XXV |
I. Achille has a
dream vision of a return to Africa. As he follows the swift up the Congo river, he
encounters ghost figures. God tells Achille that he allowed him to return. |
| Il. Achille
enters the village. |
| Ill. Achille carries on a conversation with his Yoruba ancestor, Afolabe.
They debate the meaning of a name and of cultural memory. Afolabe disapproves of
Achille's lack of knowledge of his ancestors. |
| XXVI |
I. Achille participates in the rituals of the Yoruba: the kola nut ceremony,
drinking of palm-wine, story-telling, singing, recitation of the gods' names, etc. |
| Il. Achille longs
for the future where he belongs with Philoctete. |
| Ill. Achille walks for "300 years" out of his dream, crossing whales,
cemeteries, anchors, etc. Within the dream, he sees himself in the water and awakens
from his dream in his hut. It is the day of his feast in which the people dress and
perform dances that are the same in many ways similar to that of the Yoruba. |
| XXVII |
I. Achille looks
on helpless as Africans invade and enslave 15 villagers. |
| Il. Achille looks
on the aftermath of the village. He foresees the colonial future. |
| Ill. After
listening to a griot, Achille leaves and attacks a slaver but weeps, for he cannot change
the future. |
| XXVIII |
I. The griot's
prophetic song looks to the middle passage and the dividing of African nations. |
| Il. Men in the
middle passage still must make, still must do. |
| Ill. The enslaved
Africans reflect on their loss and pain. |
| XXIX |
I. The plot
switches to Helen, exploring more comparisons to the Homeric story, and recounts her
sexual fantasy about Achille. |
| Il. Seven Seas
tells Philoctete that Achille is not lost but visiting Africa. |
| Ill. Walcott
compares himself to Circe's swine. Achille passes forward through three centuries to
the present. |
| XXX |
I. Achille's
partner blames it all on a sunstroke. Achille believes the kingfish guided him home
and admires the daring of the gull. |
| Il. Walcott
praises Achille as the one "I'm homing with. . ." |
| Ill. Walcott
recounts the hymn Achille could not utter, as well as his return. |
| XXXI |
I. Achille,
listening to Marley's "Buffalo Soldier," imagines himself the soldier and, thus,
his own potential part in colonialism. |
| Il. Achille,
raking leaves, uncovers a Aruac totem, which Seven Seas explains to him. Achille
hurls it away as a token of the colonized past. |
| Ill.
Seven Seas draws a connection between the Caribs, Aruacs, and the natives of North
America. |
| XXXII |
I. Walcott visits
his mother in the nursing home to tell her he is returning to the U.S. |
| Il. Walcott walks
home and hears in the town the past. |
| Ill. As Achille
is sailing toward the shore, Walcott is flying away. |