Douens take over kidnappers

THE EDITOR: It seems that douens have possessed the minds of kidnappers in this country. Douens (duennes/dwens) are evil folklore creatures that live in the forest and kidnap children. They have no faces and their feet are turned backwards. Our human-douens have acquired a recent and growing attraction for small Indian children. Their first was Saada Singh, a three-year-old toddler. The second was ten-year-old Vijay Persad who was dragged from his family’s home at Indian Walk in the night. A reporter wrote: “The boy was last seen being taken through a track into a forest.”

And the third child was Ashti Sookhan, a 13-year-old student of Lakshmi Girls’ Hindu College. According to newspaper reports a few days ago, Ashti was released when she “emerged from some bushes at the back of her house” in the night and was crying and behaving hysterical. Our kidnappers have indeed turned into douens. They are often not seen, identified or arrested by the police. Folklorists and anthropologists have studied douens. Their research allows us to understand that these creatures are “real” in the sense that rumours about douens may be an authentic expression of, and response to, terrifying criminal realities in this land of masquerade.

DR KUMAR MAHABIR
San Juan