poet. Juvenal Bucuane is just that. He does not even give himself the trouble of graciously needling the reviewer’s curiosity with a hint, a nod, a carefully rehearsed phrase of self-depreciation. But of course he does not live in New York, London, or Paris. He was born in Xai-Xai in 1951 and lives in Maputo. He graduated in Linguistics from Eduardo Mondlane University, and is an active member of AEMO (Association of Mozambican Writers), he is presently the Vice-chairman of the Board of the General Assembly of that body. He holds a technical executive post in PETROMOC (the Mozambican Oil Company) as the Chief Editor/Reporter and photographer of the corporate magazine and of the information sheet Petro Notícias. Between 1998 and 2003 he was on the board of FUNDAC - National Trust for Artistic and Cultural Development.

As the indefatigable activity of the news-making community often makes us lose track of last week’s events, it may be useful to recall that Mozambique, the focus of warlike confrontation between Portugal and Britain a century ago, is now both a member of the PALOP group (Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa) and of the COMMONWEALTH (since1995), which makes for a rather remarkable situation.

Portuguese has been spoken in Mozambique for five centuries now, along with several other languages. Mozambican literature, as Angolan literature on the other flank of Southern Africa, is rich with the many influences that have blended into it. The voice of Mozambique may not yet be familiar to the majority of readers, but those who have come into contact with it find it meaningful and sophisticated. The names of Craveirinha and Mia Couto are those of major writers of our times—in any language. There are many more, who deliver the message of “men at work” striving to create, on African and European bases, perhaps a new language, to identify, in the words of Prof. Jorge Almeida e Pinho “a different cultural reality, a new country, a mentality full of new concepts and new hope.”

Bucuane, a poet and fiction writer, was a founding member and the first coordinator of the Literary Review CHARRUA (The Plough), and a regular contributor to many dailies and magazines, as well as a member of the Association of Mozambican Writers and the Association of Afro-Asian Writers. He appears in the Anthology “Poesia de Combate 3” published in Maputo in 1980. He has been translated into Arabic, Bulgarian, Finnish, French, English and German.

Thanks to the help of Júlio Conrado, the distinguished Portuguese critic, Juvenal Bucuane has agreed to contribute to this magazine, and agreed to the publication and translation of his tale, “The Magic Orgy of the Pig” . It is a rural story of folklore and witchcraft, cleverly written, almost Chaucerian in its naivety. One, however, may wonder at this apparent candour, if one (but why should one?) reflects that long-standing international debt has plagued the Mozambican economy – as that of many other African countries. Thus, many well-meaning “farmers”, who try hard to improve their credit, find out on a rainy day that some crafty creditor still holds them…by the balls.



–J. Pailler



 
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