:24:01
Neither did I, apart from the fact that the faces of the market ladies at Itoman
spoke to me more of Gauguin than of Utamaro.
:24:07
For centuries of dreamy vassalage,
time had not moved in the archipelago.
:24:13
Then came the break.
:24:14
Is it a property of islands to make their women
into the guardians of their memory?
:24:19
I learned thatas in the Bijagós
it is through the women that magic knowledge is transmitted.
:24:24
Each community has its priestessthe noro
who presides over all ceremonies with the exception of funerals.
:24:29
The Japanese defended their position inch by inch.
:24:33
At the end of the day, the two half platoons formed from the remnants
of L Company had got only halfway up the hill,
:24:38
a hill like the one where I followed a group of villagers
on their way to the purification ceremony.
:24:45
The noro communicates with the gods of the sea,
of rain, of the earth, of fire.
:24:49
Everyone bows down before the sister deity
:24:53
who is the reflection, in the absolute,
of a privileged relationship between brother and sister.
:25:00
Even after her death,
the sister retains her spiritual predominance.
:25:04
At dawn the Americans withdrew.
:25:06
Fighting went on for over a month before the island surrendered,
and toppled into the modern world.
:25:11
Twenty-seven years of American occupation,
the re-establishment of a controversial Japanese sovereignty:
:25:16
two miles from the bowling alleys and the gas stations
the noro continues her dialogue with the gods.
:25:21
When she is gone the dialogue will end.
:25:25
Brothers will no longer know that their dead sister
is watching over them.