Chat-bin

Neither of us can now remember when he first came. He came onto our terrace at dusk, and I must have given him some leftovers. He returned the following evening, and every evening since. He comes, of course, for the food. There were leftover bits of ham, then some unwanted portions of fish, merguez that we didn't like. Milk, too. But his brothers and sisters pass from time to time and accept food given, but they remain wary of us. They dash out to take the morsel and steal away into the night. From the very beginning he seemed to lack the instinct to fear.

We were reluctant to call him our cat. When M. suggested that we buy him cat food, I said it would be equivalent to claiming him as our own. Buying him food now, I said, was a commitment to buy him food always. And so we agreed to provide him only with scraps on hand. He continued to come, padding along silently, his piercing blue eyes appearing suddenly. And then one evening, M. said to him, "And what should we call you?" He scratched the cat behind the ears while he thought. "Blanc-la"? It was an obvious name, 'the white one' in French Créole. He continued to scratch and think. And then, suddenly, "Chabin." He turned to me, entirely amused, "You get it? Chat-bin." He laughed softly at his stupid cleverness.

A bit of explanation is required, perhaps. The word for cat in French is chat, pronounced 'shah.' The word chabin is pronounced 'shah - bahn.' Using the word for cat, therefore, does not change the pronunciation of the word chabin.

So what is a chabin? In this one word exists a complicated tangle of history, race, anthropology and sociology.

The Michelin tour guide (1) has a short section on race in Guadeloupe and writes that, "the chabin, a term that originally applied to the cross between a goat and a ewe, designates in principle a person with negroid features and light colored skin and eyes" (2).

That such a term came into usage reveals the necessity - actual and perceived - of classifying people with African descent for Guadeloupeans during colonial (slave-holding) times. Chabin is just one of many terms used for that purpose. As noted earlier in the same section in the Michelin guide, "the subtlety in vocabulary goes very far in distinguishing the nuances in skin color" (3).

Originally, chabin carried strong negative connotations. As unnatural as the mating between goat and ewe, so too between Black and White. Children born from such a union - and, specifically those born with features as described above - were considered abnormal.

The associations, however, go beyond race taboos. Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux, a professor at l'Université d'Aix-en-Provence and a leading figure in the study and research of creole, explains the ambiguity of the chabin:

We clarify directly what summarizes fairly well the particularities of chabins with the most frequent contextual uses: ‘mauvais chabin’ (bad/evil chabin) is very common, or a ‘sour chabin’ (ill tempered) expressed by the bitterness or aggressiveness of a male chabin. La chabine, often described as ‘tit-chabine’ (little chabine) is particularly appreciated from a sexual point of view, but is also considered as worrisome, because as is sometimes explained “I ka mòdé zòrèy” (she bites the ears). We find somewhat frightening "powers" of these beings who are neither white nor black, but who must be placed rather on the white side, who have taken the features of one and the other, not ending with an intermediate coloration as in usual metis, but keep their black and white features, almost juxtaposed: frizzy hair, but blond or red, pale skin but black facial features, etc. In literature, references to chabins or chabines are always conscious of the fundamental significance and when an author writes in a chabin or chabine, we must understand the character to be a worrisome character, endowed with strange powers, himself/herself perturbed by nightfall, a moment when quimbois and mofwazé (people who transform themselves, generally into dogs). Their somewhat pathological sensibility predisposes them to anxieties and to uncontrollable actions. They are usually given the 'bad' roles (4).

I am not sure that the historical or literary significance is pertinent in casual usage. As M. has remarked, any attractive light-skinned Antillaise is a called a chabine. At least in Guadeloupe, true chabin(e)s are hard to come by, though the media might try to convince us of an alternative reality. Once, while waiting on line at the pharmacy, a dark-skinned black woman called out to the pharmacist behind the counter with a 'hey, chabine.' The pharmacist was indeed quite pretty, and light-skinned, but without the characteristic blond or red hair, and without the light-colored eyes. She didn't seem bothered at all, however, and perhaps even pleased.

Heavy stuff for naming of a cat. But the wordplay was too good to pass up.

*EDIT*(April 25, 2009) Ay! It should actually be Chatbine; the cat is female!


(1)
Rideau, F. and S. Barbaza. Guadeloupe. Paris: Michelin Éditions des Voyages, 2006






(2) "Le "chabin", terme s'appliquant au départ au croisement d'un bouc et d'une brebis, désigne en principe une personne aux traits négroïdes et à la peau et aux yeux clairs. Ce qualificatif revêt souvent une connotation ambiguë, car si l'apparence physique du chabin est séduisante, les préjugés l'ont doté d'une personnalité violente ou imprévisible" (96).

(3) "La subtilité du vocabulaire va très loin dans les distinctions entre les nuances de couleur de peau" (96).

(4) "On précisera tout de suite que résument assez bien les particularités des chabins les usages contextuels les plus fréquents : on parle volontiers de "mauvais chabin" , ou de "chabin sur" (acide) manifestant par là l'aigreur ou l'agressivité du chabin mâle. La chabine, souvent qualifiée de "tit-chabine" est particulièrement appréciée au plan sexuel, mais est aussi considérée comme inquiétante car comme on l'explicite parfois "i ka mòdé zòrèy" (elle mord les oreilles). On retrouve les "pouvoirs" un peu inquiétants de ces êtres ni blancs ni noirs, mais qu'il faut situer plutôt du côté du blanc, qui ont pris des traits d'un côté et de l'autre, non pas pour obtenir une coloration intermédiaire comme chez les classiques métis, mais gardant des traits du noir et des traits du blanc, en quelque sorte juxtaposés : cheveux crépus, mais blonds ou roux, peau claire, mais traits du visage d'un noir, etc. Dans la littérature, les références aux chabins ou chabines n'ignorent jamais ces significations fondamentales et quand un auteur place quelque part un chabin ou une chabine, on doit comprendre que le personnage est un personnage inquiétant, doué de pouvoirs étranges, lui-même perturbé par l'arrivée de la nuit, temps de tous les quimbois et des mofwazé (personnes qui se sont métamorphosées, généralement en chien). Sa sensibilité un peu maladive le prédispose aux angoisses et aux actions incontrôlées. On lui attribue classiquement des rôles de "méchants" (full text here.)