“[…] So, we inside the parliament again. The Prime Minister was in front ah the room way the podium was on a chair. He looking a little frail and he saying, ‘My nation stay calm. This would soon be over.’
“At he side was two men in black and behind them three with guns. The ones that was sitting on the side ah the Prime Minister had no gun with them, well none we could’a see.
“Then, jusso, ‘Mr Who is Your Leader’—everybody know was he ‘cause he was the only one that had Allah Hu Akbar painted in red on he chest—walking towards the Prime Minister them.
“Tell the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago that they are now under sharia rule…”
The following is an excerpt from Town on Fire, which is a collection of 16 fictional stories mainly based around the 1990 coup event in Trinidad and Tobago by author Otancia Noel, who has a degree in Mass Communication and an MFA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction:
So, we inside the parliament again. The Prime Minister was in front ah the room way the podium was on a chair. He looking a little frail and he saying, “My nation stay calm. This would soon be over.”
At he side was two men in black and behind them three with guns. The ones that was sitting on the side ah the Prime Minister had no gun with them, well none we could’a see.
Then, jusso, ‘Mr Who is Your Leader’—everybody know was he ‘cause he was the only one that had Allah Hu Akbar painted in red on he chest—walking towards the Prime Minister them.
“Tell the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago that they are now under sharia rule!”
The prime minister looking surprise, like that was not in the rehearsal script. And yuh could see a few ah the other men in black watching around like, ‘What?’ One ah them who was sitting in one ah the chair at the side ah the prime minister looking like the man in charge.
I feel he was brother Benin, a next senior right hand Compound man. Only he had them big googly glasses and a big head so.
He moving he hand like a producer giving the cut sign and looking like what is this new development.
‘Mr Who is Your Leader’ he done throw the script down the toilet and rewrite it. Papayo, he start to shell down the place and shout, “Paradise or Nothing!”
Two ah the hostages who was tie up in the corner them head drop like it get too heavy for them. And ‘Mr Who is Your Leader’ like he ent care who get bullet now, corn sharing.
Googly glasses throw heself on the Prime Minister. Somebody from the back decide enough is enough and hit ‘Mr Who is Your Leader’ one; he head blast open like a watermelon.
But the Prime Minister done pick up corn and bawl out, “I’ve been shot! Attack, with full force!” The TV cut again. Mamayo, it was raining heavy lead. It had two big tanks that was line up outside, rocket launcher and guns start to do all the talking now.
On the next side by the Khalif them, they launch a rocket in dey curfem too. Man, it was dust in the air, not the regular Queen’s Park Savannah dust on a sweet pan night. Town was blazing like a bad day on the Gaza Strip. Dust, fire, smoke, metal, and death.
When I did see meh brother on the screen that first day ah the coup, it was the last time that I would ever see him.
They surrender, the Khalif idea that he used to preach ah martyrdom, paradise and virgins shake out he brain. The man must be gamble that better he get three, four wife and a few concubines in this life here and live, rather than settle for death and virgins. Meh seventeen-year-old brother did not get the chance to walk outta it like meh father and his leader.
Cote ci cote la.
Otancia Noel has a Literatures in English bachelor’s degree at COSTAATT and is finishing a Masters in Fine Arts, Creative writing and Prose Fiction at UWI.
She grew up on the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen compound in Mucurapo.