Fesiten

The Saamaka edition of First-Time, by Richard Price

Lead time:

1 to 3 days

Fesiten is the Saamaka edition of the book that has existed in English as First-Time since 1983 and in French as Les Premiers Temps since 1994. At the request of, among others, Gaama Belifon, Richard and Sally Price translated it into Saamaka, with help from Vinije Haabo. It is regarded as the first real book made in Saamaka. Half of the book consists of the accounts of the gaanwomi, the elder men, who told Richard Price about the earliest times (fesiten) in the 1960s and 1970s, among them Gaama Agbago Aboikoni. He recorded their words on tape and wrote them down exactly as they were spoken. The other part shows how outsiders (bakaa) told the story of those same early Saamaka times. Many of the storytellers have since passed away, and the author asks younger generations to sit with their elders and carry this work forward. 251 pages, in Saamaka.