On Thursday, June 27th 2024 at HCC’s Heinien Theater, the H-Town Orchestra, Opera, and Theater Company through Jampac Entertainment put on the production of Once on This Island…As Told by the Gods! This version of Once on This Island: As told by the Gods! excluded all human characters, creating a one-on-one storytime and reggae jam session between the “gods” and the audience! One of the four “gods” was Papa Ge, played by Vivian Mosely. Here is a bit more info on understanding Papa Ge’s spiritual essence, and the correlations between Papa Ge and His older depiction, the Orisa Esu.
Papa Ge, in my opinion, is the most loosely depicted of the four gods, and by far the most misunderstood. In the Haitian Vodou traditions, Papa Ge is the sly spirit of death. The script calls Him a “demon,” but this is not so. His lessons bring us face to face with the demons in ourselves, if anything. He is sly by appealing to our desires. He likes to see if we are willing to make spiritual pacts, and/or break divine laws for our own desires. Every death symbolism in nature-based faith is not literal. Death in most cases, represents an ending to a part of one’s journey for another to begin. A death to certain ways of thinking in order to adapt new ones, hence the use of skulls. A death to the ego self to resurrect the spirit self…stuff like that.
In Ifa/Orisa traditions, Papa Ge represents an aspect of the Orisa Esu (EH-SHOO). He is the messenger of the gods, and the divine trickster of man. He is the keeper of the crossroads, which represents choices. Esu is heavily symbolized by keys, as He is the opener of the way. If we make choices in righteousness, Esu uses His keys to open doors of a blessed road. If we make choices from selfish, carnal places, Esu uses His keys to open doors to harsh life lessons. Every choice we make is a crossroad with a destined consequence. Choices are constant in our lives, and Esu reminds us that our choices communicate with the heavens. They define whether our roads in life are aligned or dysfucntional. This is how Esu fine tunes our free will. Nothing gets done in Orisa tradition without Esu. An interesting connection to the run of this play is that Papa Ge’s character was on the keyboard, and musicals don’t happen without the keys!
On the road correlated to Papa Ge (GEH), He is the crossroad between the land of the living and the ancestral realm. Oya is close by, as She is the Orisa that guards the cemetery gate.
On the surface, Papa Ge is the antagonist of the play. Actually, Papa Ge reveals the antagonists of Self in both Ti Moune and Daniel. Daniel could have followed his heart for Ti Moune, if he ever had one. Ti Moune could have allowed love to happen organically, or let it go. Instead, she made a pact with Papa Ge to deed herself to Daniel, whether he chose her in return or not. Ti Moune was so fixated with her love for Daniel, that she made a promise to Papa Ge on her own life. All Papa Ge did was present them with choices, stimulated their free will, and binded them to their consequences.
She saved Daniel’s life, healed his afflictions, became his lover, and even tasted his wealthy lifestyle at a dance. In the end, Daniel betrayed Ti Moune for a woman he was always intended. This was to preserve wealth, not love. Papa Ge tempts Ti Moune again by giving her a chance to avenge her betrayal by killing Daniel. In doing so she would kill the love in her heart, and go back to her life as it was before she met him. Instead, she held on to her love, and traded her life for his. Ti Moune loved Daniel more than her own life, and allowed hers to waste away outside the gates of his world. After her death, she grew into a tree to forever shade her beloved Daniel and his family, despite his humiliating betrayal. This was how Erzulie(love) beat Papa Ge(death).
Ti Moune embodied all four gods through her death and transformation into a tree. The tree provides shade and nourishment, like Mama Asaka. The tree is a symbol of a love stronger than death, like Erzulie. The tree was outside the gate between worlds, much like the gate that Papa Ge guards. The tree is symbolic to the tree Agwe rescued her from in the beginning, perhaps to save another from a storm…and send on a love journey?
This is four of a four part teaching series of the four “gods” that appear on Once on This Island. Return to the main article HERE for the scoop on Agwe, Asaka, and Erzulie! Make sure you check out https://jampacentertainment.com/ for more information about booking, past productions, and future projects!
Listen to the audio version of this article in Saturday’s rotation of 222.9 The Mothership Internet Radio, infused with crossroad stories as told through classic hip hop!
Ase in Love,
iiiYansaje T. Muse
