FOLKLORE-The mystery of the soucouyant

Despite it becoming nearly extinct, folklore has been a major part of the village of Mayaro. Growing up your grandparents, great grandparents or the elderly in the village would always have a mysterious story to be told. The most common of those was the legend of the Soucouyant. Described as a reclusive old woman, who sheds her skin at night and turns into a flying fireball that sucks the blood of humans. In her true form, as a fireball she flies across the dark sky in search of a victim. The soucouyant can enters the home of her victim through any sized hole like cracks, crevices and keyholes. My fellow classmate is currently doing her blog on folklore so i decided to collaborate with her for this post. For more details on the soucouyant, what it does, where it came from and how to catch it, you can visit her blog Bump In The Night BITN and take a good read. 

Growing up in Mayaro I've heard endless stories about the soucouyant, and though I was not a victim, I know a lot of people who have been sucked by one. However what I can tell you is my experience of witnessing a ball of fire dashed across the dark skies, this image remained vivid in my mind from then till now. I was just about 10 years old and was on my way home from church with my mother, uncle, sister and cousins. Just around 10: 30 pm on the manzanilla road, Mayaro, my uncle and my mother left us in the car to drop out a friend who got a ride home with us. The place was pitched dark since at that point in time there were no street lights on that stretch of road. While waiting for them to return my sister and I stepped out of the vehicle to get some fresh air, when a bright light reflected on the road. Upon looking up we saw a huge ball of fire shoot across the sky, without hesitation we started running and screaming towards our parents direction to tell them what we saw, but by the time we got there it vanished. This was the scariest experience I ever encountered in my life. A memory sketched in my mind never to be erased.

As I mentioned before back then there were little lighting on the roads so the place was dark in most places, that was one of the reasons why the soucouyant was commonly seen in the village of Mayaro. Now it has basically died out with the improvements made in the community, it is a brighter and livelier village than before. Very rear now you would hear someone say “ah soucouyant suck meh last night.” So if you do want to hear about one of these stories you would  have to get it from the older people's mouth. 

Last year I had to opportunity, together with TGN Media group, to interview some people in my community about what they know about the soucouyant and produce a documentary film. This video was shown at Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and it gives you a good idea of what the soucouyant is about and measures to keep her away. Take a look.