K. Bilby The explorer as hero: Le Fidèle Apatou in the French wilderness In: New West Indian Guide/ Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 78 (2004), no: 3/4, Leiden, 197-227 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 06:30:31AM via free access KENNETH BlLBY THE EXPLORER AS HERO: LE FIDELE APATOU IN THE FRENCH WILDERNESS For a brief spell during the closing years of the nineteenth century, a South American Maroon named Apatu became the toast of France, at least that portion of the French public that thrilled to the pages of Le Tour du Monde, a popular adventure series that inspired the likes of Jules Verne.1 Hailing from the borderlands between French and Dutch Guiana, a part of the Amazon basin that was still only nominally under the control of the two competing European powers that had laid claim to the area, Apatu had joined forces with the French explorer Jules Crevaux. In doing so, he had caused alarm among his own people, the Aluku, who continued to regard whites with great suspicion. Over a period of several months, Crevaux and Apatu had penetrated rivers and forests that had yet to appear on European maps; by the time they arrived at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil, they had also cemented a friendship that was to bring them together for a number of other journeys over the next few years, a friendship that would last until Crevaux's death in 1882.2 By Crevaux's own account, Apatu had not only 1. An earlier version of this article was presented at the lOlst meeting of the Ameri- can Anthropological Association in New Orleans in November 2002, in a session titled "Old Colonies, New Post-Colonies: The French West Indies and the End of Postcolonial Theory." The field research on which it is partially based received support at various points from the Fulbright-Hays program, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the (U.S.) National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the (U.S.) National Endowment for the Humanities, for which I remain grateful. I would also like to express my appreciation to Anne-Marie Bruleaux, Wim Hoogbergen, and the late Ben Scholtens for sharing archival documents that contributed insights to this paper, and to Richard Price for commenting on an earlier draft. 2. In all, Crevaux and Apatu traversed approximately 12,000 kilometers in their travels together, visiting parts of French Guiana, Dutch Guiana, Brazil, France, Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad over a period spanning roughly five years. Apatu deserves credit New West Indian Guide /Nieuwe West-Indische Gids vol. 78 no. 3 & 4 (2004): 197-227 Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 06:30:31AM via free access 198 KENNETH BILBY proven indispensable as his chief navigator, but had risked his life more than once on Crevaux's behalf.3 His skills as a navigator and his knowl- edge of the forest had also saved Crevaux's life on more than one occa- sion (Crevaux 1987:136; Crevaux 1989:68-69, 78-79). Through Crevaux's writings, readers in Paris came to know the courageous Maroon as Ie fidele Apatou, faithful Apatu. When Crevaux invited Apatu to join him again on his second journey into the Guianese interior, the latter agreed, but under one condition: that the explorer would take him to France once their voy- age was over. "You've seen my country," said Apatu. "I want to see yours" (Crevaux 1987:178).4 It was a promise that Crevaux kept. I have yet to find a detailed written account of Apatu's travels in France, but I have heard several oral accounts from present-day Aluku Maroons. Here's part of one, recorded in 1986, roughly a century after the fact: They were sleeping on the raft. They had already come to the sea, and they saw a ship. And Apatu took off a piece of his clothing, put it on a stick, and started waving it. He was waving it and waving it, until the sailors on the ship saw. They came over to them, and stopped the ship. They went onto the ship. [The sailors] saw Teevo [Crevaux].5 He and the other whites already knew each other - you know how white people are with other white people. Then they brought them to France. The white man traveled with Apatu until they came to the part of the country where he lived, and he brought Apatu to his house. They were there until the other white men started coming to take a look at Apatu. They hadn't known any black people before - the black people from here. They came to look Apatu up and down, all the way up to his head. They were scraping him to see if [the black would come off and] he would turn white. That's the story we've been given. Well, they kept on coming there. Then [Crevaux] said to them, "well, the way Apatu and I traveled, we didn't have guns, but with that bow that he has, he would kill tapirs, he'd kill jaguars, he'd kill anything that was dangerous with that bow." Then the whites said they were going to make a bet. They would put a buil on a field for Apatu, to see if he could kill it with a bow. Because they along with Crevaux for being one of the first visitors from outside to explore major por- tions of both the Amazon and Orinoco basins (Crevaux 1987, 1989). 3. In Crevaux's own words: "The Aluku Negro Apatu, led by the desire to see the great Amazon River, driven by the pride of making a voyage that none of his companions had dared to undertake, risked his life more than once to ensure the success of my mission" (Crevaux 1879:709). 4. Translations of Crevaux, and Anonymous 1993, Bellardie, Benoit, Brunetti, Coudreau, Hurault, Scholtens, Simon, and Vaillant are mine, as are translations of Aluku oral narratives. 5. In Aluku oral accounts, Crevaux is sometimes referred to as "Dokute Teevo" or "Data Teevo" (meaning "Dr. Crevaux"), which accurately reflects the French explorer's cre- dentials: Crevaux bore the official title of Médecin de lère classe de la marine (Crevaux 1879:726). Downloaded from Brill.com10/04/2021 06:30:31AM via free access THE EXPLORER AS HERO: LE FIDELE APATOU 199 didn't believe that he could kill a tapir or stop a buil [with just a bow and arrow]. The white man [Crevaux] said that Apatu would kill it. The others said, "no way." This one said, "he can't," the other one said, "he can't." They talked about it for a while, until [Crevaux] said, "well, I' 11 go over to him. I'll let you know what he says to me." His white man went over to him and said, "well, Apatu, those men are challenging you. They say they'11 put a buil on a field for you tomorrow at twelve o'clock. If you're able to shoot and kill it, it'11 mean millions. Because the people who are betting have put down a lot of money." Then he said, "okay, well I'll kill the buil." He [Crevaux] said, "Apatu, will you be able to kill it?" He said, "ha!... that silly thing? I'll kill it." He said, "okay." They were there until it was time. [Crevaux] came to piek him up in a vehicle, and they left. They tethered the buil in the field. The white people were sitting down "bolou"! They say that when he looked, there were white people as far as he could see, all the way into the city. They arrived. Apatu took his bow and goot it ready. He stood up with it until he was nice and ready. He walked over, "tya, tya, tya." The buil was still there. He shot it "tyou"! The buil feil down "brou!" It was dead. [Then all the white people applauded]: "Oui, Apatou! Oui, Apatou! Oui, Apatou! Oui, Apatou!" Even the whites said so. They clapped their hands, "wala wala wala wala." They came and shook his hand, put him in a vehicle, and brought him home. He'd already won. And when it was time, he said he wanted to go back to his country. Then the white man brought him back to Cayenne, and from Cayenne to Saint-Laurent. At that time there were no airplanes, only ships. He got off at Saint-Laurent, and took a boat to where they'd made a village for him called Apatu, below the Hermina Falls. He was there, and the whites said that if he wanted to make his camp, his village, then he could make his village there. Then he made his village there. The whites were help- ing him, paying people to establish the place. And so you see he made a village there. He was there for a while, until he went upriver to the Aluku Maroon country, to talk with his family, telling them that he was making a village down there. And one by one, his sisters went downriver [to visit him], planning to go back and forth. But they stayed, until the village of Apatu grew big, like how you see it today. That's how the story goes.6 A shorter version of the same story was told to me by another Aluku oral historian a few years later, in 1991: When they went over there [to France], his white man [Crevaux] said, "I have a man here, and he's as good as a [white] officer.